Students Receive Misleading Information on Election Day

Nov. 4, 2008— -- Voter suppression has gone viral at the University of Florida.

Several students have received text messages from friends or anonymous numbers urging them to vote on Nov. 5 -- the day after Election Day -- when their votes would not be counted.

UF senior political science major Delaney Rohan received the following text message from a number with an Orlando area code Tuesday afternoon: "Due to high voter turnout Republicans are asked to vote today and Democrats are asked to vote tomorrow. Spread the word!"

Other texts announcing similarly false information have also been circulating.

Gavin Pour, a senior chemistry major at UF, received a text message from a friend at about 5 p.m. Tuesday: "News Flash: Due to long lines today, all Obama supporters are asked to vote on Wednesday. Thank you!! Please forward to everyone."

Alachua County Supervisor of Elections Pam Carpenter said her office has been receiving calls, mostly from students, complaining that they have been getting these messages, which can be classified as a form of voter suppression.

"Students were coming into polling places saying that they've received messages telling them voting had been extended until tomorrow," Carpenter said. "The students were pretty much not taking them seriously, but we just thought as a precaution we'd ask the university to send something out relaying that they're not true."

Just after 4 p.m. today, UF's vice president for student affairs, Patricia Telles-Irvin, sent e-mails to the school's more than 50,000 students, warning them about the false texts.

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"A number of University of Florida students have reported receiving a text message today claiming that voting has been extended until Wednesday. This message is NOT legitimate and it should be ignored," Telles-Irvin wrote.