Bomb threats from Russia, fabricated videos aim to upend US election

WASHINGTON — Likely Russian efforts to rile up Americans and undermine faith in U.S. democracy disrupted voting in at least three states Tuesday but has so far failed to derail the U.S. election, according to officials charged with overseeing election security.

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, or CISA, said that with polling locations beginning to close, there was no evidence of any incidents capable of sabotaging the ability of Americans to cast ballots in the presidential election.

"We are not currently tracking any significant incidents with national level impact to election infrastructure security," said CISA Senior Adviser Cait Conley. "That is largely a testament to the incredible professionalism and effort of state local election officials across the country."

But Conley cautioned it would be a mistake to underestimate Russia, as well as Iran and other U.S. adversaries.

"We are not out of the woods yet," she told reporters during a briefing late Tuesday.

The disruptions, affecting multiple polling locations in at least three U.S. swing states, were tied to a series of Election Day bomb threats, which "appear to originate from Russian email domains," according to a statement from the FBI.

The southeastern state of Georgia was the first to call attention to the threats, early Tuesday, pausing voting at the affected locations before determining there was no imminent danger while also pointing the finger at Moscow.

"We identified the source, and it was from Russia," Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger told reporters.

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

A U.S. official later confirmed to VOA that similar threats from Russian email domains were also sent to polling locations in the Midwestern swing states of Michigan and Wisconsin.

"None of the threats have been determined to be credible thus far," the FBI said. "We will continue to work closely with our state and local law enforcement partners to respond to any threats to our elections and to protect our communities as Americans exercise their right to vote."

But U.S. officials have not ruled out the possibility that the threats are just the first salvo in a Russian effort to spark chaos around the presidential election.

"Our adversaries are specifically intent on leveraging opportunities to spin narratives, to undermine confidence and to pit Americans against one another," Conley said. "We are not aware of any specific Russian activity in terms of influence operations capitalizing on this narrative yet but … we should not be surprised if we do."

Multiple Russian officials Tuesday denied the U.S. accusations, having dismissed previous U.S. claims as "baseless."

But the suspected Russian bomb threats build on other last-minute attempts to disrupt the U.S. election.

The FBI on Tuesday warned of at least five efforts to use the bureau's name and likeness to promote false narratives and spark election-related panic.

In one instance, a fabricated statement claiming to be from the bureau warned U.S. media and bloggers to not publish information about violence at polling station to prevent unrest from spreading.

A second fabricated video purporting to be from the FBI and another government agency suggested U.S. schools close until sometime next week because of concerns about election-related violence.

A third video falsely claimed the FBI had received 9,000 complaints about malfunctioning voting machines, some of which appeared rigged to help one of the presidential candidates.

"This video is also not authentic, is not from the FBI, and its contents are false," the FBI said in a statement.

Earlier, FBI officials called out faked news clips urging Americans to "vote remotely" because of the increased threats of a terror attack and a fabricated video alleging five U.S. prisons were engaged in a vote-rigging scheme.

The FBI did not say who was responsible for creating the videos, which began to circulate just three days after two other fraudulent videos purporting to be from the FBI began circulating on social media.

Another fabricated video targeted the CIA, alleging the U.S. spy agency found evidence that dead Americans were being used to cast ballots.

The video "is absolutely false and is consistent with foreign disinformation that the U.S. Intelligence Community has long warned about," a CIA spokesperson told VOA.

U.S. intelligence officials have assigned responsibility for other videos claiming to show voting irregularities, some surfacing last week, to Russian influence actors.

The latest incidents are part of what some U.S. officials have described as a "firehose of disinformation" and follow a warning from U.S. intelligence agencies late Monday that Russia, and to a lesser extent Iran, were likely to intensify their influence operations on Election Day and in the days and weeks that follow.

"Influence actors linked to Russia in particular are manufacturing videos and creating fake articles to undermine the legitimacy of the election, instill fear in voters regarding the election process, and suggest Americans are using violence against each other due to political preferences," according to the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence, in coordination with the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).

"We anticipate Russian actors will release additional manufactured content with these themes through election day and in the days and weeks after polls close," the statement added. "These efforts risk inciting violence, including against election officials."

Like the FBI and CIA, CISA on Tuesday rejected reports of violence and voting irregularities tied to the U.S. election as lies.

"We have really, on a national perspective, seen very minimal types of disruptive activity in the forms of any type of altercation at polling locations," CISA's Conley told reporters.

And she said allegations of widespread voter fraud have no merit.

"We have really, on a national perspective, seen very minimal types of disruptive activity in the forms of any type of altercation at polling locations," CISA's Conley told reporters.