A cloned voice in campaign calls
On 21 January 2024, two days before the New Hampshire presidential primary, 9,581 automated calls were placed by 7:12 p.m. carrying a recording that sounded like the president of the United States telling voters to save their vote for November. The caller ID was spoofed to the number of the treasurer of a committee supporting the write-in campaign. On 23 May the state prosecutor brought 13 felony and 13 misdemeanour counts, and the Federal Communications Commission proposed a 6 million dollar forfeiture.
Why it matters
The first documented case in which a synthesised voice in an election campaign drew both criminal charges and a federal penalty. It also fixed the ratio every risk estimate has leaned on since: the recording cost 150 dollars and the proposed fine was six million.
The recording was made by a third party, a New Orleans street magician, using software from Eleven Labs to a script Kramer wrote himself; on 20 January Kramer's father paid 150 dollars for it through Venmo. The state charges are 13 felony counts of voter suppression under RSA 659:40, III and 13 misdemeanour counts of impersonating a candidate under RSA 666:7-a, one pair for each of thirteen identified recipients across four counties: five in Rockingham, three in Belknap, three in Grafton, two in Merrimack. The Commission's 6 million dollar notice rests on the Truth in Caller ID Act, not on the telephone consumer statute. The same day the Commission adopted a second notice, 2 million dollars against the carrier Lingo Telecom for incorrect STIR/SHAKEN attestations and a failure of know-your-customer checks. What the record does not claim. The figure of 25,000 voters that the report gave appears in neither notice: they give 9,581 calls, and Kramer himself said in interview that he sent it to 5,000. Nothing is said about how the case or the forfeitures ended.