Disinformation

Ishan Mehta, director for media and democracy at Common Cause, another watchdog organization, said X has largely severed communications with groups like his and that the layoffs were "dangerous and irresponsible for a platform that has many millions of users."

There is no viable alternative to ERIC. Other states have tried, but to no avail; for example, the Interstate Crosscheck System, a program started in Kansas, had a 99% error rate. It was found to eliminate about 200 registrations used to cast legitimate votes for every one duplicate voter registration. As explained by the Louisiana Illuminator, “Replicating what ERIC built would be a major technical, scientific, administrative and political challenge, even for a state committed to making it work.”

Emma Steiner, information accountability project manager with the non-partisan group Common Cause, said disinformation can often be hard to spot. "A lot of times people fall for disinformation," said Steiner, "because it seems to confirm something they already believe and that's where people get tripped up." Steiner recommended that people always refer to official sources for voting information - including Secretary of States' offices or local election boards. "Disinformation spreaders and disinformation campaigns tend to target marginalized populations and people who live in information voids," said Steiner, "meaning they don't have the resources or capacity to find reliable information." Steiner said while Facebook - for example - has made some effort to fight disinformation by launching its Voting and Election Center, tech companies still have a responsibility to ensure information being shared on their platforms is accurate.

Stephen Spaulding, vice president of policy for the nonprofit Common Cause, said gambling on elections is bad for democracy. "You can imagine wealthy gamblers could make significant money by exploiting disinformation to influence an electoral outcome that would protect the bettors' bottom line," Spaulding pointed out. "This again opens up a significant risk to the perception that the winners and losers of an election are not determined by voters, but by those who stand to gain financially." Spaulding noted the "Citizens United" Supreme Court decision allowed companies to spend unlimited money on elections, and called betting on elections a "profound threat to democracy." "You can imagine a situation where an entity places an enormous wager on the outcome of an election, and also funnels resources through Super PACs or other 'dark money' vehicles to influence the outcome of an election," Spaulding explained. "That is inherently, we think, anti-democratic." Both Common Cause and some U.S. senators, including California's Dianne Feinstein, submitted letters of opposition during the public comment period, which ended in July. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission is expected to make a decision by Sept. 21.

As social media platforms drastically scale back efforts to control the expanding threat of election disinformation, a new report from Common Cause takes a look at efforts to combat the rampant problem in 2022 and previews what to expect in 2024. “Under the Microscope: Election Disinformation in 2022 And What We Learned for 2024” examines the preparations and what we saw during the midterms and looks at how to apply lessons to the already unfolding race for the White House. And finally the reports points to existing and proposed legislation to help combat the growing threat to our democracy posed by election disinformation.