Some midterm voters are turning to ChatGPT for ballot help

AI enters voters’ election research

Voters are already casting ballots in the midterm elections, and some are adding ChatGPT to the ways they prepare. They are asking the artificial intelligence system to research races on their ballots, explain election choices and, in some cases, recommend how they should vote.

That marks a new role for AI in an election: moving beyond general political questions and into an individual voter’s decision-making. A conversation can begin with a request for information about a ballot and then shift toward a direct question about which choice to make.

The two uses are different. Research requests ask the system to organize or explain information. Requests for a voting recommendation ask it to make a judgment that the voter could use when filling out a ballot.

Keeping the decision with the voter

A ChatGPT response does not cast a ballot or replace the voter’s choice. The voter decides which questions to ask, how much weight to give the answers and whether to follow any recommendation.

Voters can also separate research from decision-making. They can ask AI to identify the races and questions they want to examine, then make their own comparisons before voting. That approach treats the system as one part of ballot preparation rather than as the final decision-maker.

The development adds a new question to this year’s midterms: not only where voters get election information, but whether they ask an AI system to turn that information into a voting choice.