On June 5, 2024, Steve Kramer confidently made his appearance at Superior Court in Laconia, N.H., as he was about to be arraigned for alleged voter suppression and posing falsely as a candidate. Kramer, an experienced political consultant, ideated an AI-based scheme imitating the voice of the past Democratic President Joe Biden, aiming it at New Hampshire Democrats last year. Despite these remarkably bold accusations, Kramer – a 56-year-old New Orleans resident – was acquitted of all charges related to voter suppression or impersonating a candidate, which is quite intriguing.
Before his trial, Kramer confessed openly this was not a random act or even a political maneuver, but a message strategically sent to a mass of voters a brief span of two days in advance of the state’s presidential primary on Jan. 23, 2024. Remarkably, the recipients were presented with an AI-created voice sharing astonishing likeness to the lukewarm Democratic president, reciting Biden’s overused catchphrase “What a bunch of malarkey”.
The Amercian public were suspicious of the veiled hints suggestive in the message which, from the prosecutor’s perspective, were designed to imply that participation in the primary election would cancel out the voter’s option to contribute to the final November polls. In the message, voters were subtly admonished with the words, “It’s important that you save your vote for the November election,” and “Your votes make a difference in November, not this Tuesday.”
In essence, if the charges had stuck, Kramer would be facing the daunting prospect of numerous years spent behind bars. In his testimony, he made an audacious claim that his intention was actually to sound an alarm about the emerging dangers of artificial intelligence manipulation in political spheres. For this exploration, he had reportedly paid a local magician a sum of $150 just to concoct the recording.
Kramer, an entrepreneur running a firm solely focused on encouraging voters’ participation, mounted a defense that the primary election, in his critical view, served no more purpose than a mock poll which lacked endorsement from the Democratic National Committee (DNC). Therefore, according to his claim, the state’s voter suppression law had no jurisdiction in this scenario.
In support of his defense, Kramer also vehemently denied the impersonation claims as Biden’s name was deliberately omitted from the message. He rationalized this by reminding the court that at the time of the primary, Biden was not even an officially enrolled candidate. An apparent persuasive argument as the jurors concurred, and Kramer was acquitted of all the eleven felony voter suppression charges, each previously carrying a severe penalty of seven years in prison.
Adding to Kramer’s defense, the eleven charges of falsely impersonating a candidate also fell flat as each was previously liable with a maximum sentence of a year in jail. The verdict indeed seems to question the effectiveness of our electoral laws and the seriousness of these crimes in the judicial eye.
Post-acquittal, New Hampshire’s Attorney General John M. Formella assured in a public statement the unyielding commitment of his office to ensuring the just enforcement of election laws. Yet one cannot help but question the inefficacy that this case has highlighted.
Kramer’s ordeal doesn’t seem to end here as the Federal Communications Commission has slapped him with a hefty $6 million fine. But as if to further add a layer to this saga of defiance and audacity, Kramer has publicly announced his refusal to pay any such fine.
On the sidelines of the main story, Lingo Telecom, the company that facilitated the transmission of the controversial calls, conceded to pay a settlement fee of one million dollars in August, implicitly acknowledging their part in the narrative.
Interestingly, the agency that did not deign to offer a comment was actively formulating regulations related to AI technologies, a task set in motion during President Donald Trump’s term. However, the agency’s initial stance demonstrates a noticeable drift towards liberalisation and reducing controls in the current political climate.
With the increasingly popular use of AI deepfakes and manipulation in political campaigns, many state governments have legislated controls and regulations. But the congressional Republicans recently slipped in a clause in their flagship tax bill which will prohibit any state or local government from imposing regulations on artificial intelligence for the coming decade.
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