More than two dozen advocacy groups are accusing the North Carolina Election Integrity Team of voter intimidation. There are yellow warning signs written in Spanish at some polling places across the state that reiterate the law that says it’s illegal for a non-citizen to vote in an election. There is at least one sign posted in Mecklenburg County at the Bette Rae Thomas Recreation Center. Ana Calles voted early at the polling place on Wednesday. She says she has been a citizen of the US for 15 years and is originally from El Salvador. “I’m trying to make good for all my family or my friends and for any person we know they want to stay here,” Calles said. “If they see those, it’s going to scare them and that’s not good.” The signs translate to say: “Warning: if you are not a citizen of the United States of America, you cannot vote in elections. It is illegal! It is a crime. You could be deported. Don’t do it!” The signs are paid for by the North Carolina Election Integrity Team. Jim Womack is the leader of the group, he also serves as the chairman of the Lee GOP. Womack claims several legal teams have reviewed the language on the signs and say they are not considered voter intimidation. He claims the signs are designed to help people. “They don’t know that because there’s no other sign up that tells them that. So we put these signs up to protect non-citizens from committing a crime,” Womack said. “It’s just like putting up a speed limit sign on the highway. This is what the speed limit is. So, don’t go over the speed limit.” Womack says some people may believe they are eligible to vote when they are not. “We put this up to protect non-citizen members of our community who are unwittingly, in some cases, unwittingly led to believe they can vote if they got a driver’s license and that’s not the law.” Advocacy groups says the signs could be misleading. The groups sent a letter to the North Carolina Board of Elections asking them to remove the signs. “These signs are just meant to intimidate and they serve no other purpose,” Kathleen Roblez, the Senior Voting Rights Counsel and Litigation Manager at Forward Justice, said. “We are always concerned about voters being intimidated, and particularly anyone who’s a monolingual Spanish speaker who may feel like they don’t know who to call.” “We were getting calls and text messages of naturalized citizens asking if they should vote. So naturalized citizens currently are confused. They are hearing so much about this initiative that they’re just like, you know, let me just make sure that I’m actually eligible to vote,” Iliana Santillan, Executive Director of El Pueblo said. Meck Dems put their own signs out next to the yellow signs highlighting what they call voter intimidation. North Carolina law bans the removal of any political signs so the advocacy groups hope the board of elections will take action fast. As for Calles, she says voting is a duty she would never miss. “Tomorrow is not promised, I may not not be here tomorrow. But I’m very happy to do it,” Calles said. The NCGOP is recruiting volunteers for the Election Integrity Team. In a statement, a spokesman said, “We’re proud of the work done by the NCGOP and RNC making sure voters have confidence in the administration of elections in North Carolina. Independent efforts in this area are just that – independent and not relevant to our highly successful program of protecting the ballot.”