GIJN's Revised Elections Guide

2024 has been dubbed the year of elections – and for good reason!

Polls in the year ahead — including presidential, legislative, and regional ones in at least 60 countries — will affect more voters globally than in any other previous year.

In response, GIJN updated its Elections Guide for Investigative Reporters to better assist journalists around the world. This five-part resource is designed to lay out some common election threats as well as some innovative tools and techniques to expose the bad actors behind them.

So what's new and improved?

In the Where to Begin introduction you will find:

• A new section on how to have investigative impact in polarized societies, delving into the importance of “show-don’t-tell” data infographics, new age journalism formats including podcasts, and building audience trust using "why we reported this” explainer boxes.
• Key links for investigating elected autocrats – and an inspiring reminder of how investigative stories helped save a democracy in South Africa.
• A link to a reliable, real-time portal for the many legal deadlines and criminal prosecution processes involving former US President Donald Trump. This resource can help to cover a unique campaign run?via the courthouse steps.

A New Election Digging Tools chapter, which includes:

• Insights into the threat of 'voter fraud vigilantes' – and dangerous database tools that enable a handful of activists to intimidate tens of thousands of voters.?

• More information about the latest free crowdtangle-for-everything tool that allows reporters to build social media account lists for ~12 platforms — including fringe platforms favored by far-right militias.
• Tips to investigate the legal abuse of anti-democratic laws, as well as mid-level officials who enable minority rule by making it harder to vote.

The Preparing for Elections chapter now offers:

• Numerous safety resources for female-identifying reporters facing gendered harassment, and a chilling case study from India.
• An expanded investigative topics list for elections, such as dark PR, militia intimidation, speech deepfakes, swatting, and listening tools for troll campaigns.

The Investigating Candidates chapter now has:

• New open source methods that can find online accounts associated with the email addresses or phone numbers of campaign officials.
• Techniques to check for early academic plagiarism and “stolen valor” claims in candidates’ personal histories.
• Tools to check candidates’ claimed travel histories – including a new app that maps the location of their restaurant reviews – and to track their usernames across 600 websites.
• Tips to probe down-ballot names, local issue choices, and misleading form designs from online sample ballot tools and nonpartisan civic groups.

The Political Messaging and Disinformation chapter features:

• A discussion of new election threat trends — from deepfakes to the myth of in-person voter fraud, plus links to a new watchdog group that keeps tabs on the troll farms.
• A link to the recent cross-border project, Digital Mercenaries, that exposed the inner-workings of election influencers throughout Latin America, and illustrates the many benefits of collaboration.

Read the full Elections Guide for Investigative Reporters here.

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