Research note: Legislating Uncertainty: Election Policies and the Amplification of Misinformation
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Can state election policies affect the spread of misinformation? This paper studies the role played by ballot processing policies, which determine when ballots can be examined and organized, in the online spread of political misinformation. We present evidence from the 2020 U.S. presidential election cycle linking the spread of misinformation in the aftermath of the election to the uncertainty created by these restrictions. Specifically, using a novel dataset of 317 misinformation stories constructed using over 4,700,000 posts collected in real‐time throughout the 2020 electoral period, we examine whether restrictions on the ability of election officials to process ballots corresponded with increases in the prevalence of misinformation on X/Twitter. We find that, relative to states with restrictions, states that allowed ballots to be processed in advance of the election were subjected to fewer misinformation stories. The results suggest that policymakers interested in limiting the amount of misinformation targeting their state institutions should remove barriers to pre‐election ballot processing.
DOI: 10.5167/uzh-280140
Authors: Wack, Morgan, Schafer, Joseph S., Kennedy, Ian, Beers, Anna, Spiro, Emma S., Starbird, Kate
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7106314479
FWCI:
Cites:
Cited by:
Related to: