OLYMPIA — Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs urges Washington’s voters to be wary of dubious election information, including deepfakes and other misinformation, that have already been spotted during the 2024 elections cycle.
“As we move through Washington’s August 6 Primary and toward the November 5 General Election, I am concerned that a deluge of manipulated and false information may be inserted into social media from foreign actors and other sources,” Secretary Hobbs said. “Artificial Intelligence is getting easier and cheaper to manipulate for a broad number of malicious actors. The rest of us must be careful to verify what we see before we take it to heart.”
Hobbs said that voters must understand that faked material is likely to become pervasive in some corners of social media, citing a July 26 posting on the social media platform X, formerly Twitter, by platform owner Elon Musk that shared a manipulated recording of presidential candidate Kamala Harris.
“If the owner of a social media platform themself is going to share misleading material, it signals to the rest of us that other materials allowed there may not be trustworthy,” Secretary Hobbs said. “I urge Washington's more than 4.8 million registered voters to seek out trusted information sources — such as established news outlets and official government institutions — as they navigate upcoming elections.”
Monday, Secretary Hobbs joined Secretaries of State from Minnesota, Michigan, New Mexico, and Pennsylvania to send a public letter to Musk calling for X’s AI search assistant, “Grok,” to direct voters seeking elections information to CanIVote.org, as the administrators of ChatGPT and OpenAI already do. Shortly after President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from a reelection campaign on July 21, Grok generated false information about ballot deadlines in Washington and eight other states that was shared on multiple social media platforms.
“Voters should not be misled about how our elections function,” Secretary Hobbs said. “The owners of social media platforms must take responsibility for safeguarding their audiences against the spread of false information, and this includes stopping their own AI mechanisms from generating it.”
In 2023, request legislation from Secretary Hobbs, Senate Bill 5152, created Washington’s first limitations on the use of deepfakes in political campaigning. The law enacted disclosure requirements for any manipulated videos and gave candidates targeted by undisclosed deepfakes a right to sue for damages.
“My staff and I have monitored trends across the globe, and the spread of deepfakes into state and local races is happening now in America,” Hobbs said. “There are already numerous real-world examples. In June, we saw a video spread in Utah falsely indicating the governor had been involved in signature-gathering fraud. In July, videos of President Biden and Vice President Harris portrayed them making statements they did not say. During the presidential primary, a political consultant distributed a deepfake robocall of President Biden discouraging New Hampshire voters from participating in the election. This is a pervasive threat.
“These bad actors can and will sow distrust with our local elections,” Secretary Hobbs continued. “If something you see raises questions about your access to a fair and trustworthy election here in Washington, please visit a legitimate elections office and learn the truth.”
Secretary Hobbs urges voters to reach out to these trusted sources:
- The Office of the Secretary of State’s elections website, which includes important election deadlines, printable PDF registration forms, and more.
- Washington county election offices provide ballots upon request and help you make changes to your registration.
“The right to vote is the cornerstone of our democracy, and we shouldn’t allow anyone to interfere with it,” Secretary Hobbs said.
Washington’s Office of the Secretary of State oversees areas within state government including managing state elections, registering corporations and charities, and governing the use of the state flag and state seal. The office operates the State Archives and the State Library, documents extraordinary stories in Washington’s history through Legacy Washington, and administers the Combined Fund Drive for charitable giving by state employees and the Productivity Board state employee suggestion program. The Office of the Secretary of State also oversees the state’s Address Confidentiality Program to help protect survivors of crime.