A series of bomb threats to polling stations across the United States appear to have originated from Russia, according to the latest assessment from federal and state officials.
An initial batch of bomb threats caused several polling stations to temporarily halt voting in parts of southeastern Georgia early Tuesday. But state officials quickly determined the threats were not credible.
“We identified the source of the threat and it was Russia,” Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger told reporters.
“They want to cause disruption and don’t seem to want us to have a smooth, fair and accurate election,” Raffensperger added. “They think if they can keep us fighting among ourselves, they’ll win.”
But efforts to disrupt U.S. elections appear to have only become more widespread.
The FBI said Tuesday it was “aware of bomb threats to polling places in several states.
” It further said many of the threats “appear to come from Russian email domains.” ”
To date, none of these threats have been determined to be credible,” the bureau said. “We will continue to work closely with state and local law enforcement partners to respond to any incidents that threaten our elections and protect Americans as they exercise their right to vote.” our community. ”
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In addition to this suspected Russian-sponsored plot, there have been other last-minute attempts to disrupt the U.S. election.
Earlier Tuesday, as many Americans prepared to cast their ballots, the FBI warned voters of at least two plots seeking to use the bureau’s name and image to promote false claims.
In one case, FBI officials pointed to fake news clips urging Americans to “vote remotely” as the threat of terrorist attacks increased. In another case, the FBI warned that social media accounts were spreading false news release videos about five prisons across the country participating in an election fraud scheme.
The FBI said both videos were “untrue” and did not represent the current threat landscape.
The FBI has not revealed who created the videos, which began circulating just three days after two other fraudulent videos claiming to be from the FBI began circulating on social media.
These previous videos falsely claimed that the FBI had arrested three related groups for election fraud and made false accusations against the husband of U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris.
In recent days, U.S. intelligence officials have said Russian influencers were behind other videos that did not mention the FBI but claimed to reveal election irregularities.
Russia denies any involvement.
The latest incidents are part of what some U.S. officials have called a “stream of disinformation” that U.S. intelligence agencies warned late Monday that Russia and, to a lesser extent, Iran could intensify on Election Day and in the days and weeks that follow. It affects action.
US Office of the Director of National Intelligence Intelligence, along with the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), said: “Russian-linked influence actors are producing videos and false articles to undermine the legitimacy of the election and instill fear in voters about the electoral process. , and implying that Americans use violence against each other out of political preference,”
the statement added . “We expect that Russian actors will publish more false content on these themes on Election Day and in the days and weeks after polls close. These actions may incite violence, including violence against election officials,”
it said. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, which oversees the security of U.S. election infrastructure, said Tuesday that the election went as smoothly as expected.
“At this time, we have not tracked any nationally significant incidents that impacted the security of our election infrastructure,” Cait Conley, senior adviser to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, said during a briefing with reporters.
Conley said earlier that the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has been tracking a number of outages related to issues such as weather and equipment failures, calling them “very routine and expected outages.”
Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency officials warned that election-related information sites and infrastructure could be targeted by ransomware or distributed denial-of-service attacks. But they emphasized that while such an attack would cause an inconvenience, it would have little impact on Americans’ ability to vote because none of the U.S. election systems are connected to the Internet and 97% of voting precincts have paper backups.
Still, there are concerns that U.S. adversaries could try to exploit any disruptions to incite panic or even violence.
“We know our foreign adversaries view this period – whether it is Election Day or the days after Election Day – as an opportunity to further exacerbate divisions and undermine Americans’ confidence in our democratic institutions,” Conley said. “That’s true no matter who wins.”
Common Cause, a nonpartisan watchdog and advocacy group with election observers across the country, said Monday that tensions were emerging at some polling stations.
“We saw people being yelled at at the polls,” Suzanne Almeida, the group’s state operations director, said on a call with reporters.