Cruz Campaign Under Fire for Sending Iowans Controversial Letter

Ted Cruz’s campaign is under fire for a mailer it sent out in Iowa that is designed to look like an official government document.

The mailers tell the recipients they have a “voting violation” for failing to caucus in previous elections, and grades them on an A to F basis, Politico reports. The paper has the words “official public record at the top,” and also includes actual names of the recipients neighbors.

Republican Secretary of State Paul Pate slammed the campaign, saying the mailer “misrepresents the role of my office, and worse, misrepresents Iowa election law.”

“There is no such thing as an election violation related to frequency of voting,” he continued in a statement. “Any insinuation or statement to the contrary is wrong and I believe it is not in keeping in the spirit of the Iowa caucuses.”

Iowa election officials aren’t the only ones upset by the tactic. One recipient of the mailer tweeted a picture of it, since deleted, saying the mailer turned him off of Cruz’s campaign and that he will caucus for Florida Sen. Marco Rubio instead.

He later clarified on Twitter that he was never a Cruz supporter:

But that he was still very upset by the mailer:

Another angry Twitter user? Cruz’s opponent, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul:

Cruz spokeswoman Catherine Frazier said the notice is “a standard mailer that folks at the Iowa Republican Party and other get-out-the-vote groups have used to help motivate low-propensity voters,” according to Politico.

Write to Tessa Berenson at tessa.Rogers@time.com.