OHIO British campaign attempts to sway voters with letters

Clark County is considered a significant swing county in the swing state.
SPRINGFIELD, Ohio (AP) -- Undecided voters in Clark County are about to be deluged with letters from overseas, part of a campaign by a British newspaper to urge people around the world to try to influence the presidential election.
The Guardian of London is offering a three-day trip to the western Ohio county for the four best letters.
The paper published a multipage section Wednesday urging non-Americans to speak up about who should be elected. Under the headline, "Football and mowers," the paper describes the county 30 miles west of Columbus as a good example of American life outside big cities.
The paper calls it a significant swing county in a significant swing state. It notes that in 2000, Democrat Al Gore won the county by 324 votes.
By logging onto the paper's Web site, www.guardian.co.uk, anyone can put in an e-mail address and receive the name and address of a registered Clark County voter not affiliated with a political party. The paper received more than 3,000 requests the first day, said features editor Ian Katz.
The Web site states that each letter-writer is free to support either candidate, while noting a poll it conducted showed 47 percent of Britons back Kerry and 16 percent support Bush.
Opinions
Marcia Frank of Springfield said a letter from abroad would make little difference to her.
"I would pretty much discount it, because I don't think anyone who doesn't live in the U.S. can fully understand the issues," she said.
Katz said the newspaper does not think a letter-writing campaign will sway the election.
"I think with this little project, it would just be great if it led to a bunch of people in the States having a little more awareness, perhaps, of just how huge the effect of American policy is on the rest of the world," he said.
"The United States is the most powerful country by far. Domestic decisions are in fact huge decisions that could affect everyone in the world. In many ways this election will have more impact in our countries than our own political elections do."
The Clark County Board of Elections shows 50,754 undeclared voters. Katz said the Guardian received about 36,000 names and addresses.
Linda Rosicka, director of the Clark County Board of Elections, said the paper paid $25 for a "flat file," a list of all registered voters in the county. Anyone can buy the list, and purchasers can extract whatever segment of voters they want.
The Springfield News-Sun received about a dozen e-mails about the campaign, most of which expressed some degree of outrage over the contest.