### Election Officials Battle Conspiracy Theories as Election Day Approaches

With less than two weeks remaining until Election Day, a surge of conspiracy theories and misinformation has emerged, prompting state and local election officials to focus on debunking these false claims. Amid the bustling activities of overseeing early voting and gearing up for November 5, these officials are finding themselves increasingly overwhelmed by the need to clarify and explain the electoral process.

"Truth is boring, facts are boring, and outrage is really interesting," remarked Utah's Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson, a Republican in charge of elections in her state. "It's like playing whack-a-mole with truth. But what we try to do is just get as much information out there as possible."

This election is the first presidential race since former President Donald Trump started propagating allegations of widespread voter fraud, a claim he staunchly holds onto, alleging it was the reason for his 2020 defeat. Such unfounded assertions have significantly eroded public trust in the election system, particularly within the Republican voter base. Even though multiple investigations have confirmed no widespread fraud or manipulation of voting machines in the 2020 election, and all battleground states confirmed President Joe Biden's victory, doubt persists.

Recently, U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene claimed a voting machine altered a ballot in her Georgia district during early voting. Simultaneously, Elon Musk has been promoting various conspiracy theories about voting machines and voter fraud on social media and at a Trump rally in Pennsylvania.

David Becker, a former U.S. Justice Department lawyer who now leads the nonpartisan Center for Election Innovation and Research, observed that the spread of these conspiracy theories has dramatically increased. "This is making election officials' lives much more difficult," Becker stated.

Eric Olsen, responsible for elections in Prince William County, Virginia, compared the challenge of combating misinformation to facing a giant wave while being equipped with only a small canoe paddle. "But we have to do that work," he emphasized.

On the campaign trail, Donald Trump has continued his efforts to cast doubt on this upcoming election, as he did in his previous campaigns. Even after his victory in 2016, Trump claimed he had lost the popular vote due to an influx of illegal votes. He then established a presidential advisory commission to investigate, which disbanded without finding any evidence of widespread fraud. This year, Trump is rallying his supporters with the slogan "Too Big to Rig," suggesting potential cheating by Democrats and seemingly preparing to challenge the election outcome if he loses again.

Spreading these baseless claims has serious repercussions, having already led to harassment, threats, and a significant turnover of election workers, not to mention the violent January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Persistent conspiracy theories, such as those alleging "vote flipping," have recently surfaced again in Georgia and Tennessee. A claim in Georgia's Whitfield County was highlighted by Greene on Alex Jones' "InfoWars" show—a platform known for spreading falsehoods and whose host was ordered to pay $1.5 billion for falsely claiming the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre was a hoax. Local election officials clarified that the incident involved just one voter out of 6,000 ballots, with the initial ballot spoiled and a replacement correctly counted, confirming there was no issue with the voting machine.