TOPEKA — Former U.S. Rep. Tim Huelskamp is behind the fake message about the constitutional amendment that angered Democrats on Monday, the Washington Post reports.
The newspaper traced the unsolicited text messages to a political tech firm called Alliance Forge and identified Huelskamp’s Do Right PAC as the client behind the campaign.
Huelskamp, a Republican who represented the state in Congress from 2011 to 2017, did not immediately return a phone call and voicemail from the Kansas Reflector seeking comment for this story.
State officials said using voter registration data to intentionally deceive voters does not violate state law because lying is allowed in election ads and unsolicited text messages about ballot questions do not require senders to reveal their identities.
Twilio, the company whose services were used to send the message, says its fraud team was investigating and taking “appropriate action” to stop the spread of misinformation.
Democrats were outraged by the text message they received Monday, which inaccurately told them that “voting YES on the amendment will give women a choice.” A yes vote would effectively end the right to terminate a pregnancy in Kansas and give the Legislature the authority to enact a total abortion ban. A no vote would preserve the status quo, in which abortion is highly regulated and legal through the 22nd week of pregnancy.
“This is as dirty as you can get,” Davis Hammett, a voting rights attorney, said in a tweet. “The anti-abortion coalition is sending a last-minute mass text to pro-choice voters in Kansas flat-out lying about the abortion amendment so they’ll vote the wrong way.”
Bryan Caskey, the state elections director, says the Secretary of State’s Office has filed dozens of complaints about the text message, but that the office does not have the authority under Kansas law to investigate the matter.
Political operatives can purchase the voter registration file from the secretary of state’s office, a public file that includes names, party affiliation and contact information for voters. They can separately purchase a daily update of individuals who have cast advanced votes.
State law prohibits the use of this information for commercial purposes, but campaigns can use it to encourage selective voters to go to the polls.
“Using voter registration data for this type of communication is not something we believe violates the law,” Caskey said.
The Kansas Commission on Governmental Ethics, in a statement responding to complaints about the text, said state law does not require text messages to say who paid for them if the messages are about a ballot question. Additionally, state law specifically allows misleading election ads, the ethics commission said.
In a series of Twitter statements responding to complaints about misinformation on the abortion amendment, Twilio said it is “working diligently to ensure this is handled correctly.”
“Spreading misinformation is a direct violation of our Terms of Service, so while we don’t have an update to share, we assure you that we take misinformation very seriously,” the company said.
According to the Washington Post, Twilio confirmed that the numbers used to send the text messages were leased to Nevada-based Alliance Forge. The CEO for Alliance Forge said the company was notified Monday evening of a “potential content breach” and began working with Twilio to identify the source of the text messages. The CEO said the company “was not consulted on the strategy or messaging content of this message,” the Washington Post reported.
Campaign finance reports show Huelskamp’s PAC has spent more than $200,000 in support of the amendment, including $26,000 for services from Alliance Forge between June 29 and July 11.
