Foreign Influence on Our Elections
What is election interference?
One of the most common perceptions of election interference is direct vote tampering or manipulation. People often imagine foreign hackers trying to manipulate the vote count directly. But that would be incredibly difficult to do, and require hacking literally thousands of ballot tabulators without anyone noticing. The reality is that foreign election interference and influence happens in much more subtle ways.
In mid-September the FBI warned citizens about the threat of foreign influence in the November election. What does that mean, though? Election interference, especially by foreign entities, almost always entails the spread of mis- and dis-information, not direct vote tampering.
What are ‘disinformation’ and ‘misinformation’?
The term ‘misinformation’ is generally used to refer to information that is incorrect or misleading, whether intentionally so or not.
The term ‘disinformation’ is usually used to refer to false information that is designed to be intentionally misleading. An example of this would be: one candidate saying they won on election night before the results are out, when the race is too close to call, or even when they have lost. Their statement is blatantly false, and is intended to confuse voters and cast doubt on the outcome and integrity of the election.
The Cybersecurity Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) even goes so far as to define a third term, ‘malinformation.’ This is information that is “based on fact, but used out of context to mislead, harm, or manipulate.”
What does this mean for November?
The first concern is that leading up to and immediately after election day, disinformation will likely proliferate at even greater rates than it currently is. False reports about who is leading in the polls, things candidates have said or done, and so much more will likely abound. FBI Director Christopher Wray recently testified to the US House Homeland Security Committee that Russia is already attempting to heavily interfere by widely spreading disinformation.
The second concern for November is that in most cases, voters are used to hearing the final results of the election before the end of election day, or right away the next morning. This November, with far more people voting by mail than usual, election results will take longer than normal to tabulate. It’s likely that final results will not be ready for at least a week after election day. The time between when the election takes place and when the results are fully ready could provide unhappy candidates and/or foreign actors the perfect opportunity to spread disinformation. The FBI and CISA say post-election disinformation could include “reports of voter suppression, cyberattacks targeting election infrastructure, voter or ballot fraud, and other problems intended to convince the public of the elections’ illegitimacy.” Most concerning about the broad reach of disinformation is that it puts the integrity of the entire election into question when it is successful or believed.
What can be done?
When trying to tell if an article or post is real news or a disinformation campaign there are a few steps you can take. Visit the LWVMN page on misinformation and disinformation to learn the specific tips and tools on how to spot inaccurate or misleading news articles, how to prevent the spread of disinformation, and more.