- cross-posted to:
- usnews@beehaw.org
- cross-posted to:
- usnews@beehaw.org
The call, an apparent imitation or digital manipulation of the president’s voice, says, “Voting this Tuesday only enables the Republicans in their quest to elect Donald Trump again.”
A prominent New Hampshire Democrat plans to file a complaint with the state attorney general over an apparent robocall that appears to encourage supporters of President Joe Biden not to vote in Tuesday’s presidential primary.
The voice in the message is familiar — even presidential — as it’s an apparent imitation or digital manipulation of Biden’s voice.
“What a bunch of malarkey,” the voice message begins, echoing a favorite term Biden has uttered before.
This kind of thing should be treated as sedition because it’s a direct attempt to undermine democratic processes. People should be scared shitless to even think about fucking with an election.
Or if it’s a foreign country it should be considered an act of war just as much as an airstrike.
I don’t know about sedition, but there are already a ton of more specific laws regarding election interference. Things like deliberately telling voters the wrong date, location, or eligibility are usually covered.
The only thing new here is the highly convincing impersonation, which may (or may not) be covered by other laws.
Of note, this will almost entirely be state laws rather than federal. With a few restrictions, each state runs its own elections by its own rules. Which means the (criminal) charge in New Hampshire is different from the one in South Carolina, the one in Texas, etc. Rarely do the feds get involved.
That type of impersonation could be argued as civil fraud. Whoever did this deserves to catch RICO charges because what they’re doing is basically racketeering.
imo its all that plus counts of impersonating a public official /identity theft