HAMILTON COUNTY — School board elections are supposed to be nonpartisan but these days, that's not the case.
Many people were surprised to see the following text message come across their phones and now have questions about who sent it.
"It seems to be in favor of a candidate who does not appear to have very liberal positions or positions that are aligned with incivility,” Rachna Greulach, a Fishers Resident and HSE parent, said.
"It was befuddling because it hasn't matched any messaging I had received about Suzanne Thomas at all and coming from Democrats,” Max Glenn, a Fishers resident and HSE parent, said. “That was kind of confusing because they have been mostly ambivalent towards Suzanne Thomas."
"I was just really surprised to get it but I knew instantly that it was fake,” Mary Jensen, a Fishers Resident, said. “I looked up the organization right away because I didn't think it existed."
Those are three out of several people who received the same text message urging them not to vote for current Hamilton Southeastern school board member Suzanne Thomas, who is up against Terry Tolle.
The text said it was from a group called Citizens for Inclusive Schools. A group WRTV couldn't find and neither could the voters we spoke with.
"It was very unusual to get it from a PAC that I have never heard of,” Glenn said. “One Google search revealed it didn't exist.”
Sending texts to voters is common in bigger races.
One political expert we spoke with says it's becoming more common in smaller local races that are tight, mainly because our data is so accessible due to our online presence.
"When we sign up for an app or something like that, we sign away a lot of our privacy. That data goes to these data-collecting companies,” Aaron Dusso, an associate professor of political science at IU Indy, said.
As for if it changed the minds of people that got it, the three voters we spoke to said it didn’t. It turned people away from Tolle. They also said they were concerned with the money it cost to send the text out.
WRTV checked campaign finance records to see if we could find any groups that donated to campaigns with the name Citizens for Inclusive Schools and we weren't able to find any.
