- Connecticut is hiring a misinformation specialist forward of the 2022 midterms, for each NYT.
- The function has a $150,000 wage and will involve monitoring and combating on the web election misinformation.
- The point out is also expending $2 million on a general public information and facts voting marketing campaign.
Connecticut is hiring its initial entire-time misinformation specialist to overcome “destructive international actors” forward of the 2022 midterm elections.
The New York Instances noted the news.
As element of Governor Ned Lamont’s midterm finances, Connecticut’s Business office of the Secretary of the Condition encouraged funding an IT stability analyst to make certain voters been given precise info.
Insider beforehand claimed in February 2021 that the battle versus election misinformation was likely community and that the struggle against conspiracy theories on social media would probable continue on at the micro amount.
Connecticut’s midterm budget assertion browse: “Over the final few election cycles, destructive overseas actors have demonstrated the determination and capability to substantially disrupt election functions, therefore undermining public confidence in the fairness and precision of election benefits.”
The career is described in the assertion as a “protection analyst to monitor and overcome election misinformation on a total-time basis.”
The part comes with a $150,000 salary, which is just significantly less than double the normal foundation wage of $74,000 in Connecticut, according to PayScale.
According to the finances assertion, the state is also spending $2 million on a public info marketing campaign that provides residents steerage on voting, such as facts on absentee voting.
A more $4 million in cash funds has been granted to the Democracy Initiatives Project to update the central voter registration program and election management application, for every the assertion. The undertaking is overseen by Connecticut Secretary of Condition Denise Merrill and its aims contain minimizing the threats associated with applying dated voting products.
Governor Lamont, a Democrat, is managing for re-election in this year’s midterms versus Republican challenger Bob Stefanowski. Lamont did not respond to Insider’s request for comment on the programs created out of typical doing work hrs.
Connecticut voters will also come to a decision on no matter whether to re-elect Democratic U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal.
The 2020 presidential elections have been marred by misinformation and conspiracy theories on-line, which several election officers speculate have come to be the new typical. Merrill, whose office environment proposed the situation, termed misinformation “the issue of our life span” in a current interview with POLITICO.
Far more states throughout the US are employing similar roles to goal on the internet election misinformation. Colorado has recruited three cybersecurity professionals to end the unfold of misinformation on the web and on social media, according to The New York Occasions.
