The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), and the FBI released a joint statement on Oct. 25, stating that a video allegedly showing someone tearing up ballots is actually a Russian disinformation product.
The video in question began to circulate on social media last week and appeared to show someone ripping up ballots marked for Bucks County, Pennsylvania.
The Bucks County Board of Elections previously reviewed the footage and deemed it to be inauthentic.
“The envelope and materials depicted in this video are clearly not authentic materials belonging to or distributed by the Bucks County Board of Elections,” the county election board said in an Oct. 24 statement.
The Bucks County election officials said they reported the video to law enforcement officials, the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office, the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General, the Pennsylvania Department of State, and the FBI.
CISA joined the FBI in reviewing the footage. The two agencies released a statement in coordination with the ODNI, which oversees the U.S. intelligence community (IC) more broadly.
“The IC assesses that Russian actors manufactured and amplified a recent video that falsely depicted an individual ripping up ballots in Pennsylvania, judging from information available to the IC and prior activities of other Russian influence actors, including videos and other disinformation activities,” the joint statement reads. “Local election officials have already debunked the video’s content.”
The ODNI, the FBI, and CISA said the apparently fake video is part of an effort by the Russian government “to raise unfounded questions about the integrity of the U.S. election and stoke divisions among Americans.”
“In the lead up to election day and in the weeks and months after, the IC expects Russia to create and release additional media content that seeks to undermine trust in the integrity of the election and divide Americans,” the statement reads.
The joint statement did not specify exactly how these U.S. intelligence and national security agencies determined that it was Russian influence actors who created the ballot destruction video.
The alleged fake ballot destruction video was published on the same week election officials in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, reported identifying numerous potentially fraudulent voter registration forms.
Pennsylvania remains a closely watched swing state and could decide the outcome of the 2024 presidential election.
Former President Donald Trump, who is seeking reelection, won Pennsylvania in the 2016 election cycle, but President Joe Biden took the state in 2020.
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