Issue One's Democracy Fix tackles 'toxic information ecosystem,' lies surrounding 2024 election

We're excited to welcome the newest addition to The Democracy Group: Democracy Fix — a new podcast by Issue One that highlights how organizations and individuals across the country are working to fix our political system. To officially welcome this amazing podcast to our network, we caught up with host Carah Ong Whaley about Democracy Fix, how the podcast aligns with Issue One's mission and false information.

Carah: I'm the director of election protection at Issue One, a cross-partisan organization working to strengthen our democracy, fix our broken political system, ensure everyone can engage in informed participation in our democracy and that our systems work for everyone. One of the things I'm primarily focused on in the short term is trying to address the many challenges facing our election systems, most importantly, the lack of public confidence in how elections work and who runs them because of so many falsehoods that have been spread about elections, especially since 2020 but even a bit before that.

Our systems are under some unprecedented attacks, but in many ways, they're also resilient. We're focusing on the good work being done by election officials who are trained professionals working tirelessly across the country to provide safe and secure elections this year and doing our best to help educate the public about how elections work, especially after votes are cast. Many people don't know what happens to their ballot after they cast it, and so we're trying to provide credible information and direct people to their state and local officials who are running elections.

How did Democracy Fix come about?

Carah: We started the podcast earlier this summer, and it's focused on Issue One's mission, which is to shed light on how organizations and individuals across the country are working to fix our political system and build an inclusive democracy that works for everyone. We are engaging in conversations about key issues that impact democracy, whether that is reforming Section 230 so that we can hold social media platforms accountable for the information environment, or if it's about spotlighting the work that's being done by secretaries of state and state and local election officials to strengthen our election system.

What are some challenges Democracy Fix and Issue One see this election year? Do you have plans to tackle them?

Carah: One of the major challenges that we are facing is the toxic information ecosystem and the spread of false information, including flat-out lies about elections, how they work, the people who run elections and even about the other candidates. We're trying to find ways to tone down and temper the rhetoric. One of the things we have put out this year is a community safety guide that's geared toward voters and folks in the public about how they might approach elections in their community.

Read the full version of Issue One's Democracy Fix tackles 'toxic information ecosystem,' lies surrounding 2024 election here.

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