Art by Lauren White

(Dis)information

What (information) do you believe? Have you been duped (by misinformation)?

Prepared by Mike Slaven

Social media polling place hoaxes, misleading advertisements and suspicious text messages are all features of modern political campaigns.

Disinformation tactics can happen online, via text, phone, advertisements or snail mail in the following ways:

• Technology failures -- voter machine hacking rumors
• Propaganda -- spreading disinformation 
• Misleading language 
• Undermining confidence in elections
• Language, discourse, propaganda
• Lies, trolling, truth-checking

To quickly check the authenticity of information, check a fact-checking website like snopes or factcheck.org. Rely on government websites that end in .gov, and nonpartisan voting sites such as vote411  or ballotready.

Art by Skylar Spence

Legal?  Maybe.  Dirty Tricks? Possibly, depending on your perspective. Problematic? Certainly.

Prepared by Mike Slaven

Examples of Confusing and Competing Information on Voter identification laws in West Virginia

• “Beginning January 1, 2018, voters must show a form of identification to vote in person during the Early Voting period or on Election Day in any election. Any ID shown for voting purposes must be valid and not expired.”  West Virginia Voting Information. 2020. VOTE411.
• “If you registered by mail, you will have to take a current and valid photo ID or a copy of a current document with your updated name and address the first time you vote.”  West Virginia Voting Information. 2020. VOTE411.

Voter Removal and Registration Purges in West Virginia

• “West Virginia has removed 102,797 voters from the rolls since the beginning of 2017. The process began when West Virginia Secretary of State Mac Warner provided data on potentially ineligible voters to county election clerks, who then removed records from voter registration lists. Nearly half of the removals — more than 47,000 in total — had occurred by April 2017.” 
• . . . [S]tate and county leaders say some voters die, others move away, and if you don’t vote in four straight elections your name is purged. WOWKTV.
• “It’s not even. If you cast away these people, it doesn’t say when I register to vote, I have to vote in every election. Maybe it’s something that is not moving me. You are still hushing me when you purge,” said Del. Danielle Walker, (D-Monongalia). WOWKTV.
• “In 2011, ten states introduced bills that would reduce early or absentee voting periods; such bills PASSED in Florida, Georgia, Ohio, Tennessee and West Virginia.”  WOWKTV.