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Threats of Political Violence Are Distorting Reality
Mobilizations by extremist groups in 2024 are on track to be at their lowest level since 2020, according to a new report, but public officials — particularly those who work on elections — continue to face hostile threats.
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Don’t Panic Reading ‘Electoral Process Porn’: There Are Plenty of Safeguards to Make Sure Voters’ Wishes Are Respected
Because of all the fail-safes built into the system, even very close is something the election process can handle, sys one expert. “I’m very confident that the voters are going to decide this election, not the lawyers or the courts.”
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Model Reveals Why Debunking Election Misinformation Often Doesn’t Work
When an election result is disputed, people who are skeptical about the outcome may be swayed to accept the fairness and integrity of the election. A new study identifies factors that can make these efforts more successful.
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Right-Wing Activists Pushed False Claims About Election Fraud. Now They’re Recruiting Poll Workers in Swing States.
Elections officials say they welcome skeptics. As the system is secure, they anticipate problems from spreading misinformation rather than interfering with the process.
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U. of California Faces Lawsuit for Not Hiring Illegal Aliens
UC’s Board of Regents decided by a vote in January to suspend for one year the implementation of its policy that allowed the hiring of illegal aliens. Now, the university faces a lawsuit for not offering jobs to illegal aliens.
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Public Trust in U.S. Elections Is Decreasing. But Should It Be?
Recent polls show public trust in the integrity of U.S. elections is decreasing, largely among Republicans. But this doesn’t signal that our elections are getting less reliable, scholars said.
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Election Security: When to Worry, When to Not
Everyone wants an election that is secure and reliable and that will ensure that the voters’ actual choices are reflected in the results. At the same time, not every problem in voting technology or systems is worth pulling the fire alarm —we have to look at the bigger story and context. And we have to stand down when our worst fears turn out to be unfounded.
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Election Skeptics Are Running Some County Election Boards in Georgia. A New Rule Could Allow Them to Exclude Decisive Votes.
An examination of a new election rule in Georgia suggests that local officials in just a handful of rural counties could exclude enough votes to affect the outcome of the 2024 presidential race.
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Crime Is Down, FBI Says, but Politicians Still Choose Statistics to Fit Their Narratives
Violent crime and property crime in the United States dropped in 2023, continuing a downward trend following higher rates of crime during the pandemic. Murder in the United States fell nearly 12% in 2023 compared with 2022.
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In 2019, Congress Finally Funded Gun Violence Research. Here’s How It’s Changed the Field
A Trace analysis of federal data found that the amount of money going to gun violence studies has soared since lawmakers lifted a de facto federal funding ban.
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Research Sheds Light on Impact and Bias of Voter Purging in Michigan
In recent years, some states have prioritized purging their voter rolls of those who have passed away or moved out of state. Voter purging can be an important step for creating election integrity, but others have raised concerns about how the process is conducted and who it targets.
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Some Online Conspiracy-Spreaders Don’t Even Believe the Lies They’re Spewing
There has been a lot of research on the types of people who believe conspiracy theories, and their reasons for doing so. But there’s a wrinkle: My colleagues and I have found that there are a number of people sharing conspiracies online who don’t believe their own content.
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Weak "Guardrails" on Police Face Recognition Use Make Things Worse
Police use of face recognition technology (FRT) poses a particularly massive risk to our civil liberties, particularly for Black men and women and other marginalized communities.
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Changing Demographics and the Political Calculus of Anti-Immigrant Rhetoric in Swing States
Immigration is a far more complex topic than border security alone, and strategists may be miscalculating by failing to consider some key voters and their nuanced perspectives, recent polling shows. Growing populations of new and first-generation citizens in the swing states — with the power to sway elections — are transforming demographics and voter concerns.
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Voting by Mail? Election Workers Are Worried About Issues at the Postal Service.
State election officials are encouraging people who vote by mail to be proactive about making sure their ballots are counted.
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The long view
Luigi Mangione and the Making of a ‘Terrorist’
Discretion is crucial to the American tradition of criminal law, Jacob Ware and Ania Zolyniak write, noting that “lawmakers enact broader statutes to empower prosecutors to pursue justice while entrusting that they will stay within the confines of their authority and screen out the inevitable “absurd” cases that may arise.” Discretion is also vital to maintaining the legitimacy of the legal system. In the prosecution’s case against Luigi Mangione, they charge, “That discretion was abused.”
Are We Ready for a ‘DeepSeek for Bioweapons’?
Anthropic’s Claude 4 is a warning sign: AI that can help build bioweapons is coming, and could be widely available soon. Steven Adler writes that we need to be prepared for the consequences: “like a freely downloadable ‘DeepSeek for bioweapons,’ available across the internet, loadable to the computer of any amateur scientist who wishes to cause mass harm. With Anthropic’s Claude Opus 4 having finally triggered this level of safety risk, the clock is now ticking.”