Monitoring for false voting info new job for CT secretary of state

Connecticut is paying the postage for all absentee ballots and absentee ballot applications in the state this year. But residents may have seen a meme claiming that absentee ballots require two stamps — which, in Connecticut, is not the case.

That’s an example of the kind of false information about the electoral process that Secretary of the State Denise Merrill’s office says it is focused on countering this year.

So far, Connecticut has hired an intelligence analyst to monitor the internet and is one of 11 states using new software to empower election officials of all levels to report false claims. It has also created a tool to demystify absentee voting by allowing voters to track their ballots.

Merrill spokesperson Gabe Rosenberg says the office is tasked with “identifying information regarding election administration that is not correct, and either correcting it, reporting it, or likely both.” The issue is particularly concerning “this year, when the processes have changed so dramatically to accommodate people afraid of COVID,” Merrill said.

False information comes in two different — if related — forms: misinformation and disinformation, said Shaydanay Urbani, a research reporter at First Draft News, a nonprofit that researches the issue globally. Disinformation is spread by malicious agents who seek to sow confusion and discord, whereas misinformation can be shared by people who are unaware that the information that they’re sharing is wrong or misleading. “That could be your aunt,” Urbani said.

Paid with federal funds, the state’s analyst Chris Holden will monitor the internet for both misinformation and disinformation related to Connecticut’s elections. This is the first time the Secretary of the State has contracted for this kind of assistance.

Holden has worked for the military and the Department of Defense for 20 years, according to his resume. He has a “background in processing open source intelligence data, including dark web and social media data to identify trends and threats,” Rosenberg said.

He is being paid $90 an hour and will work for the state until the end of November. Under the contract, his compensation cannot exceed $50,870. The position is being funded with some of the $5.4 million in federal funds the state received this year to bolster election security. Last year, the bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee reported that all 50 states were targeted by Russian operatives exploring vulnerabilities in state election security. Connecticut faced unsuccessful attempts to breach a firewall and gain access to a registry of voter information.

The Secretary of the State’s office is more concerned about viral posts that contain falsehoods as opposed to paid advertising on social media, Rosenberg said. Connecticut is one of 11 states in the nation using Squint , a tool to monitor social media launched by the nonprofit MITRE in February this year.