AG’s Office sends Cease and Desist letter to Barrett Campaign amid inaccurate election advertisement

LANSING, Mich. (WILX) - The Michigan Attorney General’s Office announced on Tuesday that it has filed a Cease and Desist letter to the Tom Barrett campaign regarding alleged violations of state election law.

Republican candidate for Congress Barrett faced a potential investigation from the attorney general after his campaign printed the wrong election date in a Black-owned Lansing newspaper called The New Michigan Bulletin.

The ad claims election day is Nov. 6 when it’s Nov. 5.

The Barrett campaign told News 10, “This was nothing but a proofing error.” The campaign later said a new ad had been with the correct information.

On Tuesday, the Attorney General’s Office announced that it had filed a Cease and Desist order against Barrett’s campaign after the complaint was filed with the AG’s Office on Oct. 13.

According to the Cease and Desist Notice, the complaint further alleged that a similar advertisement was placed in The City Pulse on Oct. 9.

“The only noticeable difference in the ads placed, was the date indicated to vote. In The City Pulse ad, the campaign ad states that “On November 5 Vote For Tom Barrett,” the notice said.

The notice urged the Barrett Campaign to remove and correct all inaccurate election information.

“The Department finds the allegations deeply troubling; therefore, you are hereby ordered to cease and desist the dissemination of inaccurate or misleading information about the upcoming General Election and to correct the inaccurate and misleading information already disseminated. It is being reported that you intend to issue a correction in next week’s edition of The Michigan Bulletin. We will continue to monitor this situation to ensure that occurs. Moving forward, we expect the campaign to comply with the law and only provide factually correct information regarding Election Day 2024.”

News 10 will update this story when we find more information

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