Thousands of college-aged people in Wisconsin have likely received text messages this month misinforming them about participating in this year’s elections, threatening them with steep fines and prison time if they vote in an incorrect manner.
The texts have prompted multiple voting rights groups to call for both state- and federal-level investigations into who is sending them. Organizations are also scrambling to correct the misinformation with only a couple of weeks remaining in the election season.
“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 text messages warn.
The voter intimidation messages appear to be targeting people between the ages of 18-25. According to the Wisconsin Elections Commission website, those voters “have the right to vote in Wisconsin if they have resided in a ward for at least 28 days, are U.S. citizens, at least 18 years old on or before Election Day, and are not otherwise disqualified.”
Student leaders have condemned the texts for essentially telling college-age voters that they could be severely punished if they vote incorrectly.
“It was basically a warning to students to not go out and register. … We cannot have this during election year,” said Matthew Lehner, the chair for Wisconsin College Democrats.
Indeed, even out-of-state students have the right to vote in Wisconsin, with state law noting they can either vote in their college community or cast a ballot in the jurisdiction they lived in before starting school, so long as they don’t vote in both places.
A voting rights group for young people called Voters of Tomorrow is trying to combat the text messages discouraging young adults to vote by sending out a more informative message.
“Know your rights: WI students can vote using either a WI home address OR a campus address if you’ve lived there for at least 28 days. Your student ID can be a voter ID, and you can register to vote on Election Day,” a text message from that group says.
In a letter sent to both Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul (D) and U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, two groups, Free Speech for People and the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin, have called for inquiries into who is sending the texts that are intimidating young voters.
“Parties that commit voter intimidation should not be allowed to hide behind technology or benefit from the anonymity of texting,” the letter sent to the attorneys general, which was sent last week when the texts were first recognized, stated. “We urge your offices to promptly and thoroughly investigate these texts, make public the identity of the party or parties responsible for disseminating the texts, and take appropriate enforcement action against the perpetrators.”
“Young voters and student voters have a critically important voice in our country, and they have every right to vote in elections where they are eligible,” Free Speech For People Legal Director Courtney Hostetler said in a separate statement. “The U.S. and Wisconsin Departments of Justice must act swiftly to protect these voters and other voters who might be subject to similarly unlawful, threatening text messages before the election.”
“Voter intimidation has no place in our democracy. Wisconsin voters need to know that these threatening text messages are illegal and the League of Women Voters will fight against bad actors who seek to sow confusion in our elections,” Debra Cronmiller, executive director for the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin, also said.
Wherever they’re coming from, the texts discouraging young people from voting appear to be the latest effort to restrict voting from a bloc that mostly supports Democratic candidates. Some of those efforts have been passed by conservative state governments under the guise of protecting the integrity of elections.
Over the past couple of decades, Republican lawmakers and GOP-controlled state apparatuses have sought to create rules that impede the voting process for young people, actions that have continued into this election year as well. Idaho, for example, revoked the ability of young voters to use their student IDs to establish their identities at polling places. In Ohio, out-of-state students seeking to vote at their campus must give up their home-state ID to do so, including their driver’s license.
In a recent op-ed for Truthout, Sasha Abramsky, a freelance journalist and part-time lecturer at the University of California at Davis, noted that these efforts appear to be a blatant attempt to suppress young voters’ voices in order to benefit Republicans, particularly GOP nominee former President Donald Trump.
“Trump isn’t going to overcome these numbers by a campaign of persuasion aimed at young voters, but the yearslong campaign by GOP legislators to pass state laws making it harder for young people to vote might partially accomplish this same goal,” Abramsky wrote.
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