The 7th congressional district race just got hotter but for all the wrong reasons.
Republican candidate Tom Barrett placed a campaign ad in a Black newspaper to encourage Black voters to pick him over his Democratic opponent Curtis Hertel. U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-Holly) is vacating the swing seat as she eyes a spot in the U.S. Senate.
In the political ad, it’s somewhat easy to overlook the blunder of printing the wrong date for Election Day in the Michigan Bulletin. It reads, “On Nov. 6, vote for Tom Barrett.”
Barrett’s campaign team called the misprint a “proofing error.”
The campaign team for Democratic candidate Curtis Hertel released a statement about the misprint.
“Our campaign is working hard to ensure that voters are not confused by this misleading advertisement and are able to make their voices heard on election day,” said Hertel campaign spokesperson Sam Kwait-Spitzer.
Meanwhile, the Michigan Attorney General’s Office found the allegations “deeply troubling” and issued a cease-and-desist letter to the campaign.
“This is not right,” said Cheryl Askew, a Black voter who already cast her absentee ballot. “The voting thing is Nov. 5, but it says Nov. 6.”
The publisher told Local 4 that the paper has a circulation of about 30,000 readers, meaning many people saw the error.
However, a campaign spokesperson for Barrett believes the outcry is a political stunt.
“I think it’s people taking advantage of a simple mistake and try to turn it into something it’s not,” Jason Roe said.
Mistakes do happen.
However, the Michigan Legislative Black Caucus noticed Barrett placed a similar ad in a Lansing alternative weekly paper with the correct date.
The lawmakers filed a complaint at the state and county levels.
“We cannot take these types of incidents lightly,” said State Sen. Sarah Anthony, a Democrat representing the 21stSenate District. “The more we ignore misinformation or the, ‘oops, we just so happen to,’ I just think that it’s a dangerous precedence that we can set.”
The Michigan Bulletin’s publisher said a correct ad will run in the next edition.
Still, many are asking how the wrong date made it to print.
“The campaign told me that it was an honest mistake that they had a template for the primaries that said Aug. 6, and they changed August to November without changing the six,” said Marcus Jefferson, the publisher.
Despite the misprint discovery, the botched ad in the paper sat on newsstands for days.
Some Black voters think it’s too early to tell if any damage is done.
“We [can] go to our phone,” said Jamal Tahir. “We can Google it. You can call the local polling places and confirm.”
Pia Love believes most voters are informed before casting their ballots.
“I think if you’ve been living long enough or watching TV for the last two months, you know when to vote,” Love said.
For other voters, they still question the motive.
“I wouldn’t even put it out there if it’s not true, and the people who did it – they got to know what they’re doing," Askew said.