Election workers have long had to combat misinformation.
Even before the digital age, officials had to find ways to dispel and prevent the spread of falsehoods about elections and voting, whether purposefully and maliciously or not, Mike Somers, an election security program manager for the California secretary of state, told lawmakers last week.
Sacramento Snapshot
Editor’s note: Sacramento Snapshot is a weekly series during the legislative session detailing what Orange County’s representatives in the Assembly and Senate are working on — from committee work to bill passages and more.
“The information environment around elections is already fraught with incorrect or even intentionally deceptive information,” said Somers.
But the burgeoning accessibility of artificial intelligence is presenting new challenges for election workers.
These programs — which can cleverly disguise false information as truth and spread it swiftly — are becoming more prevalent and, according to Somers, “lowering the barrier to entry.” That means people who aren’t particularly tech-savvy can access and utilize them, said Sen. Catherine Blakespear, a Democrat who represents southern Orange County communities and chairs the Senate Elections Committee.
Legislators from Assembly and Senate elections committees convened last week to hear from technology experts, and from officials with the Secretary of State, to learn more about the intersection of AI and elections.
Officials from the secretary of state’s office said the problem presents a unique balancing act. On the one hand, misinformation can essentially undermine fair voting rights. On the other, combating it can infringe on someone’s First Amendment rights.
One approach was described as “pre-bunking,” an attempt to get ahead of patterns or trends of false information before they can go viral. That’s done through efforts like paid advertising on social media, an opportunity to get correct information about how and when to vote in front of as many eyes as possible.
“Speech is definitely an important part of the political landscape,” said Somers. “When you’re talking about combatting misinformation, speech is certainly a challenge.”
But AI isn’t just used for nefarious purposes in elections. According to research from the Brennan Center for Justice, a nonpartisan policy group, 7% of local election workers surveyed from around the country said they use AI in some capacity, from translating materials into other languages to locating polling places.
Still, AI presents new challenges for election workers, particularly during the upcoming presidential election, said Liz Howard, deputy director of the organization’s elections and government program.
“For the 2024 election, the real challenge is that AI provides agitators (with) new tools to increase the scale of such attacks at little cost, and in more sophisticated ways, than we have previously seen,” Howard said.
“This means, in addition to their other efforts to administer a safe and secure election in 2024, election officials are learning to identify, prepare for and respond to AI-related attacks.”
The hearing opened with a nod to what AI can do. Blakespear said the hearing’s title, “Artificial Intelligence and Elections: Protecting Democracy in the Digital Era,” was created using ChatGPT.
“The rapid development of artificial intelligence, and all of its implications, deserves our attention,” said Blakespear. “We must understand how it can be used, and what we need to do to ensure that the integrity of our elections is not compromised.”
“From our hearing, I learned that this is a fast-developing issue that we need to keep a close eye on,” she said.
Local nonprofits honored
It’s that time of year, when legislators select organizations from their districts to be “California Nonprofits of the Year,” a statewide initiative from the California Association of Nonprofits. Here’s a look at what some OC legislators picked this year:
• Boys & Girls Club of Buena Park; Sen. Josh Newman in District 29
• Rebel Ranch; Sen. Kelly Seyarto in District 32
• Mariposa Center; Sen. Tom Umberg in District 34
• Bracken’s Kitchen; Sen. Janet Nguyen in District 36
• Orange County Coastkeeper; Sen. Dave Min in District 37
• ProduceGood; Sen. Catherine Blakespear in District 38
• Hope for Kyrie, Hope for Chops; Assemblymember Phillip Chen in District 59
• Speech and Language Development Center; Assemblymember Sharon Quirk-Silva in District 67
• Project Kinship; Assemblymember Avelino Valencia in District 68
• Florence Sylvester Senior Center; Assemblymember Diane Dixon in District 72
• Second Harvest Food Bank of Orange County; Assemblymember Cottie Petrie-Norris in District 73
• San Diego Rescue Mission Oceanside Navigation Center; Assemblymember Laurie Davies in District 74
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In other news
• Assembly Republicans last week boycotted a Judiciary Committee hearing after Assemblymember Bill Essayli, R-Corona, was removed by the speaker reportedly because of comments he had made about colleagues on social media.
Assemblymember Diane Dixon, R-Newport, the committee’s vice chair, said she skipped the meeting as a show of unity with the Assembly’s minority leader, James Gallager, who Dixon said should have been consulted about changes to the committee’s membership.
“It is true that our caucus is in the super minority. However, every Assemblymember represents half of a million Californians and deserves to be treated with respect, including Leader Gallagher,” Dixon said.
Of the Assembly’s 80 members, 62 are Democrats and 17 Republicans; there is one vacancy.
• Legislation meant to ensure the state’s resources are actually available and accessible to foster and homeless youth got the OK from the Senate Education Committee last week. The bill from Assemblymember Sharon Quirk-Silva, D-Fullerton, would create a new level of accountability for school districts, charters and county education offices to identify homeless students. It also would urge more collaboration between local educational agencies and programs that serve foster or unhoused youths.
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