Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Letter to the editor:

Negative ads just muddied process

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Regardless of how you voted, we can all agree that none of us enjoyed being inundated by wall-to-wall campaign ads. In fact, due to the high volume of ads, most voters tuned out long before Election Day and millions of dollars were wasted.

The majority of ads came from outside groups and were negative in tone and substance. According to the Annenberg School of Communications, as many as one-quarter of those ads were outright false or blatantly misleading.

We at the League of Women Voters Las Vegas Valley worked hard to ensure our neighbors had the information needed to be informed and engaged. Our voter guide and sources such as Vote411.org provided accessible, factual, nonpartisan information about the choices.

But we remain concerned about the deluge of money in this election that financed misleading ads. Some television stations rejected or requested changes to some ads containing false information. We applaud this new trend of news outlets fact-checking campaign ads and hope it will continue.

Although many pundits question whether the $6 billion spent on the 2012 elections was wasted, what we know for sure is that this deluge of money and flood of campaign ads will not be going away soon. The League will continue to look for partners who are committed to ensuring that voters have the information they need to make their own best decisions come election time.

The author is the voter services committee chairwoman of the League of Women Voters Las Vegas Valley.

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