Kate Starbird
Role at the time: Professor at the University of Washington and co-founder of its Center for an Informed Public, posting on her personal Bluesky account
Condemned
Statement summary
Disinformation researcher Kate Starbird says the administration's efforts on mail-in voting sowed doubt and confusion among voters, while many voters are responding by voting early, using drop boxes and tracking their ballots.
“The bad news: The Trump admin's efforts to interfere w/ mail-in-voting were successful in sowing doubt & confusion. The good news: That's not stopping voters who are getting the message to vote early, use official ballot dropboxes, & track their ballots.”
Read the original post (opens in a new tab)Kate Starbird on voter confusion about mail-in votingOriginal post
Why we used this label
Starbird calls the administration's moves interference that sowed doubt and confusion, a negative judgment of the effort to impose the mail-ballot rules. The closest competing label is mixed or conditional, because she also says voters are adapting; it loses because that observation does not qualify her judgment of the effort.