Across Michigan, These Groups are Trying to Fight Misinformation and Energize Voters

Across Michigan, These Groups are Trying to Fight Misinformation and Energize Voters

July 29, 2024

At the 2024 Mackinac Policy Conference, the Detroit Regional Chamber, alongside Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and Michigan business leaders, announced the launch of a new initiative to support the state's safe and secure elections.

Michigan Business United for Elections is a collaboration between the Chamber and the Michigan Department of State to restore faith in the election process and ensure that every Michigander who is legally eligible can cast their vote. This collaboration stems from recent findingsindicatingthat the business community is viewed as the public's most trusted source of information.

Learn more about the collaboration in the PBS News article below.

PBS News
July 26, 2024
Frances Kai-Hwa Wang

Hira Khan knows the voters she works with are not motivated to go to the polls right now.

As interim executive director of Emgage Michigan, a nonprofit that educates and mobilizes Muslim American voters, she and her staff have heard that Muslim Americans do not feel represented right now because of the war and humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

"Voter apathy and misinformation are always, or at least this cycle, the two biggest things that we're tackling," Khan said. "Connecting with voters early on with the right information is the most important piece for us right now."

"We have to be proactive," Khan said.

As November's election nears, Emgage and other nonpartisan community organizations in the swing state of Michigan are ramping up efforts to address voter apathy, build confidence in the election process, and combat false or inaccurate information, especially any that is designed to misstate the facts.

Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson identified misinformation - false or misleading information spread without an intent to deceive - and disinformation - false information that is deliberately spread with malicious intent to mislead, deceive, or manipulate - as "the biggest threat to election security today."

Planting false rumors, propaganda, and conspiracy theories are examples of disinformation, which can be spread by foreign, domestic, partisan or malicious agents, and by artificial intelligence as well.

Benson is concerned that AI tools could be used hyperlocally to "target language-minority voters in uniquely harmful ways, producing credible-sounding claims in different languages."

Her office has been working with community groups to get out accurate information about the voting process. Communities across the state have distinct experiences with and concerns about voting, but the idea is to inform and educate people well before they walk into a polling station to vote.

The Detroit Regional Chamber, for example, is encouraging businesses to take on a broader leadership role and help counter misinformation.

"The stability of capitalism, the stability of the environment in which businesses operate is really dependent upon a stable democracy and an engaged and informed electorate," said Sandy K. Baruah, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Detroit Regional Chamber.

Tackling voter apathy and misinformation

Khan said Muslim American voters are not so concerned about the legitimacy of election certification as they are about interference with the election process and voter intimidation, like when a group of "Stop the count" protesters descended on a Detroit ballot-tallying center in 2020.

One strategy is to make sure people know the state voting laws. Michiganders, for example, are allowed to bring a translator to the poll, Khan said. If a voter does not have an ID, they are still able to vote. If someone is not registered, they can register even up until election day.

Emgage Michigan is canvassing, knocking on doors, and hosting town hall meetings to inform people about their updated voting rights. Staff and partner organizations will also be trained to combat and track inaccurate voting information. Staffers from the nonprofit also plan to help monitor and troubleshoot problems in the early voting period and on Election Day.

The website for the secretary of state's office has a list of fact checks of voting information and a way for Michiganders to report misinformation.

Despite the challenges posed by misinformation and voter apathy, "people - especially since 2020 - have become a lot more comfortable with voting," Khan said, especially with absentee and early in-person voting.

The National Network for Arab American Communities sends nonpartisan, Arabic-speaking poll watchers and election challengers trained to monitor polling places every election.

Rima Meroueh, director of this consortium of Arab American organizations, said, "The Arab American community has always faced challenges, though I don't think it's challenges in the way that some parts of the country have lost that voter confidence."

Rather than not feeling confident in the system, she said that community members are more concerned about whether they might face voter intimidation or be turned away at the polls.

In Michigan, election challengers are appointed by political parties and qualified interest groups to observe the election process. They can challenge a person's right to vote as well as election inspectors' actions if they believe election laws are not being followed.

During the 2020 election, Meroueh said that many of their election challengers observed that people who had requested absentee ballots but then did not mail them back were mistakenly turned away at the polls, although under state law they are allowed to vote in person by signing an affidavit that said they had not submitted their absentee ballot. She said that her organization, along with Michigan Voices and the ACLU of Michigan, called city clerks offices because so many people were being turned away.

"It was probably our biggest challenge in 2020," Meroueh said.

To reach voters, they use graphics and WhatsApp, a popular messaging app, and they go to where the voters are.

"We go to the mosque. We go to the grocery stores. We go to events that are already happening. That's where we do our voter engagement," she said.

"The idea for us is to increase voter confidence that I can do this safely. And that my vote is important, and I need to show up," Meroueh said.

How businesses can help in an era of misinformation and disinformation

"The role of business leaders in the public sphere is changing dramatically," said Baruah of the Detroit Regional Chamber, since the 2016 election and the decline of trust in institutions that are traditionally looked to as arbiters of fact such as the media, public officials, and religious leaders. Pointing to an online survey conducted by public relations firm Edelman, he said employees look to business leaders as "one of their most trusted sources of information for things like elections and other kinds of public discourse items."

The Detroit Regional Chamber frequently commissions polling to see how Michiganders think and feel about different issues, using the data to help make recommendations to policymakers. In a statewide poll of 600 registered voters this May, the group found gaps between voters' perceptions and what's happening now with the economy, education, and democracy. For instance, 61 percent of voters viewed the economy as weakening or in recession, despite indicators that the economy is strong.

In a report of the findings, the president of Glengariff Group, Inc., the research firm behind the survey said these numbers highlighted how voters no longer share common facts.

"The speed and ease that these inaccuracies take root are now threatening even the underpinnings of our joint understanding of the importance of democracy," Richard Czuba said.

Baruah said that it is difficult to advise policymakers if the electorate does not understand the state of the economy.

"It used to be that your view of the sitting president of the United States was in large part based on the condition of the economy. Now that dynamic has been flipped on its head. Now your view of the president impacts your view of the economy," Baruah said.

The secretary of state's office has launched a coalition of business leaders who have pledged to give their employees accurate and nonpartisan information around voting. Under this initiative, participating employers are committed to giving people time off to vote and encouraging them to serve as poll workers.

One tool in the voter outreach kit that businesses can use is a link or QR code that directly connects to the secretary of state's website so that customers and employees can easily access information about how to register to vote, where their polling location is, how to request an absentee ballot, among other resources.

Baruah said that some of these actions may be easier for large corporations to do, as some owners may be reluctant to discuss voting with their customers, while smaller businesses or sole proprietorships may not be able to spare staff.

"We're doing our best to meet people where they are, and to the extent that people and businesses are willing to help, we are going to give them the tools," he said.

"American norms are essential to the stability of American society, and that is essential to capitalism and the free market," which do not survive and thrive in economies where there is instability, distrust, and misinformation, he said.

Showing up to vote for checks and balances

Last fall, the National Network for Arab American Communities asked Arab Americans across the country to write a postcard to themselves about why they vote.

The goal for the snail-mail campaign was to send the postcards back to the voters to remind them to cast their ballots.

Some of the early responses ran the gamut: I care about health care. I want my kids to have a better education. I want the roads fixed. I want affordable housing.

Then the Israel-Hamas war broke out.

"There was just this massive shift," said Meroueh of the National Network for Arab American Communities. "Almost every single one turned to 'I want my voice heard.' 'I'm being ignored and I want to vote.' 'Because I want my right to vote.'"

Several months and hundreds of postcards later, "it is pretty amazing to see how the community has really realized, really seen how they can have an impact," she said, including people who had registered to vote for the first time just so they could check "uncommitted" in the presidential primaries.

These voters have "found a way to reclaim that voice that they feel has been lost because elected officials are not responding to them," she added.

In the past, Meroueh said Arab Americans have also seen a lot of misinformation and disinformation about candidates and key issues, especially on how local ones will affect the community.

For example, in 2020, voters in Dearborn were targeted by text messages claiming to be from the "Federal Berue [sic] of Investigation" containing misinformation about ballot sensor errors. In 2022, a pamphlet supposedly put out by a Dearborn parents group in English and Arabic made false claims about how a proposal to protect reproductive health in the state constitution would affect parental rights and pedophilia.

Meroueh said a leading challenge this election is that Arab Americans feel so unheard and ignored by some elected officials regarding the community's calls for a cease-fire in Gaza. Before President Joe Biden exited his 2024 rematch with former President Donald Trump, many did not feel comfortable voting for either presidential candidate, she added.

Meroueh tries to stress that when you vote for president, you're essentially "choosing who is going to be the next Supreme Court justice."

"Our conversation with community members is whether you vote for the president or not, you still can vote down ballot. You still have to show up to vote. There are a lot of other positions that create checks and balances for the president, no matter who the president is," including members of Congress and Supreme Court justices. "And that's our power," she added.

"The work that we do with the Arab American community is not transactional," Meroueh said. That is why the organization focuses on talking about democratic processes, why it is important to fill out the census, how the census impacts the drawing of maps in the state, and how that affects their votes.

For Arab Americans, "this is a wake-up call that we are not able to sit out an election like this," she said.

Meroueh said her group also stresses the importance of voting for people for state office who can help to protect those rights at the state level. Voting for state and local level positions - like mayor, city council, and school board - will affect one's daily life even more than federal positions, she said.

"It doesn't matter to me who they vote for, it matters that they show up, because our long-term goal is building power with Arab Americans," Meroueh said.

"There's been an aha moment for a lot of Arab Americans," she added. "'Yes, I need to show up. No matter how angry I am.'"

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