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Welcome to the March edition of The Lever — reaching you in the early days of spring. Our democracy is strongest when our elections are free from damaging disinformation.
This month’s Hot Policy Take details states' efforts to contend with the burgeoning problem of AI-generated election-related mis- and disinformation. As the first American presidential election year in the generative AI era, 2024 will inevitably serve as a test case for both the spread of AI-generated election disinformation and the efficacy of states’ various approaches to addressing it.
In this email, we also explore a dramatic reduction in available polling places since 2018, and what that might mean for the 2024 elections, as investigated by Route Fifty.
Later in this issue, we visit the predictable shortcomings of an attempt to hand count the Republican primary election in Gillespie County, TX. Additionally, we spotlight a new report from our partners at the Bipartisan Policy Center studying how Americans interact with election information, and offer a brief digest of developing state election legislation.
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AI-generated content is radically reshaping how information is produced, shared, and consumed around the world – so what does this mean for elections? In 2023 and 2024, we’ve seen a proliferation of inaccurate AI-generated, election-related mis- and disinformation. This trend could have grave consequences for election integrity, and some state legislatures are taking on the difficult task of attempting to mitigate these concerns.
In this month’s Hot Policy Take, we examine three states where legislation regarding AI-generated election mis- and disinformation has advanced or become law: Wisconsin, Florida, and Arizona.
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BY THE NUMBERS
100,000
That’s approximately how many fewer polling places were available in the 2022 election than four years prior, according to Route Fifty. Voting rights advocacy organizations have attributed this decline to several factors, notably the Supreme Court’s Shelby County v. Holder decision and the enduring impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Of particular note in Shelby County, the Supreme Court struck down Section 5 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act – which mandated federal preclearance for certain states to change their voting laws or practices. Absent these safeguards, state and local governments may now shutter or limit the available hours of polling places without federal scrutiny.
Additionally, the expansion of mail and absentee voting options during the COVID-19 pandemic reduced reliance on in-person polling locations – leading to further polling location consolidation and closure.
These factors, among other issues, have contributed to a serious decline in the availability of polling places in many states. As the 2024 election approaches, it is of utmost importance for local election officials to understand how voters in their communities prefer to engage with the voting process – and ensure that everyone’s voice can be heard.
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WHAT WE'RE READING
Months ago, citing unsubstantiated concerns about the accuracy of electronic tabulation, the Republican Party of Gillespie County, Texas decided that their upcoming primary election’s ballots would be tallied exclusively by hand counting.
Experts across the board have determined that ballot hand counting is costly, inaccurate, and less secure than electronic tabulation ( see last month’s Hot Policy Take for more information) and Gillespie’s recent hand count reflected these conclusions. The process of the count was time-consuming and hindered by ongoing instances of necessary recounts and rectification of errors in counting.
"Scott Netherland, the election judge for Precinct 6, turned in all of the necessary paperwork to the elections office just before midnight on election night, believing it all checked out. When he woke up the next day, he decided to double-check the results … He’d miscounted the totals in seven separate races.
Netherland said he immediately contacted Campbell, then rushed to the elections office to review tally sheets. In doing so, he realized that multiple other precincts also had reported clearly inaccurate totals."
Former election official and election audits expert Jennifer Morrell asserted that the only way to “validate what they claim are the final vote counts is to run all those ballots through a voting system and compare the two outcomes.”
The weekend before the canvass, Gillespie County Republican Party Chairman Bruce Campbell determined that all but one of the 13 county precincts had reported incorrect vote totals on their official reconciliation forms. However, after the final completion of the count, Campbell asserted full confidence that the tallying of the votes was accurate.
The party will not voluntarily conduct an audit or recount to verify the results.
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FROM OUR PARTNERS - Bipartisan Policy Center
Recently, the Bipartisan Policy Center teamed up with the States United Democracy Center and the Integrity Institute to study American voters’ election information habits, paying close attention to how they consume, share, and assess election news.
The findings are broad, but indicate a bipartisan shared sense of optimistic confidence in the 2024 election, with particular confidence expressed in how votes will be counted in local communities and states (less so nationwide).
The full report also investigates how exactly American voters learn about election news, and how they feel about those platforms and information broadly. It also compares the data from this study with that found in a similar study from 2022.
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THE MARKUP
The Markup is VRL’s weekly legislative update for voting rights insiders. If you’d like to get insights straight to your inbox each Monday, head here to sign up.
Here’s a brief update on what we’re watching this week, and a sneak peek into what you can expect from The Markup each week:
Alabama Governor signs bill making it a crime to assist voters in applying for mail ballots. In Alabama, Governor Kay Ivey signed into law S.B. 1, a bill that makes it a crime to return a completed mail ballot application on behalf of anyone except voters who experience a medical emergency within five days of an election. The bill also makes it a crime to give or receive compensation for obtaining, delivering, or completing a ballot application on behalf of another voter. Opponents of the bill argue that it will prevent elderly and disabled voters from obtaining the help they need to vote by mail, and that the bill was inspired by false claims regarding voter fraud. Including Alabama, 13 states have enacted legislation since 2021 increasing the criminalization of voter assistance.
Governor of Wisconsin vetoes several bills that would make election administration more difficult; signs bills requiring disclaimers for A.I. in political ads and protecting polling places from closure. Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers vetoed A.B. 570 (makes it a crime for clerks to correct minor errors on voters’ mail ballot envelopes); A.B. 543 (allows observers within three feet of voter check in and makes it a crime for election officials to keep them farther away); and A.B. 572 (changes requirements regarding voting in residential care facilities and for voters who have been determined to be ineligible to vote due to mental incapacity). Additionally, Governor Evers signed into law signed A.B. 298, a bill that will require public hearings and approval from the municipal governing body before polling places could be closed, and S.B. 644, a bipartisan bill requiring political ads with content generated by artificial intelligence to include disclaimers and establishing a $1,000 fine for violations. Supporters of the bill argue that it will prevent misinformation, but some critics argue that the $1,000 fine may not go far enough to deter groups seeking to influence elections. Wisconsin is the tenth state to pass a law aimed at artificial intelligence in political ads before the 2024 elections.
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