Billboard along I-75 in Detroit urges people to vote — but includes wrong election date

An organization whose mission is to boost voter turnout has the wrong date for the upcoming election on a billboard in Detroit.

“VOTE” is the message on the billboard along I-75 in southwest Detroit. The secondary message: Tuesday, November 6.

The only problem, this year’s election is Tuesday, Nov. 5.

Vote.org is the nonprofit organization that is paying for the billboard. The Oakland, California-based group’s mission statement is: “Vote.org uses technology to simplify political engagement, increase voter turnout, and strengthen American democracy.”

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The problem with the billboard, said Kamari Guthrie, communications director for vote.org, is that it is left over from the 2018  election, when voting day was actually Nov. 6.

“Our No. 1 mission is to make sure that communities that don’t always receive accurate messaging, get the correct information,” she said. “We recognize that some of our vendors fail to remove billboards in a timely manner.

“It will get taken down immediately,” she added.

Lefe Schneider of BDO Advertising, which is responsible for that particular billboard, said the message stayed up as “filler copy.”

“It was supposed to be turned around and it never got done,” he said. “It will be removed by tomorrow.”

While there isn't an election in Detroit in this off-year, there are plenty of competitive races coming up on the Nov. 5 ballot in Downriver communities that are adjacent to the spot where the billboard is clearly visible as drivers cross the Rouge River bridge on I-75.

After the Secretary of State’s Office heard of the wrong date on the billboard, SOS spokesman Mike Doyle said officials contacted vote.org and were assured that it would be gone this week.

It’s not the first time vote.org had a mistaken election message.

On several billboards in Mississippi, the VOTE message told drivers to vote on Nov. 16. But that date is Election Day in Louisiana. Mississippi’s Election Day is Nov. 5.

According to the Clarion Ledger newspaper, vote.org blamed the vendor — Lamar Advertising — for that mishap and had the billboards covered up.

The billboard campaign included 2,600 billboards in 10 states across the nation in 2018, bearing the simple message VOTE with the election date. Many of the billboards popped up around Detroit in the weeks leading up to last year’s election.

A study of the billboard campaign in two counties — one in Mississippi and one in Arizona — had mixed results, with a slightly increased voter turnout in the Mississippi county and less definitive results in the Arizona county.

“The results offer preliminary support for the idea that billboards are an effective GOTV (get out the vote) strategy in some locations,” according to vote.org’s website.

Contact Kathleen Gray: 313-223-4430, kgray99@freepress.com or on Twitter @michpoligal.