I’m going to tell a story from deep in my memories, which means I’ll probably get some details wrong. I already wrote one version, checked with a source and learned he recalled the whole thing differently, so we’re in grandma’s-reminiscences territory, but here goes:

One year in Fort Wayne, a woman stepped up to run for city council, Deirdre “Dede” Hall, a member of the popular Hall restaurant family. She had money, and an issue, removing the hated (by her) Old Mill Road roundabout, which she thought had been shoved down the Old Mill Road community’s throat, with my old buddy Mark the Shark directing the shoving. Old Mill Road is lined with elegant homes and is considered one of the Good Streets in town. Both Mark and Dede lived on it, not coincidentally. He favored the roundabout as a traffic-calming structure, and she didn’t, because once you’ve arrived on Old Mill Road, you don’t want anything to change.

So she planted her yard signs, which were red and green.

And then, late in the filing period, another challenger emerged. David Hall, a local crackpot, the kind of guy inevitably described as a gadfly, which is journalese for crackpot. What’s more, he ran as a Republican, same as Dede. And what’s even more, his yard signs, which were mostly homemade and few in number, used not only her red and green colors, but a similar color-block graphic design. He’d clearly been put up for the job, and he was, I think by another local crackpot.

This sent Dede into orbit. She kicked up a huge fuss, implying that using someone else’s “campaign colors” was just this short of identity theft, and what’s more, their common last name and identical initials would confuse voters and cost her votes. I don’t remember the extent of the coverage, but it got at least some. The election came, and David Hall got a few votes, but not enough that, had Dede gotten them instead, would have swung the race in her favor.

The roundabout remains.

This was, at the local level, a classic example of what the Watergate defendant Donald Segretti called ratfucking, and a more polite person would call dirty tricks or maybe even gamesmanship.

I wandered down this memory lane after reading the New York Times story about the ratfucking effort to recruit another Dan Sullivan to run against Mary Peltola, for the U.S. Senate seat from Alaska. The incumbent is also named Dan Sullivan, of course, and the plan was — is — to dilute the vote for the Republican and allow Peltola, a Democrat, to squeak into the Senate.

Big fucking deal. Or rather, big ratfucking deal. I have zero doubt that the Republicans would do the same, have done worse, in fact, in any number of elections. If you can’t run with the big dogs, don’t get off the porch. Even the Times says it’s legal:

Ballot-stacking tactics are common in politics and generally considered legal — and have been employed by both parties in Alaska. But this operation, which has not been reported before, reveals the lengths to which Democrats went to seek advantage in a Senate race that could determine control of the chamber.

“Alaskan voters need to know,” said Elisa Rios, Ms. Peltola’s former campaign manager and longtime aide, who was fired amid a staff shake-up in August, and agreed to a series of interviews with The Times since then. “There was a lot of speculation, and voters should get the full picture when making their decisions.”

Dimed out by her own staffer. I ask you, who’s the real rat here?

Of course, the Trump team has taken that sin and quintupled it:

The Justice Department, meanwhile, filed a lawsuit in federal court at President Trump’s behest last week seeking to block certification of the election results if votes for the other Mr. Sullivan cost Senator Sullivan the win.

The obvious question: How could you tell which voters cast a ballot for the wrong Sullivan? But that’s the kind of legal team playing in the once-proud Justice Department.

OK, then. One more Monday before Election Day. I hope I live through my 14-hour shift. Fingers crossed, as this one is for all the marbles. Happy Halloween, and have a great spooky weekend.