Intellectual Property Law

Who is Lamont Williams?

That's the question on many a blogger's mind since the story about the direct mail and illegal robo-call voter-registration drive broke earlier this week in North Carolina. 

African-American voters in North Carolina received automated, anonymous phone calls from a mysterious man named Lamont Williams a week ago. The voice informed them that they would be receiving a voter-registration packet in the mail, and it asked them to sign and return it.

The only problem is that the voter-registration deadline in North Carolina had passed, and some of the call's recipients had already registered.

The North Carolina attorney general's office is investigating the incident, which it says may be illegal because the calls didn't identify their sponsors and offer recipients a way to opt out.

A D.C.-based voter-registration group called Women's Voices, Women Vote was responsible for the campaign, and has apologized for confusing voters.

The anonymous calls using the unknown male persona look especially strange since the voter-registration group has, in the past, used high-profile celebrities to advance their cause. And everything the group has said about its mission before this week has indicated that it exclusively targets unmarried women.

Consider this price list (.pdf), found on the group's website, in which WVWV offers to sell its database. "WVWV targets only unmarried women, including divorced or widowed women," the document reads. "WVWV has used state-of-the-art technology and data-mining and analysis techniques in order to accurately identify these women and encourage them to register and turn out to vote."

There's nothing in there, or anywhere else on its website, about the group expanding to target African-American men.

The group said Thursday that Lamont Williams is the real name of the voice performer they hired for the 20-second recording. Threat Level searched the top voice talent agencies with online databases, and didn't find Mr. Williams.

While the real Lamont Williams is apparently lying low, a tongue-in-cheek Lamont Williams meme is spreading through the blogosphere.

One enterprising blogger performed a MySpace search and found several "Lamont Williams," and he finally settled on an online suspect.

"My favorite Lamont, one with a clear motive and the perhaps the power to see it through, is Lamont "Action" Williams. This Lamont is a wrestler from Euclid Ohio who is, in fact, running for president. 'Vote Lamont 4 President' runs his MySpace headline."

Could Lamont "Action" Williams have teamed up with "Women's Voices Women Vote," the reportedly pro-Clinton group that has admitted responsibility for the calls? If so, was it part of getting the word out about his candidacy? Has Lamont "Action" Williams been offered a VP slot? Regardless of his involvement, I'm going to take a good hard look at this wrestler candidate. He may have just stolen my heart, and my vote.

Someone else set up a Twitter feed witter in Lamont's name.  His latest update reads: "So what if we spent millions on contracts with people who were on the WVWV leadership team? We trust our friends and family with our money!"

Previous tweets told readers that they wouldn't have to wait for a call from him -- instead they could listen to his "dulcet tones on NPR." Another read, "Damn, now I got the law on my back."

If the real Lamont Williams is reading this, please call me.

Contact me at sstirlan at wired dot com to start the conversation.

No robocalls, please.

See Also:

• Group Behind Misleading Robo-Calls to Voters Answers Some ...
• Washington DC Group Accused of High-Tech Dirty Tricks To Suppress Black Vote