WSU launches initiative to combat election misinformation

A national rise in conspiracy theories surrounding elections and threats to poll workers — including suspicious envelopes sent last week to elections offices in at least four Washington counties — have spurred fear that the 2024 U.S. presidential election could mean trouble. Evacuations at elections offices around the state disproved experts’ predictions that local elections this year would be relatively calm.

The university’s Thomas S. Foley Institute for Public Policy and Public Service will host educational events and collaborate with the Washington Office of the Secretary of State to support free and fair elections. The institute will also work to encourage people to sign up to volunteer at elections offices — places burdened by high turnover due to safety concerns.

Experts are worried there won’t be enough poll workers for the 2024 election, Foley Institute director Cornell Clayton said.

“There’s been a dramatic increase in the threats and incidences of violence at polling stations and elections offices over the last four years,” Clayton said. “The vast majority of poll workers are just volunteers — they tend to be elderly women. They go to these polling stations and they find themselves being accosted and threatened.”