In a news release, party chair Ari Ioannides said they don’t know the source of the “GOP Voting Alert” message which was sent via text messages Monday night. He said the message wasn’t authorized by the party, its leaders or either campaign.
“We believe this message may have been sent by bad actors attempting to mislead voters and manipulate the election by creating the false appearance of Republican involvement,” Ioannides said.
He said the party has not endorsed any candidates in the nonpartisan municipal election.
He also urged voters to ignore the text and only rely upon official information from the campaigns, elections officials or independent sources before casting their ballots Tuesday.
Summit County’s Democratic Party leaders said they “had no involvement in or knowledge of” the text message. Chairman Rory Swenson encouraged local Republican leaders to refer the message to state election officials for investigation.
This is a developing story that will be updated when more information is available.