Misleading text sent to some Kansas voters gives bad information about where to vote

Some Kansas voters have received a seemingly official text message with misleading information about where to vote in the 2022 midterms.

The texts, sent out Sunday, appear to be linked to a group called Voting Futures Trust, which has reportedly sent out misleading texts about polling stations and mail-in voting in other states. Additional groups linked to the texts said an error occurred with a third party vendor.

Secretary of State Scott Schwab told voters to be on “high alert” for the misinformation.

“The Secretary of State’s office does not use third parties to contact voters or share election information on our behalf,” Schwab said in a statement. “State and local election officials are the trusted sources for election information.”

By Monday afternoon, some of the same voters had received a follow-up message apologizing for the misinformation and linking to the secretary of state’s polling station locator.

Voters can locate their accurate polling place on the secretary of state’s website at https://myvoteinfo.voteks.org/VoterView.

The texts, which are identified as coming from Voting Futures Trust, Voto Latino and Black Voters Matter, include voters’ actual home addresses. Voto Latino and Black Voters Matter are well-established groups founded to encourage engagement among minority groups.

Representatives of Voto Latino and Black Voters Matter attributed the confusion to an error from a third party vendor. Black Voters Matter said the vendor was Movement Labs, a left wing text message campaigning company.

“In text messages sent on behalf of Black Voters Matter to Black voters in KS, NJ, IL, NC, and VA, we sent text messages designed to encourage voting that may have caused confusion amongst voters,” Movement Labs said in a statement. “We take full responsibility for these mistakes and have issued correction texts.”

Black Votes Matter said in a statement that the organization is “deeply sorry for the confusion” caused by the texts.

“Our mission is to build power in Black communities, and part of how we do that is by providing accurate information to community members who are often excluded from voter mobilization efforts. The last thing we ever want is for our outreach to be confused with intentional disinformation which is sometimes targeted to our communities.”

Ashley Rodgers, a spokesperson for Voto Latino, said the organization is suspending “any future campaigns” with the third party vendor, which she did not name.

Voting Futures Trust did not respond to a Facebook message Monday.

Nicki Scheid of Wichita was one of a number of Kansans who posted a screenshot of the confusing text on social media. She got the first message from Voting Futures Trust at around 4 p.m. Sunday.

“On the text, it shows my address and it is the correct address but it has me voting in Bel Aire. But I don’t vote in Bel Aire,” Scheid said.

Sedgwick County Election Commissioner Angela Caudillo said Monday that her office is not sending out any voting information via text.

ACLU spokesperson Esmie Tseng said that by 11 a.m. Monday, 15 people had reported receiving texts instructing them to vote at a polling station that either isn’t open for early voting or isn’t their correct Election Day precinct.

“The risk is a voter going to the place that they’re told to go via text and then they show up and it’s not even an active polling location yet until Election Day,” Tseng said.

“The concern is obviously someone going and getting discouraged and kind of giving up on the whole process because it’s already hard enough to vote.”

Early voting in Sedgwick County runs through Nov. 7 at the election office in the historic courthouse. Registered voters can also cast their ballot at any of the other 16 early voting locations across the county that open Tuesday.

Deann Mitchell, chair of the Johnson County Democrats, said she’d seen messages sent to registered Democrats across the state including one that incorrectly sent a voter to Westwood City Hall.

Mitchell said she worried the texts would be particularly harmful for uninformed voters who go to the wrong location and don’t have time to relocate.

“These texts are designed to create confusion,” Mitchell said. “And that just makes people leery of the entire election process.”

Little can be found online about Voting Futures Trust. The organization hosts a website that is simply a page for voters to look up their polling location. When an address is entered, however, the website reports no polling location found.

Comments on Voting Futures Trust’s Facebook page criticize the group for sending text messages with false voting information.

Several prominent Latino celebrities sit on Voto Latino’s board, including Rosario Dawson and America Ferrera. Black Voters Matter founder LaTosha Brown, a former Harvard Institute of Politics fellow, was featured on NPR earlier this month.

The ACLU is asking voters to report the texts by emailing hotline@866ourvote.org.