I was taking out my trash yesterday, when my landlords came home. Don and Louise were just getting back from West Virginia where they have spent every weekend for the last few months, working for the Kerry campaign. We said hello, and then Louise told me things are really crazy in West Virginia.

Apparently registered voters there (newly registered Democrats by some odd coincidence) are getting phone calls telling them they, in fact, are not registered. So Louise was spending the day calling all of the confused, but registered voters back - to tell them they are definitely registered and can vote with pride on Tuesday. Her husband Don spent the day canvassing for Kerry and being called a fag and a baby killer.

Atrios heard about the story today and reported it on his blog. Seems the calls can be traced to the Eastern Panhandle Republican Party headquarters in West Virginia — and they have been warned before to stop making the calls.

Republican National Committee Chair Ed Gillespie was on one of the morning shows today saying that his only goal is to prevent voter fraud during this election. He said he wants to make sure that people who don’t exist are not allowed to vote on Tuesday. Apparently the voter files include newly registered voters named Dick Tracy and Mary Poppins among others.

While I applaud Mr. Gillespie’s interest in making sure only real people vote on Tuesday, something tells me that Mary Poppins won’t be showing up to vote anywhere in the US, and if she does, she will probably have to show ID. Seems to me the RNC and Ed Gillespie should be more concerned about the real-life people being disenfranchised in West Virginia and elsewhere.