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U.S. NEWS Monday 17 July 2023

Efforts to deceive are a top concern among state election officials

Continued from Front West Virginia Secretary of not filter or review any con-
State Mac Warner, a Re- tent.
Colorado Secretary of publican, praised the fed- Officials in Pennsylvania
State Jena Griswold said eral court ruling and said and Kentucky both cited
she convened a working he was more concerned staffing as a concern. In
group in her office to game about the federal govern- Pennsylvania, there has
out potential risks, after a ment being the one to been considerable turn-
2020 presidential election spread false information. over among those over-
that was marred by false He said he is supportive of seeing local elections, driv-
claims and attacks on vot- efforts by House Republi- en largely by retirements
ing. Michigan Secretary of cans to investigate federal and increased stress. Al
State Jocelyn Benson said agencies over their activi- Schmidt, a Republican ap-
state and federal regula- ties before the 2020 presi- pointed as Pennsylvania’s
tions requiring disclosures of dential election. chief election official, said
AI-generated content are “I think this is the big story the risks are many and the
needed along with boost- going and it far outweighs margin for error is small.
ing public awareness. all this other stuff that we’re “The most dangerous thing
“We can’t necessarily put talking about here at this is when you lose experi-
the genie back in the bot- Jocelyn Benson, Michigan’s Secretary of State, right, attends conference with regards enced election workers,
tle, but we can educate a panel about elections during the summer meeting of the to cybersecurity and, you you lose institutional mem-
citizens about how to re- National Association of Secretaries of State, Tuesday, July 11, know, trusted sources, and ory, you lose all that experi-
2023, in Washington.
ceive that information,” Associated Press on and on,” Warner said. ence, and it’s replaced by
said Benson, a Democrat. “The federal government people who are less experi-
“And it becomes much going to keep talking to that don’t involve commu- shouldn’t be in there tell- enced and who are more
easier if there are disclaim- whoever the hell I want to nicating with social media ing Americans what they likely to make a mistake
ers alongside it that says, talk to,” said Arizona Secre- companies. LaRose, a Re- can and can’t hear, see, — and to make a mistake
hey, this is fake.” tary of State Adrian Fontes, publican, mentioned one believe, Google, that sort in an environment where
Some state election offi- a Democrat. “If you know instance in which his staff of thing. So hopefully we’re every mistake is being per-
cials said they would not be somebody is out there lying took a social media post gonna get it straightened ceived as being deliberate
deterred by a recent court and it hurts voters, they’re that was spreading misin- out.” or malicious,” he said.
order by a federal judge in literally telling voters the formation, added a “false” Chris Krebs, the former di- The multi-day confer-
Louisiana that limited feder- wrong day or the wrong label across it and repost- rector of the U.S. Cyberse- ence was the first since
al agencies when it comes places to vote, literally giv- ed it while contacting local curity Infrastructure Security several Republicans an-
to contacting social media ing them bad information news to ensure they were Agency during the Trump nounced plans earlier this
companies about content on purpose, you should be aware the original post was administration, has defend- year to leave a bipartisan
deemed false or deceptive able to shut that down be- not true. ed the work his agency did effort aimed at improv-
with a few exceptions. On cause that’s interfering with “We’ve worked to active- in 2020. In a social media ing the accuracy of voter
Friday, an appeals court the voter’s right to vote.” ly combat false informa- post after the court order, lists and identifying fraud,
temporarily paused the or- Ohio Secretary of State tion, but the way we do Krebs said his agency only prompting consternation
der. Frank LaRose and others it is by spreading copious connected state and local from their Democratic
“The injunction doesn’t ap- pointed to various ways of amounts of truth,” LaRose election officials with social counterparts.q
ply to state officials, so I’m combating misinformation said. media companies and did

Teamsters president asked the White House not to intervene if UPS

workers go on strike

By The Associated Press could force a contract on century ago.
NEW YORK (AP) — The head the union, Teamsters Presi- Before contract talks broke
of the Teamsters said Sun- dent Sean O’Brien said he down, both sides had
day that he has asked the has asked the White House reached tentative agree-
White House not to inter- on numerous occasions to ments on several issues,
vene if unionized UPS work- stay away. including installing air con-
ers end up going on strike. “My neighborhood where ditioning in more trucks
Negotiations between the I grew up in Boston, if two and getting rid of a two-
delivery company and the people had a disagree- tier wage system for drivers
union representing 340,000 ment and you had nothing who work weekends and
of its workers have been at to do with it – you just kept earn less money. A stick-
a standstill for more than a walking,” O’Brien said. ing point in negotiations is
week with a July 31 dead- “We don’t need anybody wage increases for part-
line for a new contract ap- getting involved in this time workers, who make a
proaching fast. fight,” he said. minimum of $16.20 an hour,
The union has threat- The Teamsters represent according to UPS.
ened a strike if a deal is more than half of the Atlan- President Joe Biden, center left, talks with Teamsters union Last week, UPS said it will
not reached by the time ta-based company’s work- President Sean O’Brien, facing, after he spoke about temporarily begin training
the collective bargain- force in the largest private- strengthening the supply chain with improvements in the nonunion employees in the
ing agreement expires. sector contract in North trucking industry, April 4, 2022, on the South Lawn of the White U.S. to step in should there
Asked during a webcast America. If a strike does House in Washington. be a strike.q
with members Sunday on happen, it would be the Associated Press
whether the White House first since a 15-day walkout by 185,000 workers crippled the company a quarter