Should you ask AI about voting? Election officials are cautious

One state is trying to harness AI technology to help those who run elections.

You can ask a chatbot where you can vote. But should you?

Elections officials are grappling with voters using artificial intelligence chatbots, such as ChatGPT or Claude, to get information about upcoming election dates, how voting works, and the candidates they'll see on their ballot. It's among the many ways artificial intelligence has transformed politics, elections, and campaigns ahead of the 2026 midterm elections .

Officials largely urge caution, uncertain that voters will be able to get the precise, accurate information they need. AI companies, meanwhile, say they're working to surface neutral information and to improve their chatbots' ability to talk about elections.

But some election officials also think there's opportunity in harnessing the new technology to help election workers.

Election officials have some concerns

Chatbots could allow voters to find quick, digestible information about when and where to vote, and how votes are counted and results are shared. But voters could also be served outdated or incorrect details, hallucinated details, or misinformation that's been picked up on by the chatbot.

"The bottom line for me is that voters should seek out trusted sources of information, and the most trusted source are people who administer elections," Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon told ABC News on the sidelines of a recent gathering of election officials.

West Virginia Secretary of State Kris Warner told ABC News that he's concerned about what happens if someone tries to look for local details but doesn't type in everything the chatbot needs to know.

"We have somebody in Harrison County [West Virginia] that types in, they need specific information about Harrison County. If they don't put in the name of the state, there's seven other states that all have Harrison counties, so it could be Mississippi, Indiana, Texas or any of the other states. They're not going to get the right information," he said.

Some state officials are wary because they've already dealt with AI causing deleterious impacts in their elections. New Hampshire Secretary of State David Scanlan brought up a roboca l l vo t ers in t he Grani t e S t a t e received in ear l y 2024 that used artificial intelligence to impersonate the voice of then-President Joe Biden, and says they're still driving home the message this year that voters should get accurate information from officials.

"When that occurred, we reacted very quickly ... to inform voters that the only source of accurate information that you can rely on is from your local election officials, or the secretary of state, or the attorney general, and we're still driving that message home in this upcoming midterm election," Scanlan said. He added that he does feel AI down the line might help election officials get information to voters quickly.

The advent of AI providing election information has also changed what some election officials communicate to the public.

"A lot of election officials and secretaries of state have been talking more about the process of elections versus reminding people when to vote," Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs told ABC News.

Connecticut Secretary of State Stephanie Thomas, meanwhile, told ABC News that she is unsure her office will reach out to the companies running the AI chatbots.

"When you look at the social media companies, it's been a mixed result getting any type of guardrails put in place," Thomas said. "So I'm not sure if the AI community will be very different. But it's certainly something that we'll be considering."

AI companies respond

Some of the companies that run a few of the most prominent artificial intelligence chatbots told ABC News they've taken steps to try to ensure that their software brings up accurate information for voters.

OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, says i t is working with The Associated Press to show accurate election results and with nonprofit Democracy Works "to display reliable information about voting and registration processe. ... when people ask about those topics."

Anthropic, which runs Claude, is se t t o do some t hing simi l a r with a visual banner that pops up in response to election inquiries directing people to Democracy Works.

Google, which runs the Gemini chatbot that has also been integrated into most Google web searches, has said it prioritizes "surfacing authoritative election information directly within results and responses," including "direct links to official resources." The company also says Gemini is meant to give neutral responses that don't support any political leaning.

Meanwhile, Meta -- which has integrated its Meta AI platform into its social media networks and apps such as Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp -- says that in addition to designing the software to give local and official information, the company also meets with associations of election officials.

The company told ABC News that helps voters because representatives from those associations can flag to Meta if they're hearing voters are seeing incorrect information about voting on the company's platforms, allowing the company to check on its tools.

Some offices see opportunities

One state is trying to harness AI chatbot technology to help those who run elections.

During the secretary of state conference, the office of Ohio's Secretary of State Frank LaRose spoke about Eva -- the "Elections Virtual Assistant" -- which is a cha t bo t t he o f fice crea t ed for e l ec t ion officia l s (and not the general public) that was trained on their internal manual. Officials can then ask the chatbot questions about Ohio election procedures and details.

"After some testing, what we realized is this is a great tool and let's make it available to all of our election officials. And of course, we've grown it and improved it over time as well," LaRose said.

That said, LaRose cautioned that officials need to verify Eva's answers against statutes and directives, and the bot cannot serve as legal counsel. It also struggles with figuring out future election dates.

Other states are less sure they'll use AI chatbot technology for now for administering or assisting with elections.

"Right now, it is too risky. There's just too many unknowns and too much unverified information ... until there's really good insurances on cybersecurity, Maine is not comfortable going there for elections yet," Maine Deputy Secretary of State Kate McBrien told ABC News.

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