Russian Fake News and Bomb Threats Target Election Day Votes

U.S. intelligence agencies warned that Russia is ramping up its election interference Tuesday as millions of Americans cast their ballots through activities including fake bomb threats to polling places and by flooding the web with disinformation.

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Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency officials told reporters in multiple Election Day briefings that “Russia is the most active threat” to the presidential election. No threats currently tracked could materially impact the outcome of the vote, officials stressed.

The comments came after CISA, the FBI and Office of the Director of National Intelligence issued a statement Monday night warning that “influence actors linked to Russia in particular are manufacturing videos and creating fake articles to undermine the legitimacy of the election.”

“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 continued. Iran also is “a significant foreign influence threat” and had “conducted malicious cyber activities to compromise former President Trump’s campaign.”

Russian influence actors have spread false claims that officials in swing states are engaged in ballot-stuffing and election fraud, and have spread a disinformation video alleging Arizona voter rolls were altered to favor Democratic Candidate Vice President Kamala Harris. The advisory urged Americans to report information of suspicious or criminal activity.

Russian threat actors appeared to escalate efforts to instill fear among American voters Tuesday morning when Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger told reporters several bomb threats that briefly disrupted voting at two state polling locations seemed to originate from Russia.

“We identified the source, and it was from Russia,” Raffensperger said about the bomb threats, which suspended voting at the two locations. “They’re up to mischief, it seems, and they don’t want us to have a smooth, fair and accurate election.”

The impacted polling sites included two locations near Atlanta with predominantly Black populations, according to U.S. Census data.

Cait Conley, head of CISA’s election security operations, said Tuesday afternoon that while officials have observed “routine Election Day disruptions,” no significant incidents threaten national election infrastructure or the secure processing of ballots. Top agency officials and CISA’s 10 election security advisers from across the country convened throughout the day at CISA headquarters in Arlington, Virginia, coordinating with local officials and offering resources to respond to potential incidents.

More than 50 million Americans have already voted ahead of Election Day, according to early tracking data. Reports indicate foreign interference efforts persist despite struggling to gain traction. Security researchers attributed the limited impact to U.S. agencies disrupting foreign influence operations before their narratives and posts could go viral (see: Election Threats Escalating as US Voters Flock to the Polls).

CISA Director Jen Easterly told reporters in a media briefing on the eve of the election that her agency did not identified threats capable of altering the overall outcome. CISA opened an election operations office in the weeks leading up to the vote, with officials telling Information Security Media Group that the agency was “committing more resources than ever before” to secure election infrastructure and had deployed a new team of advisers nationwide to work closely with state election offices (see: CISA Opens Election War Room to Combat Escalating Threats).