Ahead of the 2020 elections, Connecticut confronted a lot of false information about voting. One wrongly said that dead people had received Absentee Ballots. Thousands of voter slips were sent into the air and across the highway by a false post that a tractor-trailer crashed on I-95.
The state plans to spend nearly $2 million on marketing to share factual information about voting, and to create its first-ever position for an expert in fighting misinformation. With a salary of $150,000, the person is expected to comb fringe sites like 4chan, far-right social networks like Gettr and Rumble and mainstream social media sites to root out early misinformation narratives about voting before they go viral, and then urge the companies to remove or flag the posts that
Scott Bates, Connecticut's deputy secretary of the state, said that situational awareness is needed to look into threats to the integrity of elections.
Connecticut is one of a number of states preparing to fight rumors and lies about this year's elections.
Oregon, Idaho and Arizona have education and ad campaigns on the internet, TV, radio and billboards to spread accurate information about polling times and voter eligibility. Three experts have been hired by Colorado to watch for misinformation. The office of the secretary of state is looking for misinformation and is working with the Department of Homeland Security and academics to find it.
Most of the states under Democratic control have moved as voter confidence in election integrity has plummeted. Only 20 percent of respondents said they were very confident in the integrity of the election system, and 39 percent said they were somewhat confident.
Conservatives and civil rights groups are likely to complain that the efforts to limit misinformation could restrict free speech. Florida, led by Republicans, has enacted legislation limiting the kind of social media moderation that sites like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter can do, with supporters saying that the sites restrict conservative voices. The Department of Homeland Security halted the work of an advisory board on misinformation after conservative lawmakers and free speech advocates objected to the group's ability to suppress speech.
Protect Democracy, a nonpartisan advocacy group, said that state and local governments are well-situated to reduce harms from dis- and misinformation by providing timely, accurate and trustworthy information.
The problem of misinformation has only worsened since 2020 and without a concerted push to counteract it, more voters could lose faith in the integrity of elections. They fear for the safety of election workers.
The secretary of state of Colorado said that the country is seeing a threat atmosphere that is unlike anything before. Ms. Griswold, who is up for re-election this fall, has received threats for refuting Mr. Trump's false claims of fraudulent voting in the state.
Secretaries of state who are charged with overseeing elections have received similar feedback. In Georgia, Brad Raffensperger, a Republican who certified President Biden's win in the state, has faced a lot of criticism because of false claims about the 2020 election.
There were more than 10,350 dead people who cast votes in the presidential election, according to misinformation that Mr. Raffensperger presented in his primary race this year. The claims are not true. He won the primary last week.
Colorado created a misinformation team for the 2020 election. Three election security experts monitor the internet for misinformation and report it to federal law enforcement.
The team is called the Rapid Response Election Security Cyber Unit. She said that it only looks for election-related misinformation.
Ms. Griswold said that lies are being used to chip away at our fundamental freedoms.
The state of Connecticut wanted to patrol the internet for election false statements. On May 7, the Connecticut legislature approved $2 million for internet, TV, mail and radio education campaigns on the election process and to hire an election information security officer.
The spread of misinformation in both languages is something officials would prefer candidates to be proficient in. The officer would look for misinformation on fringe social media platforms and the dark web.
We know we can't boil the ocean, but we have to figure out where the threat is coming from before it becomes a bigger problem.
Neil Vigdor was involved in reporting.
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