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“My name is Matthew Metro,” said a man in a video posted to the social media site X. But it wasn’t him.
The real Matthew Metro, a Hawaii resident, found that his name and biographical details, found online, had been used in a video that leveled incendiary accusations against Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz, who once taught at a school Metro attended. The figure in the video was an impersonator who did much resemble or sound like the real man.
It is, however, the sort of attack that could become more effective as generative software rapidly develops the ability to convincingly mimic prominent figures or ordinary citizens through manipulated images and stolen information.
The year has seen voters receiving robocalls from a simulated President Joe Biden spreading false information; and a recent study by Utah Valley University found that half of survey participants failed to distinguish a figure in a “deepfake” video from footage of a real person, and sometimes found the counterfeit more trustworthy.
Dissembling and filtered photos are nothing new in political advertising, but the increased sophistication of faked material and the speed with which false information may be spread online has proven effective enough that election officials around the U.S. view it as a serious risk to election integrity.
In the final week before Election Day, New Mexico’s top elections officer said her office continued efforts begun earlier in 2024 to promote awareness of faked images, video and audio and how they might be used to manipulate voters.
Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver, in an interview with the Las Cruces Bulletin, said software such as ChatGBT and other generative software, commonly referred to as “artificial intelligence” or “AI,” may have legitimate uses in a campaign operation in need of quickly-produced marketing materials.
This year, the state enacted a law requiring disclosure of digitally-manipulated media by political campaigns and candidates. The law, updating New Mexico’s Campaign Reporting Act, relies heavily on education and voluntary compliance. Although no agency is charged or equipped to monitor observance of the law, the Secretary of State or the State Ethics Commission would investigate reported violations. So far, Toulouse Oliver said she was unaware of any alleged breaches of the law – but also did not recall seeing any disclosures in election materials.
“Unfortunately, in this day and age, the content that we consume, primarily via social media, but also in digital ads, even on TV, text messages, voice mails, things like that, can be manipulated,” she said. “That manipulation, in and of itself, is not necessarily a bad thing. What we're concerned about is when it's done with malintent.”
Checking things out
Earlier this year, the office launched a “Seeing is no longer believing” education campaign with tips on how to spot digitally generated images.
“We just want voters to, when they see something, pause and take a minute and and double-check whether it's real,” she said.
It is a discipline Toulouse Oliver, a Democrat elected to her second term in 2022, recently practiced herself, she recalled, when a friend texted her a video of former Vice President Mike Pence supposedly endorsing Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris. The widely circulated video was deceptively edited, however, as unedited footage makes clear: Pence has not, in fact, endorsed Harris.
Toulouse Oliver said she searched online for articles by reputable news organizations and Pence’s own website.
“The human initial reaction is to want to believe something bad about the other guy or believe something good about your person, right? And it’s just so easy to have that cognitive bias, right?” she said. “I still want to make sure that I am not circulating incorrect information.”
She acknowledged the daunting prospect of asking individuals to adjust their online behavior in the interest of veracity.
“Unfortunately, there's a lot of conflation of feelings with facts that's been happening in the last several years, on both sides,” she said. “And it's work, right? It takes work to stop and go, ‘I wonder if this is actually correct, and I'm gonna go check other sources just to verify.’”
Voting process in 2024
As of Oct. 31, 528,713 New Mexicans had already turned in absentee ballots or voted in person. That’s 74 percent of the total ballots cast in the 2022 election, and 57 percent of total turnout in 2020, the last presidential election year, with early voting continuing through Saturday and Election Day on Tuesday, Nov. 5.
Toulouse Oliver said voting had proceeded smoothly overall and that she anticipated heavy turnout in the 2024 election, a year with a presidential election and other federal offices on the ballot as well as the entire New Mexico Legislature. She said there had not been extraordinary concerns about interactions with poll workers and the public, or with authorized election observers.
“Our county clerks have been doing phenomenal work. Our poll workers have been doing phenomenal work,” she said. “Voters have been having good experiences. We have had some lines, particularly on the first day of early voting and the first day of expanded early voting, but generally speaking, things are going well.”
As for the presidential contest between former President Donald Trump and current Vice President Kamala Harris, Toulouse Oliver said she anticipated New Mexico’s vote will likely be known “with significant confidence” soon after voting closes on Nov. 5, while other states may not have their election results ready until days after their polls close. That could fuel conspiracism and adverse actions following Election Day, she said - including in New Mexico.
“There does continue to be a deep and abiding distrust of the process amongst a certain small but local group of people,” she said. “They are already saying things online that are concerning, that could be considered harassment or threats towards myself and my team and our county teams; and I'm hoping that the security measures we put in place, which are substantial for this election process, are going to keep us all safe.”
She was also confident that the process of formalizing New Mexico’s election results was also secure.
In 2020, New Mexico was among a handful of states where, despite Democratic candidate Joe Biden winning the electoral vote, Republicans submitted an alternative slate of electors in support of Trump. No one in the group of New Mexico Republicans who signed the unauthorized electoral certificate and sent it to the National Archives was charged with a crime.
“We're going to ensure security of the Capitol building and of the electors,” Toulouse Oliver said. “We, as legally charged, are the ones in contact both with the National Archives, the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives, to whom we send the certificates of ascertainment as well as the votes of the Electoral College.”
In the event of another effort to intervene in the election with a false instrument, Toulouse Oliver said, “Even if people try to do the wrong thing, with the system – it sort of bounces off, and only the actual votes of the actual electors will be the ones presented before Congress on Jan. 6.”