Black lawmakers in Michigan are calling for an investigation into GOP House candidate Tom Barrett after he released an advertisement in a Black-owned newspaper that listed the wrong election date, per CNN.
According to a complaint filed by the Michigan Legislative Black Caucus, Barrett's campaign printed an ad in the Michigan Bulletin, a Black-owned publication, telling voters to cast their ballots on November 6, a day after Election Day.
Barrett, who is facing Democrat Curtis Hertel to succeed Democratic Rep. Elissa Slotkin in the 7th Congressional District in Central Michigan, is being accused of violating state law and deterring Black voters from having their votes counted.
Jason Roe, a spokesman for Barrett's campaign, said printing the wrong election date was “nothing but a proofing error.”
“Our campaign has been committed to outreach to the Black community and Black leaders because it is important to Senator Barrett that every community be heard in this election,” Roe said in a statement. “The publisher of the Bulletin notified us of the error on Saturday and we’ve provided him with revised art for next week’s issue.”
Marcus Jefferson, the president of the Michigan Bulletin, said the ad was the first one Barrett had run in the newspaper. When addressing the incorrect ad, Jefferson said Barrett's campaign told him that they had used an old template from Michigan’s August 6 primary.
Democratic state Sens. Erika Geiss and Sarah Anthony, who filed the complaint on behalf of the Michigan Legislative Black Caucus, said Barrett's ad had the correct dates in other publications that weren't Black-owned.
“At best, Tom Barrett and his Campaign have committed a shocking oversight which will undoubtedly lead to confusion by Black voters in Lansing – in part because they still do not appear to have made any attempt to correct the record,” the lawmakers said. “And, at worst, this ad could be part of an intentional strategy to ‘deter’ Black voters by deceiving them into showing up to vote on the day after the 2024 election.”
A new corrected version of Barrett's ad is set to be released in the next edition of the paper this week.
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