Social networks revolutionized political communication, for better and for worse. Fraud and misinformation started circulating on the Internet at full speed and interfered with many electoral processes. With the development of technology and the ability of artificial intelligence to create false images and imitate people with the appearance of reality, the risk is increasing. The threats have crystallized in New Hampshire, which holds the primary elections for the presidency of the United States this Tuesday. The prosecutor’s office is investigating complaints of calls impersonating the President of the United States, Joe Biden, with the intent of interfering with the election.
The attorney general’s office announced Monday that it had received a complaint about recorded messages encouraging voters not to vote. The message, sent on January 21, 2024, said: “Your vote makes a difference in November, not this Tuesday.” Although the voice in the robocall sounds like President Biden, the message appears to be artificially generated, according to initial indications, the prosecutor’s office says.
According to the same source, the message appears to have been doctored to falsely appear to have been sent by the treasurer of a political committee that is supporting in-hand voting efforts for Biden in the New Hampshire Democratic presidential primary. Biden does not appear on official ballots due to disagreements by the Democratic Party with the primary calendar that prevented him from registering in time. Despite this, voters can write their name by hand in an empty box on the ballot, and Biden supporters are rallying to deliver that message to citizens.
Biden’s non-appearance on the ballots is fertile ground for these calls of unknown origin to discourage people from going to the polls. “These messages appear to be an illegal attempt to disrupt the New Hampshire presidential primary election and suppress voters,” the prosecutor’s office said in a statement. “New Hampshire voters should completely disregard the content of this message. Voting in the New Hampshire presidential primary does not preclude a voter from also voting in the November general election,” he adds.
The prosecutor’s office has announced that the unit in charge of electoral affairs has launched an investigation. Additionally, recipients of this message are encouraged to identify the date and time, origin, content, and any other relevant matters of receipt of the call or message to the Department of Justice’s Election Law Unit (electionlaw@doj.nh.gov). Information
Although Biden is not on the polls, all polls show him as the clear winner. The weight of the fact that voters have to write their names by hand is unknown. Second in the poll is Congressman Dean Phillips, but by a long way. A tight result would be a blow to the president.
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In New Hampshire, the Democratic and Republican primaries are held simultaneously. Republicans, who with the withdrawal of Ron DeSantis, have become one-on-one between Donald Trump and Nikki Haley, are most interested, as they could leave Trump’s nomination almost doomed. In the Democratic primaries, Biden has no major challengers. Additionally, the aforementioned disagreement on the calendar prevents the Democratic Party from theoretically awarding delegates to the winners of this Tuesday’s election.
In the New Hampshire primary, voters registered as Republicans can vote in their party’s primaries and for Democrats in them, but independents, who are not registered with either party, can vote for either party.
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