New Hampshire voters are getting bogus robocalls with an imitation of Biden's voice telling them not to vote in the state's primary
- Some Democratic voters in New Hampshire received calls appearing to be from Biden.
- The deepfakes of the president pushed Democrats to skip Tuesday's primary election in New Hampshire.
Just before the first (but unofficial) Democratic primary of the 2024 election, voters in New Hampshire said they've received phone calls telling them not to turn out from an unlikely source: President Joe Biden.
The scam calls using a deepfake of the president's voice were first reported Monday morning by NBC News. It's unclear when exactly the message was first sent out, though it appears it was sometime over the weekend.
Biden campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez told Business Insider in a statement that "this matter has already been referred to the New Hampshire Attorney General, and the campaign is actively discussing additional actions to take immediately."
"Spreading disinformation to suppress voting and deliberately undermine free and fair elections will not stand, and fighting back against any attempt to undermine our democracy will continue to be a top priority for this campaign," she added.
The robocall instructs Democrats to stay home.
"We know the value of voting Democratic on our votes count," an inauthentic recording of Biden said in the call. "It's important that you save your vote for the November election. We'll need your help in electing Democrats up and down the ticket."
The message continued, adding that participating in the Democratic primary in New Hampshire "only enables the Republicans in their quest to elect Donald Trump again. Your vote makes a difference in November, not this Tuesday."
The push to get Democratic voters to abstain from voting on Tuesday comes in the middle of a push by a super PAC to get Democrats in the state to write in Biden's name on the primary ballot.
The president will not be on the formal primary ballot in New Hampshire after the Democratic National Committee butted heads with state leaders following the party's decision to alter the primary schedule to instead have South Carolina hold the first official Democratic primary in the country.
Biden's not on the ballot, but that doesn't mean it's empty. Democratic Rep. Dean Phillips — his main challenger — is still included along with longshot candidates Marianne Williamson, Vermin Supreme, and Paperboy Love Prince.
Phillips' campaign, in a statement to NBC News, said the fake calls were "wildly concerning," noting that "any effort to discourage voters is disgraceful and an unacceptable affront to democracy."
This isn't the first time robocalls have been used to target election participation: In 2022, serial fraudsters Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman pleaded guilty to felony charges after using targeted robocalls in an attempt to dissuade voters from using mail-in ballots.