A robocall featuring an AI-generated voice, eerily similar to President Joe Biden’s, has been contacting New Hampshire residents. The call advises against voting in the upcoming Tuesday’s presidential primary, instead urging voters to save their vote for the November general election. The origin of the call remains unknown.
The audio of the call, reviewed by CNN, was obtained from the anti-robocall application Nomorobo. The application’s tracking data indicates a high volume of such calls, rating their frequency as “severe”, one of its highest classifications.
The AI voice, mimicking Biden, states, “Republicans have been trying to push nonpartisan and Democratic voters to participate in their primary. What a bunch of malarkey. We know the value of voting Democratic when our votes count. It’s important that you save your vote for the November election. We’ll need your help in electing Democrats up and down the ticket. Voting this Tuesday only enables the Republicans in their quest to elect Donald Trump again.”
Interestingly, Biden’s name will not appear on the ballot in the upcoming New Hampshire primary on Tuesday due to a dispute between the state and the Democratic National Committee. This has led to an organized effort to write-in Biden’s name.
Julie Chavez Rodriguez, Biden’s campaign manager, stated, “Spreading disinformation to suppress voting and deliberately undermine free and fair elections will not stand, and fighting back against any attempt to undermine our democracy will continue to be a top priority for this campaign.”
Aaron Jacobs, a spokesperson for Write-In Biden, described the robocall as “deep fake disinformation designed to harm Joe Biden, suppress votes, and damage our democracy.” He added that their group remains “focused on one goal until polls close on Tuesday: encouraging Granite Staters to write-in Joe Biden.”
The robocall employs spoofing, a common practice in fraudulent robocalling, which manipulates caller ID information to display a false phone number, thereby hiding the true identity of the caller. The robocall appears on caller ID as a local New Hampshire number belonging to Kathy Sullivan, a former New Hampshire Democratic Party chair and treasurer for the Granite for America PAC, which is working to encourage voters to write in Biden’s name this Tuesday.
Sullivan, a Biden supporter, expressed her frustration over the robocall, calling it a clear attempt to suppress the primary write-in vote. She believes her phone number was used to disrupt her phone lines and described the situation as an interference with democracy.
The campaign of Minnesota Rep. Dean Phillips, who is challenging Biden in the New Hampshire primary, also condemned the robocall. Spokesperson Katie Dolan said, “Any effort to discourage voters is disgraceful and an unacceptable affront to democracy. The potential use of AI to manipulate voters is deeply disturbing.”
Contributors: CNN’s Alison Main and Edward-Isaac Dovere