As Wisconsin braced for tornadoes, Republicans text 'Wisconsin voter alert' complete with emergency tones

MADISON – As southern Wisconsin braced for a tornado watch Friday afternoon, conservative Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate Dan Kelly and the Republican Party of Wisconsin issued its own emergency alert warning voters not to elect liberal Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Janet Protasiewicz on Tuesday.

The text message included a video that used alert tones and a scratchy radio voice found on official emergency alerts aired on television and radio. The screen read, "*** Emergency Alert System ***" and "Wisconsin Voter Alert" on the backdrop of differently colored bars that sometimes appears on screen when TV programming is interrupted. After three beeps, a voice says, "This is a State of Wisconsin voter alert. Attention citizens: our Second Amendment rights are under attack by Judge Janet Protasiewicz."

Voters received the text messages with the video around 2 p.m. on Friday as areas of southern Wisconsin were placed under tornado watches.

The video would likely violate federal law if broadcasted on television, according to recent Federal Communications Commission enforcement actions. What was less clear late Friday is whether it’s allowed to be transmitted via text message.

According to the FCC rules, people and groups are barred from using emergency alert system codes or signals in "advertisements, promotional announcements, or other programming," if the sounds are being used not in connection with an actual emergency, an emergency system test, or a public service announcement authorized to use such sounds.

The use of sounds intended to "mimic" "or are substantially similar" to the alert sounds so that an average listener could reasonably mistake the sounds for an actual emergency alert are also prohibited, according to the FCC.

Democratic Party of Wisconsin officials called on state GOP officials "to immediately cease and desist" sending the text messages intended to persuade recipients to vote for Kelly.

“For the Republican Party of Wisconsin to send this fake emergency alert on behalf of Dan Kelly at a time when many Wisconsinites are under the first Tornado Watch of the season is abhorrent, dangerous, and profoundly irresponsible,” Democratic Party of Wisconsin Executive Director Devin Remiker said in a statement.

Republican Party of Wisconsin executive director Mark Jefferson said Democrats "need to stop insulting the voters' intelligence."

“Democrats should knock off the fake outrage and stop trying to stifle free speech.  It’s not going to paper over Janet Protaseiwicz’s abysmal soft on crime record," he said.

A spokesman for Kelly did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Molly Beck can be reached at molly.beck@jrn.com.

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Republicans text 'Wisconsin voter alert' election message