Dead Florida cat gets voting letter in the mail

SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. -A local elections supervisor was startled when a voter sent him a photo of a letter sent to her deceased cat.

She indicated the letter was suggesting her feline should register to vote.

The woman who sent the photo in a tweet blotted out her address. She said she doesn’t want any more unwanted mail.

The woman said the note was encouraging her dead cat to be a registered voter.

“When our voters get this in the mail, ‘Hey, would you like your dead cat to register to vote?’ That gives us pause, because we don’t want the voters to think it came from us, we know better,” said Seminole County Elections Supervisor Mike Ertel.

Ertel said his biggest issue with the mailing is that he feels it’s made to look like a government document.

“It looks like an official mailing from our office, saying, ‘Hey, we would like you to register to vote, you may not be registered to vote,'” Ertel said.

To combat the problem, Ertel has set up a new website that lists all past mailings and the next mailing voters should expect from his office.

“Very, very concerned about the registration rates in Florida,” said Paige Gardner, president and CEO of the Voter Participation Center in Washington, D.C.

Gardner said she regrets it any time a mailing goes where it should not. The group’s mission is getting the attention of unregistered, potential voters.

“It doesn’t do us any good and it certainly doesn’t help our overall cause,” Gardner said.

Gardner’s organization works off of existing mailing lists and if someone wanted to check out a magazine or a credit card offer without using their actual name, this happens.

They highlighted on their mailing where it says they are not the government.

“Your elections office is not going to mail your dead cat a voter registration form,” Ertel said.