Idaho Secretary of State Encourages Voters to be Vigilant of Election Misinformation

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Download the Press Release PDF

Date: October 28, 2022
Contact: Chad Houck, Chief Deputy Secretary of State
Phone: (208) 334-2852

Boise, Idaho — Idaho Secretary of State Lawerence Denney launched a new web portal today, providing Idahoans with a means to report election based misinformation. The site (https://sos.idaho.gov/elections-division/election-misinformation-reporting/) encourages Idaho voters to be aware of election misinformation, and to report anything on social media that appears inaccurate or misleading. Examples would include dates of the election, mail ballot rules, ballot information, polling place hours, election night reporting, voting technology, and poll watchers.

“Idahoans are paying close attention to the November 8 General Election, but so are those seeking to interfere with our elections by spreading misinformation,” said Secretary of State Lawerence Denney. “With this new web service, Idaho voters can report social media posts that appear to be misleading, either accidentally or by intent.”

Secretary Denney goes on to say “Once misinformation has been reported, our cyber security team will evaluate the information. If it is determined that the social media post is trying to disenfranchise voters and undermine our democracy, the report will be passed to the Election Infrastructure Information Sharing and Analysis Center (EI-ISAC), who will verify the information and forward it to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for further action.”

Intelligence officials are unanimous in warnings of foreign and domestic actors spreading misinformation ahead of the November 8 General Election. This new web service was created to provide Idaho voters with a single, nonpartisan location to report social media posts that seek to destroy the integrity of Idaho elections.

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ABOUT LAWERENCE DENNEY

Lawerence Denney has served the people of Idaho since 1990. His public service began as a representative in District 13 and, following redistricting, then became a representative in District 9 until 2014. During this time, Denney served two terms as Majority Leader and three terms as Speaker of the House before successfully running for state office as Idaho’s Secretary of State. He is currently in his second term as Secretary of State.

System Upgrade In Progress

Campaign Finance, Lobbyist Reporting, and Online Voter Tools are expected to be offline from April 9th at 5:00 p.m. MDT, through April 12th at 8:00 a.m. MDT to complete a system upgrade.

Per Idaho Code 67-6607, campaign finance is reported monthly during a campaign’s election year. The deadline for the March report falls on Saturday, April 10th. Due to the interruption caused by this upgrade, political treasurers will be allowed to file the March report until 11:59 p.m. MDT on Monday, April 12th.

While we do our best to ensure compliance with all deadlines in statute, the timing of this release is critical to ensure minimal (or no) impact to the May election cycle. We are sorry for any inconvenience this may cause.