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World desk9 min

How AI Can Influence Elections—and How Campaigns Can Reduce the Risks

AI can accelerate election misinformation, impersonation, and targeted persuasion. Here are practical safeguards campaigns can use, plus what official sources say about evidence and differing rules.
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AI can affect elections by making fabricated text, images, audio, and video easier to produce and spread; by enabling targeted political persuasion; and by making phishing or false voting instructions more convincing. Campaigns can reduce the risks with stronger account security, prepared incident procedures, human review of AI-assisted content, and a clear rule: voters should get voting logistics from the relevant election authority.

These are credible mechanisms, not proof that AI determines election outcomes. The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) says the impact is hard to quantify and reports no evidence that AI election communication was the determining factor in results.

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How can AI influence elections?

AI can change the speed, cost, scale, and style of election communication. A campaign, individual, or malicious actor can use generative systems to create material that looks or sounds plausible, tailor messages to different audiences, or impersonate a trusted person. The risk is not limited to content that is entirely fabricated: AI can also help adapt, translate, or distribute misleading claims that already exist.

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The UK Cabinet Office identifies lower effort to create material and rapid online sharing as factors that can help disinformation spread. That describes a pathway for influence, not a measure of how often it happens or how much it changes votes.

Synthetic text and images

Generative tools can produce varied posts, fabricated claims, or misleading images involving candidates, election officials, or voting processes. A false image may be presented as evidence of an event that never happened, while convincing text can make an invented claim appear to come from an informed source. Repetition and rapid sharing can put such material in front of people before a correction reaches them.

Audio and video impersonation

Cloned audio or deepfake video may appear to show or sound like a candidate or public official. An impersonation can falsely attribute a statement to a trusted person, or lend credibility to a false claim about an election. Seeing or hearing a familiar voice is not, by itself, reliable proof of who made a recording.

False voting information

AI-generated voice messages, chatbots, posts, or other content can misstate voting dates, hours, locations, eligibility, or procedures. The US Election Assistance Commission (EAC) warns that AI-generated information can sound plausible while being inaccurate. That matters particularly for logistics: a small error about where or when to vote can prevent someone from acting on time.

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Targeted persuasion and conversational influence

AI can help select audiences for political advertisements or personalize persuasive messages. The European Commission’s AI Act Service Desk gives examples intended to influence electoral opinions: AI-enabled political-ad targeting, persuasive political chatbots, and voter-advice systems that recommend a candidate or party based on a person’s preferences.

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Purpose matters. A system that optimizes campaign administration is not the same as one designed to target voters with persuasion. Similarly, a neutral chatbot that directs people to official voting information is different from a conversational system intended to influence political opinions. The intended use, the data involved, and what voters see all affect the risk assessment.

Phishing and attacks on trust

AI-generated text can make phishing and social-engineering attempts more convincing. A message that appears to come from a campaign colleague, election official, or election vendor might request credentials, money, sensitive data, or urgent action. Impersonation can also undermine trust in genuine election communications, even when it does not succeed in obtaining access.

What does the evidence say about AI’s effect on election results?

More than 60 countries held national elections in 2024 — Australian Electoral Commission, 2025. The AEC says the impact of AI election communication is hard to quantify and reports no evidence to date that it was the determining factor in election results. The number of elections establishes the breadth of the context in which the issue arose; it is not evidence that AI changed those outcomes. The AEC page was updated 25 September 2025.

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This distinction is important for campaign decisions. The mechanisms above justify preparation because they can disrupt communications, mislead voters, or expose accounts. They do not support claims that every AI-made political message is deceptive, unlawful, or electorally decisive. A proportionate plan treats risks seriously without presenting uncertain effects as settled facts.

How can a campaign reduce its exposure before an incident?

1. Secure accounts, devices, and communications

Make it harder for an attacker to impersonate campaign staff or take over accounts. The UK Cabinet Office guidance recommends limiting personal details exposed publicly, using official devices and communication channels for official work, keeping personal use separate, and using strong passwords and two-step verification.

  • Use separate official and personal accounts and devices where practical; do not move sensitive campaign work into personal channels by default.
  • Use strong, unique passwords and enable two-step verification on campaign accounts.
  • Consider a hardware security key only for accounts that support it, after checking compatibility and how account recovery will work if the key is lost.
  • Review what staff publish publicly about themselves and their work, since exposed personal details can help make an impersonation more believable.

Security measures need a recovery plan as well as a login barrier. Before relying on a new authentication method, confirm who can regain access and how the campaign will continue communicating if an account or device becomes unavailable.

2. Assign incident roles and reporting routes in advance

Do not wait for a suspected deepfake or false voting message to decide who owns the response. Identify the staff responsible for verifying a claim, preserving a record, contacting the platform, and coordinating with party or election officials. Learn the relevant platform’s reporting and escalation paths in advance. UK guidance recommends reporting suspected disinformation to the relevant platform and political party; India’s 2024 directions set out reporting, removal, and escalation steps.

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  • Choose a primary verifier and a backup who can reach the candidate or official spokesperson through a known channel.
  • Assign a person to capture the material and retain a record of where and when it appeared, without amplifying it unnecessarily.
  • Know who is authorized to report the content to the platform and who can contact party or election officials.
  • Agree who can issue a public correction and which official campaign channels will carry it.

Clear ownership reduces the chance that multiple people make contradictory claims or that a false item gets more attention through an uncoordinated response.

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3. Set standards for campaign-generated content

Write rules that apply to staff, contractors, and anyone creating material on the campaign’s behalf. Require a named human owner to review AI-assisted claims and creative work before release. Prohibit impersonation and knowingly misleading synthetic media. Set a separate check for any authorization statement or disclosure required by the relevant jurisdiction or platform.

Do not assume one rule applies to every format. Legal and platform requirements may differ for organic posts, paid advertisements, robocalls, and material from candidates or supporters. A disclosure or label requirement is not universal. Determine what applies to the campaign’s location, the channel, the speaker, and the content before publication.

4. Match oversight to the AI system’s purpose

Classify proposed uses by what they do, not just by whether an AI tool is involved. The EU examples distinguish administrative campaign optimization and neutral voter-information chatbots from systems intended to influence electoral opinions. For each use, ask:

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  • Is the purpose administrative assistance, drafting, audience targeting, persuasion, or voter information?
  • Will voters interact with the system or see its output directly?
  • Could it produce inaccurate claims, impersonate a person, or confuse voters about official information?
  • Does it use sensitive information or profile people to tailor political messages?
  • Who reviews its output, corrects errors, and takes responsibility if something goes wrong?
  • Which election laws and platform policies apply to this use and channel?

A drafting aid used by staff with review is materially different from an automated system that targets voters or recommends candidates. The more directly a system reaches voters, uses personal data, or makes consequential claims, the more important it is to establish review and correction procedures before use.

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How should a campaign respond to a suspected deepfake or false claim?

  1. Pause before sharing. Treat unexpected candidate statements, urgent requests, unusual audio or video, and claims about voting as unverified. Do not repost the item merely to ask whether it is real.
  2. Check through a known channel. Contact the purported speaker, campaign representative, or relevant official through contact details already known to the campaign. Do not rely on the phone number, link, or account included in the suspicious message.
  3. Preserve a record. Retain the original post or message, its account or sender, the time it was encountered, and relevant context. Keep the material within the response team where possible rather than distributing it further.
  4. Check facts independently. For voting dates, locations, hours, eligibility, and procedures, consult the competent election authority. For a statement attributed to a candidate, look for confirmation on a known official campaign channel or ask the campaign’s designated verifier.
  5. Report and escalate. Use the platform’s reporting route and the campaign’s pre-agreed contacts. Depending on the jurisdiction and circumstances, coordinate with party or election officials as well.
  6. Correct with verified information. If a public response is warranted, state what is confirmed and direct people to the authoritative source for any voting information. Avoid repeating unnecessary details of the false content.

Do not make an AI detector the sole proof that media is authentic or fake. The EAC and AEC guidance supports verification through reliable or official sources; visual inspection or a detection tool cannot be treated as conclusive evidence on its own.

How can voters verify polling information?

For dates, locations, opening hours, eligibility, and voting steps, go directly to the election authority responsible for the election. Do not rely on a forwarded message, search snippet, chatbot answer, or a post that merely looks official. If a campaign shares logistics, it should link voters to the competent authority rather than substitute its own account for the official source.

Election offices can make authoritative information easier to find and share. The EAC offers a handout template that directs voters to official sources, while the AEC runs digital-literacy resources encouraging people to pause and check. For campaigns, the practical standard is simple: confirm the information with the election authority and make that source easy for voters to reach.

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How do election rules differ by jurisdiction?

The following examples illustrate variation; they are not a universal legal guide. Each concerns a particular jurisdiction and date. Campaigns should check current law, election-authority guidance, and platform policies for the election they are working on.

Jurisdiction and date What the official source says What not to infer
United States, federal campaign-finance rules; FEC action on 19 September 2024 The Federal Election Commission voted not to begin a separate AI rulemaking. Its interpretive rule says existing fraudulent-misrepresentation law is technology-neutral and applies to AI-assisted media case by case. The FEC’s September 2024 update states: “The statute, and the Commission’s implementing regulation, is technology neutral.” This does not mean every synthetic campaign image is covered or prohibited. Application to specific technologies continues case by case.
India; Election Commission directions issued May 2024 The Election Commission directed parties to refrain from circulating deepfake audio or video and patently false or misleading information. The published government summary says such content should be removed within three hours of notice and describes reporting and escalation steps. Do not treat this direction as a rule for campaigns in other countries or as a complete statement of all applicable Indian law.
Australia; 2025 federal election context The AEC says AI use in campaigning is not categorically prohibited under the Commonwealth Electoral Act. Other rules may apply, including authorization statements for covered electoral communications and a narrowly interpreted offence concerning misleading electors about casting a vote. “Not categorically prohibited” does not mean every use is allowed or exempt from other requirements.
European Union; AI Act examples from the Commission Service Desk Examples of election-influencing systems include political-ad targeting, persuasive political chatbots, and personalized voter-advice applications. The explainer distinguishes administrative campaign optimization and neutral voter-information chatbots. The examples do not replace checking the applicable legal text, dates, and requirements for a specific system or deployment.

These examples show why a campaign should not assume that synthetic-media labeling, authorization, or other requirements are identical everywhere. The law may also distinguish between the purpose of a system and the channel or kind of communication in which it is used.

What should campaigns keep in view?

AI creates practical election risks through impersonation, misinformation about voting, targeted persuasion, and more convincing social-engineering attempts. Campaigns can address them without treating every AI-assisted message as malicious: secure access, prepare named response roles, review campaign content under clear rules, and verify voter logistics with the election authority. The evidence supports readiness and careful communication; it does not establish that AI communication determines election results.

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