Resources > Checklist for Combating Election Misinformation

Checklist for Combating Election Misinformation

Communications

A framework to help election departments respond to influence operations

Download the combating election misinformation checklist (.docx file, 780KB)

table of contents

When it comes to elections, misleading information can be a powerfully disruptive force. Facing growing information threats against democracy, election officials can take steps to boost voter confidence and minimize confusion.

With the help of this checklist and some best practices, your election department will be able to prepare for – and respond to – false information impacting your election cycle.

This checklist and the best practices come from the Combating Election Misinformation course created by Center for Tech and Civic Life and Center for Democracy and Technology. You can learn more about the course at the CTCL website.

Scroll down to see resource or select a section from the table of contents

What you’ll need

Download the combating election misinformation checklist (.docx file, 780KB)
Standard communications platforms like a website and social media accounts for your election department

Getting started

Begin by downloading the checklist (found above).

Once you have the checklist, you can review the recommended steps and begin implementing them. For details on each step, refer to the best practices in the “Using the Tool” section below.

Don’t feel like you need to tackle the whole checklist at once though: you can choose which items are within your office’s current reach and start prioritizing from there. There’s plenty of value in small, incremental improvements.

Using the tool

Getting ahead of influence operations

To reduce the impact of misinformation, preparation is key. These are all things you can do in advance to make influence operations less disruptive:

Be vocal about the problem and drive people to trusted sources
Show your election office as an official source of information
Publish accurate and useful information regularly
Create a rapid response program or telephone line
Secure your communication channels
Build relationships with social media and your website publisher
Learn how to report false content on social media
Establish media monitoring to spot mentions or false info
Strengthen relationships with local media and journalists
Work with fact checking organizations
Prepare your communications plan and procedures

Be vocal about the problem and drive people to trusted sources

First, simply talk about the problem of misleading election information. This might look like a page on your website about the issue or a series of tweets that debunk common voting myths.

Or, the next time you’re interviewed for a news story, mention that one of your top concerns is people being misled about how to participate in elections.

No matter how you address the issue, always mention a source or two of trustworthy information for voters to rely on – for instance, your election website and the Secretary of State’s X (Twitter) account.

Three different social media graphics reading "Don't be misinformed" and show people of different ages, races and genders.

You can see that basic approach in this nice campaign from the California Secretary of State in 2018. The message is simple, and it drives people to the SOS website.

Show your election office as an official source of information

Next, make sure that your election department is immediately recognizable as an official source of information. That means doing things like these:

Set up https and .gov for your election website
Get verified on social media platforms like Facebook, X (formerly known as Twitter), and TikTok, if your office uses those platforms.
Make your social media accounts look and feel official (add a county seal, add info about the upcoming election, show photos of your staff, etc.)
Have contact information displayed prominently on your website and social media profiles

Need help getting started? Here are some relevant resources.

Setting up https

Implementing https requires several technical steps. You should plan to work with your county IT or website vendor.

You’ll need to obtain a security certificate to verify ownership of the website along with your organization’s name and details. You’ll need to provide additional documents to confirm your office’s identity. You can generally get these security certificates for less than $100 per year, either through your web host or a Certificate Authority. Many providers will give you these certificates for free. Two popular free options are LetsEncrypt.org and Google Trust Services.

Learn more at the CIO Council’s page on https.

We suggest that you give your office a month to complete the process. So, this is something you’ll want to begin well in advance of an election.

Setting up dot gov

Getting a dot gov (.gov) domain for your website is one of the best ways to let visitors know that they are looking at an official source. Anyone can buy a dot com, dot org, or dot us domain for a fee. Only official US-based government organizations can get a dot gov domain and registration is strictly regulated to ensure that.

Get.gov is the official website to register. It includes lots of valuable information about what you’ll need to prepare before registering, a checklist to follow when moving your current website to a dot gov domain, and security best practices for your dot gov website. There’s even some specific advice for election offices. Dot gov registration is completely free.

However, like moving to HTTPS, this transition will take time, effort, and maybe some extra money to pay for IT support if your office doesn’t have staff who can handle it. Give yourself a few months to migrate to dot gov. Again, this is something you should begin well in advance of an election. You can look into federal grants from CISA or your state election authority if you need additional budget for this transition.

Please note that https is required for a dot gov domain. If you can’t get the dot gov domain this year, you should try to implement https this year, with the goal of moving to dot gov next year.

Getting verified on social media platforms (Facebook, X/Twitter, TikTok)

If your office decides to communicate via social media, it’s important to set up official accounts for your elections department, board, or office itself, rather than using individual accounts that belong to particular staff members or the lead official. There are two big advantages to this approach:

An official account can maintain continuity through changes in staff and leadership.
An official account has access to much better verification methods on social media platforms.

Getting verified on each social media platform has a unique process, but regardless of the platform, you should start by making the account appear official even without a verification badge. Here are some steps you can take:

Match the name of the account to the name of your office, rather than using an individual’s name. Instead of naming the account “Jane Smith, Example County Recorder”, try “Example County Recorder’s Office.”
Make the profile image your office’s seal or logo. Or, if your office doesn’t have one, use your jurisdiction’s seal.
Include links to your account to your office’s website and email address in your account’s profile. If you have the ability, it’s also worthwhile to link back to your social media accounts from your official website as well, so visitors can check that your accounts really are connected to your office.

Next, make sure to secure your account. Set up two factor authentication (2FA) where possible. Keep log-in information in a secure place that is accessible to multiple members of your staff, in case the primary person managing the account in your office is unavailable unexpectedly.

Each social media platform has a different process and minimum requirements for getting your account verified. These requirements may change over time, but this guide will give a quick rundown of each that is current to May 2024.

Verification on Facebook

For Facebook, there are a few steps to prepare your account. First, you must have personalized photos. Those can be of your staff, your office, or, as suggested above, a department or jurisdiction seal or symbol. You must also ensure that the page is specific to elections; it should not represent any other government entities. You also need to make sure your page does not include any political campaigning – if your office is headed up by an elected official, you will need to separate the pages that provide neutral election information and the one that includes campaign materials for that elected official. Finally, you’ll need to have made at least one post with the account.

Once you have prepared your page, you can submit it for verification. Verification is free and focuses on authenticity – that is, ensuring that your page is actually run by your office and not an imposter.
Verification on Facebook provides an extra perk. Once you are verified, you can also apply for Voting Alerts, which is a feature that allows you to communicate more effectively to users in your community about important election information. If you need help with any part of this process, there is a resource center specifically for government, political, and non-profit organizations.

Verification on X (Twitter)

For X (Twitter), preparing your account for verification is covered by the steps recommended above: make sure your account name and profile picture matches your office and your profile should link to your office’s website. The email address attached to the account should be your government email, but you’ll also have the option to use a government ID card to prove your authenticity if your office does not provide an organizational email address.
Government accounts on X are given a grey checkmark, to distinguish them from non-government organizations (gold checks) and users who have paid for a premium account (blue checks). Like Facebook, verification for government accounts is free and focuses on authenticity. You can apply for your verification using this form. If you need help, you can email gov@x.com or elections-escalations@x.com.

Verification on TikTok

For TikTok, the steps to prepare your account are mostly about making sure it is complete and appropriate to your office – you need a username, bio, and profile photo. Additionally, TikTok requires that you have uploaded at least one video and that your account be “active,” which means having logged in within the past 6 months.
Like with Facebook and X, verification on TikTok is free. However, unlike those platforms, TikTok requires all government accounts in the U.S. to get verified. You can apply for it through this form when ready. If you need help, you can email us at support@ElectionExcellence.org and we can help get you in touch with TikTok staff.

Publish accurate and useful information regularly

In addition to showing you’re a trusted source of information with your dot gov, your county seal, and so on, you need to have a history of publishing useful, accurate information on a regular basis.

Imagine for a moment two county election departments. One county has a strong website full of information, and they post regularly on X (Twitter) and Facebook accounts that are followed by local journalists. The other county’s election website is pretty barebones – basically just election results and some downloadable forms – and they don’t have a social media presence.

If misleading election information is circulating, you can guess which of these election offices will be better positioned to respond and be trusted by their community.

If you’ve got this covered, great. If your website or social media properties need some work, put the time in to schedule regular posts. For ideas and templates, check out:

Make your materials more accessible to non-English speakers

Election misinformation is not only a problem in English language media and communities. Mis-, dis-, and mal-information is a big problem in different languages too, as this report from the Center for Democracy & Technology explains.

You can help improve this information environment by translating your election information and using other language access tools.

The Center for Civic Design has a list of tools and resources to help with improving language access in your jurisdiction, including a workbook to guide you through the process.
The Election Assistance Commission has a large library of language access resources for you to use. They even have sets of translated materials that your office can use.

Language access can take some work, but trusted, accurate, useful election information is much harder to find in other languages. Your work here can make a big difference.

Create a rapid response program or telephone line

Make sure that if voters have a problem on Election Day, they can get a solution from you instead of venting about it publicly and possibly misleading people. This might be as simple as making sure you have the phone lines sufficiently staffed, or you might decide to create something more advanced.

The Electronic Privacy Information Center says that “Whether [election misinformation is] by design or accident, the best defense is to be prepared with accurate information on election participation and the means to deliver it to those who need it.”

So, it’s a great idea to make sure you have procedure experts on call for voters and journalists who may have questions. And, of course, you’ll need to train them.

Secure your communication channels

Your communication channels are precious. To help avoid any unauthorized user editing your website or commandeering your social media accounts, review who has access and update credentials – especially if you’ve had staff transitions.

Here are some steps to take:

Review permissions for website and social media
Improve passwords or use a password manager
Set up two-factor authentication
Draft or revise a social media policy

If you need best practices for passwords and two-factor authentication, you can enroll in CTCL’s self-paced cybersecurity courses.

Build relationships with social media and your website publisher

Protecting access to your channels is important, but you should also have contacts prepared in case something bad happens. For a website, this might include your webmaster and your website vendor. For social media, there are also people you can contact for help.

For social media contacts in particular, it is best to use your government email address to make contact, and preferably the one attached to your office’s account. This will help their staff identify that the request or report is coming from a legitimate source.

For your reference, we’re providing contacts for Facebook, X/Twitter, and TikTok. This information is accurate as of May 2024.

Facebook contacts

For all election officials, you can contact the support team for government, political, and non-profit organizations: https://www.facebook.com/government-nonprofits/help

You can also directly contact Baker Landon, who works on that team: bakerlandon@meta.com
For state election officials in particular, you can use Reports@content.facebook.com to report content that you believe violates Facebook’s community standards.

X (Twitter) contacts

TikTok contacts

Learn how to report false content on social media

In the event of an influence operation, you should reach out to these contacts, but you should also report the content using the platform’s reporting mechanisms. Below are the steps to report content on the major platforms.

Reporting content on Facebook

On a Facebook post, click the three dots in the top right and select Report post. You’ll be prompted to select a reason for reporting, and (depending on the election cycle) “voter interference” may be one of the categories. If there’s not a reporting option specific to voting, you can select whichever option is most relevant.

If you are a state election official, you can additionally make reports by email to Reports@content.facebook.com – and if you are a local election official, you can always get in touch with your state election authority to make the report here on your behalf.

Facebook’s option for reporting voter interference

After you submit, you’ll get a status update about what action was taken with the post.

For details about Facebook’s election misinformation policies, review their articles on election integrity and misinformation. Additionally, you can read Facebook’s guide to reporting for more help with the process.

Reporting content on X (Twitter)

On an X post, click the three dots in the top right of the post and select Report post. After responding to a few initial questions, you’ll be asked how to categorize your report. You’ll be prompted to select a reason for reporting, and (depending on the election cycle), “It’s misleading about a political election or other civic event,” may be one of the categories. If there’s not a reporting option specific to voting, you can select whichever option is most relevant.

For details about X’s approach to election misinformation, review their civic integrity policy. Additionally, you can read about reporting on X generally for more help with the process.

Reporting content on TikTok

On a TikTok video, hover over the “More options” button at the top (on mobile, instead press and hold on the video). Click “Report,” and select a reason. Then, you’ll be provided a list of scenarios, choose the most appropriate one and then click “Submit.”

For more details on TikTok’s elections-related policies, you can read the article they published on election integrity in 2024. You can also review their Election Integrity Transparency Center.

Reporting content on YouTube

To report a YouTube video, click the three dots to the right, below the video, and select Report. When prompted, select Misinformation.

YouTube’s option for reporting election misinformation

After clicking Next, you can indicate the timestamp of when the inaccurate information occurs in the video and provide additional details. Click Report when done. You will be able to review the status of your reports on your Report History page.

To understand how YouTube deals with election misinformation, review this YouTube article on its election misinformation policies . Additionally, you can read YouTube’s guide to reporting for more help with this process

Establish media monitoring to spot mentions or false info

It’s important to know what’s being said about your election department and voting in your area, and media monitoring can help.

Some election authorities have special systems and programs in place to monitor the conversation about elections in their areas, but you can also do simple things like these:

Set up Google Alerts for your election department’s name
Regularly check social media notifications and mentions
Do regular Google searches to spot possible spoof sites

Monitoring is a good habit all the time, but it’s extra important on Election Day.

Strengthen relationships with local media and journalists

Having good relationships with local journalists can really pay off in the event of an influence operation. If you don’t have strong relationships with reporters, you can build some now.

Ahead of an election, schedule a call with your local media outlets to share information about what voters can expect. This is useful for voters and also establishes a bond with the journalist. Just seeing that you’re proactive will make a positive impression on the reporter and the people who read their story.

In the event of a viral election myth circulating in your area, it’ll be great to have a history with a journalist if you need to go on the record to correct misinformation. Take a look at our Communicating Trusted Election Information series of webinars, specifically the “Working with the media” course, to get some help with building those relationships.

Work with fact checking organizations

In addition to local media, national fact-checking organizations can help you deal with election myths.

Here are some ways you can leverage the services of fact checking organizations:

Tag them in social media posts with false content
Report false content to them
Review their resources to verify or debunk questionable information

One caveat to keep in mind is that fact checking takes time; it’s not unusual for fact-check articles to be published several days after the original event.

List of fact checking organizations

A few relevant fact checking organizations:

Additionally, there are fact checking organizations specifically for non-English speaking communities that can expand your reach:

DesiFacts.org – fact checking for Indian Americans
VietFactCheck.org – fact checking for Vietnamese Americans
Factchequeado.com – fact checking for Spanish speakers

Prepare your communications plans and procedures

Many election departments have procedures for doing things like issuing press releases and conducting interviews in the event of a crisis. Getting familiar with these plans – or creating them from scratch, if needed – will be helpful so that you don’t need to scramble in a moment of crisis.

If your existing plans don’t cover how to deal with false information, you may want to add that.

For instance, consider how you’ll judge if a myth is significant enough to address publicly. A one-off tweet that’s not getting much attention might be something you just keep an eye on. If an event is more significant, think about how you’ll report the post, contact the media, post a correction, and so on. With all of these steps come questions about who should do the talking, what they should say, and who needs to approve it.

Comms procedures will be different for every election department, but the point is to plan ahead of time to help avoid having to make difficult calls in the heat of the moment. You can get some strategies and tools in the Crisis Communications Toolkit from The Elections Group.

Responding to influence operations

The previous section covers things you can do in advance of an influence event. But what should you actually say or do once an event has occurred and you decide it needs to be addressed?

There’s a huge body of research devoted to effective methods for debunking falsehoods. We’ve digested best practices down into a four-step response framework to make it easy for you.

Introducing: an influence operations response framework

When it comes to responding to falsehoods, most people’s intuition is to just say the information is false and provide a fact check.

But research shows that’s not effective, in large part because emotions are triggered with influence operations and because falsehoods often stick in people’s memory. This framework will help you correct the record effectively.

Acknowledge: acknowledge the emotions behind the falsehood you’re responding to and affirm shared goals
Inform: provide correct (or additional) information to counter the original falsehood
Explain: offer an alternative explanation or narrative to fill the gap left by the original falsehood
Empower: give people a way to gain further information and resolve any concerns that may linger

Let’s examine each of these individually.

Acknowledge: affirm emotions and shared goals

Before you deploy facts, you need to prime your audience by acknowledging the emotions and norms behind the falsehood you’re responding to:

Emphasize shared feelings and goals
Focus on visions shared across the political spectrum: civic participation, democracy, accountability, having your voice heard, security, integrity
Example: “As County Clerk, my top priority is to ensure every eligible voter is able to participate as they intend.”

No matter what the falsehood, you can find some way to affirm shared goals. These are the sort of things you might put in a mission statement.

This step is incredibly important because experts have demonstrated that if you affirm people’s beliefs, they will be more receptive to messages that they otherwise would believe threaten their values or invalidate their feelings.

Emotions are a big part of why false information gets shared in the first place, so that means your response also needs to account for the emotional elements of sharing ideas.

Inform: provide facts to offset the falsehoods

Now you can deploy your facts, and the way you do that will vary depending on the type of falsehood. Here’s how you should approach the task of providing information:

For mis- and disinformation (false information), provide correct information
For malinformation (true but disruptive information), provide additional information to reframe the misleading information
Avoid repeating the falsehood. If you must mention it, include it in the text but not the headline.

This last point deserves a bit of explanation. Experts believe that by repeating a falsehood, you give it more oxygen and can end up spreading it further.

So, if the myth is that one party votes on Tuesday and another on Wednesday, just say that, as always, all eligible voters vote on Tuesday. If you feel you must reference the myth, just don’t lead with it.

Explain: give an alternative narrative

After you’ve provided your facts, explain how you got there. This is important because studies have shown that even when people accept a correction, the original misinformation often sticks in their minds, too. This alternative narrative could be an explanation for why the falsehood came about or suggestions for why the people who promoted it are not credible.

Give an alternative causal explanation to fill in the gaps
Make sure your explanation isn’t more complicated than the myth
Example: “It’s easy to get confused about closed primaries, and this voter seems to have made a mistake”

Empower: help people learn more and resolve concerns

Finally, just in case your audience has some lingering concerns, empower them to learn more and resolve those concerns. Most cases of false information are intended to leave voters feeling powerless, so the idea here is to do just the opposite.

Provide pathways to help voters take an action relevant to the topic at hand
Example: “To double check which party you’re registered with, verify your registration at countyelections.gov”

Resources

Ad Hoc Committee for 2020 Election Fairness and Legitimacy: “Fair Elections during a Crisis”

Alliance for Securing Democracy and Bipartisan Policy Center: “20 for 20: 20 Ways to Protect the 2020 Presidential Election”

Belfer Center: “Election Cyber Incident Communications Coordination Guide”

Belfer Center: “National Counter-information Operations Strategy”

Belfer Center: “The State and Local Election Cybersecurity Playbook”

John Cook and Stephan Lewandowsky: “The Debunking Handbook”

Council of Europe: “Information Disorder: Towards an Interdisciplinary Framework for Research and Policy Making”

Electronic Privacy Information Center: “E-deceptive Campaign Practices Report 2010: Internet Technology and Democracy 2.0”

First Draft: “How Emotional Skepticism Can Help Protect Vulnerable Communities”

Ideas42: “Official Communications with Voters During COVID-19”

Miles Parks: “1 Simple Step Could Help Election Security. Governments Aren’t Doing It”

E.K. Vraga, S.C. Kim, J. Cook, and L. Bode: “Testing the Effectiveness of Correction Placement and Type on Instagram”

Customizing for your office

Any tips for customizing this resource for my office?

Depending on your office’s needs and resources, you can pick and choose the different tips from this checklist. You might also approach this by considering what gaps your current strategy has that this can help you address.

You should consider where misinformation about your operations is most likely to appear and where you can best reach the members of your community who may have heard it. But also consider what you are able to maintain effectively – if you don’t have enough staff time to dedicate to a website, several social media platforms, communicating with local media, and so on, it’s usually better to focus on consistency and quality on fewer platforms than to spread your information between more platforms than you can manage.

How do I know if this resource is helping?

There are a few ways to measure the impact of your efforts:

Get feedback about your efforts and the general information environment from stakeholders in your community, like leaders in your County or Municipal governments, heads of local chapters of political parties, community organizers, and voters.
Look at engagement metrics on your communication channels. Has traffic to your website increased? Do you have more followers on your social media accounts?
Monitor trends in misinformation in your community. When you see misinformation posted somewhere, are others citing your office as a trustworthy source of information to respond to it?

Which Standards of Excellence does this resource support?

Language access
Voter communications
Community relationships
Media relationships

Which Values of Excellence does this resource support? Why?

Values for the U.S. Alliance for Election Excellence define our shared vision for the way election departments across the country can aspire to excellence. These values help us navigate the challenges of delivering successful elections and maintaining our healthy democracy.

Alliance values are nonpartisan and designed by local election officials, designers, technologists and other experts to support local election departments.

You may find this tool especially helpful for this Value:

Voter-centricity. This resource helps you ensure your voters have access to trusted, accurate information in the many places that they might seek out information about elections.
Comprehensive preparedness. Misinformation poses challenges to your operations at many levels. This resource helps you prepare to meet those challenges and respond to them effectively when they arise.

To learn more about the Values for Election Excellence, and to see the full list, visit the Alliance website.

Sharing Feedback

How was this resource developed?

This resource has been put into practice by at least one jurisdiction. Share your experience with this resource and improve it for your peers by reaching out via support@ElectionExcellence.org.

How do I stay in touch?

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Have a specific idea, piece of feedback, or question? Send an email to support@ElectionExcellence.org