A Missouri House committee has shot down regulations on artificial intelligence in political advertising, even as the 2026 midterms are approaching.
Boone County Clerk Brianna Lennon said AI-generated content in an election season risks making accurate information harder to find.
“People that are in their silos are not necessarily able to break out of them,” Lennon said. “And then we have a lot of confusion that we're trying to correct as we get closer to Election Day.”
Eighty-six percent of consultants use AI tools in their campaign work, according to the American Association of Political Consultants.
The National Conference of State Legislatures found that twenty-nine states have regulated AI-generated political messaging. Among prohibition and disclosure laws, Missouri would have required disclaimers on AI-generated content.
Outside of political campaigns, artificial intelligence hallucinations are a growing problem for election administrators. For the 2026 midterms, Lennon’s biggest concern with AI is its ability to amplify misinformation.
In the last year, Lennon said AI chatbots have already threatened voters' trust.
“The AI bot has returned back that (an) election was over and said who the winner was,” Lennon said. “And this was days before the election actually happened.”
When AI spreads misinformation, Lennon said it’s difficult for any office to combat it because of the magnitude of content it can produce.
A connection with the public allows offices to remedy issues of misinformation.
In a 2022 case study, the St. Louis County Board of Elections launched an educational social media campaign that reduced the frequency staff had to duplicate damaged or unclear absentee ballots by 10 percentage points before that year’s midterm election. Lennon said offices with fewer staff could use AI to educate their voters by creating social media infographics or other materials.
As elections near, Lennon advised voters to prepare for encounters with AI-generated content and use a critical eye when reading information online.
