Voters from several Southeast Missouri counties have been receiving text messages and paper mail with inaccurate information about the upcoming election.
KFVS-TV reports it received two examples from viewers that said their absentee ballots were “pending” and to immediately send in a ballot in order for their vote to count.
Allen Seabaugh is the supervisor of elections in Cape Girardeau County. He said a common piece of mail listed a false absentee ballot turn in deadline and noted that a handful of voters were confused by it.
“It is concerning when information is released by groups that may be inaccurate,” said Seabaugh. “Because voters then start to question how elections are done in their area. Our job is to run elections in a fair and efficient manner and that is what we are here to do. We want to give voters the most accurate information.”
Seabaugh says calling your local county clerk’s office is the best place to confirm your voter registration and your absentee ballot status.
“We are able to directly access their information and get a direct answer for them, and make sure that it is accurate,” Seabaugh said.
Absentee voters in Cape Girardeau County have until Halloween to order their mail-in ballot, and the deadline to turn it back into the clerk’s office is 7 p.m. on November 6th, the date of the election.
Victor Gunn with the Cape Girardeau County Republican Central Committee says inaccurate election information was sent out by a National GOP group. Gunn thinks the group realized the mistake and stopped sending the messages. He said the Missouri GOP informed him through email that it has the correct information for absentee voting in the state.
Separately, southeast Missourian Dave Binger says he’s been getting spam about the mid-term election in his email and now on his phone.
“One of the parties texted me about like ‘Who are you voting for? Blah, blah, blah, here is some information. I was like “What” I texted them back and was like respect my privacy,” Binger said. “I’m sure it pisses a lot of people off when they get an email. How did these people get my email address? I didn’t share that with them or your phone number.”
Missourinet media partner KFVS-TV contributed this report
