WASHINGTON — Conservative pranksters are trying to use a Democratic group’s online phone-banking system for their own means, making mischief by calling the voters themselves and urging them to vote Republican.

The virtual phone bank is a project of Organizing for America, the grassroots group that grew out of President Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign. It allows anyone to go to Call.BarackObama.com to instantly see the name, sex, phone number, city of residence and polling place address of a voter identified by the organization as a potential Democratic supporter.

The aim of the project is to give volunteers an easy way to help get out the vote by calling prospective voters anywhere, any time, with minimal hassle. But the fact that anyone with a computer and an Internet connection can view voter information has raised privacy questions, and some conservative bloggers and Tea Party activists are using the system for their own ends.

“I just called and asked them to vote for the conservative candidate who was in their area,” said Robin Stublen, a Tea Party activist in Florida. Part of his purpose, he said, was to expose the organization’s folly in providing the numbers so readily. “You don’t have to log on and you can get the numbers. I mean, duh.” The Washington Post