close
close
darbo

A fake video shows a man talking about voting for Harris twice

Posted on by Nargang
A fake video shows a man talking about voting for Harris twice

play

Claim: Video shows Haitian man describing plot to vote for Kamala Harris multiple times in Georgia

An Instagram post from October 31 (direct link, archive link) shows a man claiming to be from Haiti detailing a plan to vote for the Democratic presidential candidate in two counties in Georgia. At one point, he holds four driver’s licenses in one hand.

“We came to America six months ago and we already have our American citizenship,” the man says. “We’re voting for Kamala Harris. Yesterday we voted in Gwinnett County and today we vote in Fulton County.”

The Instagram post was liked more than 6,000 times in five days. It also circulated widely on nature and Facebook.

More from the fact-checking team: How we select and research claims | Newsletter by e-mail | Facebook page

Our Rating: False

The video is not authentic. Georgia’s secretary of state called it “targeted disinformation,” and federal intelligence officials say it was produced by Russian influence actors to undermine the presidential election.

The video is “targeted disinformation”, not real

While the experts they described claims of widespread voter fraud ca deeply exaggeratedremained a key issue in the run-up to Election Day, officials and voters promise to do it watch closely for any possible evidence of wrongdoing.

Fact checking: Officials say Kentucky vote was ‘isolated incident’

But the Instagram post doesn’t show voter fraud. The alleged scheme depicted in the clip is a fabrication that Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger described as “targeted disinformation.”

IN A October 31 post on X, formerly Twitter, Raffensperger characterized the video as “probable foreign interference seeking to sow discord and chaos” ahead of the election, adding that it was likely produced by “Russian troll farms.”

A day later, three federal intelligence agencies agreed with Raffensperger’s assessment in a joint statementconcluding that the video was made by Russian influencers. They reported that the determination was based on unspecified information gathered during their investigation and activities observed during previous disinformation campaigns.

Intelligence agencies reached similar conclusions about a “video falsely accusing a person associated with the Democratic presidential ticket of taking bribes from an American entertainer.” The agencies did not provide details, but the site that originally shared the video in the Instagram post was behind an Oct. 30 post. on X falsely endorsing Vice President Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoffinformed now, accused music producer Sean “Diddy” Combs to a Department of Homeland Security raid in March for $500,000, as USA TODAY previously reported.

“This Russian activity is part of a broader effort by Moscow to raise baseless questions about the integrity of U.S. elections and to sow division among Americans,” according to a Nov. 1 joint statement by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the FBI and the Agency of Cyber ​​Security and Infrastructure Security.

One November 2 interview with CNNRaffensperger pointed to several clues that indicate the video in the Instagram post is not authentic. Contrary to the speaker’s claim that he became an American citizen after six months, he noted, “People don’t come here and get papers, citizenship papers in six months.” Generally, people must be permanent residents of the US for at least five months. years, or three years if married to a citizen, to qualify for naturalization, according to Citizenship and Immigration Services.

Georgia also does not issue multiple driver’s licenses for the same name, Raffensperger said.

“So we knew that there, it just didn’t smell right,” he told CNN.

A American social media influencer and supporter of former President Donald Trump told CNN on November 4 that received $100 from a pro-Kremlin propagandist to post the video in the Instagram post as well as the Emhoff video. The influencer, identified only as @AlphaFox78, his username X, said the payment came from Simeon Boikov — who CNN reported was a participant in previous Russian disinformation campaigns. This user X has since deleted the post containing the video.

USA TODAY previously debunked false claims that delayed election results in several states and a typo in Trump’s name on a voting machine in Virginia they are both evidence of fraud.

USA TODAY reached out to the Facebook user who shared the post, but did not immediately hear back. The Instagram user could not be reached.

AFP and Lead stories also debunked the claim.

Our fact-checking sources:

Thank you for supporting our journalism. You can subscribe to our print edition, ad-free app or e-newspaper here.

USA TODAY is a verified signatory of the International Fact-Checking Network, which requires a demonstrated commitment to impartiality, fairness and transparency. Our fact-checking activity is supported in part by a grant from Meta.