Georgia says US election disinformation likely comes from Russian troll farms

By Kanishka Singh

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s office said on Thursday that “targeted disinformation” circulating online about the Nov. 5 U.S. election was likely the result of “foreign interference seeking to sow discord and chaos.” .

The bureau, which works with state and federal officials to track down the source of the disinformation, urged billionaire Elon Musk, the owner of X, and other social media companies to take it down, saying it likely originated from “Russian troll farms.”

Georgia is one of seven battleground states in Tuesday’s election, which polls show is a tight race between Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris and former Republican President Donald Trump.

US agencies have said Russia plans to push divisive narratives ahead of the election, a charge Russia has denied.

“Earlier today, our office learned that a video purporting to show a Haitian immigrant with multiple IDs from Georgia claiming to have voted multiple times,” Raffensperger’s office said in a statement.

“This is false and is an example of targeted disinformation that we have seen in this election. It is likely that foreign interference will try to sow discord and chaos on the eve of the election.”

It is illegal to vote more than once in US elections.

The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) was investigating, Raffensperger’s office added.

“In the meantime, we’re asking Elon Musk and the leadership of other social media platforms to remove this,” the statement said. “Probably a production of Russian troll farms.”

Some posts on X on Thursday showed a video with claims that “illegal Haitian immigrants” have voted multiple times in Georgia. One such post attracted over half a million views.

It is illegal for non-citizens to vote in US federal elections, and state and private reviews showed very few cases of them doing so. Still, Trump and his allies have argued that large numbers of noncitizens could vote.

(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Don Durfee and Clarence Fernandez)