The Austin Political Action Committee (PAC) against Prop. 1 wants local, state and federal agencies to investigate the campaign tactics of Uber and Lyft.
If Prop 1 passes, it will repeal the current city ordinance that regulates transportation network companies (TNCs), including Uber and Lyft. The current ordinance includes benchmarks to implement fingerprint background checks for drivers. Representatives for Uber and Lyft have said the companies will cease operations in Austin if they are required to do fingerprint background checks.
Wednesday afternoon, the PAC Our City Our Safety Our Choice (OCOSOC) held a news conference calling on the Travis County attorney, Travis County District Attorney, state and federal law enforcement authorities to investigate the PAC supporting the proposition, Ridesharing Works for Austin, as well as Uber and Lyft.
"Uber and Lyft’s $8.8 million and growing in corporate spending as of Tuesday is a testament to how far these corporations are willing to go to rule Austin and overturn Austin’s public safety rules. It is obscene to see unprecedented corporate millions poured into a political campaign in an attempt to deceive and manipulate the people of Austin," said former Austin City Council Member and OCOSOC Spokesperson Laura Morrison.
"To be blunt this campaign doesn’t pass the smell test, and we are calling for a broad investigation of Uber and Lyft's actions to determine if they have stepped over the line from grossly inappropriate to illegality," she added.
Morrison said OCOSOC has four areas of concern regarding the campaign tactics:
1. Widespread Lack of Required Political Financial Disclosure
Ridesharing Works PAC acknowledges various political activities, but some of that activity does not appear to be disclosed on their campaign finance reports.
2. Coordinated Use of Corporate Marketing for Clearly Political Purposes
We see massive corporate materials including mailers without political disclaimers that appear to be coordinated between the Corporations and Ridesharing Works PAC. But we do not see any in-kind contributions on campaign finance reports showing that activity
3. Massive Spam Texting and Phone Campaign using Corporate Lists Without Express Customer Consent.
As has been widely reported, Uber sent unsolicited texts to Austinites cell phones under their corporate name for political purposes, possibly violating privacy and spamming laws. This has led to Austin residents filing complaints with the Federal Communication Commission.
4. The Appearance of Possible Vote Buying with Rides to the Polls
The free and discounted rides to the polls program raises questions of whether they were offered as a benefit intending to influence Austinites votes.
Because this is Austin’s first experience with a multi-million dollar app-based corporate campaign, with possible national implications it is critical for our community to understand the great potential for abuse of our democratic system.
That’s why we’re here today to call for an investigation by local, state, and federal law enforcement authorities into each of these issues.
Mark Littlefield, Austin public affairs/political consultant spoke after Morrison, explaining OCOSOC's concerns.
"I have been apart of some winning campaign and some losing campaigns, but I have never witnessed in Austin or anywhere, I've never witnessed before what we're seeing today, $8.8 million of corporate money being spent to influence voters," said Littlefield.
Littlefield alleged Uber and Lyft are using corporate resources for electoral purposes.
"Uber and Lyft are using their business applications to take over regular campaign tasks. Tasks such as identifying voters, providing voters information to influence their decisions, mobilizing supporters and taking them to the polls and all along the way Uber and Lyft are providing discounts, including up to $10 off to go to vote," said Littlefield.
He also said the companies are are using “non-political” marketing for clearly political activities.
"Mailboxes in Austin have been flooded with mailers. Uber has sent thousands of these mailers under the guise of “non-political” marketing. What does that mean basically? It means there's no disclosure here at the bottom 'political ad paid for by Ridesharing Works.' That's not going to be on most of these mailers. It's Uber. Uber keeps Austin moving. Just what a coincidence, Uber is sending a mail piece during an election," Littlefield said. "Let's be clear and use some common sense. The obvious intent of this corporate activity is to influence the election. Direct mail, social media ads, text messages, text messages, text, text messages, blast emails, extensive discounts promoting free rides. Whatever or wherever this line might be, the firewall between the Uber the corporation and the Uber the campaign, that line's been erased for this election."
Littlefield said red flags were raised when Ridesharing Works for Austin filed it's most recent 8-day finance report. He said a month ago, the contributions from the companies were reported as being $2.2 million, including $465,000 in in-kind expenditures for digital promotions and lists. Littlefield noted that as the campaign ramped up toward the end of early voting, the in-kind expenditures dropped to $4,600.
Austin attorney Fred Lewis, who specializes in election law and campaign finance, also spoke on behalf of OCOSOC.
With a mailer from Uber in his hand, he said "If they had sent this out by the PAC, it would have to be reported. Everything a PAC does is, by law in Texas, electioneering activity. But if you send it out by the corporation and you don't put 'vote for or against' you can claim it's not election activity, unless you coordinated. And I think it's safe to say there's a good argument they coordinated with themselves."
Lewis went on to criticize the companies.
"I have never seen an election where actors have shown no regard for limits or boundaries like this. Let's be clear, their behavior is grossly improper and violates every norms of campaigns. Whether it's limitless expenditures, constantly misleading ads, or hijacking the citizen initiative process for their own corporate profit. Frankly, their corporate behavior appears sociopathic based on essentially no morals, no boundaries," Lewis said.
KVUE News learned late Wednesday afternoon that local activist Melissa Cubria filed a class-action lawsuit against Uber for using cell phone numbers to send out mass emails and push alerts.
Lewis also addressed the issue with the mass calls and texts.
"Federal law, the telecommunications laws cover when you can use a customer's cell phone number and it has very limited exceptions," Lewis said. "The only one that could possibly apply here is to say that the customers of Uber and Lyft expressly consented for their material, for their phone number, to be used for political purposes. If you go on their website you can see their consent. It talks about they're going to use it for business and commercial purposes not political purposes."
He also addressed the PAC's concerns about possible vote buying.
"Let me be clear, I'm not saying Uber and Lyft have illegally done vote buying. What I'm saying is there's enough smoke that they should be investigated by the authorities. Whether they offered free rides, discounts and other benefits for the intent to influence how voters voted in this particular election."
KVUE News reached out to Travis County Clerk Dana DeBeauvoir for an opinion on the free rides to the polls. She said while there may be some questions about if it's ethical to offer the rides, it is not illegal. She noted the only way the rides would be illegal is if there was a clearly stated agreement that if a person was offered a ride then they would vote a certain way.
Lyft is also defending it's rides. The company sent a statement about the claims:
"Since the beginning of this effort, we have been focused on encouraging voter participation in Austin, including helping to register over 7,500 new voters in the city. Making it easy and convenient for people to be heard at the polls - no matter how they vote - is something we are proud to do and have done across the country, most recently this Super Tuesday. A vote for Prop 1 keeps Lyft in Austin, and we urge all Austinites to vote on May 7th."
Lyft's Senior Policy Communications Manager Chelsea Wilson also added "Lyft's activities in Austin comply with the law."
Uber's attorney, David Morales, also sent a statement regarding the claims:
“Uber has worked hard to ensure strict compliance with the Texas Election Code and all other applicable laws as they relate to the May 7 election. Any allegations to the contrary are without merit.”
And former Austin Mayor Lee Leffingwell, who is a spokesperson for Ridesharing Works for Austin, said the claims against the PAC are unfounded.
"The ridesharing companies have gone to great pains to dot every I, cross every T," said Leffingwell. "It doesn't make sense that they would not do everything exactly like they're supposed to do and I know that they have. I'm very comfortable. This is just a last minute attempt by the opponents to try to get some free media attention."
Leffingwell said if an investigation is launched, the election will be over by the time the claims are addressed.
Morrison said this campaign tactics could have national implications which is why the group wants an investigation launched. She added OCOSOC has had informal conversations with authorities about the investigation.
There's no word yet on if an investigation will actually be launched.