Courtesy Megan Clifford Megan Clifford, a 19-year-old studying at Southeast Missouri State University, was hanging out in her dorm room on...
Megan Clifford, a 19-year-old studying at Southeast Missouri State University, was hanging out in her dorm room on the evening of Aug. 30 when she got a call from a "no caller ID" number.
She declined the call, but they called right back. So she answered, thinking it might be important.
A man, who identified himself as Harold, said he had been calling around and asking people who they were voting for in the upcoming presidential election, Clifford told BuzzFeed News. When he asked Clifford who she was voting for, she said Joe Biden.
"And he just said, 'No, you're not. You're voting for Donald Trump,'" Clifford recalled.
"Oh, that's cute," Clifford told him. And then Harold called her a "domestic terrorist," Clifford said.
She hung up on him. Her call records show that she got two more calls from the unknown ID, which she didn't answer.
After refusing to answer the third call, she got a voicemail from Harold and a woman who appeared to be Harold's wife.
In the nearly three-minute-long bizarre voicemail, which Clifford uploaded on TikTok, Harold's supposed wife tells Clifford that she and her husband are "just trying to make voting great again."
@meganannnn #greenscreenvideo imma post a part 2 after class to this voicemail bc it’s looooong #trump2020 #biden2020 #republican #democrat #liberal #leftist #fyp
♬ original sound - thespian lesbian
Harold's wife says her husband has been "going around the community for collectism [sic] just to see who everyone is voting for."
"And so far, everyone except you has been voting for Donald J. Trump," the woman says. "You are the only one that has voted for Joe Biden. And I just think that's a little weird, don't you, honey?"
"Now, honey, why do you think this beautiful young lady would vote for Joe Biden?" Harold's wife asks.
"She couldn’t possibly be no domestic terrorist, could she?" Harold replies in the background.
"I don’t know, honey, she sure does sound like a domestic terrorist to me," his wife says.
Harold's wife says Clifford has upset her husband "terribly" by her decision to vote for Biden and asks her to call them back and explain why she wants to vote for Biden.
Harold then says that it was "OK to vote for Biden" because "we understand this is America and you can do whatever you want."
He then offers to vote on behalf of Clifford, saying, "If you feel threatened by the Chinese virus and the protesters and the rioters, you can actually let us go up there... We will check that mark for Biden for you."
"My husband said he would do you a solid even though you’re voting for the wrong party," Harold's wife tells Clifford.
The couple then ends the voicemail with shouts of "Trump 2020!"
Clifford, who is from Kansas, said she has no idea how the couple got her number or who they are. She said she had previously signed up for text messages from the Trump campaign, though it is unclear if the couple was affiliated with the Trump campaign in any way.
The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Clifford said she and her roommates found the voicemail hilarious. She decided to post it on TikTok so that she and her other friends could have a laugh about it.
Her TikToks of the voicemail have since gone viral, with several commenters saying that this kind of behavior was "illegal" and constituted "voter intimidation." Many commenters told Clifford to report the couple and consider legal action.
Clifford said that while she wasn't intimidated, she didn't realize how big a deal it was until she posted it.
"I wasn't necessarily scared or intimidated, but someone else likely could be and that's not OK," Clifford said. She has since reached out to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and the office of the Kansas Secretary of State.
Clifford was not the only one who got a strange voicemail from Harold and his wife.
Natalie O'Neall
When Natalie O’Neall, a 23-year-old from Missouri, stumbled across Clifford's voicemail on TikTok, she couldn't believe it. O'Neall had received a very similar voicemail seven minutes after Clifford got hers, she told BuzzFeed News.
"When I found [Clifford's TikTok], I was literally floored," O'Neall said. She immediately commented on the TikTok, saying, "omg i got the same voicemail!!!!!"
In O'Neall's voicemail, provided to BuzzFeed News, a woman who identifies herself as Mary JoAnn tells O'Neall that she is doing "collectism" because "I want to make voting great again."
She says she and her husband Harold have been "getting votes all day" and wants to know who O'Neall was voting for and why.
"So far there have been 79 votes for Donald J. Trump and zero votes for Joe Biden," the woman says. "Donald Trump...he's going to lead us into the next four years. He is going to make our lives great again, honey."
She asks O'Neall to give her a call back and tell them who she is voting for.
When O'Neall first heard the voicemail, she said she had tears in her eyes from "laughing so hard."
But she said it was "unnerving" that the couple knew her name and had her number — she said she hadn't signed up for texts from the Trump campaign like Clifford had.
"I think my issue is it's kind of scary that people are getting hold of my personal number and sending me voicemails like this," she said.
O'Neall said she hasn't posted the voicemail on social media, but she sent it to her boyfriend and to her family group chat.
"They all thought it was hilarious," she said.
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