The misinformation and disinformation surrounding the November 5th election is at a fever pitch, and Maricopa County is right at the center of it.

Election officials, experts, and others dedicated to combating election fraud are concerned that the ubiquity of this election cycle could lead to voter suppression and support baseless demands to overturn the results. I’m concerned.

“I think Arizona, and Maricopa County in particular, could be a hotspot for election misinformation,” researcher Zarin Karazian said. Information provider center he told the Arizona Mirror Thursday at the University of Washington.

CIP brings together researchers to investigate disinformation and misinformation and educate the public about it.

Alex Mahadevan, director of mediawise at the Poynter Institute, told the Mirror that a combination of a highly polarized electorate and a lack of accountability on social media has led to a decline in social media sites such as X (formerly Twitter). He said it had created a “Petri dish of lies” that was spreading. , amplified on podcasts and YouTube.

media wise It is non-profit It focuses on spreading media literacy so people can identify misinformation themselves.

“Now someone can post a clip of themselves doing something and write a message on top of it saying they witnessed election fraud,” Mahadevan said.

In Maricopa County late last month, when right-wing provocateur James O’Keefe released secret recordings of election workers instructing them not to confront voters if they witnessed suspected ballot harvesting, This was already happening.

O’Keefe, who is known for releasing misleading undercover videos, posted the recording on X, claiming the video raised “serious questions about the integrity of the voting process.”

In fact, the video showed Trainor explaining exactly what the state’s election laws are. Even Arizona Republican Party Leader Gina Swoboda. spread false information yourselfsaid the election official. I didn’t do anything wrong.

Powered by Elon

Some of those passionate about fighting disinformation who spoke to the Mirror shared their concerns: New community for XSpecially created for users to share “the potential for voter fraud and fraud that may occur during voting in the 2024 election; ”

Elon Musk, the owner of X and an ardent supporter of Donald Trump, has poured millions of his own money into supporting the campaign of the first convicted felon presidential candidate. Not only do we allow conspiracy theories to be freely disseminated on our site—we only fact-check them from other X users—but we actively share and promote false claims.

The site’s Election Integrity Community, which had more than 55,000 members as of October 31, has become a hotbed of misinformation. In it, users share photos of voters and election officials they claim are breaking the law or committing fraud, based purely on speculation.

Arizona’s legacy of misinformation

The Grand Canyon State has been a hotbed of false claims of election fraud dating back to 2018, during the midterm elections of President Trump’s first term. That year, the Arizona Republican Party and Trump fueled a wave of groundless fraud allegations After Martha McSally lost her race for the U.S. Senate to then-Democrat Kyrsten Sinema.

“Democrats are stealing this election,” AZGOP lawyer Cory Langhofer declared, then he and then-party chairman Jonathan Lines declined to answer any questions to back up this outrageous claim. He repeatedly refused to provide any evidence.

Lies about election fraud intensified in 2020 after Trump lost to President Joe Biden, in part because Democrats won Arizona’s electors for the first time since 1996. That prompted Republican state senators to launch a failed partisan audit of election results in Maricopa County. , did it No evidence of fraud found.

But that did little to stop trumped-up claims of election fraud. Several Republican members of Congress will run for statewide elections in Arizona in 2022 continued to spread false claims About fraud fraudulent election About President Trump’s loss in 2020 and our own losses after the Democratic candidates lost.

All have lost lawsuits aimed at overturning the election results, including the state’s most prominent election denier, Republican Kari Lake, who is running for U.S. Senate. haven’t given in yet The gubernatorial election was held about two years ago. Lake is still appealing the decision to the Arizona Supreme Court.

several Republican senators arizona state legislatureincluding the above committee the vet Election law amendment billa propagator of unproven election myths and advocates for sweeping changes to election laws based on conspiracy theories.

What is the word for 2024?

Experts who spoke to the Mirror said some of the most popular election lies this year were reused in 2020 and 2022 for good reason, meaning they didn’t work. I agreed that it was because of it.

The false theory that non-citizens were voting in large numbers despite having a nearly 3 million vote difference in the popular vote (Despite having a nearly 3 million vote difference in the popular vote, President Trump (claims he made after his 2016 victory) spread across the United States. In Arizona, such rumors are circulating. caused by a computer glitch It was discovered by the Maricopa County Recorder’s Office just weeks before the election.

A glitch in the state Department of Motor Vehicles’ computer system caused about 218,000 voters to register without providing proof of citizenship. All of the affected voters were issued Arizona driver’s licenses before 1996 and have been required to provide proof of citizenship since Arizonans voted to require them in 2004. I was never disappointed.

It’s unlikely that a significant number of them are U.S. citizens, but that didn’t stop the glitches from fueling rumors about X.

Tammy Patrick is a former employee of Republican Maricopa County Recorder Helen Purcell for 11 years and currently serves as the program’s CEO. election centersaid in a virtual media briefing on Oct. 31 that he has heard reports this year of people speaking out against decades-old election laws and practices.

Patrick said people are questioning long-standing election administration practices and policies, as well as election officials’ standard operating procedures, and claiming they are in some way violating voter rights. are.

One example, she said, is a viral video of an Illinois voter violating election laws that prohibit campaigning within 100 feet of a polling place. The man was wearing a hat with political endorsements written on it, which has been accepted as campaigning for decades, but he insisted was not allowed to vote Because of which candidate his hat supported.

Election officials told the man they would give him a ballot if he took off his hat, but he refused.

“There is a growing awareness among some voters that anything they perceive is not what they want is taken as a personal affront or a violation of the Constitution. “They have the right to vote,” Patrick said.

CIP researcher Karazian said it is important for research to assess the prevalence of misinformation this year compared to past years because the social media framework in which disinformation spreads is much more fragmented than during previous elections. He said it was difficult for people.

But this year, she said, people spreading misinformation have become more sophisticated, and voters have found themselves hearing the same rumors repeated over and over again.

“Voters are motivated by reports of election fraud,” Karazian said. “There is a wide repertoire of rumors to choose from.”

Another rumor that has come up again this year is that voting machines, including the electronic vote tabulation machines Arizona uses to count paper ballots, are easily hacked and unreliable.

The claims, which have never been proven in court despite other lawsuits over alleged election fraud, set the stage for challenges to the election results, said Cara Ong, vice president for election protection. Mr. Waley said. No. 1he told the Mirror.

“They will cast doubt, undermine confidence in the election, and potentially challenge the actual results and will of the voters,” Ong Weili said, just as multiple candidates did in Arizona in 2022. They are making claims about the election with the aim of

Issue One describes itself as a nonpartisan political organization that aims to educate the public and strengthen elections through policy change.

counterattack

Some good news is that election officials and news organizations are getting ahead of some rumors this election cycle in a way they weren’t in 2020 and 2022, according to MediaWise director Mahadevan. That’s what it means. This is a tactic known as “pre-deception.” ”

Examples include transparency by Maricopa County to educate voters about how the election process works, provide tours of the Maricopa County Tally and Elections Center in Phoenix, and publish articles. This includes initiatives such as: Like this one from Votebeat This will explain to voters why Maricopa County’s ballot counting will likely be delayed this year.

However, such efforts are not always successful. Some X users shared the Votebeat article with comments accusing the media of covering up imagined wrongdoing by Maricopa County without evidence.

Election officials still hope their message gets through to the people who will listen.

At an Oct. 29 press conference, Maricopa County Supervisor Bill Gates told reporters the county has a team dedicated to monitoring social media for misinformation and disinformation about the election.

Gates promised that the county would quickly counter any misinformation his team uncovered, especially if it could deter Arizonans from voting or cause confusion about the voting process.

“We know there’s a lot of interest in this election this year, and we want to give people every opportunity they want to vote. And we want to make sure that people don’t spread misinformation. If we try to stop them, we will respond quickly with the facts,” Gates said.

Gates added that it’s not surprising that nearly a week after Nov. 5, people are already making baseless claims of election fraud in Maricopa County.

Ong Weili said fighting disinformation in the current climate is like throwing spaghetti against a wall and seeing what sticks.

Her organization’s primary focus is providing reliable information about where and how to vote from trusted sources such as local election officials. Election Protection also runs advertising and social media influencer campaigns. There’s a chatbot It can be used to report false information on Instagram, Facebook, Telegram and Whatsapp.