‘Meghan Markle For President’ Fake Website is Asking Voters to Spoil Ballots

A fake ‘Meghan Markle for President’ website may be a voter suppression tactic as it offers voting advice that could lead supporters to spoil ballots.

© Tolga Akmen/Getty
Meghan Markle at the Endeavour Fund awards at Drapers’ Hall on February 7, 2019 in London, England. She appears to be the victim of a voter suppression attempt by a fake website.

The Duchess of Sussex urged Americans to vote in the November 3 poll in a series of passionate video messages this summer leading betting companies to offer odds on a run in 2024.

However, a website has now appeared, meghanforpresident.com, claiming she is standing for the highest office in America this year under the slogan: “Together, we will lead. Vote Meghan Markle for President.”

At first glance, the page appears professionally put together with real quotes from Meghan’s past public speeches and photos from official events.

It asks supporters to “write in” their vote for Meghan, even though her name does not appear on the ballot.

The addition appears to suggest the person behind the website may want to stop her fans from voting for their actual preferred of the officially named candidates.

A Sussex source told Newsweek: “It’s obviously nothing to do with us. I have no idea about the motives of whoever has done it, whether its malicious or a joke.

“There’s fake websites that crop up all the time, whether it’s posing as a charity or posing as a product that they’re endorsing.

“It’s not often that we get them in politics but fake websites do appear quite a bit.”

Under the title “How To Cast Your Vote For A Write-In Candidate,” the website instructs supporters on how to ignore candidates who have declared their run and write in Meghan’s name in their place.

Quoting real government advice, it states: “Besides the names on your ballot, you may be able to write in names of other candidates.”

However, the website omits a crucial section of the Government advice on write in voting: “But writing in a name doesn’t mean that vote will count.

“Many states require write-in candidates file paperwork before the election. Otherwise, the state won’t count the person’s votes.”

Meghan has spoken out against voter supression before, in a conversation with feminist icon Gloria Steinem.

She said: “I’ve been really concerned about voter suppression.

“We can already see all the different challenges that we’re facing.

“I had the chance to speak with Stacey Abrams about this to try to get a better understanding of what to do, for example, if you’re a person of colour and you’re in line, for potentially hours on end, and during that time someone tries to intimidate you to tell you that you should get out of line because you might be under surveillance or any number of intimidation tactics that are so scary.”

However, the new website suggests her own supporters may now have been targetted by a voter supression campaign.

The website also includes a button inviting supporters to “contribute,” though it does not appear to link anywhere.

There is an online form asking for full name, email address and a reason why you “#BelieveInMeghan.”

Another online form asks for volunteers to help the campaign and there is a linked Twitter account, though it is currently private.

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