Plaintiffs Ask Federal Court to Immediately Halt Defendants’ Use of Artificial Intelligence in U.S. Elections to Undermine Voting Rights

The League of Ladies Voters has filed a nationwide preliminary injunction in League of Ladies Voters of New Hampshire v. Kramer to dam the defendants from additional use of AI know-how to intimidate, threaten, coerce, or deceive voters. 

MANCHESTER, NH – (April 30, 2024) The League of Ladies Voters of the USA (LWV-US), the League of Ladies Voters of New Hampshire (LWV-NH), and a number of other particular person New Hampshire voters have filed a movement for preliminary injunction within the U.S. District Courtroom of New Hampshire asking the courtroom to cease the defendants from producing, producing, or distributing AI-generated robocalls, textual content messages or any type of spoofed communication impersonating any individual, with out that individual’s categorical consent. Free Speech For Folks and Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP signify the plaintiffs, together with native counsel Preti, Flaherty, Beliveau, & Pachios, Chartered, LLP.

Forward of the 2024 New Hampshire presidential main, Steve Kramer paid to create a recorded message utilizing synthetic intelligence to imitate President Biden’s voice. Posing as President Biden, the messages falsely implied that voters couldn’t vote in each the first and common elections and urged voters to “save” their vote for November… When information of the deception turned public, 1000’s of voters had already acquired robocalls.

“These misleading robocalls tried to trigger widespread confusion amongst New Hampshire voters,” stated Liz Tentarelli, president of the League of Ladies Voters of New Hampshire. “As a nonpartisan group, the League of Ladies Voters works to make sure that all voters, no matter their occasion affiliation, have probably the most correct election info to make their voices heard. We are going to proceed to advocate for New Hampshire voters and battle in opposition to malicious schemes to suppress the vote.” 

“Most of these voter suppression techniques haven’t any place in our democracy,” stated Celina Stewart, chief counsel on the League of Ladies Voters of the USA. “Voters should make their voices heard freely and with out intimidation. For over 100 years, the League of Ladies Voters has labored to guard voters from these illegal crimes and can proceed to battle again in opposition to bad-faith actors who purpose to disrupt our democratic system.”  

The lawsuit argues that the robocalls violated federal and state legal guidelines that shield voters from intimidation, threats, coercion, and deception: (1) the Voting Rights Act, which bans intimidating, threatening, or coercing, or making an attempt to intimidate, threaten or coerce, any individual from voting; and (2) the Phone Client Safety Act and associated provisions of New Hampshire state regulation, which ban deceiving recipients in regards to the supply of robocalls or disseminating political messages through robocalls with out disclosing who made and funded the calls.

“Fraudulently made robocalls have the potential to devastate voter turnout by flooding 1000’s of voters with intimidating, threatening, or coercive messages in a matter of hours,” says Courtney Hostetler, Senior Counsel at Free Speech For Folks, which serves as co-lead counsel for the plaintiffs. “Nobody ought to abuse know-how to make lawful voters assume that they need to not, or can not safely, vote within the primaries or in any election. It’s an honor to signify the League of Ladies Voters and the opposite plaintiffs on this necessary case to guard the best to vote.”

“As a former state legal professional common, I do know the harm that voter suppression can inflict on our democracy,” stated Mark Herring of Akin, a lawyer for the plaintiffs and former two-term Virginia legal professional common. “We should maintain accountable those that abuse new know-how to undermine our freedom to vote.”

The League of Ladies Voters is on the forefront of a very powerful federal and state instances throughout the USA. To be taught extra in regards to the League’s litigation work go to our Authorized Middle to assessment historic and lively instances on our docket.  

Akin is a number one worldwide regulation agency with greater than 900 legal professionals in workplaces all through the USA, Europe, Asia and the Center East. Akin’s world professional bono follow leverages the expertise, information and keenness of our legal professionals, advisors and enterprise companies personnel to advance entry to justice by representing refugees looking for asylum, tenants preventing eviction, veterans looking for well being advantages, home violence survivors, nonprofit organizations and different purchasers in want. 

Free Speech For Folks is a nationwide non-profit group devoted to defending our democracy and our Structure. The group serves as a number one drive within the nation in litigation to guard the best to vote, together with prior litigation stopping unlawful voter intimidation in Minnesota main as much as the November 2020 election and present instances difficult voter intimidation in Colorado and voter suppression legal guidelines in Arizona and Texas. 

Learn our movement for preliminary injunction right here. 

Learn our full criticism right here.