www.thecentersquare.com – By Alan Wooten | The Center Square – (The Center Square – ) 2025-03-12 00:01:00
(The Center Square) – Half of all American adults are using large language models, two-thirds speak with them, and 1 in 4 say moral judgments about right and wrong are made by these artificial intelligence tools.
The findings are in a report released Wednesday by the Imagining the Digital Future research center at Elon University. ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Copilot are popular brands, and human-like encounters are trending greater in volume.
The findings “show the degree to which LLMs are now being used in the way that people have used search engines for decades, including a quick access to information, queries about products and services and getting news and information,” the report says. “This has enormous implications for media, marketing and the basic sale of goods and services. It also suggests the profound impact LLMs might have on political and civic processes.”
Lee Rainie directs the research center. The analysis shows many believe the large language model they use “most acts like it understands them at least some of the time. A third say the model they primarily use seems to have a sense of humor,” a release says.
In other findings, the survey documents large proportions of users saying they have had negative experiences. The experiences include laziness, cheating, confusion and dependency on the tools rather than using critical thinking.
“One truly surprising finding,” a release says, is “contrary to the picture many have about how LLMs are used, our survey shows that the share of those who use the models for personal purposes significantly outnumber those who use them for work-related activities, even among workers.”
The sampling was conducted for Elon by the SSRS Opinion Panel platform. The survey reached 500 adults ages 18 and older, has a +/- 5.1% margin of error and 95% confidence level.
SUMMARY: President Trump has been diagnosed with chronic venous insufficiency, a common condition in people over 70 causing leg swelling due to blood pooling in veins. The White House confirmed no deep vein thrombosis, arterial disease, or heart issues were found, with normal cardiac function and no signs of systemic illness. Despite visible ankle swelling and bruised hands, attributed to frequent handshaking and aspirin use, the president remains in excellent health and experiences no discomfort. At 79, he stays active, working continuously. The White House emphasized these symptoms are minor and consistent with his busy public engagements and cardiovascular prevention measures.
Swollen legs led to President Donald Trump being diagnosed with what’s called chronic venous insufficiency. It’s a fairly common condition among older adults but requires a thorough checkup to rule out more serious causes of swelling in the legs. Here are some things to know.
Chronic venous insufficiency, or CVI, happens when veins in the legs can’t properly carry blood back to the heart. That can lead to blood pooling in the lower legs. In addition to swelling, usually around the feet and ankles, symptoms can include legs that are achy, heavy feeling or tingly, and varicose veins. Severe cases could trigger leg sores known as ulcers.
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SUMMARY: On July 2, 2025, the U.S. House approved legislation to cancel $9 billion in previously authorized spending on public broadcasting and foreign aid, marking only the second time in over 30 years Congress approved a presidential rescissions request. The 216-213 mostly party-line vote sends the bill to President Donald Trump for signature. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting will lose $1.1 billion in funding for NPR, PBS, and local stations. The bill also cuts $8 billion in foreign aid but protects HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, and maternal health programs. This follows Senate approval with some adjustments and reflects the White House’s push to focus spending on American interests.
North Carolina State Board of Elections Executive Director Sam Hayes is launching the Registration Repair Project to rectify missing identification info in 103,270 voter records. Missing data include driver’s license numbers, last four Social Security digits, or affirmations of lacking both. The board will send letters in August requesting these details; non-compliant voters will be flagged and cast provisional ballots, counting only for federal contests. Voters providing alternate ID at polls can vote regularly but are still encouraged to update records. The plan, approved unanimously despite concerns about voting barriers, aims to ensure accurate rolls amid ongoing legal disputes and compliance issues.
by Sarah Michels, Carolina Public Press July 17, 2025
North Carolina State Board of Elections Executive Director Sam Hayes is setting off on a mission to correct 103,000 North Carolinians’ voting records from which some information is missing.
He maintains that the process, dubbed the Registration Repair Project, will not remove any eligible voters from the state’s voter rolls.
According to the state elections board, 103,270 North Carolina registered voters have records that lack either their driver’s license number, the last four digits of their Social Security number or an indication that they have neither.
Last year, this missing information became the stuff of headlines, lawsuits and the high-profile election protest of Republican Court of Appeals Judge Jefferson Griffin, who lost his bid for state Supreme Court to the incumbent justice, Democrat Allison Riggs, by 734 votes.
In April, the North Carolina Supreme Court declined to remove ballots from the count based on missing identification numbers; they said the state elections board, not voters, was responsible for a faulty voter registration form that didn’t make it abundantly clear that this information was required.
While Griffin lost, the issue he raised remains salient for a newly Republican elections board and the U.S. Department of Justice, which promptly sued the state board over alleged violations of the federal Help America Vote Act’s voter registration provisions.
Thursday, Hayes told reporters that a process he unveiled in late June to gather these missing identification numbers had begun in earnest.
“We must put this issue behind us so we can focus our attention squarely on preparations for accurate and secure municipal elections this fall,” he said.
The plan to collect missing information
There are two groups of voters under Hayes’ plan.
The first group includes registered voters who have never provided a driver’s license, the last four digits of their Social Security number or an affirmation that they lack both. The state elections board has asked county election boards to check their records for these numbers, in case they were provided but not correctly entered into the voting system.
In early August, the state elections board will send letters to the remaining voters in this group requesting the missing information. If affected voters do not comply, they will vote provisionally in future elections. The elections board will create a flag on these voters’ records for poll workers.
The second group includes registered voters whose records do not show that they’ve provided an identification number, but have shown additional documentation at the polls proving their identity and eligibility under HAVA. These voters may vote a regular ballot.
However, the elections board will still send them a letter in a second mailing asking for the missing identification number to bolster the state’s voter records. Even so, if they do not oblige, they still will not be at risk of being disenfranchised, NCSBE General Counsel Paul Cox said.
County election boards have already made progress, and their work will continue as the mailings go out, Hayes said.
Voters can check to see whether they’re on the list of those with missing information by using the Registration Repair Search Tool. If voters don’t want to wait for the August mailing, they can submit an updated voter registration form using their driver’s license through the online DMV portal or visit their county elections board in person with their driver’s license or Social Security card.
“We anticipate the number of voters on the list will decrease quickly as word spreads about this important effort,” Hayes said.
The State Board of Elections unanimously approved the plan last month, despite some concerns from Democrat Jeff Carmon about putting up an extra obstacle for voters because of a problem with missing information that the voters didn’t cause.
“It’s hard to understand starvation if you’ve never felt the pangs of hunger,” Carmon said. “It’s the same situation with voting obstacles. Your perspective of an obstacle may not be the same as someone who’s consistently had their identity and their validity questioned.”
Nonetheless, Carmon and fellow Democrat board member Siobhan Millen ultimately voted in support of the plan.
Same ballot, different rules
Normally, when a voter casts a provisional ballot, the county elections board determines whether their ballot counts by the post-election canvass, held nine days after an election.
Voters may have to provide documentation or information to prove their eligibility to vote in order to be accepted.
The same process applies to the 103,000 affected voters, with a catch. Their vote may be accepted for federal contests, but not state contests, due to a difference in law.
According to the DOJ’s interpretation, the National Voter Registration Act requires all provisional votes of “duly registered voters” to count, Cox said.
But the state elections board has interpreted the state Supreme Court and North Carolina Court of Appeals’ decisions in the Griffin case as requiring a driver’s license, the last four digits of a Social Security number or an affirmation that a voter has neither before accepting their votes in state and local contests.
Under a recent election law change, county election boards have three days to validate and count or reject provisional ballots.
But sometimes, mismatches happen during validation due to database trouble with reading hyphenated names or connecting maiden and married names, for example, Cox said. The board has designed a “fail safe” in case this comes up.
When there’s a mismatch during the validation process, state law allows voters to provide additional documentation — like a driver’s license, bank statement or government document with a voter’s name and address — to prove their eligibility.
“A big chunk of these voters will have already shown HAVA ID, and that’s because in the past, when this information was not supplied, the county boards would still require these voters to show that alternative form of HAVA ID when they voted for the first time,” Cox said.
Poll workers will ask provisional voters to provide this additional documentation so that they can mark it down for later, if validation doesn’t work, he added.
Democrats threaten countersuit
Last week, the Democratic National Committee threatened the state board with litigation if they went ahead with their plan regarding those with missing information.
The letter claimed that the plan would remove eligible voters from the rolls illegally.
Hayes disagrees. In his view, he’s just following the law.
“It’s not the fault of the voters,” he said. “But at the same time, we’re required by the law to go back and collect this information, which should have been done at the time, and it certainly should have been done in the intervening time.”
He also clarified that North Carolina’s photo voter ID requirement won’t suffice for the impacted voters. They still have to vote provisionally so that their identification numbers can go through the validation process, he said.
As for whether his fully fleshed out plan will appease the DNC?
Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.
Political Bias Rating: Centrist
This article presents a balanced and factual report on North Carolina’s voter registration issue, focusing on the administrative process and legal context without overt editorializing. It includes perspectives from both Republican and Democratic figures, highlights legal rulings and procedural details, and covers concerns from Democrats alongside the state elections board’s explanations. The language is neutral, aiming to inform about the complexities of voter ID requirements and the Registration Repair Project without endorsing a particular political stance or framing the issue through a partisan lens.
