A letter sent to the homes of thousands of unregistered voters in Kansas City, Mo. and Jackson County has led to hundreds of angry phone calls and letters.
In mid-August, the Washington, D.C.-based Voter Participation Center sent letters calling on voters to "demand action" as "too many young black lives have been lost to our unjust criminal system".
The letter also said voters could "curb the damaging effects of the school-to-prison pipeline" and said registration was important since "African Americans are registered to vote at a lower rate than white Americans."
The letter ended by saying, in bold lettering, "Black lives matter. Black votes matter."
The delivery to residents also included a registration form and envelope to send to the Jackson County Election Board.
As a result of backlash from the letter, the Jackson County Election Board sent out a press release on Thursday alerting residents of the document and how it contained "inaccurate or misleading information".
Many residents called or sent responses to complain, including Tim Thieme, whose son received the letter.
"I got to reading it and it infuriated me," he explained. "The language of the letter was talking down to African Americans and treating them as if they were children."
Thieme wrote a strongly worded response to the Electoral Board detailing his reaction to the letter.
"It was very narrowly focused, very targeted, and very insulting," he explained. "The whole letter wreaks of insulting their intelligence and their ability or wanting to register to vote."
Jackson County Electoral Board member Tammy Brown said her office had received over 400 angry phone calls in response to the letter.
On Wednesday, Brown showed 41 Action News a stack of responses sent back with messages saying those who the letter was addressed to had either died or were too young to vote.
"We had to move some of the stuff out because we were just being inundated with this," she said.
Brown explained that as a result of having to answer angry phone calls and organize responses, election workers have had to deal with the issue during a busy time before Election Day.
"This week alone, we're programming equipment, getting routes set up to get equipment delivered to polls," she said. "That's what we need to be concentrating on, not trying to calm people down for a letter we didn't send out."
With just over a month before Election Day, Thieme hoped the Voter Participation Center would change its approach when reaching out to potential voters.
"They're not going to stop sending letters out but maybe they'll re-word it and make it sound more educated," he said.
As of Thursday night, a call to the Voter Participation Center had not been returned.
Missouri voters have until October 12th to register to vote on Election Day, while Kansas voters have until October 18th.
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Tom Dempsey can be reached at Tom.Dempsey@KSHB.com.
