Democrats' divide on voting rights litigation

Transcript

NIALA BOODHOO: Good morning! Welcome to Axios Today! It’s Monday, July 31st. I’m Niala Boodhoo.

Here’s what you need to know today: a reality check on deep fakes. Plus, new research on where the highest rates of Alzheimer’s disease are across the country. But first, our One Big Thing: Democrats’ disagreement on litigating voting rights.

Democrats’ disagreement on litigating voting rights

NIALA: In the run up to the midterm elections last year, more than 100 lawsuits were filed over voting rights issues, almost equally by both Democrats and Republicans. There were challenges to how votes were counted, lawsuits about poll watchers, voter outreach and even how to vote when it comes to mail in or absentee ballots. But can we expect the same next year?

Axios' National Political Correspondent Alex Thompson has been reporting about how Democrats' strategy on this may be splintering. Hey, Alex!

ALEX THOMPSON: Hey!

NIALA: Given the amount of lawsuits, Alex, that we saw in 2020 and then during the midterms, are we expecting the same thing for next year's presidential election?

ALEX: There's going to be perhaps an unprecedented amount of litigation around the 2024 presidential election when you combine the Republicans and the Democrats alike. But what is happening on the Democratic side is there is a deep disagreement on the best way to pursue that litigation. And in some cases, how much litigation you should do. The fact of the matter is that after Donald Trump's presidency, the makeup of the judiciary is much more conservative than it was just a decade ago. And there is deep concern from the president's team in particular, that if Democrats are overly aggressive, it could backfire because conservative judges can essentially not just overrule you, but they can actually set back precedent beyond even what was originally there.

NIALA: So there is a thinking, though, among some Democrats to basically flood the zone and file as many lawsuits as possible?

ALEX: Absolutely. the personification, if you will, of that strategy in D.C. like you would call him maybe like a mega lawyer, super lawyer. His name is Marc Elias. Now, he has represented the Democratic National Committee since 2009. He is certainly the foremost advocate that you need to flood the zone, that you need to, basically file litigation at all times.And, maybe if you're swinging for the fences every single time, maybe you're going to lose some. But it is too critical, it's too important to, uh, be risk averse in this moment.

Now, the whole reason why he is so important is because I mentioned that he was the DNC's lawyer since 2009. That relationship ended just this past April after repeated clashes with the president's team over this particular issue, along with the fact that a lot of the president's team just doesn't seem to like him.

NIALA: What do you think this says as a country, where we stand right now when it comes to voting rights?

ALEX: I think it says that this is among the most contentious issues in American politics. Now, Republicans argue that there was an incredible expansion of voting rights amidst the coronavirus pandemic, with the pandemic over, they are withdrawing many of those rules. And they would say given the prevalence of early voting that has expanded almost every single election cycle that they are basically just trying to pull it back.

Now, some of those arguments have then been further fueled by President Trump's allegations that the election was stolen. And some of these falsehoods have then further pushed Republican lawmakers to restrict these rules in order to prevent future “rigged elections,” on the democratic side, they also sort of see it as this existential moment.

You know, a lot of Democratic leaders, Joe Biden included, have said that he believes what Republican lawmakers in the States are doing is Jim Crow 2.0. And, I do believe that this fight over voting rights, both on the right and the left, then also within the left is part of a much larger debate the country is having over democracy, about how we run elections. I'd also say it's one of the more expensive issues because it costs a lot of money to be doing all these lawsuits.

NIALA: Alex Thompson is a national political correspondent for Axios. Thanks, Alex.

ALEX: Thank you.

NIALA: In a moment, tips to figure out what’s real - and what’s not - when it comes to images online.

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A reality check on deep fakes

NIALA: Welcome back to Axios Today. I'm Niala Boodhoo.

We were just talking about the 2024 elections. Another concern is AI generated fake images and its role in the election. Axios' visual team has created an interactive quiz to help us understand what's real and what's not when it comes to images online. Senior Visual Journalist Shoshana Gordon is here to give us a reality check on deep fakes. Hey, Shoshana.

SHOSHANA GORDON: Hey Niala, how's it going?

NIALA: First, can you help us out? How do we define deepfake? Because I feel like we hear this word a lot nowadays.

SHOSHANA: It is a mashup of the phrase deep learning and the word fake. So deep learning is also known as machine learning. A deep fake is a fake image, video, or audio that's been created by an algorithm.

NIALA: So when it comes to images online, what should we think about before we share one of those?

SHOSHANA: So one thing visually is you can look at the image itself. Is there a weird painterly quality to something that is supposed to be a photograph? That's kind of a tried and true test right now of the current AI. Are the hands weird? Are the fingers kind of not matched up? Is there blurred text? You can check the source who's actually sharing the image. Is this a news organization that you trust, is this really making your emotions or biases really coming into the forefront?

If you are feeling a really strong emotion, take a beat. This could be content that's specifically created to sway you one way or another. And really it's using tools that you already have and already know from spending so much time on the internet, where you can gut check, is this confirming what I already think I know about the world, or am I actually learning something new, rather than falling into a hysteria.

NIALA: Shoshana, is that why you all wanted to do this project?

SHOSHANA: Yeah! So, basically AI, the word, has been floating around a lot in the newsroom and also just our environment, our world, and so we decided that it's really important to make sure that our audience understands what's happening and what is a deep fake and how to tell the difference and not to fall into possible hysteria around, oh, this is such a new thing, how can we even trust anything anymore?

In addition, as our Axios’ colleagues and reporters have written, this 2024 election is set to be the deep fake election. We've already seen experimentation with AI in different political ads, and we expect that to keep happening come November 2024. We talked with Alexa Volland from the News Literacy Project, she said, “what's more worrisome than an information environment where anything could be fabricated is one in which people refuse to believe anything is real.”

NIALA: We'll include a link to this project that our visuals team did so you can do this quiz for yourself. Shoshana Gordon is a senior visual journalist for Axios. Thanks, Shoshana.

SHOSHANA: Thanks so much, Niala.

New research on where the highest rates of Alzheimer’s disease

NIALA: It’s hard to estimate exactly how many Americans have Alzheimer’s disease - and where the most cases are. Axios’ What’s Next Editor Alex Fitzpatrick is here to explain how a new study is trying to fill that gap.

ALEX FITZPATRICK: There's no good national look at Alzheimer's rates by state, or by county, or by city. And so they're using a combination of demographic trends and known risk factors to estimate the number of Alzheimer's cases in a given area. And to some degree, what they found is obvious. You know, states that have a lot of older people have a lot of Alzheimer's cases.

So that's California, Florida, and Texas have the most Alzheimer's cases estimated. That being said, if you look at more per capita figures, there's some interesting results. So Maryland, New York, and Mississippi top the list of U. S. states ranked by the number of Alzheimer's cases they're estimated to have.

It's an imperfect study and the authors recognize that. What they're doing is essentially looking at demographic trends and estimating the number of Alzheimer's cases. There are certain lifestyle factors that go into Alzheimer's that they don't have data and couldn't factor in. For instance, you know, what are people's lifestyles like? How active are they? What's their diet like? All those things can contribute to Alzheimer's, the researchers just didn't have the data necessary to include that in their estimations.

NIALA: That’s Axios’ Alex Fitzpatrick.

Destination weddings are back

NIALA: One last headline for you before you go: destination weddings are making a post pandemic comeback - they grew from $21.3 billion last year to $28.3 billion this year, according to the Destination Wedding Global Market report. And The Knot says the most popular destination for international weddings is - Mexico!

Which is where I was this past week - thanks to Felix Salmon for filling in for me. Often we ask Margaret Talev to sub as guest host - but we couldn’t this time because I was at her destination wedding! Big congratulations to Margaret and Jon - from all of us at Axios Today.

I’m Niala Boodhoo - thanks for listening - stay safe and we’ll see you back here tomorrow morning.