RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - The FBI is investigating complaints about attempts to intimidate Virginia voters amid the hard-fought U.S. Senate race between GOP Sen. George Allen and Democratic challenger Jim Webb, the State Board of Elections said Tuesday. Jean Jensen, secretary of the Board of Elections, said her office had forwarded several reports of phone calls to voters apparently aimed at misleading them into not voting or going to the wrong polling place.
"If something is going on that worries and alarms voters enough that I'm contacted to look into it, I have a responsibility to do that," she said.
A call left for the FBI Tuesday afternoon wasn't immediately returned.
Voters in the cities of Covington, Hampton and Colonial Heights and the counties of Accomack, Northampton and Fairfax reported getting deceptive telephone calls in the days before the election informing them that their voting places had changed, when they had not, Jensen said.
In Arlington County, resident Timothy Daly said he got a phone message Sunday, said to be from the "Virginia Elections Commission," telling him he was registered to vote in New York so he couldn't vote in Virginia.
"If you do show up, you will be charged criminally," said the message, the text of which appeared on Daly's affidavit to the Board of Elections.
Lawrence Peter Baumann, a Northampton County resident, said in his affidavit that he got a call on Friday from a woman claiming to be from the Webb campaign. He said he assured her he planned to vote for Webb.
"She then told me that I would be voting at West Reed Street. I told her that there was no street by that name and that if she was supposed to be helping Webb, she needed to give correct information," Baumann's affidavit said. "She never gave me the correct precinct and never offered to get back to me with my correct precinct."
Chris LaCivita, a senior consultant to the Allen campaign, said the calls weren't originating from the GOP.
"And it's sure as heck not coming from the Allen campaign," LaCivita said. "I doubt the validity of them, quite frankly."
The Webb campaign said in a statement that the calls were intended to confuse and discourage Virginians from voting.
"We've seen this tactic before and it is about time the Republicans learned that it will not work," said Jay B. Myerson, general counsel of the Democratic Party of Virginia.
New Mexico Democrats filed similar complaints in court, accusing GOP callers there of providing voters with incorrect information on polling locations in Albuquerque. State District Judge Richard Knowles on Monday, however, refused prohibit Republicans from calling voters.
Knowles said such mistakes shouldn't be made but he didn't believe the state's Republican volunteers had made a concerted effort to disenfranchise voters.
"I would like both sides to be careful," Knowles warned the parties. "If it continues to happen, if I have to shut down phone banks I will."
