Election 2024: Misinformation won’t stop Americans from voting
With voting underway across the country, election officials and voting rights advocates say problems in the election have been minimal so far, but federal officials still warned of the dangers of disinformation operations aimed at destroying confidence in the democratic system to undermine.
Meanwhile, former President Donald Trump continued to make baseless claims that the election was rigged, he said Tuesday afternoon Truth Social Post there was “a lot of talk about massive hoaxing in Philadelphia” and that law enforcement was on its way. But the Philadelphia police told CNN they didn’t know what Trump was talking about.
While there have been some small and isolated incidents, the vast majority of American voters are casting ballots without any problems, said Damon Hewitt, president and executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under the Lawsaid at an afternoon press conference held by the umbrella voting rights group Election Protection.
Hewitt said this is “remarkable” given the ongoing swirl of misinformation and lawsuits aimed at deterring people from voting.
“People are voting today and that’s worth mentioning,” he said. “Democracy works if you let it, and sometimes we have to give it a little push to make sure there are no obstacles in the way.”
While distributed polling places suffered from the kinds of problems you would expect when polls opened, such as faulty equipment and longer-than-expected lines, most of the problems were localized and easily resolved at the local level.
Several early in the day non-credible bomb threats caused the temporary closure of two polling stations in Georgia. The The FBI released a statement later in the day it said it was aware of multiple bomb threats in several states, but none were considered credible. It added that many of them appeared to come from Russian email domains.
Hewitt emphasized that Georgia voters are safe at the polls and that the threats do not deter people from voting, just make the process longer. One of the polling places will stay open longer to make up for time lost due to the bomb threat evacuations, and Hewitt said his group is seeking an extension for the other.
The group is also asking that some polling places in Pennsylvania, including those at Lehigh and Villanova universities, along with Lafayette College, remain open later due to more than four-hour wait times to vote at those locations.
In a separate afternoon conference call, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency officials confirmed that voting is generally going smoothly in most locations and that federal officials are not monitoring disruptions nationally.
But CISA officials remain concerned that America’s adversaries, especially Russia and to a lesser extent Iran, will do so continue to increase their disinformation activities through Tuesday and in the days following the election in an effort to undermine the democratic process.
On a Monday evening call with reporters, CISA Director Jen Easterly said Americans continue to be hit by a “firehose of disinformation” aimed at undermining democracy, making it critical that they ensure they get their election information from trusted sources such as the state. and local officials.
Easterly also said it is “very unfortunate and very irresponsible” for anyone in a position of authority or influence, including Trump and supporter Elon Musk, owner of the social media platform X, to spread election disinformation.
“It is damaging to our democracy, it is doing our foreign adversaries’ work for them, and it is creating very real threats to election officials of both parties,” Easterly said.
