Secretary of State Steve Barnett tells Bob Mercer that his office is ready to fight fake news:
An area of emphasis for our office is conveying the potential threat of election disinformation and misinformation to our citizens.
As we’ve seen in past elections nationally, bad actors attempt to manipulate election results by influencing the public with dishonest information about the voting process or individual candidates, primarily using social media platforms.
We’re urging the public to be aware of this threat and cautious of information you may become exposed to.
To ensure you’re receiving the correct information pertaining to election processes in our state, please contact our office (605-773-3537 voice or 605-773-6580 fax or email elections@state.sd.us) or your local county auditor [Secretary of State Steve Barnett, inteview with Bob Mercer, “S.D. Secretary of State Answers Questions About 2020 Election Security,” KELO-TV, 2019.11.02].
I haven’t heard a lot of “urging” from SOS Barnett’s office. The rookie SOS appears not to have established any social media presence until September, when Barnett’s people whipped up a Facebook page with a bad profile picture. All they’ve done with that channel is put up pictures of the September 24 voter registration day. The only other action there is a repost of an October 22 Mercer story on voting machines that ends with Barnett’s statement that his office is (Mercer’s words) “establishing sites with Facebook and Twitter that can be used to distribute word about misinformation.” If the Twitter is up, it’s not leaping out of my morning searches.
But if the Secretary of State’s office does take an active role in rebutting false information about candidates and the voting process, one of their primary targets needs to be one of that office’s former employees, Pat Powers, and the regular and often sponsored stream of misinformation and electoral manipulation posted on Dakota War College. Perhaps once we actually reach the election year, Secretary Barnett will fire up that Twitter and post regular fact-check Tweets pointing out what Pat left out or misreported this time.
Then again, if the Secretary of State wants fact-checking, he could save his staff some effort and just put the Dakota Free Press RSS feed or Twitter stream on the SDSOS.gov homepage!
Happy Camper’s post from yesterday finally had time to soak into my thick skull. In short, he’s promoting empathy for Trump supporters and asking us to try and understand why they made that choice. Their lives were miserable and at that point persuadables often turn to authoritarian leaders.
I don’t talk to many Trump supporters because there aren’t many in my Little town so I read Dakota War College to see how they’re doing these days.
Trump supporters are a lot like teenagers. They think they know what they need to know. Like a teen with a boy or girlfriend that you don’t really like much, criticizing their friend only makes them overlook more of their friends faults. Attacking your child’s “true love” just makes things worse and if not curtailed can lead to a truly bad situation that could have been avoided by simply remaining silent but approachable until your kid finally gets it.
Who calls it Dakota War Toilet? Was that Larry Kurtz? Or nearly everyone? It’s such an apt title. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Yeah. Mr Barnett, start with watching “Laundry” [of money], Meryl Steep, and ask yer buddy Gov Mike Rounds to explain EB5 to us for real.
Kurtz was the first I heard, Debbo.
Any relation to former Bar Executive Director Tom Barnett (and his brother Judge Mark Barnett)? Is this Barnett also a lawyer?
Britt, I’m pretty sure all of those Barnetts are related. Steve is not a lawyer: he has an undergrad degree in Biz Admin and has been a GOP flunky all of his adult life.