The state’s Joint Information Center for elections took complaints and reports during Tuesday’s primary.
The JIC is an effort involving the state Dept. of Elections, Dept. of Justice and other state agencies to monitor and address issues on Election Day.
Department of Elections community relations officer Cathleen Hartsky-Carter said things went smoothly Tuesday, with the exception of two reports from media outlets about misinformation on social media.
“We did report a couple of posts on X as being spam because they were spreading some information about voters being turned away, and that was not the truth,” Hartsky-Carter said. “Voters were not being turned away. We wanted to make sure the public knew that.”
“It was a very small issue,” Carter added, “but we were hyper vigilant about anything that might be posted on social media that might cause public concern. So, we wanted to nip them in the bud.”
10 media outlets reached out to the JIC when the election results webpage crashed after results started rolling in.
Tuesday’s voter turnout landed at about 22%, compared to 32% in the 2020 primaries. It will likely be substantially higher in November, so Carter says Tuesday served as a good dress rehearsal.
“We are definitely prepared for the increased activity that we're going to see for the general election compared to the primary election,” Carter said.
The center will reopen on November 4 for the General election and be active through November 6.
