When it comes to getting people of color to cast their ballots, the enemy can be difficult to spot. It’s not simply gerrymandering or, in Florida’s case, Gov. Ron DeSantis’ election Gestapo, which has caused real fear and intimidation, but something altogether different—propaganda and pervasive misinformation.
Misinformation and disinformation come to people via their phones, social media, and of course, Fox News. USA TODAY cites examples from researchers that include voters being told they can “skip the lines at the polls,” or texts indicating that their polling place has closed, or one case where voters were told the election was going to be held on Wednesday versus Tuesday,
"It's so much easier to lie to someone than to convince someone they've been lied to," Al Schmidt, the president and CEO of the Committee of Seventy, a nonprofit that combats political corruption in Philadelphia, tells USA TODAY.
RELATED STORY: Co-founder of election org Black Voters Matter says when it comes to voting, ‘we won’t Black down’
What is not completely clear is who is behind the disinformation, whether it’s foreign actors, Republican-affiliated organizations, or other unknown dark money organizations. What is known is that it seems as if voters of color are disproportionately the target.
USA TODAY reports examples of disinformation involving Indigenous communities, Mexican Americans in Texas, and Latino voters who were exposed to claims on social media in 2016 that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) were stopping and arresting voters at the polls.
The disinformation campaigns aren’t necessarily intended to manipulate the way people vote, according to USA TODAY; the intention is to keep voters of color away from the polls altogether. The latest example is the recent arrests in Florida. The Washington Post reports that DeSantis’s Office of Election Crimes and Security deputies made 20 bogus arrests, 15 of which were of Black voters.
Sam Woolley, program director of the Propaganda Research Team at the University of Texas, explains that “elections seem to turn on a dime now, the margins are so so slim, and it matters so much who turns up and obviously who they vote for." And the data proves Woolley’s comment. The 2020 presidential election was ultimately decided for Joe Biden by 80,000 votes in Pennsylvania. If those voters of color had not gotten to the polls due to some successful disinformation campaign, the election outcome could have been far different.
Voters of color, immigrants, and older voters are all more easily swayed by disinformation. According to research from the Brennan Center for Justice, immigrants who are first-time voters "face special risks in encountering misinformation stemming from information gaps."
“If you’re just not used to living in American democracy, you’re more vulnerable and more easily deterred to just not go vote," Inga Trauthig, a research manager at the University of Texas who studies disinformation, tells USA TODAY. "I’ve heard a lot from the older interviewees that they said, ‘Well, I didn’t want to do it wrong.’”
According to reporting by Salon, an investigation by the Senate Intelligence Committee into the 2016 elections found that Black Americans were targeted more than any other communities of color. And a CNN investigation uncovered Russian-funded troll farms in Ghana and Nigeria paid to post content to discourage Black Americans from voting for Democratic candidates.
LaTosha Brown, the co-founder of the voting rights group Black Voters Matter, told Salon, “There is an embedded frustration in our community about the process because we see the growing inequities," Brown said. "We see economic inequity, we see political inequity. So there are forces that seek to actually exploit Black pain and Black discontent."
Despite the tsunami of disinformation flooding social media platforms, Republican lawmakers refuse to address it by supporting any legislation to stop it, continuing to cite free speech.
Author of Cheap Speech: How Disinformation Poisons Our Politics―and How to Cure It, UCLA law professor Rick Hasen tells USA TODAY, “I do think we could pass laws and make it a crime to lie about when, where or how people vote… There is a truth, right? Election Day is Tuesday. It’s not Wednesday.”
In lieu of laws protecting voters, volunteers have taken up the mantle.
"Lots of folks, they may not trust what they see on social media, or they may not trust what they see on a news outlet, but who they trust is a pastor who was preaching to them every Sunday morning," Washington, D.C.-based Pastor Terrance McKinley says.
He adds, "If people rise to the occasion and make certain their voice is heard through their vote, I think that we have a chance at preserving the principles of our democracy.”
Donald Trump and his MAGA allies came close to overthrowing our democracy on Jan. 6, and they will try again. The best thing you can do is to get out the Democratic vote, and we need everyone to do what they can. Click here to find all the volunteer opportunities available!
The 2022 midterms are just around the corner, and you sent us a ton of fantastic questions for this week’s episode of The Downballot. Among the many topics we cover: which states are likely to report results slowly—and how will those results change over time; the House districts that look like key bellwethers for how the night might go, and which might offer surprises; why and how Democrats make the hard decisions on which races to triage; the top legislative chambers to keep an eye on; and plenty more!
