Electoral misinformation in Texas: What it’s best to know to keep away from it.

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With each main U.S. election cycle, disinformation takes middle stage as soon as once more, sowing confusion and eroding belief in democratic processes. This development is much from stunning: the World Dangers Report from the World Financial Discussion board estimates that disinformation can be one in every of humanity’s biggest threats over the following two years.

Rumors and falsehoods circulating on social media, typically unfold by politicians and influential figures, have turn out to be an issue of unprecedented scale — almost six new false claims in regards to the election have emerged every week since late August, in keeping with the Election Disinformation Monitoring Heart at NewsGuard.

Many of those narratives aren’t new. Sources of disinformation typically recycle and adapt to present context unfounded claims about fraud, the integrity of mail-in voting, and different baseless narratives. To keep away from misinformation, an important factor is what it’s about.

Widespread False Narratives: Voting Machines

In Texas, a persistent rumor means that digital voting machines change votes between Democrat and Republican candidates. In 2022, it was confirmed that that is false. Whereas some contact screens could be difficult to make use of and should result in unintentional picks, officers and safety specialists clarify that this doesn’t point out an intentional vote change.

Voting machines, carried out 20 years in the past, have been topic to hypothesis concerning their accuracy and potential for manipulation. Carolyn Graves, Midland County election administrator, in contrast utilizing these machines to typing a message on a small keyboard.

“If you don’t hit it with the tip of your finger, you might press one of the letters around it,” Graves stated. “It’s basically the same. If you don’t press with the tip of your finger or tilt it to one side, you might hit the other [option].”

Because of this, each authorities and specialists advise voters to rigorously assessment their ballots to substantiate their picks earlier than submitting. If there may be an error on a printed poll, voters are entitled to request as much as two further ballots to make corrections. Incorrect ballots are voided and never counted.

Widespread false narratives: Migrants voting

One other recurring rumor within the 2024 presidential marketing campaign means that undocumented immigrants are registering to vote utilizing solely a Social Safety Quantity (SSN). This declare has been unfold by politicians, influential figures like entrepreneur Elon Musk, and in Texas, a Fox Information presenter talked about this concept on air. Though debunked, it prompted an investigation by Lawyer Normal Ken Paxton.

An account on X that disseminated this misinformation claimed that in Texas, the variety of folks registering to vote with no photograph ID was 1,250,710. Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson acknowledged in a press launch on April 3, that “it is completely inaccurate to claim that 1.2 million voters have registered to vote in Texas without a photo ID this year. The truth is that our voter roll has increased by 57,711 voters since the beginning of 2024. This is less than the number of people registered in the same timeframe in 2022 (about 65,000) and in 2020 (about 104,000).”

Furthermore, Texas legislation is obvious: solely U.S. residents aged 18 or older can register to vote. Residents who’ve been convicted of a felony and are nonetheless serving a sentence, together with probation or parole aren’t allowed to register to vote.

The state’s registration course of includes filling out a paper kind and submitting it to the county voter registrar the place they reside. Texans may also register via the Texas Division of Public Security when renewing their driver’s license or state ID. Moreover, they’ll register with a skilled volunteer deputy voter registrar appointed by the county.

The voter registration kind requires voters to confirm the eligibility standards listed on the shape and signal an affidavit acknowledging that mendacity could end in perjury penalties.

What to do about misinformation and how one can forestall it

Anybody with a cellular phone can contribute to combating misinformation, and also you don’t want particular fact-checking expertise. The primary and most vital step: should you’re undecided that an informational content material is true, don’t share it!

Consultants like Laura Zommer, founding father of the Spanish fact-checking initiative within the U.S. FactChequeado, advocate being particularly cautious within the days instantly earlier than and after elections, as misinformation tends to extend throughout these occasions. Due to this fact, it’s important to contemplate the next features:

* Confirm sources: Earlier than sharing data, seek the advice of dependable sources, similar to established media retailers and official organizations. Be sure to establish the creator of the content material and verify their credentials to make sure reliability.

* Be cautious with sensational content material: Viral tales typically use exaggerated claims to impress robust feelings. Confirm these tales with established and reliable information retailers.

* Use fact-checking instruments: Free fact-checking instruments might help you shortly assess the reliability of claims, particularly on social media. Platforms like Politifact, FactCheck.org, FactChequeado, and others present complete analyses on numerous matters.

What to anticipate with the outcomes

No nationwide company is charged with gathering and publishing election outcomes. Elections are managed regionally, following the requirements set by every state. In Texas, this accountability falls to the Workplace of the Secretary of State.

On Nov. 5, at 7 p.m., the primary preliminary outcomes, together with early voting returns, can be accessible as quickly because the polls shut. Nonetheless, official outcomes is not going to be revealed till after Nov.18, as soon as all late-arriving mail-in ballots, in addition to navy and abroad citizen votes, have been acquired and counted.

You possibly can observe the vote depend in actual time on the Workplace of the Secretary of State’s web site. On this Tribune article, we clarify the vote-counting course of in additional element.

One other dependable useful resource for acquiring correct outcomes is the counting performed by the Related Press (AP). Since 1848, AP has carried out counts of leads to nationwide, state, and native elections, which attests to its in depth expertise and attain in electoral protection. The information company works intently with native election officers to obtain outcomes instantly from the counties and districts the place votes are counted. The collected data is shipped to AP’s reporting middle, a course of that includes roughly 4,000 folks.

Election outcomes endure thorough verification. AP’s reporting focuses on one key query: Can trailing candidates catch the chief? The race is just referred to as when the reply is a particular “no.”

Minimal prospects of electoral fraud

Whereas there are documented circumstances of election fraud in Texas and throughout the US, they’re extraordinarily uncommon. The Heritage Basis recorded 103 circumstances in Texas between 2005 and 2022, however greater than 107 million votes had been solid within the state throughout this era. This implies that fraudulent votes represented about 0.000096% of votes solid in 2020.

Concerning immigrant voting, the Brennan Heart for Justice concluded that out of a complete of 23.5 million votes solid in 42 jurisdictions throughout the 2016 elections, solely 30 circumstances of doable non-citizens voting had been reported for additional investigation or prosecution.