Survival Challenges: Climate change is a growing military concern that has been studied since the 1950s. At the same time, individuals must actively maintain their own voter registration due to frequent moves, highlighting the importance of being informed and proactive in both areas.
Climate change poses a serious threat that we need to recognize and address, as highlighted by military studies dating back to the 1950s. As the environment changes rapidly, especially in our own country, it’s essential to prepare and safeguard our forces. On another front, maintaining voter registration is also challenging due to many Americans moving frequently. While there’s no national entity overseeing this process, initiatives like Vote Flare help individuals keep their voter registration up to date, enabling them to participate in elections. Accurate voter lists depend on individuals taking responsibility to update their information, amidst the chaos of daily life. While climate change and voter registration seem different, both require awareness and action to ensure we can survive and thrive in our changing world.
Voter Registration Alerts: Vote Flare helps voters stay informed about changes to their voter registration through timely text alerts, ensuring they can address issues before election day.
Updating voter registration can be overlooked by many, especially with so many important deadlines and requirements. Election officials struggle to keep voters informed due to lack of resources. Vote Flare aims to help by sending text alerts to individuals about any changes in their voter registration, such as address updates or changes in status. This service uses machine learning to regularly check voter records, ensuring voters receive timely notifications so they can correct any issues before election day. Factors like redistricting can also affect voter status, making it even more crucial for voters to be aware of their registration status. This proactive approach helps voters stay informed and ready to vote where they want on election day.
Voter Awareness: Voters need to regularly check their registration status, as inactivity can lead to being marked as inactive. Misinformation about voter fraud is widespread, but actual fraud is rare. Resources like VOTEFLA help keep voters informed about their status.
Many voters underestimate the importance of keeping their voter registration status up to date. If you don’t vote often, you could be moved from active to inactive status without realizing it. This can lead to issues when trying to vote. Voter rolls change over time, and states handle these changes differently. While misinformation about voter fraud and rolls, such as claims of deceased individuals being on lists, is prevalent, actual voter fraud is very rare. Therefore, it’s crucial for voters to stay informed and use resources like VOTEFLA to ensure they are aware of their registration status and any updates to the voter rolls, especially during critical election cycles. Election officials work hard to maintain accurate records and make sure the process is secure, but it’s also the responsibility of voters to confirm their status to avoid complications on election day.
Voter Engagement: To participate actively in elections, check your voter status, plan your vote method, and trust local officials. Engage in democracy by becoming a poll worker and using resources like VoteFlare for alerts on your registration.
Voter information is crucial for participating in elections, especially after the challenges seen in recent years. It is important to check your voter registration status through your state’s website, establish a voting plan, and ensure your ballot is submitted on time. Trust your local election officials and engage in the voting process by becoming a poll worker. These actions can help reduce election-related tensions and foster a better understanding of the democratic process. Keeping your voter information up-to-date and utilizing resources like VoteFlare can simplify this process and ensure you are ready to vote effectively in upcoming elections.
Voter Registration: Voter registration deadlines are approaching, and it's important to stay informed. Check your state's cut-off date to ensure you can vote in the upcoming elections. Act promptly to avoid missing the chance to participate in democracy.
As we approach the upcoming elections, it's crucial to remember that voter registration deadlines are fast approaching in every state. Everyone interested in voting must be aware of these cut-off dates to ensure their voices are heard. The Axios article linked in the discussion provides valuable information on each state's registration deadlines, making it easier for voters to stay informed. It's important to act quickly, as missing these deadlines could mean missing the chance to participate in the election. Engaging with the democratic process starts with being registered, so don’t wait until the last minute. Prepare yourself by checking your state's registration requirements and ensure you are set to make your vote count. Remember, being an informed voter is a vital part of democracy, and taking the time to register is a key step in contributing to the decision-making process in your community.
VoteFlare’s mission to upgrade voter communication
Marketplace Tech
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Some of the walls around Meta’s Threads app are coming down
The new kid on the block of social media, Meta’s Threads, hit 200 million active users in August. When it launched in the summer of 2023 as a rival to the platform formerly known as Twitter, Meta said the app would eventually be integrated into the so-called fediverse. This “federated universe” is the most prominent example of a decentralized social network in which users can join any affiliated platform and interact with content from all the others. Recently, Meta took some steps to integrate Threads into this ecosystem, and Will Oremus, tech news analysis writer for The Washington Post, has been following the developments.
Do paid data-removal services pay off?
A lot of personal data – stuff like your home address, phone number, marital status and more – is out there on the internet. Anyone can buy it from sites like Whitepages, PeopleFinders or Intelius, which aggregate data from public records and social media. You can contact each of these “people search” sites and request they take down your information, but it’s a bit of a game of whack-a-mole. Naturally, a whole industry of data-removal services has sprung up. For a price, they promise to do the dirty work for you. But do they deliver? Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino spoke to Yael Grauer, a researcher at Consumer Reports, who recently looked into the efficacy of the data-removal industry.
A “village” of hackers is beefing up election security
Until about a decade ago, independent cybersecurity researchers in the U.S. weren’t allowed to examine voting machines for potential vulnerabilities. But that ban was essentially lifted in 2015. Two years later, DEF CON — one of the largest hacker conventions — decided to invite hackers, cybersecurity researchers and election officials to find those flaws during its annual Voting Village event. Marketplace’s Kimberly Adams spoke with Catherine Terranova, executive director of Voting Village, about how they balance the well-intentioned work of finding vulnerabilities before bad actors do and the problem of misinformation around the security of voting machines.
The quest to discover the creator of bitcoin
It’s been more than 15 years since the digital currency bitcoin was launched, going from a fringe phenomenon in the dark corners of the internet to an asset traded on Wall Street. But the identity of bitcoin’s creator, known by the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto, has remained a mystery wrapped in a cryptographic enigma. Now, investigative filmmaker Cullen Hoback may have cracked the case. His last HBO series “Into the Storm” uncovered the origins of the QAnon conspiracy theory. In his new documentary, “Money Electric: The Bitcoin Mystery,” Hoback sets out to answer the elusive question: Who is Satoshi Nakamoto? To prevent any spoilers, we’ll keep his conclusions secret.
Bytes: Week in Review — OpenAI’s valuation doubles, biotech investment grows and a prescription giant is acquired
Investors are once again pouring money into biotechnology startups. But this time, it feels different from the heyday of 2021. We’ll be digging into the latest data for today’s Marketplace “Tech Bytes: Week in Review,” our roundup of the week’s top headlines, including some you might have missed.
We’ll also talk about a private equity deal with the country’s biggest digital pharmacy platform. But first, OpenAI closes a historic funding round. The maker of ChatGPT raised another $6.6 billion — valuing the company at $157 billion, double its worth earlier this year.
Our regular contributor Christina Farr, managing director with Manatt Health, joins Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino to discuss the news.
The AI-crypto power struggle
All those fancy artificial intelligence systems need a lot of data centers to run, and those data centers need a lot of energy. One estimate from the Electric Power Research Institute suggests that current data center electricity consumption in the U.S. will more than double by 2030, making up about 9% of all energy use. But the AI sector is coming up against the big energy-hungry tech innovation of yesteryear: crypto mining. Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino spoke with Reuters reporter Laila Kearney about the scramble to power up in both industries.
In most voting precincts, no-tech ballot counting is a nonstarter
Today we’re talking about voting tech and the push in some areas to move away from machines and go back to hand counting ballots. A legal battle is brewing in Georgia over a new rule requiring ballots be hand counted on election night to ensure the tally matches electronic records. Arizona has added a similar requirement. The issue has become particularly mired in misinformation in recent years, with some election deniers questioning the security of the tech used in our elections. While some may believe hand counts are more accurate, the number of jurisdictions across the country relying on them on election night has been steadily dropping. Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino spoke with Pam Smith, president and CEO of the nonpartisan organization Verified Voting, about why the practice of counting ballots by hand is waning.
What do generative AI and social media have in common? A lack of regulation.
This week, we’re talking about how teenagers are using artificial intelligence tools like chatbots and image generators, often without the knowledge of their parents and teachers, according to a recent report from the nonprofit Common Sense Media. Monday we heard about that research from Jim Steyer, founder and CEO of the group. And now we want to home in on a specific piece of what he said: “If you look back at the advent of social media, about 20 years ago, we pretty much blew the regulatory side of that, but also the educating teachers and parents part of that. And we left kids on their own.” So we called up Nathan Sanders, an affiliate of the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard, who has written about the overlapping risks of AI and social media.
Parents, educators are unaware how their students use generative AI, report finds
As soon as ChatGPT burst onto the scene in late 2022, it became clear that artificial intelligence was going to send massive shockwaves through education. And, as with any new technology, young people were likely to adopt it more quickly. Well, now we have some data about that phenomenon. A new report from the non-profit Common Sense Media shows seven in 10 teenagers from ages 13-18 are using generative AI in some way. And Jim Steyer, founder and CEO of Common Sense Media, told Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino it’s not all about cheating.
Bytes: Week in Review — X’s transparency report, Sam Altman’s “Intelligence Age” and Meta’s celebrity chatbots
It’s perhaps not a big surprise, but OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has a very optimistic take on what his company’s technology could mean for the world. He shared his vision of a near future transformed by ever-advancing artificial intelligence systems in a much-discussed blog post earlier this week. Plus, Meta revealed more of its AI plans at its big developer conference including another go at celebrity chatbots. But first, X, formerly Twitter, finally released a new transparency report. It’s the first one since 2022, when Elon Musk bought the platform. And it’s full of data on reported abuse, harassment, how many accounts were suspended and more. Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino discussed these topics and more with Anita Ramaswamy, columnist at The Information, on this week’s Tech Bytes: Week in Review.