Siri gave wrong information about Wisconsin's presidential primary election date
Siri, Apple's voice-enabled digital assistant, was providing wrong information when asked about the date of Wisconsin's Republican presidential primary.
In Wisconsin, both parties vote April 2. While Siri correctly said the Democratic primary is April 2, it said the Republican primary is April 3.
The issue had been fixed by Thursday afternoon. Asking Siri, "When is Wisconsin's presidential primary?" now gives the correct date for both parties.
Some states do have separate dates for party primaries or caucuses, but that's not the case in Wisconsin.
Wisconsin has an open primary, which means voters don't have to register with a party to vote. Voters pick one party at the top of the ballot and vote for that party's candidates accordingly.
The wrong date for the Republican primary was pointed out on X (formerly Twitter) by Jesse Garza, who was the field director for former Republican U.S. Rep. Sean Duffy from Wisconsin.
@wisconsin_now ask Siri when the Wisconsin Republican presidential primary is and then ask when the Democrat Wisconsin presidential primary is, hmmm🤔 pic.twitter.com/L7awLN6rcQ
— Jesse Garza (@GarzaGop) March 7, 2024
Garza told the Journal Sentinel he was out to dinner with a friend, who asked him if Siri was giving the right date for the primary. They discovered it was the wrong date when asking about the GOP primary, but found the date was correct when asking about the Democratic primary.
He texted a few other people who had the same information show up on their phones — he didn't want to "start throwing things out there" in an accusatory way.
"We rely more and more on technology to give us information," Garza said. "The average person is not going to question it, especially if your brain is not focused on an election on this day."
Siri typically shows the information source it's pulling from, but in this case provides a prompt to "get the latest on primaries."
That link sends users to the Associated Press, which gives the correct date for Wisconsin when either party for president is selected.
A full list of important dates for the April 2 election can be found at myvote.wi.gov, where you can also check if you're registered to vote and eventually see what your ballot will look like.
More: Fact check: The deadline to register to vote in Wisconsin isn’t 'less than two weeks' away
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Siri gave wrong info on Wisconsin presidential primary election date
