* From Block Club Chicago in June…

People throughout Chicago are receiving anonymous text messages that encourage them to vote Tuesday — but also include their name and, in some cases, photos or maps of their home.

The text messages come from various phone numbers that, when called, lead to nowhere — and recipients have not subscribed for them. The messages tell the recipient they haven’t voted yet and list their name, home address and a nearby polling location. They sometimes include a Google Maps picture of the person’s home or a screenshot of their address on a map.

The messages aren’t coming from the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners, said spokesperson Max Bever. The agency — which governs elections in the city — doesn’t send text to voters, Bever said.

Chicagoans said the texts have left them annoyed, confused and, in some cases, concerned about their safety or worried about their ballot. […]

A resident who received one of the texts sent a message back to ask for information about the messages. The respondent said they are a volunteer with Voting Futures, a nonprofit “dedicated to ensuring every eligible voter is registered and participating in democracy.”

* From an Oregon TV station about 11 days ago…

An official-looking text message created confusion among some Oregon voters because the information in the text — including the voter’s name or address — was incorrect. It didn’t match official voting records.

“They have my first name correct. The address is one in Eugene that I have never lived at,” explained Lauren Dunn in an email to KGW. “Seems like a scam.”

The Oregon Secretary of State’s Office and Multnomah County Elections have received complaints about the text messages. Tim Scott, director of Multnomah County Elections said he personally received one of the text messages.

The texts claim to be from someone named Myra, a volunteer with Voting Futures. The message explained that if you live at a particular address, you will receive your 2022 ballot in the mail soon. […]

A company hired by political organizations that rally people to cast their ballot sent the text message.

The company, Movement Labs, admits some of the text messages were addressed to the wrong person or had incorrect voting information because of old or outdated cell phone records.

* The Week this morning…

Movement Labs, a company that facilitates political text message campaigns, took responsibility for accidentally sending voters in five states messages with erroneous instructions for voting. […]

The statement explains that the company sent the messages to voters in Kansas, New Jersey, Illinois, North Carolina, and Virginia on behalf of text campaign clients Voto Latino, Black Voters Matter, and Voting Futures.

Movement Labs founder Yoni Landau assured it was not their intention to confuse voters. “In some of our texts, we sent addresses and images of drop-box locations when we intended only to include in-person early vote locations,” he said. “We didn’t specify in our text that we were trying to encourage voters to vote early. Some voters familiar with their election day location thought we were telling them to vote on election day at an early vote location.”

* Statement from Movement Labs…

This program relies on difficult-to-compile polling location data from multiple sources matched to individuals on the voter file, and we fell short of our rigorous standards with some of these errors, which we believe impacted around 10% of the voters we contacted.

Moving forward, we are conducting an investigation and commit to releasing a report widely summarizing our findings.

*** UPDATE *** From the State Board of Elections…

For the past several days, voters in Illinois have complained of receiving unsolicited text messages with incorrect information on Election Day polling places.

The text messages, from a group called Voting Futures, list the recipient’s voting address, state that public records indicate the recipient has not yet voted and then inform the recipient of a voting location that often is incorrect.

Voters are reminded that correct polling place information can be found by using the Polling Place Locator tool on the State Board of Elections website. The State Board of Elections does not communicate with voters using text messages, nor does it hire third parties to communicate with voters.

“We want Illinois voters to know that their election information should come only from trusted sources like the State Board of Elections or their local election authority,” said Board of Elections Executive Director Bernadette Matthews. Voters can also receive election information by following the State Board of Elections on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Voters who receive suspicious election-related text messages or emails or view social media posts that contain suspected election misinformation should forward screenshots and/or links to scamalert@elections.il.gov.