Elections are messy, beautiful, nerve-racking things. They ask a lot of people: to pay attention, to weigh competing claims, to figure out where and when to vote, to make sense of a flood of mailers, ads, texts, and social media posts. By the time a midterm election rolls around, that flood can feel more like a tidal wave. The 2026 midterm election is no exception, and in the middle of all that noise, it can be genuinely hard to know what to trust. That’s where we come in. The News & Observer is partnering with the Center for Media Engagement, a nonpartisan, nonprofit research organization based at the University of Texas at Austin, for a project that’s designed to help keep our community informed. But here’s the thing: this isn’t just us talking to you. It’s a partnership that invites you to talk to us — to tell us what you’re seeing, what you’re hearing, and what’s making you pause. We believe that real information and honest conversations are the backbone of a healthy democracy, and we want to make sure that in the lead-up to the 2026 midterms, you have the facts you need to cast your vote with confidence.
To do that, we’re testing out a new community tool that puts you in the driver’s seat. The idea is simple: if you come across local election information that seems wrong, confusing, misleading, or just too strange to be true, you can submit a report to us through this tool. Maybe you got a text message claiming that your polling place has moved — but you’re pretty sure it hasn’t. Maybe you saw a flyer with a voting deadline that doesn’t match anything you’ve heard. Maybe a social media post is spreading a rumor about voter ID laws that sounds fishy. Or maybe you’re simply not sure if a certain piece of mail is official or just political junk. Any of those things count. Incorrect information about where and how to vote can cause real harm, and we want to catch it early. By giving you a way to flag what you see, we’re hoping to build a more accurate, more reliable picture of what’s actually circulating out there in the community. You don’t need to be a journalist, a lawyer, or an election expert to participate. You just need to be someone who pays attention and cares about getting it right.
Now, let’s talk about what happens after you hit submit. We want to be honest with you: we won’t report on or respond to every single submission. We can’t. Sometimes the lead won’t pan out, sometimes the information will turn out to be harmless, and sometimes we’ll simply have too many submissions to give each one a full public answer. But that doesn’t mean your submission won’t matter. Every single report gets reviewed by real people on our side, and we will look carefully for patterns and trends. If we start hearing the same questionable claim over and over again, that tells us something important: it’s spreading, and it’s likely causing confusion. That’s a strong signal that a story needs to be written, a myth needs to be debunked, or a question needs to be answered in a more public and thorough way. Your report can also help us see what kinds of questions voters are asking, so that our election coverage reflects the real concerns of the people who live here, rather than just what we assume you care about. In other words, you’re not just tipping us off to problems — you’re shaping the way we serve the community.
So what kind of information should you submit? The short answer is: anything that seems questionable. We’re not asking you to be a fact-checker or to prove that something is false before you send it in. If you saw a post or a text or a flyer that gave you a bad feeling, or made you do a double take, that’s enough. Maybe it’s a photo of a sign outside a polling place that looks official but has odd details. Maybe it’s a link to a website that claims to have voter registration information but feels off. Maybe it’s a screenshot of a message that’s being forwarded around your neighborhood group, stating that mail-in ballots are not secure or that you have to be registered by a certain date that doesn’t sound right. You might be holding a piece of mail that looks like it comes from a government agency, but something about it feels a little too polished or a little too pushy. Send it. Send the photo, send the link, or write out a detailed description of what you saw and where you saw it. We genuinely mean it when we say nothing is too insignificant. If you have doubts about it, chances are good that other people have doubts too — they just might not have said anything out loud. Your uncertainty is valuable. It helps us understand the texture of the information environment in our community, and it helps us spot the kinds of subtle mistakes and deliberate distortions that can slip through the cracks.
If you’re ready to submit a report, the process is pretty straightforward. We know that technology can sometime feel like one more barrier between you and doing the right thing, so we’ve tried to make this as simple as we can. Log in to your account, and then click the “Report” button on the page. When you’re asked which agency you would like to report to, just select The News & Observer from the drop-down menu. That’s it — you don’t need to know where your report is going or how to route it, because we’ve already built the path. From there, the system will walk you through the rest: it will ask you to categorize what you’re reporting, give you a chance to attach any files or links you have, and let you describe in your own words what caught your eye. You don’t have to write a perfect, polished explanation. Bullet points are fine. A sentence or two is fine. The important thing is that you took the time to flag it. Think of it like telling a neighbor about something strange you saw on your street while you were walking your dog. You’re not filing a formal complaint and you’re not writing an essay; you’re just passing along useful information to people who can do something with it. And because we’re reviewing every submission, even the ones that don’t immediately lead to a story, your effort will never just disappear into a void.
At the end of the day, this project is about more than just catching mistakes. It’s about taking care of each other. Elections are high-stakes, and the people who want to confuse, mislead, or discourage voters are counting on the rest of us to stay quiet. They’re counting on weariness, on cynicism, on the idea that nobody can do anything about the swirl of bad information. But they’re wrong. When you submit a report, you’re doing something active. You’re saying: I live here, I vote here, and I’m not going to let false information decide my neighbors’ future for them. You’re helping us build a wall against the noise, one small report at a time. The News & Observer has always been part of this community, and our partnership with the Center for Media Engagement is a reminder that journalism doesn’t have to be a one-way broadcast. It can be a conversation, a shared project, a promise that we will work together to get to the truth. So if you see something, say something. If you’re unsure, send it to us. If you’re tired of the misinformation and want to do something about it, this is your chance. Together, we can keep our community informed, keep false information from spreading, and make sure that in 2026, every voter has the confidence and the facts they need to make their voice heard.