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Virginia Attorney General Jason S. Miyares (R) this week ordered a voter outreach group to stop distributing literature that he says gives recipients the false impression that, if they don’t vote, they’ll lose certain federal benefits.
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Fliers and door hangers left at homes by a group called Virginia Voter Assistance state that, among other things, a person’s Social Security income, Medicare eligibility and child-care tax credits could be taken away if they don’t vote.
“Failure to vote may also result in the seizure of personal assets, including but not limited to firearms, bank accounts, cars and real estate,” one flier said.
The Washington-based nonprofit organization behind the outreach campaign, Look Ahead America, said the message to about 30,000 recipients in mostly rural, blue-collar areas of the state was that they need to make their voices heard or risk policy decisions that could result in such outcomes.
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“Every word we say is true,” said Matt Braynard, the group’s director. “Your failure to vote may result in the loss of important rights and benefits. We’ve seen that throughout history in this country. If anything, we’re underselling that risk.”
Miyares and local election officials in counties where the literature showed up say some recipients felt they were being intimidated and threatened by Braynard’s group.
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“My family immigrated to the U.S. from Communist Cuba, a nation where there were not free and fair elections to choose its leaders. So, this issue is very important to me,” Miyares said in a statement. “Misinformation in our elections will not be tolerated in Virginia.”
A cease-and-desist letter sent Tuesday by Miyares’s office warns Look Ahead America of criminal penalties if it continues to distribute the literature.
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Braynard, a former director of data and strategy for former president Donald Trump’s political campaign, said his group is seeking to have the allegations retracted.
Look Ahead America is a nonpartisan organization whose mission is to increase voter participation among “disaffected patriotic Americans of rural and blue-collar backgrounds,” including by helping those people vote early and find their local polling stations, the group said.
“I am very disappointed that we got a cease-and-desist; not only is it a violation of our First Amendment rights, but you cannot say that telling the voters the truth is ‘intimidating,’” Braynard said.
Prince William County Registrar Eric Olsen said the group’s literature caused confusion among voters in his county.
Some recipients who already cast early ballots were worried their votes had not been recorded because the literature incorrectly stated that the person at that home had not voted, Olsen said.
“We have candidates sending out more than a million fliers” in advance of the election, Olsen said. “And we’ve had zero calls about all those fliers because the messages are clear. This was clearly an intention to scare and intimidate voters.”
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