In a recently released Department of Homeland Security intelligence bulletin, analysts describe a Russian disinformation effort to magnify claims that voting by mail is unreliable and constitutes fraud.
“Since at least March 2020, Russian evil actors have been expanding accusations of electoral integrity in new voting processes and mail-order voting programs,” says the ballot, received through ABC News.
“These media outlets also stated that state election officials and policymakers had benefited from the COVID-19 pandemic to justify politically convenient decisions on holding the number one elections and implement new voting processes and mail voting systems that are intended to obtain express merit from applicants and influence election results.He continued, adding that Russian actors in particular insisted that an influx of postal votes would overburden the postal service and local electoral commissions.
Analysts who wrote the memorandum, which was not intended to be made public, said they had “great confidence” in the valuation.
– jonkarl (@jonkarl) September 3, 2020
Another segment of the newsletter points out how Russian actors tried to sow discord around Democratic number one this year to undermine Joe Biden’s candidacy.
“At the Iowa assemblies in February, Russian state media and power websites claimed that the contest had been resolved in favor of status quo applicants and that technical difficulties with the assembly’s cell voting application had led to the manipulation of ballots,” he said.”These media continued this narrative until March 2020, claiming that the Democratic Party had reached a corrupt on-stage agreement to orchestrate the departure of applicants from the status quo in order to consolidate former Vice President Biden’s vote on Tuesday’s Super Primary.
Trump has been a consistent and vocal opponent of mail-order voting, and with no evidence that the formula is complete of fraud and will lead to “rigged” elections.On Wednesday, he encouraged a North Carolina audience to vote for user and mail (a crime in the state) – a bet, he said, that would ensure that the messaging formula actually works. Their stance echoed among the country’s Republicans, some of whom used misleading fraud arguments while pushing for a ban on voting accessibility measures, such as deposit boxes.
For the time being in two days, data leaked through DHS shows that Trump and his crusade used the same tactics as malicious Russian actors seeking to undermine the fall election.Trump’s crusade responded to a request for comment.
On Wednesday, ABC News received another newsletter detailing a Russian plan to attack Biden’s intellectual fitness and fitness.Trump described Biden as senile and incompetent during the crusade, from labeling him a “Sleeping Joe” to collecting clips of the ex-vice president stumbling.his words for the crusade ads.
In this case, senior DHS officials, adding then-Secretary Chad Wolf, intervened before the ballot could be distributed to law enforcement partners at the federal, state and local levels, which was well eliminated.It is not known whether the mail survey was also obstructed; DHS did not respond to TPM questions.
Read the newsletter, via ABC News, here: