Voting rights groups say Wisconsin students got texts that could scare them away from voting, call for investigation
CNN
A text message last week to young voters in Wisconsin is stirring new concerns in the battleground state about a messaging campaign that could intimidate college students from casting ballots this election, according to a letter from voter protection groups released Tuesday.
A text message last week to young voters in Wisconsin is stirring new concerns in the battleground state about a messaging campaign that could intimidate college students from casting ballots this election, according to a letter from voter protection groups released Tuesday. The unsolicited text, sent from at least one 262- number to cell phones of people in their early 20s on University of Wisconsin campuses and elsewhere, says: “WARNING: Violating WI Statutes 12.13 & 6.18 may result in fines up to $10,000 or 3.5 years in prison. Don’t vote in a state where you’re not eligible.” The two state codes that the text message cites refer to laws that govern former Wisconsin residents who vote absentee and the consequences of committing election fraud in the state. But it’s the text message’s warning and wording of “don’t vote” that are causing much of the alarm among the voter protection groups who call the message “threatening” and warn the message could “frighten eligible young voters into not voting.” “It’s trying to convince students living in Wisconsin they don’t have a right to vote there,” Courtney Hostetler, the legal director of the non-profit group Free Speech for People, said on Tuesday. Hostetler’s group and the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin alerted investigators and the public of the text message and their concerns about it on Tuesday, in a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland and Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul that the groups released publicly online. The letter urges Garland and Kaul to investigate.
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