Anti-Voter Fraud billboards will be taken down, called ‘pure, unadulterated voter suppression’
Dozens of billboards have popped up in urban areas in the crucial battleground states of Ohio and Wisconsin. The signs note that voter fraud is a felony, punishable by up to 3 1/2 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.
voter fraud is felony billboard sign screenshot WEWS-TV report
Civil rights groups and Democrats complain that the billboards are meant to intimidate voters.
The billboards began appearing two weeks ago, 85 in total and around Milwaukee, and an additional 60 in Cleveland and Columbus.
The signs say in large white letters “Voter Fraud is a Felony!”
There’s a big picture of a judge’s gavel and small letters at the bottom that say the ads are funded simply by a “private family foundation.” A number of liberal groups and labor organizations are demanding that the billboards be taken down.
“I think that these billboards are designed to suppress the vote. That is their intention,” says Scot Ross, executive director of one of those groups, the Institute for One Wisconsin.
“Just the concentration of them is a pretty good indication what the end goal is and who these anonymous billboards are targeting for voter suppression,” he says.
“This billboard is nothing but a symbol of pure, unadulterated voter suppression to target an African American community,” Ohio Sate Senator Nina Turner told WEWS-TV earlier this month.
Clear Channel Communications, which owns the billboards, isn’t saying who “buy the space,” but a spokesman wrote in an email to NPR that the advertiser asked to be anonymous. That goes against company policy, but he said the contract was signed by mistake and the company does not plan to take the billboards down.
“We will do all we can to ensure it does not happen again,” the spokesman said.
