(Reuters) – A fake robocall urging Democrats not to vote in New Hampshire’s presidential primary on Tuesday is unlikely to affect the results, the secretary of state said as voters cast ballots in the northern New England state.
“I don’t think it’s going to impact the vote in New Hampshire, because the voters are pretty savvy about what’s going on,” New Hampshire Secretary of State David Scanlan said in an interview with MSNBC.
Scanlan also said he expected a healthy turnout on the Republican side and that the results will come in quickly.
The New Hampshire attorney general is investigating fake robocalls on Sunday that simulated President Joe Biden’s voice and encouraged voters not to cast ballots in the presidential primary on Tuesday.
Authorities are investigating how many people received the message and who was behind it, Michael Garrity, a spokesman for the state’s attorney general, said in an email. About two dozen people complained over the past day about receiving the call, he said.
The message falsely indicated it was from the treasurer of a political committee that has supported efforts to write in Biden as a candidate in New Hampshire’s Democratic primary, the attorney general said.
Biden is not on the ballot in the New Hampshire primary, having supported an effort by national Democrats to move their first primary election to the more diverse state of South Carolina. But his supporters can write his name on the ballot.
It was one of two AI-generated audio clips to hit Democratic politics over the weekend. Manhattan Democratic leader Keith Wright denounced a fake audio clip circulated that sounded like his voice criticizing a state Democratic lawmaker, Inez Dickens.
(Reporting by Doina Chiacu and Steve Holland; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
