OpenAI To Track Election Interference

GRAND RAPIDS, MI. - OpenAI is launching an Election Operations Center on October 28, 2026, to monitor tool misuse and disrupt voting interference before the U.S. midterms on November 3. This war room brings hundreds of employees together to track misinformation and help users access reliable data. Josh Lawson, head of civic and strategic risk for OpenAI, states that the Elections Operations Center builds on years of work, uniting teams to respond quickly to emerging issues and enforce policies.

The operations center runs continuously until election workers finish counting all votes. OpenAI confirms that its new ad business rejects political ads this election cycle. The company also reiterates support for the Protect Elections From Deceptive AI Act and the Preparing Election Administrators for AI Act. Furthermore, OpenAI applies image stylization to requests concerning election interference, producing cartoon illustrations instead of photorealistic images to reduce risks. NewsGuard reports that OpenAI's ChatGPT Images 2.5 produced incriminating, realistic images of U.S. midterm candidates based on false claims 80 percent of the time when prompted on October 23, 2026.

OpenAI prohibits users from deploying tools for election interference or discouraging voting. An OpenAI spokesperson states that the company actively monitors and takes action against violators, adding that SynthID watermarks identify all images created with their tools. OpenAI unveils its 2026 election security strategy on May 27, 2026, featuring five planks: spreading reliable voting information, assisting with cybersecurity, watermarking deepfakes, enforcing anti-interference policies, and weeding out political bias. The company makes its Codex Security agentic framework and Trusted Access for Cyber framework available to election officials.