AI robocall of Joe Biden told New Hampshire voters not to vote

AI robocall of Joe Biden told New Hampshire voters not to vote
	MANIPULATED MEDIA
	"A recorded phone message from President Joe Biden urged New Hampshire Democrats not to vote in the January 2024 presidential primary and to save their vote for the November general election."
Domain	Technology & Media
Tactic	Manipulation; Imposture;
Era	Current
First seen	2024
Origin	Automated robocalls placed to New Hampshire voters on January 21, 2024, two days before the state's primary
Last reviewed	2026-10-26
	Further reading: books on Technology & Media

The AI robocall of Joe Biden was a set of automated phone calls made to New Hampshire voters on January 21, 2024, two days before the state's presidential primary. The calls played a voice that sounded like President Biden telling Democrats that voting in the primary would only help Republicans and that they should "save your vote" for November. The voice was generated by artificial intelligence. Biden had recorded no such message. The episode was the first widely reported attempt to use an AI-cloned voice to suppress votes in a US election. It led the Federal Communications Commission to rule that AI-generated voices in robocalls are illegal without consent, resulted in millions of dollars in fines, and prompted a criminal prosecution.

The claim

The recorded message opened with a phrase closely associated with Biden, "What a bunch of malarkey," and went on to tell listeners that voting in the Tuesday primary would enable Republicans in their quest to elect Donald Trump again. It said that their vote made a difference in November, not this Tuesday. The message was false in its central suggestion: voting in a primary does not prevent anyone from voting in the general election.

The calls were made to appear more credible by spoofing the caller ID so that they seemed to come from the personal phone number of Kathy Sullivan, a former chair of the New Hampshire Democratic Party, who was helping run a write-in campaign for Biden. Biden's name was not on the primary ballot because of a dispute over the Democratic Party's primary calendar, so his supporters were urging voters to write in his name.

Origin

Investigators traced the calls through telecommunications companies to a Texas company, Life Corporation, and to Lingo Telecom, which had transmitted them. A political consultant, Steve Kramer, later acknowledged that he had commissioned the message. He said he had paid a magician in New Orleans to create it using a commercially available AI voice-cloning tool. Kramer had also been working for a rival Democratic candidate's campaign, which said it had no knowledge of the calls and condemned them. Kramer said he had made the calls to draw attention to the dangers of AI in politics.

What the evidence shows

The voice was quickly identified as fake. The Biden campaign and the White House said the president had not recorded the message. Audio analysis firms concluded that the voice was synthetic, and the AI company whose tool was used reportedly suspended the account responsible. The New Hampshire Attorney General's office opened an investigation, describing the calls as an unlawful attempt to disrupt the primary and suppress votes.

The case had several legal consequences:

FCC ruling. On February 8, 2024, the Federal Communications Commission issued a unanimous declaratory ruling that AI-generated voices count as "artificial" voices under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. This made such robocalls illegal without the recipient's prior consent and gave state attorneys general a new tool to pursue them.
Fines. The FCC later fined Kramer $6 million for the calls. Lingo Telecom agreed to pay $1 million to settle FCC allegations that it had failed to verify the calls properly.
Criminal charges. In May 2024, New Hampshire charged Kramer with felony voter suppression and misdemeanor impersonation of a candidate. In June 2025, a jury acquitted him of the state charges. The federal fine was a separate civil matter.
Private lawsuit. The League of Women Voters and New Hampshire voters filed a federal lawsuit against Kramer and the companies involved.

The call does not appear to have had a measurable effect on the outcome. Biden won the primary through write-in votes. But the case demonstrated how cheaply and quickly a convincing voice clone could be produced and distributed.

Why it matters

The Biden robocall became a reference case for AI in elections for several reasons:

Low cost. The voice clone was reportedly produced in minutes for a small fee using a commercial tool.
Voice is persuasive. Many people find a familiar voice more convincing than text or even video, and phone calls leave no visual clues.
Targeted timing. Calls placed just before an election leave little time for correction.
Spoofed sources. Faking the caller ID added a second layer of deception.
Regulatory gaps. The case exposed the fact that existing election and communications laws had not been written with AI in mind.

Lessons for readers

Treat unexpected calls from public figures with suspicion, especially close to an election.
Check voting information with official sources such as your state or local election office.
Remember that voting in a primary never prevents you from voting in a general election.
Caller ID can be faked. A familiar name or number is not proof of who is calling.
Voice cloning is now cheap and easy. A familiar voice is no longer reliable evidence of identity.

Sources

New Hampshire Department of Justice, statements on the robocall investigation, January–May 2024.
Federal Communications Commission, Declaratory Ruling on AI-generated voices under the TCPA, February 8, 2024.
Federal Communications Commission, forfeiture order against Steven Kramer and consent decree with Lingo Telecom, 2024.
League of Women Voters of New Hampshire et al. v. Kramer et al., US District Court for the District of New Hampshire (2024).
Reporting on Kramer's trial and acquittal, June 2025 (Associated Press and others).