In addition to the slates of candidates vying for election in 2024, voters also will be navigating a constellation of new laws governing when they can cast their ballots and how their votes will be counted.
“Voters are headed into a different set of rules in 2024 than they faced they faced the last time they voted,” Morales-Doyle said.
The restrictions mirror some of the most oft-repeated myths attributed to recent elections: unsubstantiated claims that mail-in voting is rife with fraud and some proposals that would ban non-citizens from voting, which Morales-Doyle called “ridiculous because non-citizens are already not allowed to vote in our elections.”
Moss, who chairs the Michigan state Senate Elections and Ethics Committee, noted: “Mail-in voting became popularized during the Civil War. This is not a new concept.”
Chang said journalists are a crucial part of the process of introducing new legislation, separating fact from misinformation.
Citing a recent mischaracterization of language in legislation regulating recounts, Chang credited journalists with clarifying the issue for the public by directly contacting the sponsor lawmakers.
“We’re trying to clarify that a recount is not an investigation of fraud. If you want to investigate fraud, you’re supposed to actually go to your law enforcement, our attorney general, the FBI, the state police have all actually undergone those types of investigations and our law enforcement who are equipped and trained to investigate,” Chang said. “Our County Board of Canvassers, this is just not their job. And when it comes to the point of a recount, their job is to recount the ballots.”
“Unfortunately, we’re still combating some of that misinformation, but I hope that this is a sign that hopefully there will be more and more of that fact-checking happening,” Chang said.
McDougall said the LexisNexis election law tracker can be an effective “apolitical” tool in assisting reporters in that fact-check function.
“This is not a commentary on the merits of the law,” McDougall said, referring to the organization’s election law archive. “This is simply a statement of what the law is. We’re a nonpolitical organization and I hope that’s part of the power of what we do.”
Of note, the United States ranks No. 19 internationally in the LexisNexis Rule of Law Impact Tracker.
Access the full transcript here.
This fellowship was sponsored by Arnold Ventures. The National Press Foundation is solely responsible for its content.
Reload document
Open in new tab 
