WASHINGTON: The top election official in Georgia has raised alarms over a video that allegedly shows a Haitian immigrant voting multiple times, labeling it as part of a targeted disinformation campaign likely originating from Russia.
As the 2024 U.S. presidential campaign intensifies ahead of Election Day on November 5, misinformation has become increasingly prevalent.
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger issued a statement on Thursday evening, addressing the video, which features a man claiming to possess multiple Georgia IDs and stating he voted multiple times. “This is false and is an example of the targeted disinformation we’ve encountered this election season,” Raffensperger said. “It is likely foreign interference intended to sow discord and chaos as the election approaches.”
Raffensperger, who gained national attention for resisting Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election results, also called on Elon Musk and leaders of other social media platforms to assist in removing the misleading clip, which remains accessible on X (formerly Twitter).
The 20-second video shows a man delivering a stilted message, claiming, “We are from Haiti. We came to America six months ago, and we already have American citizenship — we’re voting Kamala Harris.” He further asserts that he and his friends have voted in multiple counties while displaying several driver’s licenses.
“This is obviously fake and part of a disinformation effort,” Raffensperger asserted. “It likely stems from Russian troll farms.”
Mike Hassinger, a spokesperson for the state government, confirmed that an investigation into the driver’s licenses depicted in the video revealed no matches in voter registration records. “The identifications are fake, and there’s no way the individuals in the video could have cast ballots in Georgia using those IDs,” he said.
Darren Linvill, a misinformation expert at Clemson University, noted that the video’s style and distribution resemble tactics used by the Russian propaganda group Storm-1516. “They were careful in their filming to avoid detection by open-source intelligence investigators,” Linvill explained, adding that the actors in the video are likely West African, often recruited from the St. Petersburg area.
This group has been linked to other recent disinformation efforts, including a video that falsely depicted a man in Pennsylvania destroying mail-in ballots for Donald Trump and unsubstantiated claims of sexual assault against Democratic Vice-Presidential candidate Tim Walz.
