U.S. official sees little voting disruption tied to foreign interference

Voters file into Allegiant Stadium to cast their ballot for the U.S. general election in Las Vegas on Nov. 5, 2024. (K.M. Cannon / Las Vegas Review-Journal via AP)

WASHINGTON -

A senior U.S. cyber official on Tuesday said her agency had not seen any major incidents reflecting foreign interference in Tuesday's presidential election despite a steady stream of disinformation aimed at disrupting the vote throughout election day.

As of early evening, there was little evidence of significant disruption to election infrastructure, Cait Conley, a senior official at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, told reporters.

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"At this point, we are not currently tracking any national-level significant incidents impacting security of our election infrastructure," said Conley, whose agency is responsible for protecting critical American infrastructure, including election infrastructure, which can include voter databases, tabulators and vote counting software.

Earlier Tuesday, the FBI warned Americans about three new fake videos that used its name and insignia to promote false information about the vote, the latest in a string of disinformation that officials expect will intensify, especially if uncertainty over the winner lingers past election day.

One fabricated video purporting to be from the federal law enforcement agency falsely cited a high terror threat and urged Americans to "vote remotely," while another video includes a fake press release alleging to be from the agency and claiming rigged voting among inmates in five prisons. The third fake video claimed the FBI had received 9,000 complaints about malfunctioning voting machines.

All are inauthentic, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said in a statement.

Hoax bomb threats also hit a series of polling locations in three battleground states, the bureau said later Tuesday.

"None of the threats have been determined to be credible thus far," the FBI said. At least two polling sites targeted by the hoax bomb threats in Georgia were briefly evacuated on Tuesday. Republican Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger blamed Russian interference for the election day bomb hoaxes.

"They're up to mischief, it seems. They don't want us to have a smooth, fair and accurate election, and if they can get us to fight among ourselves, they can count that as a victory," Raffensperger told reporters.

The Russian Embassy in Washington said the allegations were "baseless" and that Russia does not "interfere in the internal affairs of other countries."

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U.S. intelligence agencies last week blamed Russia for a false video purporting to show a Haitian immigrant claiming to have voted multiple times in the U.S. state of Georgia. Over the weekend, the FBI warned about several other fake videos.

Later on Tuesday, a video posted to the X social media platform -- purporting to show a Wisconsin voter for former president Donald Trump being assaulted by a supporter of Vice-President Kamala Harris -- was also likely Russian disinformation, a professor tracking the activity said. It had been viewed more than 30,000 times.

X has since restricted the account that posted the video, warning users of unusual activity from the account, but the video remains online.

Most of the obstacles voters faced tended to be more prosaic: long lines, paper jams, and power outages.

Slow-updating computer software delayed voters in Louisville, Kentucky, a local official told Reuters. In rural Pennsylvania, a computer software glitch meant some ballots could not be immediately tabulated, officials there said.

In St. Clair County in Alabama, some ballots had to be reprinted after officials discovered some were missing local and state amendment questions, the county said on its website.

Conley urged Americans to stay on guard as the vote counting got underway.

"We do have foreign adversaries with two objectives, one to undermine the American people's confidence in our democratic institutions, and the second to sow partisan discord," said Conley. "And so we should expect to continue to see narratives around those types of objectives, both today and in the days and weeks to come."

(Reporting by Susan Heavey, Christopher Bing, Raphael Satter, James Pearson, and AJ Vicens; Editing by Andrea Ricci, Alistair Bell, Deepa Babington and Jonathan Oatis)