Ron DeSantis is out of the US Republican primary campaign, now all eyes are on New Hampshire. Donald Trump and Nikki Haley are fighting there.
The next primary election in New Hampshire is today in the fight for the US Republican presidential nomination. After Florida Governor Ron DeSantis dropped out of the race, the vote in the small state in the northeast of the USA is now a duel between former US President Donald Trump and the former US Ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley.
In polls nationwide, Trump is well ahead of Haley. But in New Hampshire the gap is significantly smaller: the 52-year-old, who as a diplomat once had to represent Trump’s foreign policy on the international stage, has caught up and is hoping for a strong result.
Anyone who wants to become a presidential candidate in the USA must first prevail in internal party primaries. The candidates are then officially chosen at party conferences in the summer. The actual presidential election takes place at the beginning of November.
The Republicans’ first primary election decision was made in mid-January in the state of Iowa. Trump won by a huge margin over DeSantis and Haley. While voting took place at party meetings in Iowa, a classic vote at polling stations is now taking place in New Hampshire for the first time. According to German time, they only close at night.
Democrats are also voting – without Biden on the ballot
New Hampshire will also vote on the Democratic presidential candidate. However, incumbent Joe Biden, who wants to run for a second term, is not on the ballot. The background is an internal dispute: The Democratic Party wanted to move the start of the primary election series to South Carolina – to a state with a more diverse electorate, in order to give the votes of black voters a larger stage. The vote there is scheduled for February 3rd. However, New Hampshire did not want to lose its status as the first primary election state and insisted on its early voting date.
Biden stuck to the party line and did not get on the ballot in New Hampshire. Only largely unknown candidates are listed there who have no chance whatsoever due to a lack of celebrity. As the incumbent, Biden has no serious competition anyway.
Call from fake Biden sparks new concern about AI fakes
The day before the vote, fake campaign calls from Biden caused a stir in New Hampshire – and fueled fears that the election outcome would be manipulated with the help of artificial intelligence. In the automated call, a voice that sounded confusingly similar to Biden’s called on Democrats in the state not to participate in the primary election there. Such so-called robocalls are a common election campaign tool in the USA, but the increasing spread of AI applications brings with it new risks.
The sender information on the calls was also falsified so that they appeared to come from a political committee of Biden’s Democratic Party, according to New Hampshire’s attorney general’s office.
Software based on artificial intelligence can be trained to pronounce arbitrary sentences using the voices of specific people using sound recordings. There are also concerns about the possibility of using software to create targeted images – and now also short videos – with any content. Until now, errors have often been evident in the artificially generated images, but the technology is rapidly improving.
Source: Stern
I have been working in the news industry for over 6 years, first as a reporter and now as an editor. I have covered politics extensively, and my work has appeared in major newspapers and online news outlets around the world. In addition to my writing, I also contribute regularly to 24 Hours World.
