To build trust in elections, focus on the ground level, state leaders say

To fight election misinformation, think local. 

That was the advice from state elections officials and legislators last week during a panel discussion at the National Conference of State Legislatures’ Legislative Summit.

“Everyone always thinks the problem is somewhere else, not in their town, not with their canvas, or not with the person they know who lives down the street,” said Rhode Island State Senator Dawn Euer during the summit.

But it is a different story when voters are reminded of how elections are administered locally, as they are far more likely to trust their county clerks and other officials in their community. Reminding them of how local elections are administered can then dispel some of the more conspiratorial thinking, Kentucky Secretary of State Michael Adams said.

“It's important to focus on the locality of this, because when you see conspiracy theorists, they point to these grand designs of these overlords—left or right-leaning billionaires, or foreign countries, the candidate for president they don't like, or whatever it is—but those people don't really run the election,” he said. “It's your neighbors. It's people that you literally know. It's important to get away from the top-level view of the system and focus on the ground level.”

The recommendation comes as state leaders raised the alarm on an artificial intelligence-driven chatbot providing wrong information about election rules in multiple states.

Five secretaries of state sent a letter last week to X CEO Elon Musk, raising concerns that Grok, the platform’s AI search assistant, said that the deadline for presidential candidates to appear on the ballot in at least nine states had passed. Grok shared that falsehood on July 21 as President Joe Biden withdrew his candidacy for president and did not correct it until 10 days later, according to the letter

In their letter, the secretaries of state of Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Washington urged Musk and X to follow generative AI tool ChatGPT’s lead and have Grok direct voters to CanIVote.org, a nonpartisan resource, when it is asked about U.S. elections. ChatGPT is not perfect either: a CBS News investigation in June found it produced wrong information about voting in some battleground states.

“As tens of millions of voters in the U.S. seek basic information about voting in this major election year, X has the responsibility to ensure all voters using your platform have access to guidance that reflects true and accurate information about their constitutional right to vote,” the five wrote. Spokespeople for X, formerly known as Twitter, did not respond to requests for comment about the letter’s contents.

The letter highlighted leaders’ ongoing concerns about AI-driven misinformation, especially during election season. Some states have passed laws to prevent deepfakes or mandate that campaigns disclose when they use AI in their materials. But fulfilling voters’ basic desire for information about how to register to vote, where to vote, how to vote and who is on the ballot is also paramount, as well as debunking allegations of nefarious behavior before it catches the public’s attention.

To help with that, it’s crucial for officials to ensure that they are “trusted voices” in the community disseminating information, said Arkansas State Rep. Carlton Wing during the NCSL summit. Having authoritative information available and ready to be disseminated can avoid confusion, he said, though he acknowledged communicating that information can be tricky given the “emotional” reactions that some people have to election results, especially the last two presidential races.

Letting people view every part of the election administration process also helps build trust, Euer said. Her office meets with legislators so they can see the process, and takes them on site visits.

“In Rhode Island, we have been very open and very intentional about trying to really make sure that folks understand the process and make sure that it's transparent: doing tours of the facilities, letting cameras into every aspect of running the elections and facilitating that,” she said.

Showing that the election process is fair is better than telling people it is, Adams said.

Never say, "‘You can trust me on the government,’" he said. "A lot of people don't trust the government.”

Jurisdictions of all sizes need to recruit poll workers, who have left in the face of a variety of obstacles including physical threats, more complex job roles and increased public scrutiny. And one way to help prevent any politically motivated attacks on elections procedure and build public trust could be to have politicians themselves work the polls, in states where that practice is allowed.  

Adams said he performed such a role in 1995 and it “changed my life.”

“A lot of people who run for office and a lot of people who work on campaigns think they know how elections are administered, and those are very different things,” said Ben Hovland, chair of the Elections Assistance Commission, during the NCSL session. “Having done all of those things, I can tell you they're very different.”