Connecticut conservatives are wary about a misinformation officer overseeing 2022 election – Hartford Courant

HARTFORD Nearly six years after the hotly contested 2016 elections, Connecticut conservatives are highly concerned about the upcoming hiring of a new misinformation officer to monitor the internet and combat foreign and domestic interference in this falls elections.

The specialist, a state employee who will be paid $150,000 per year, will monitor social media for false information that often starts on obscure, lesser-known websites like 4-chan, 8-chan, and Reddit, but then gains a much wider audience after appearing on sites such as Twitter, Instagram, Tik-Tok and Facebook.

Republicans have blasted the Democratic idea, generating attention on talk radio and Newsmax, a national television outlet that is often described as more conservative than FOX News.

Greenwich fundraiser Leora Levy, a conservative who is running in the Aug. 9 primary for U.S. Senate, was the first prominent candidate to recently blast the idea, landing her an interview with anchor Greg Kelly on Newsmax.

People should have the right and the ability to come to their own conclusions, based on the legitimate news that they read from legitimate news sources not from the government, Levy said on Newsmax. To me, as someone who escaped Cuba and escaped communism, I feel I am living through an Orwellian or Ayn Rand Atlas Shrugged experience.

Levy was referring to the 1957 novel by Rand that argued that citizens need to remain independent minded in order for society to function properly and avoid coercion by the government.

Joe Biden, Ned Lamont and Democrats have one mission here: silencing any dissenters under the guise of combating misinformation, said state Republican chairman Ben Proto. Their hyper-partisan plan is designed to further infringe on voters First Amendment rights and is an attempt to control the political discussion, silencing those who disagree with them. Who determines what is misinformation and how exactly will they silence the speaker? Who will determine who will be hired? Will this be an open application process or has a local Democrat in need of a job already been chosen?

But Gabe Rosenberg, a spokesman for Secretary of the State Denise Merrill, countered that the new employee will be hired after the new fiscal year starts in July for a nonpartisan, civil service position that will be chosen by a four-member panel and would not be a hand-picked Democratic appointee as argued by Republicans.

The employees duties will be narrowly limited to election administration issues, and the state will not become an arbiter in determining which candidate is lying on a particular issue, Rosenberg said. The employee will be looking for false information on subjects like polling sites and times, rather than political policy issues, he said.

The idea that you could call this a partisan hack is ridiculous, Rosenberg said in an interview. Its a civil service position that has to follow all the rules of hiring that any other state employee-civil service position has to follow. Despite people making very cute turns of phrase about the meme content and such, its only related to election administration and finding and correcting inaccurate information about how voters can participate in the election.

The plan to hire the misinformation officer has largely flown under the political radar screen. It was mentioned in Lamonts budget summary in February and included in the secretary of the states budget. The states fiscal plan was subjected to public hearings and committee deliberations for nearly three months, along with debates and votes by the state House of Representatives and Senate. Still, it gained scant attention until recently.

House Republican leader Vincent Candelora of North Branford said he did not receive any comfort that the position will be in the civil service system, saying it belongs in nonpartisan offices like the State Elections Enforcement Commission or the state ethics office. The secretary of states office is an elected, political office that has been led by Democrats for 58 of the past 62 years.

It shouldnt lie in a partisan office, Candelora said in an interview.

House Republican leader Vincent Candelora of North Branford is concerned that a permanent misinformation officer is not being placed in a nonpartisan office like the State Elections Enforcement Commission. Here, he speaks with Rep. Tammy Nuccio of Tolland in the historic Hall of the House at the state Capitol. (Jessica Hill / Special to the Courant)

With little fanfare, the state had already hired a similar officer at $90 per hour for the 2020 election on a short-term, contract basis with federal funds. The new position will be permanent and funded by the state, along with $2 million for a public information campaign that will reach voters statewide on multiple media platforms on absentee voting and other election issues.

In 2020, the officer caught several examples of misinformation, and social media companies removed them.

First, there was a tweet that said a truck delivering Connecticut ballots had dumped the ballots on Interstate 95 and that the ballots were blowing around nearby.

Thats not how the ballots are delivered, first of all, Rosenberg said. Each town orders them individually. Thats not even a possible thing that could have happened, but also, it didnt happen. ... Twitters terms of service have always said you cannot lie about election administration.

Second, someone posted on Facebook that they had received an absentee ballot for a deceased relative.

The problem was that the absentee ballots didnt exist yet because they hadnt been printed, Rosenberg said. We knew that that was not right. Its impossible for that to happen before the absentee ballots were printed, so we reported that to Facebook, and it came down before it could be shared widely.

Third, an online rumor said that any election ballots filled out with Sharpies would not count. That was false.

Sharpies work fine in Connecticuts tabulators, Rosenberg said. Literally the only pen that wont work is a red pen because the laser is red. Anything else would work as long as its filled in enough. We were able to get out in front of a major conspiracy theory that came up on election day, and we were able to get correct information out to Connecticut voters before that even started to spread in Connecticut.

University of New Haven political science professor Chris Haynes said the sheer size of the internet and the multiple websites will make it difficult for only one state employee to scan, identify, research and assess the accuracy of any claims in a timely fashion as the election quickly approaches.

Facebook devotes many, many workers to these types of efforts, Haynes said in an interview. Im all for it, but I just question whether one person can do this job in an effective way. ... Theyre going to have to be the watchdog, the detective. This person is playing multiple roles just on one piece of misinformation. If they caught three of 35 false claims, does that make it better? But which three claims did they choose to focus on?

I dont blame states like Connecticut for doing this because the aim is noble, Haynes added. I wouldnt want to have this job, and that person would just get criticized in all types of ways. ... On a national level, you need probably hundreds of people to do this. Its a huge team. ... Theres no silver bullet here.

Nationally, states like Colorado and California have adopted similar positions under the secretary of the state, which is often the chief elections official. In addition, Arizona, Idaho, and Oregon are conducting advertising campaigns on television, radio, and the internet in the same way that Connecticut is planning with the $2 million allocation.

The job description says the specialist will identify dis- and misinformation related to Connecticut election administration in real time, monitoring the dark web, internet subculture websites such as 4- and 8-chan and reddit, as well as traditional social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Tik-Tok, etc., and reporting dis- and misinformation related to Connecticut election administration, before it spreads."

Merrill, the states chief elections official, said earlier this year that the misinformation officer was successful two years ago and will be again this year.

The 2020 election, and its aftermath, have been marred by multiple election administration conspiracy theories, driven by misinformation, that are rapidly eroding Americans trust in our elections," Merrill said. This position will be key in stopping the spread of election administration misinformation before it can do lasting damage in Connecticut."

Christopher Keating can be reached at ckeating@courant.com.

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Connecticut conservatives are wary about a misinformation officer overseeing 2022 election - Hartford Courant