The former director of the New Hampshire Republican Party pleaded guilty yesterday to jamming Democratic phone banks on Election Day 2002.
Chuck McGee was accused of arranging to have hundreds of hang-up calls made to phone lines installed to help voters get rides to the polls. McGee pleaded guilty to conspiring to make anonymous calls with the intent to annoy or harass, according to an Associated Press report. The offense could mean up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. He is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 29.
McGee admitted paying $15,600 to a Virginia telemarketing company, which hired another business to call Democratic Party offices around the state. Allen Raymond, the former president of GOP Marketplace in Alexandria, VA, pleaded guilty last month to hiring a firm from Idaho to make the calls, the AP report stated.
McGee resigned in 2003 after police alerted federal prosecutors to the phone-jamming operation. At the time, he denied any wrongdoing, and current GOP chairwoman Jayne Millerick said the money went to telemarketing services to encourage people to vote Republican, not to jam the lines, according to the report.
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