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The Washington Post asked six chatbots, ChatGPT, Claude, Google's AI Mode, Perplexity, Alexa+ and Copilot, to write voter guides for addresses in every US county, and analyzed more than 3,000 of them.
The chatbots failed to name the voter's congressional district 48% of the time, and when they did name one, 22% were wrong, pointing voters at candidates they cannot vote for. Claude and Alexa+ were wrong for more than one address in five. ChatGPT, AI Mode and Perplexity were wrong least often, mostly because they usually named no district at all.
The common thread was the Ballot Brief, a site largely produced with AI tools by Ben Torres Ezrick, a former Rumble executive. Copilot cited it in 75% of tests and ChatGPT in 22%, and its ZIP-code lookup sometimes mapped addresses to the wrong district, errors the chatbots then repeated. Copilot and Perplexity also leaned on ivoterguide.com, a guide organized around "biblical values," without saying so.
Amazon paused Alexa's voter guides after the Post's inquiry, OpenAI changed ChatGPT's answers, and Microsoft said it is looking into it. The election is Tuesday.
Chatbots built voter guides from an AI-written site, and got a fifth of congressional districts wrong
The Washington Post asked six chatbots, ChatGPT, Claude, Google's AI Mode, Perplexity, Alexa+ and Copilot, to write voter guides for addresses in every US county, and analyzed more than 3,000 of them. The chatbots failed to name the voter's congressional district 48% of the time, and when they did name one, 22% were wrong, pointing voters at candidates they cannot vote for. Claude and Alexa+ were wrong for more than one address in five. ChatGPT, AI Mode and Perplexity were wrong least often, mostly because they usually named no district at all.
The common thread was the Ballot Brief, a site largely produced with AI tools by Ben Torres Ezrick, a former Rumble executive. Copilot cited it in 75% of tests and ChatGPT in 22%, and its ZIP-code lookup sometimes mapped addresses to the wrong district, errors the chatbots then repeated. Copilot and Perplexity also leaned on ivoterguide.com, a guide organized around "biblical values," without saying so. Amazon paused Alexa's voter guides after the Post's inquiry, OpenAI changed ChatGPT's answers, and Microsoft said it is looking into it. The election is Tuesday. SourcesBB
Sources
- BHow an obscure website became a force in America's election information machine (Washington Post)washingtonpost.com
- BWe asked AI chatbots to make voter guides (Washington Post, via Jewish World Review)jewishworldreview.com
This story ran in the Afternoon Brief of November 1st 2026.