Election officials face a sea of stresses and threats; many have retired and left new officials to face the fray

AI and deepfake election intrusions add another layer
to election officials' work. (Adobe Stock image)

In the not-so-distant past, county election officials could expect to register voters and repair voting machines. But in more recent election years, including 2024, their jobs have become overwhelming and at times, dangerous, reports Tiffany Hsu of The New York Times. "Elections officials must multitask as defenders against disinformation. They have been flooded with inane demands for details about their employees, faced harassment campaigns targeted at their female family members, received intimidating letters laced with fentanyl and been subjected to fake threats of bombings and break-ins."

For many long-time officials, the pressure cooker environment pushed them into retirement. The gap retirees left has been filled by officials new to the process at a time when the position is exponentially more complex. Hsu explains, "In Wisconsin alone, the state association of county clerks found that 31 of its 72 members had never administered a presidential election. . . .The remaining officials, many of them overwhelmed and very tired, are once again marshaling their limited resources . . ."

Jazmin Wingert

Despite ongoing struggles that range from budget cuts to poll worker shortages, "elections officials are doing what they can this year to shore up voter trust, setting up fact-checking websites (like in Pennsylvania) and posting refutations on social media (like a Mythbuster Mondays series in North Carolina)," the Times reports. "Jazmin Wingert, the Republican county clerk for Stephenson County in Illinois, took an elections certification course with lessons on combating false narratives and meets nearly monthly with other county clerks to share security resources."

Managing AI and deepfakes is also on election officials' to-do lists. "The technology could also supercharge harassment campaigns," Hsu adds. "Last week, a bipartisan group of secretaries of state wrote to the tech billionaire Elon Musk to urge him to fix his A.I.-powered search assistant, Grok chatbot, saying it provided inaccurate information about ballot deadlines and then failed to correct the mistake for 10 days."