We’re back after a short hiatus. I was soaking up the last drops of summer before the Supermajority Ed Fund team dives head first into the final stretch of election season. With less than two months to go until Election Day, there’s a lot to cover—let’s dive right in.
Chaos, Intimidation, and Misinformation:
For years, the M-O of some power-hungry politicians desperate to maintain power is to threaten the freedom to vote. These leaders enact restrictive voter ID laws, eliminate polling places and shorten voting hours, limit access to vote by mail and early voting, purge voters from the rolls who miss elections, and create other barriers to voting that target specific groups of people—particularly young people, voters of color, women, people with disabilities, trans people, and new Americans. For these leaders, the working theory is, if they can’t get voters to choose them, they’ll just pick and choose their voters.
Now, with less than 50 days until Election Day, these same politicians are creating new threats to the freedom to vote—through new election rules that could create chaos shortly before voters begin casting their ballots and sowing discord and confusion online.
Republicans in North Carolina are suing the state’s election board over the decision to allow digital student IDs as a form of accepted identification. The same week, GOP efforts to eliminate polling places on college campuses failed. These efforts seek to restrict access for college students, who often vote more Democratic.
And in Georgia, the state’s election board has pushed through new rules that threaten election results. The board is overwhelmingly staffed by election deniers who have openly supported former President Trump and MAGA Republicans. Notably, the board does not include Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who was removed after he refused to overturn the results of the 2020 election. The rule changes could mean Georgia’s election results won’t be certified if Vice President Harris wins. And Georgia isn’t alone. More than 200 election deniers have signed up to potentially disrupt vote counts in critical swing states.
There are even more insidious examples of voter intimidation as well. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is using the guise of investigating voter fraud to send law enforcement officers to voters’ homes to verify whether or not they signed the state’s abortion ballot initiative petition. Other states are still trying to keep abortion off the ballot through last-ditch court appeals.
Online, misinformation efforts are quickly taking root, particularly with the widespread use of AI and deepfakes. X (formerly known as Twitter) had an AI chatbot that was spreading voter misinformation after President Biden dropped from the race. Coupled with the growing use of deepfake political images, voters who overwhelmingly use social media to access news and information may be met with falsehoods and doctored information that is increasingly difficult to spot.
Let me be very clear: All of these efforts seek to sow feelings of distrust and hopelessness in the very voters who have the potential to shape this election. Our votes are powerful, and they know it. And it isn’t just these overt efforts to restrict the freedom to vote. Creating this chaos is a tactic itself, seeking to keep people at home on Election Day.
Karma is a Cat:
Speaking of doctored images, Taylor Swift took to her own social media shortly after Tuesday’s presidential debate to officially endorse Vice President Harris. In her message of support, she took the opportunity to call out JD Vance’s hateful rhetoric (dubbing herself a childless cat lady) and highlight the harm of AI images to spread misinformation—specifically referencing a doctored image of Swift endorsing Trump that former President Trump shared.
The endorsement drove hundreds of thousands of visitors to Vote.gov, but it remains to be seen if Swift’s support will influence the final election results in November. That said, the Harris campaign was quick to capitalize on the endorsement, listing friendship bracelets in their online merch store. For his part, Trump was quick to make clear he definitely doesn’t care, bizarrely sharing his preference for Swift’s boyfriend’s coworker’s wife. But his remarks were contradicted by his own post sharing her fake endorsement just a few weeks ago and his own merch store stealing an Eras tour t-shirt design.
Speaking of Cats…:
Look, many have already weighed in on the presidential debate hosted Tuesday by ABC news. From discussions of “who won” to analysis of Harris’s deft ability to get under Trump’s skin and even her facial expressions. And let’s not forget the memes referencing what we all know Harris was thinking (because we were all thinking it). A lot was said during the 90 minute debate, from the problematic to the downright weird and completely debunked.
There’s one thing that’s clear though, the former president’s rhetoric was more than just the confused ramblings of someone with a loose grip on reality. His baseless claims have real consequences. They threaten immigrant communities, people of color, women, and many more.
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Written by Jess Herrera. Jess is Supermajority Ed Fund’s senior director of communications, creative, and digital. She leads the organization’s work to shift the narrative about women and build women’s power using strong, movement-wide messaging strategies.
THANK YOU for this excellent synopsis. That’s a LOT of information to pull into one coherent piece.