Louisiana Election AI Disclosure Law (HB 459 / Act 806 of 2026)

Properties

kind: law
target: voice-and-likeness
jurisdiction: US, Louisiana
mechanism: Amends the Louisiana Election Code (R.S. 18:1463) to bar any electioneering communication that portrays a candidate or an elected official subject to recall and that, through AI, is created, altered, or digitally manipulated to falsely appear to a reasonable observer to be an authentic record of that person's actual speech or conduct, or to falsely replace an individual's likeness with a candidate's likeness, unless the communication carries a clear and understandable AI-use disclosure. The legislative findings clause explicitly cites protecting the public from being deceived by 'an image, likeness, or voice of a candidate or elected official subject to recall that is created using artificial intelligence.' Violating this section with intent to injure a candidate's reputation or deceive a voter is punishable by a fine of not more than two thousand dollars, imprisonment for not more than two years, or both; a media entity with no input into or control over a paid political ad is exempt.
status: in-effect
owns: Election-deepfake disclosure/labeling mechanism paired with an intent-based criminal penalty, distinct from md-election-deepfake-act's state-agency correction-and-takedown model: Louisiana's law is a disclosure mandate enforced by fine/imprisonment on the ad's creator rather than an administrator-driven public-correction process, and its legislative findings are the only source language here that names 'voice' alongside image and likeness.
source: Louisiana Election AI Disclosure Law (HB 459 / Act 806 of 2026)
notes: Enrolled text (Act No. 806, House Bill No. 459, 2026 Regular Session) read directly; penalty clause verbatim: 'shall be fined not more than two thousand dollars or be imprisoned, with or without hard labor, for not more than two years, or both,' triggered only where the violation is committed with intent to injure reputation or deceive a voter. Secondary coverage (American Press, July 21, 2026) reported a higher ten-thousand-dollar fine figure; that does not match the enrolled statutory text and is treated as inaccurate. The enrolled document's visible sections did not include an explicit standalone effective-date clause; the August 1, 2026 effective date (already reached as of this writing) is taken from secondary reporting and is consistent with Louisiana's standard default effective date for regular-session acts, but is not independently confirmed against a section-3-style effectiveness clause in this bill.

Provenance

Source: https://www.legis.la.gov/Legis/ViewDocument.aspx?d=1481244

Properties

kind

law

target

voice-and-likeness

jurisdiction

US, Louisiana

mechanism

Amends the Louisiana Election Code (R.S. 18:1463) to bar any electioneering communication that portrays a candidate or an elected official subject to recall and that, through AI, is created, altered, or digitally manipulated to falsely appear to a reasonable observer to be an authentic record of that person's actual speech or conduct, or to falsely replace an individual's likeness with a candidate's likeness, unless the communication carries a clear and understandable AI-use disclosure. The legislative findings clause explicitly cites protecting the public from being deceived by 'an image, likeness, or voice of a candidate or elected official subject to recall that is created using artificial intelligence.' Violating this section with intent to injure a candidate's reputation or deceive a voter is punishable by a fine of not more than two thousand dollars, imprisonment for not more than two years, or both; a media entity with no input into or control over a paid political ad is exempt.

status

in-effect

owns

Election-deepfake disclosure/labeling mechanism paired with an intent-based criminal penalty, distinct from md-election-deepfake-act's state-agency correction-and-takedown model: Louisiana's law is a disclosure mandate enforced by fine/imprisonment on the ad's creator rather than an administrator-driven public-correction process, and its legislative findings are the only source language here that names 'voice' alongside image and likeness.

source

Louisiana Election AI Disclosure Law (HB 459 / Act 806 of 2026)

notes

Enrolled text (Act No. 806, House Bill No. 459, 2026 Regular Session) read directly; penalty clause verbatim: 'shall be fined not more than two thousand dollars or be imprisoned, with or without hard labor, for not more than two years, or both,' triggered only where the violation is committed with intent to injure reputation or deceive a voter. Secondary coverage (American Press, July 21, 2026) reported a higher ten-thousand-dollar fine figure; that does not match the enrolled statutory text and is treated as inaccurate. The enrolled document's visible sections did not include an explicit standalone effective-date clause; the August 1, 2026 effective date (already reached as of this writing) is taken from secondary reporting and is consistent with Louisiana's standard default effective date for regular-session acts, but is not independently confirmed against a section-3-style effectiveness clause in this bill.