Voters in the US state received fake calls with an imitation of US President Joe Biden’s voice urging them not to take part in Tuesday’s primaries. There have been repeated warnings from the tech industry that artificial intelligence might be misused to manipulate elections.
“It is important that you reserve your vote for the November election (…) because voting this Tuesday will allow Republicans to re-elect Donald Trump,” the call said. New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella announced he was investigating what appeared to be an “unlawful attempt to disrupt the New Hampshire primary and suppress New Hampshire voters.”
Call is “disinformation”
Audio of one such call was provided to Archyde.com by supporters of a campaign to encourage voters to put Biden’s name on their ballots. Biden campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez said the call was “disinformation” and an attempt to suppress voting.
Because of an internal party dispute over the dates, Biden is not on the ballot in New Hampshire, but can be added by hand and is likely to emerge as the winner. The actual presidential election is in November. Given the 81-year-old president’s weak poll numbers, support for Biden’s write-in campaign will be closely watched, although the results have no impact on the Democratic nomination contest.
Former US President Donald Trump’s campaign said it was “absolutely not” involved in the fake audio recording. The Republicans might make a preliminary decision in favor of Trump in the New Hampshire primaries.
