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Suspicious texts sent to some Dallas County voters
Some people received a text saying they may have not voted immediately after they cast their ballot. The text also contained their home address. But is it a phishing scam or a misguided get-out-the-vote campaign?
DALLAS - Some Dallas County early voters are getting text messages after voting that say they may not have voted.
FOX 4 dug deeper to find out if the messages are part of a phishing scam or a misguided get-out-the-vote campaign.
We’re all used to seeing phishing text messages. But for voters who just early voted, this one had a concerningly personal feel.
Some people received a text saying they may have not voted immediately after they cast their ballot. The text also contained their home address.
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The feel-good moment after voting early quickly turned into a sinking feeling for Michele Roberts, from Duncanville.
"We did as we were supposed to do. We came out, turned our phone on and immediately received that text," she explained. "It said someone in your house with my address on my personal cell phone may not have voted."
FOX 4 has learned of others also getting the same message soon after casting a Dallas County ballot as well.
"I don't understand how someone would get this information and so quickly that we would both get this text immediately after voting," Roberts said.
The messages provided a link to the Texas Secretary of State's Office, but a spokesperson for the office told FOX the messages are not coming from them.
The Dallas County Elections Department also told FOX 4 the messages are not theirs.
"The unsolicited text messages that you get. I am the jerk who popularized them," admitted Debra Cleaver, CEO of voteamerica.org. "In 2016, I realized that I could buy the cell phone numbers of unregistered voters and hire people to text them directly to encourage them to register to vote."
After sending 150 million unsolicited text messages, Cleaver says they stopped.
"They're just not as effective," she said. "And when we send them, we are very careful to not create chaos or confusion with voters."
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Cleaver believes the timing of the text messages being received by some voters right after casting their ballots must be a coincidence since that information would not be public until the following day.
"No third-party group has real-time information on who's voted and who hasn't," she said.
Ultimately, Cleaver says the message in this case is an example of the technology being misused.
"We never want to sow any doubt on the voting process itself. And, again, the people sending these messages, they are not malicious; they are simply incompetent. But you cannot do this work and be incompetent."
By law, early voter information is released after early voting closes each day. However, the information posted does not contain cell phone numbers.
To find out if a vote was cast in your name, you can call your county’s election office or check their website for the in-person early voting list.
For Dallas County’s list, visit https://www.dallascountyvotes.org/election-results/historical/november-5-2024-general-joint-election/#EarlyVoting.