CED Provides Plan to Restore Confidence in America’s Elections

The Committee for Economic Development (CED), the public policy center of The Conference Board, has issued a new Solutions Brief, Secure, Credible, and Accessible 2024 Elections, which offers a series of recommendations to ensure that the 2024 election restores confidence in the nation's most fundamental democratic process.

The Solutions Brief—the latest in CED's Sustaining Capitalism series—comes as confidence in America's elections is still recovering from the lows of 2020. This year's election, however, is the first in which generative AI is widely available. The growing popularity of this technology, along with the rise of social media as a news source, offers greater opportunities for bad actors to spread disinformation. Aging voting machines and software also leave the US election system vulnerable.

As the Solutions Brief emphasizes, conducting an election that is secure, credible, and accessible not only ensures public trust in elections but also positions the US as a global beacon of democracy.

"Business leaders, as trusted members of their communities, have a key role in strengthening civic engagement and building resistance to disinformation," said John Gardner, Vice President, Public Policy at CED. "Both policymakers and private sector leaders must act now to ensure that the 2024 election is secure, credible, and accessible."

Key Recommendations

Secure our elections and rebuild trust in the elections process.

• Policymakers and business leaders should set guardrails for the use of AI in campaigns.
• All voting machines should produce a paper record to give voters confidence that the vote they cast is the vote recorded and to assist with recounts.
• To speed the announcement of results, ballots received before Election Day should be counted before Election Day, with pre-counted results confidential until Election Day.
• All wireless components in voting systems should be prohibited.
• Election administrators should conduct rigorous testing of voting infrastructure for security risks and publish results to build public trust.
• Federal funding for election security should be robust and keep pace with threat levels.
• States should be held accountable in the maintenance of voter registration lists.

Make voting more accessible.

• States should offer at least 10 days of early voting, including weekend and evening hours.
• States should encourage the option to vote by mail to increase access and reduce crowding at the polls. This is especially important for those who live far from the polls.
• States should implement best practices regarding ballots and mail-in envelope design, as well as develop clear guidelines on handling ballots returned because of errors.

Commit to bipartisan/nonpartisan administration of elections and the safety of election workers.

• Implement widespread poll monitoring on a bipartisan/nonpartisan basis.
• States should provide maximum protections for election administrators and increase penalties for harassment.
• Information on how to report threats to election workers should be provided.

Business leaders should serve as a resource for trustworthy information on the voting process.

• Business leaders should use their voice to speak on the importance of voting in building a strong civil society and ensuring economic prosperity.
• Business leaders should share trusted information on local voting processes such as registration deadlines and options for early and mail-in voting with their employees.
• Business leaders should encourage their employees to serve as poll workers.

Increase public-private collaboration in building resistance to disinformation.

• Business leaders and government should collaborate to understand how the public interprets AI-generated media.
• Business leaders, working with Congress, should help enable voters to identify mis- and disinformation, including sharing best practices in identifying synthetic media.

CED is offering an outline of a toolkit to assist in this process.
The framework includes an explanation about why it is important for business to reach out to employees, along with draft language to consider.

• Offer information on polling places and times to build resistance to misinformation and disinformation regarding election procedures.
• Offer accurate information on early, dropbox, and mail-in voting options.
• Offer encouragement to employees to serve as poll workers.
• Leverage CISA's online Election Security Rumor vs. Reality resource, which addresses common disinformation narratives by providing accurate information related to elections, to build trust in voting infrastructure.
• To combat the growing threat posed by deepfakes, business leaders may wish to include best practices in identifying synthetic media.