The US National World War I Museum and Memorial in Kansas City, Missouri, was vandalized with anti-voting graffiti on Election Day, the museum said in a statement on Tuesday.
The WWI Memorial Museum shared via Twitter images featuring damages discovered in the early hours of Election Day. Phrases “don’t vote!”, “fight for revolution”, along with a drawing of a hammer and sickle, could be seen in the museum’s building.
“This morning our stonework was defaced. We are proud to be a polling location & condemn this attempt at voter intimidation,” the museum administration said. “Our democracy is something that generations of veterans, including those in WWI, have fought to defend. We hope you’ll vote today & make your voice heard.”
The WWI Memorial Museum in Kansas City is being used as a polling location during the US 2020 presidential and congressional elections so as to avoid crowding, as this year’s vote comes amid the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic.
Later in the day, the anti-voting drawings were erased and the museum Twitter account shared a video of the cleaning process, calling on Americans to head to the polling location and “VOTE!”
“Thank you to Steve Haith (of DSG Industrial Cleaning Systems) and folks at Concrete & Masonry Restoration for coming by so quickly to assess the damage and work to wash the paint off,” the tweet read. “They are our heroes today as we work tirelessly to make this a welcoming polling location. VOTE!”
At least two other anti-voting graffiti with the same text and image of the hammer and sickle were noticed in different parts of Kansas City in late October.