TPMMuckraker

Bogus Texts Tell Florida Students They Can Vote Tomorrow

Students at the University of Florida have received text messages falsely informing them that voting has been extended until tomorrow.

Steve Orlando, a spokesman for the university, told TPMmuckraker that the administration had heard from several students who reported having received the bogus texts. He said he then was contacted by the office of the county elections supervisor, who told him that they were aware of the messages, and asked the university to make clear to students that the messages were bogus. The administration quickly did so in an email.

Orlando said he couldn’t imagine that too many students were fooled by the texts. Still, he added: “If even one student didn’t know [that the message was false], that would be a terrible thing for them to miss the opportunity to vote for the first time”

Earlier today, we reported that a bogus email was sent from the account of the provost of George Mason University in Virginia, informing recipients that election day is tomorrow. Authorities are said to be investigating the source of the email.


Election 2008, Voting

Editor & Publisher

Josh Marshall

Managing Editor

David Kurtz

Senior Associate Editor

Paul Werdel

Associate Editor

Tom Lane

Assistant Editor

Igor Bobic

Reporters

Brian Beutler

Carl Franzen

Sahil Kapur

Eric Kleefeld

Nick Martin

Evan McMorris-Santoro

Jillian Rayfield

Ryan J. Reilly

Benjy Sarlin

News Writers

Kyle Leighton

David Taintor

Pema Levy

Video Editor

Michael Lester

Research Interns

Christopher Hohmuth

Tom Kludt

Publishing Intern

Christopher O’Driscoll

General Manager & General Counsel

Millet Israeli

VP, Ad Sales

Bruce Ellerstein

Waldo Tibbetts

Bob Edmunds

Manager, Ad Operations and Sales Support

Versha Sharma

Deputy Publisher

Callie Schweitzer

Director of Technology

Eric Buth

Designer/Developer

Ni Mu

Matthew Wozniak