The Economist - USA (2021-02-13)

26 United States The EconomistFebruary 13th 2021

2 curb vaccine misinformation is an open

question. Showing users truthful content

in their feeds and searches will help, but re-

moving problematic content could also

drive users to other platforms. After Face-

book and Twitter cracked down on ac-

counts promoting QAnon conspiracies,

those users just went elsewhere, says Re-

nee DiResta of the Stanford Internet Obser-

vatory. “Social-media companies run the

risk of turning what should be something

that could be easily addressed with a label

into forbidden knowledge,” she says. Nor is

everyone comfortable with Facebook’s em-

ployees, contractors, Oversight Board and

the 80 external firms that do various de-

grees of fact-checking suggesting what

should be erased. “Censoring speech and

pretending you can make it go away is real-

ly problematic,” says Matt Perault, a former

director of public policy at Facebook who

now runs Duke University’s Centre on Sci-

ence and Technology Policy.

The decision to combat anti-vax propa-

ganda may have as much to do with Face-

book’s own public-relations problems as

its desire to cleanse its platform of life-

threatening fabrications. In Washington,

Democratic leaders are putting the squeeze

on platforms to do more to police content.

In January three Democratic senators, in-

cluding Amy Klobuchar, sent a letter to in-

ternet companies demanding action to

combat vaccine misinformation.

Facebook may be reading today’s politi-

cal mood correctly, since Democrats con-

trol the House, Senate and White House.

But its actions risk further alienate conser-

vatives who are concerned about the cen-

sorship of free speech, and revive discus-

sion about antitrust enforcement among

the many politicians who worry about the

dominance of big tech.

Already politicians and regulators are

grappling with how and whether to change

the liability shield that internet companies

have when hosting users’ content under

section 230 of the Communications Decen-

cy Act, an internet law passed in 1996. By

taking more proactive action to police con-

tent on its own platform, Facebook may be

hoping to head off discussions of tweaking

or entirely doing away with section 230.

That is optimistic. Support for repeal-

ing section 230 was a rare point of agree-

ment between Donald Trump and Joe Bi-

den, although they favour doing so for very

different reasons. Rather than repealing

section 230, though, several Senate propos-

als are circulating to reform it. Facebook

and other internet firms worry that tweak-

ing section 230 could lead to a deluge of

lawsuits from people who consider them

responsible for material posted on their

sites. Having once declared that Facebook

should not be an “arbiter of truth”, Mr Zuck-

erberg is acting more like one, and hoping

that works in his favour. 7

O

ne hundred days after November’s

election, New York’s 22nd congressio-

nal district (ny-22) has a representative in

Washington. On February 5th a state judge

ordered Oneida County in upstate New

York and the state’s boards of elections to

certify their results. Claudia Tenney, a Re-

publican, beat Anthony Brindisi by 109

votes. It was the last undecided congressio-

nal race in the country. The lengthy delay

meant the district’s constituents did not

have a voice in votes on impeachment and

the House leadership or on a presence on

committees. Yet ny-22 is far from the only

district with election problems. For New

Yorkers across the state, dysfunction at the

board of elections is par for the course and

a perennial problem.

Despite its conservative leanings,

ny-22, which spans rural areas and rustbelt

cities in central New York state, was among

the most competitive races in the country.

That was mainly a reflection on Mr Brindi-

si, the Democratic incumbent, who was

fairly popular in an area where registered

Republicans outnumber Democrats by

30,000. His challenger, Ms Tenney, had a

convincing lead at first, but Mr Brindisi

narrowed the gap when absentee and affi-

davit ballots were counted. Both candi-

dates called for a judicial review of the bal-

lots. After Scott DelConte, the presiding

judge, noted several errors, he ordered the

district’s boards of elections to review

votes again. “It is more important that this

election is decided right, than that it is de-

cided right now,” he said in December.

Errors were made in seven of the dis-

trict’s eight counties. Oneida County’s mis-

takes were especially egregious, said Mr

DelConte. More than 2,400 electronic voter

registrations in Oneida were not processed

in time for November’s election. Oneida la-

belled challenged votes with Post-it notes.

The notes did not stick, making it impossi-

ble to know which votes were disputed. De-

spite the record of voter suppression in Re-

publican states, David Wasserman of the

non-partisan Cook Political Reportsays that

“probably one of the most egregious exam-

ples of voter suppression that I’ve seen this

cycle was in [New York] a state that’s pretty

firmly blue”.

Mr DelConte was scathing about elec-

tion commissioners, who are responsible

for administrating boards of elections in

each county. Commissioner selection “is

the last vestige of patronage politics in New

York state”, says Luke Perry, a political sci-

entist at Utica College. Some counties have

deadlocked boards with Republicans and

Democrats sniping at each other. And every

county has different standards. Susan Ler-

ner of Common Cause, a voting-rights

group, says ny-22 has shown that “if you

have eight different counties in a congres-

sional district, you have eight different

ways to approach counting absentee bal-

lots, and eight different ways to make mis-

takes”. The covid-19 epidemic didn’t help—

election officers across the state were over-

whelmed and overworked because of

outbreaks and social distancing.

ny-22 is far from alone in its chaos. The

New York Civil Liberties Union sued Rock-

land County in the autumn to extend early

voting hours. New York City is plagued

with problems, from broken voting ma-

chines to long queues. In 2019 the city’s

board of elections bizarrely sued City Hall

to stop it offering translation services at the

polls unless they were provided by the

board. State government is little better.

New York City has been waiting a year to get

approval for new vote-counting software.

On February 8th Mr Brindisi conceded,

ending the uncertainty in ny-22. Had he

pursued and won an appeal, it is not clear if

the court could have removed Ms Tenney

from her Congressional seat once she had

been sworn in. “Sadly, we may never know

how many legal voters were turned away at

the polls or ballots not counted due to the

ineptitude of the boards of election, espe-

cially in Oneida County,” Mr Brindisi says.

He hopes an investigation will be conduct-

ed. “What’s so disturbing about what hap-

pened in Oneida County is that if it weren’t

for this incredibly close election, we would

have not even known,” says Sean Morales-

Doyle of the Brennan Centre for Justice.

What errors, New Yorkers may wonder, oc-

curred in less competitive races? 7

NEW YORK

Why can’t New York counties run

elections?

Election administration

Count-22

Lovely place, shame about the elections