Foreign interference, bomb threats and fraud: US election boils over

As millions of Americans headed to the polls to cast their ballot in what was likely to be one of the most consequential elections in recent history, bomb threats were reported at a number of polling sites amid claims of foreign interference and voter fraud.

In Fulton County, Georgia, which has the state’s largest black population and was one of the strongest counties for the Democrats in the 2020 election, five polling sites were temporarily closed after bomb threats were made. Out of the 177 polling places in Fulton County, 32 faced bomb threats.

A voter works on her ballot at a polling place at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, Simi Valley, California.Credit: AP

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said similar threats were made throughout the state, but all were deemed non-credible and authorities were investigating. The FBI also reported multiple bomb threats were made nationwide that were not being treated as credible threats. All threats appeared to originate from Russian email domains.

On Tuesday AEDT, US officials issued a joint statement with federal law enforcement agencies warning that Russia was ramping up its influence operations, including in ways that could incite violence, and would probably continue those efforts well after the votes had been cast. The statement also noted that Iran remains a “significant foreign influence threat to US elections”.

While there have been no major reports of any malicious cyber activity affecting election offices, foreign actors have been active in using fake social media profiles and websites to drum up partisan rhetoric and disinformation.

In the past few weeks, US intelligence officials have attributed to Russia multiple fake videos alleging election fraud in presidential swing states.

US officials this week confirmed a video claiming to show voter fraud in two left-leaning counties in Georgia was fake and the product of a Russian troll farm. And last month, they attributed to Russia another fake video of a person tearing up ballots in what appeared to be Bucks County, Pennsylvania.

In the conservative state of Kentucky, a voter posted a video to social media of themselves not being able to cast a ballot for Donald Trump through a voting machine. The post, which went viral on a number of platforms with claims of election interference, has since been debunked as an isolated incident by Republican lawmakers in Kentucky.

In the must-win swing state of Pennsylvania, Brandon Matlack, a regional organiser for conservative voter network Early Vote Action, published a video to X of a postal worker delivering ballots to an election office, asserting that the man was delivering fake ballots on behalf of Democrats. Matlack also questioned the man’s role as a member of the postal service.

The video, which showed the worker’s face and licence plate, has been viewed almost 6 million times on the platform. Matlack claimed the postal worker was “acting very shady” and pointed towards the car’s Rhode Island license plate as evidence of some form of collusion. One user responded to the video saying, “We need almighty god to help us beat the Democrats cheating.”

With AP

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