If the 2020 election taught us anything, it’s that misinformation can travel fast on the internet, and news organizations need to be prepared to keep up.

We at PublicSource are not waiting until autumn to get started. As the local government reporter, I have already begun investigating what is happening in our region around election administration and what’s coming next for some of the most prominent actors of 2020.

In March, we uncovered a GOP faction’s scheme to purge tens of thousands of names from Allegheny County’s voter rolls. We, along with our news partners at WESA, were the only outlets in the region to publicize the plan, and we pressed the county’s Elections Division for details on what it means for the voters involved.

In May, we revisited one of the most virulent pieces of disinformation from 2020 — the false claim by former President Trump that mail-in ballots were the target of fraud in that election. We found that local Republican leaders want their supporters to vote by mail this year to boost their chances of success, but many of the party’s members are still skeptical of the voting method, apparently still convinced by the former president’s lies.

Reporting on disinformation is an evolving science. We met with Pitt’s Disinformation Lab in March to discuss the best approaches, including how to decide when to publicly expose a lie and when doing so would give false theories more oxygen and do more harm than good. These are hard choices, but the discussion reinforced for me how important our role is, this year more than usual.

Election outcomes will reverberate in every corner of our society. So it’s not just me who will be covering this hotly contested election season that will decide control of the presidency, Congress, the state General Assembly and other influential offices. Every journalist at PublicSource is evaluating the potential implications of the 2024 general election in their coverage areas — from health to environment and education to economic development.

We’ll publish more stories in our Democracy & Doubt series leading up to Nov. 5 and invite you to reach out with your questions and ideas. Email me at charlie@publicsource.org.

Support PublicSource’s efforts to ensure our region has accurate, fact-checked information before, during and after this fall’s election. Please make a donation today by clicking here.

Charlie Wolfson is PublicSource’s local government reporter. He can be reached at charlie@publicsource.org.

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How we’re covering the 2024 election and its far-reaching implications

by Charlie Wolfson, Pittsburgh's Public Source
June 24, 2024

<h1>How we’re covering the 2024 election and its far-reaching implications</h1> <p class="byline">by Charlie Wolfson, Pittsburgh's Public Source <br />June 24, 2024</p> <p>If the 2020 election taught us anything, it’s that misinformation can travel fast on the internet, and news organizations need to be prepared to keep up.</p> <p>We at PublicSource are not waiting until autumn to get started. As the local government reporter, I have already begun investigating what is happening in our region around election administration and what’s coming next for some of the most prominent actors of 2020.</p> <p>In March, <a href="https://www.publicsource.org/allegheny-county-election-voter-rolls-registration-challenge-republican-democrat/">we uncovered a GOP faction’s scheme to purge tens of thousands of names from Allegheny County’s voter rolls.</a> We, along with our news partners at WESA, were the only outlets in the region to publicize the plan, and we pressed the county’s Elections Division for details on what it means for the voters involved.</p> <p>In May, <a href="https://www.publicsource.org/pennsylvania-general-election-trump-biden-mail-in-voting-republican-democrat/">we revisited one of the most virulent pieces of disinformation from 2020 — the false claim by former President Trump that mail-in ballots were the target of fraud</a> in that election. We found that local Republican leaders want their supporters to vote by mail this year to boost their chances of success, but many of the party’s members are still skeptical of the voting method, apparently still convinced by the former president’s lies.</p> <p>Reporting on disinformation is an evolving science. We met with <a href="https://www.cyber.pitt.edu/disinformation">Pitt’s Disinformation Lab</a> in March to discuss the best approaches, including how to decide when to publicly expose a lie and when doing so would give false theories more oxygen and do more harm than good. These are hard choices, but the discussion reinforced for me how important our role is, this year more than usual.</p> <p>Election outcomes will reverberate in every corner of our society. So it’s not just me who will be covering this hotly contested election season that will decide control of the presidency, Congress, the state General Assembly and other influential offices. Every journalist at PublicSource is evaluating the potential implications of the 2024 general election in their coverage areas — from health to environment and education to economic development.</p> <p>We’ll publish more stories in our <a href="https://www.publicsource.org/election-2024-pittsburgh-allegheny-county-democracy-doubt-trust-voters/">Democracy &amp; Doubt</a> series leading up to Nov. 5 and invite you to reach out with your questions and ideas. Email me at <a href="mailto:charlie@publicsource.org">charlie@publicsource.org</a>.</p> <p>Support PublicSource’s efforts to ensure our region has accurate, fact-checked information before, during and after this fall’s election. Please make a donation today by<a href="https://checkout.fundjournalism.org/memberform?org_id=publicsource&amp;campaign=701QO00000CdVmbYAF"> clicking here.</a></p> <div class="wp-block-buttons"> <div class="wp-block-button has-custom-font-size has-normal-font-size"><a class="wp-block-button__link has-white-color has-primary-background-color has-text-color has-background has-link-color wp-element-button" href="https://checkout.fundjournalism.org/memberform?org_id=publicsource&amp;campaign=701QO00000CdVmbYAF">Match my gift!</a></div> </p></div> <p><em>Charlie Wolfson is PublicSource's local government reporter. He can be reached at&nbsp;<a href="mailto:charlie@publicsource.org">charlie@publicsource.org</a>.</em></p> <div class="wp-block-buttons"> </div> <p>This &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://www.publicsource.org/election-2024-pittsburgh-pennsylvania-localgovernment-misinformation-democracy/&quot;&gt;article&lt;/a&gt; first appeared on &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://www.publicsource.org&quot;&gt;Pittsburgh&#039;s Public Source&lt;/a&gt; and is republished here under a &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/&quot;&gt;Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;img src=&quot;https://i0.wp.com/www.publicsource.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/cropped-ps_circle_favicon_blue.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;amp;ssl=1&quot; style=&quot;width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;&quot;&gt;</p> &lt;img id=&quot;republication-tracker-tool-source&quot; src=&quot;https://www.publicsource.org/?republication-pixel=true&amp;post=1306204&amp;amp;ga4=G-CCLXQK5C14&quot; style=&quot;width:1px;height:1px;&quot;&gt;&lt;script&gt; PARSELY = { autotrack: false, onload: function() { PARSELY.beacon.trackPageView({ url: &quot;https://www.publicsource.org/election-2024-pittsburgh-pennsylvania-localgovernment-misinformation-democracy/&quot;, urlref: window.location.href }); } } &lt;/script&gt; &lt;script id=&quot;parsely-cfg&quot; src=&quot;//cdn.parsely.com/keys/publicsource.org/p.js&quot;&gt;&lt;/script&gt;

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