As 2020’s elections edge closer, recent troubling developments are casting new light on an old question—what will it take for the results to be trusted?
The emergence of powerful forms of online political propaganda, the absence of progress in 2019 state legislatures on improving audits and recounts, and new revelations about the extent of Russian hacking in 2016—accessing more election administration details than previously reported—all point to the same bottom line: what evidence can be presented to a polarized electorate to legitimize the results?
To be fair, some policy experts who network with senior election officials—who have authority to order more thorough vote-verification steps without new legislation—say there is still time to act. But as 2020 gets closer, there are fewer opportunities to do so.
The question of what additional proactive steps could be a public trust counterweight is not theoretical. There are many signs that 2020 will be very fractious, starting with the emergence of new forms of political propaganda. The latest is doctored videos, such as one recently of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi—slurring her words—that drew millions of views, or another video mocking […]
I agree, Stephan, that it is ignorance. I read a report that in Hong Kong today, close to 1/2 million ordinary folks were protesting the new draconian extradition to China bill. Here too in Canada, not enough take public issues seriously. The elites hold sway but the climate/ecological crisis will be the final arbiter and determinant.
As AI and the virtual reality created from that and other advancing technologies are used to corrupt and confuse it really may be true, according to trump, that you can’t believe your eyes and ears, fake news. So any negative news about his lordship is fake and all positive news is the truth? Or if not a trumper then is it the opposite?