What We're Reading at Issue One
This week at Issue One, we shed light on how social media titans are expanding their influence operations on Capitol Hill.? We also confronted the harsh realities of being a woman in election administration. Here’s what we are reading:
Most of the individuals at the frontlines of our democracy are women. They represent 80% of the people that administer our elections and count our votes. This means that women bear a large majority of the threats leveled at election workers.
Carly Koppes, a local election official and member of our Faces of Democracy campaign, told The Guardian that she felt the need to hide her pregnancy, fearing that her child would be included in harassing messages she could receive. We will continue to advocate for election worker protections so that they, including women like Carly, can administer our elections in peace.?
Hear women election officials talk about their unique experiences in a panel discussion that we hosted in honor of Women’s History Month in March.
OpenAI, the parent company of ChatGPT, is an up and coming lobbying presence on Capitol Hill. While their lobbying dollars don’t yet match the millions spent by social media companies like ByteDance (parent company of TikTok) and Meta (parent company of Instagram and Facebook), they’re expanding their influence operation just the same.?
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OpenAI’s messaging follows in the footsteps of other current tech giants by promising to “establish safeguards” instead of federal legislation that would truly hold these corporations accountable. Social media companies have made the same promises time and time again, yet they have failed to curb the hams of social media that impact our kids and democracy.
This week, Issue One published an analysis on tech lobbying numbers for the first quarter of 2024, which showed that top tech companies are spending record amounts to keep Congress from holding them accountable.
More than half of U.S. states have banned private funding for our elections and Congress recently debated doing the same over concerns that private funds could be allocated to a partisan advantage.?
The simple solution to the questions around private funding of public infrastructure is for Congress to step up and give election administrators the funding they need. Recently, Congress appropriated $55 million in election funding for FY2024, or just over $1 million per state. While this investment in our nation’s critical election infrastructure is welcomed, it’s simply not enough. Regular and consistent federal funding is needed so officials have the resources they need to keep our elections free, safe, and secure.