US official sees small vote disruption linked to foreign interference – FBC News

(Source: Reuters)

A top US cyber official said Tuesday that her agency had not seen any major incidents reflecting foreign interference in the presidential election as voting headed into the final hours.

As of 1:30 p.m. ET (1830 GMT), there was little evidence of significant disruption to election infrastructure, Cait Conley, a senior official at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, told reporters.

Earlier Tuesday, the FBI warned Americans about two new fake videos falsely invoking terrorist threats and voter fraud, the latest in a string of misinformation that officials expect to intensify, especially if uncertainty as to the winner persists after Election Day.

A fabricated video purporting to be from the federal law enforcement agency falsely cited an elevated terrorist threat and urged Americans to “vote remotely,” while another video included a fake press release purporting to be from the agency and alleging rigged voting among inmates in five prisons. .

Both are inauthentic, the FBI said in a statement.

Hoax bomb threats hit a number of polling places in three battleground states, the bureau said later Tuesday.

US intelligence agencies last week blamed Russia for a fake video purporting to show a Haitian immigrant claiming to have voted multiple times in the US state of Georgia. Over the weekend, the FBI warned of several more fake videos.

Russia usually denies meddling in American politics.

Most of the hurdles voters face tend to be more mundane: long lines, paper jams and power outages.

A slow computer software update delayed voters in Louisville, Kentucky, a local official told Reuters. In Pennsylvania, a glitch in computer software meant some ballots could not be tabulated immediately, officials there said.

In the county of St. Clair, Alabama, some ballots had to be reprinted after officials discovered some were missing questions on local and state amendments, the county said on its website.
Conley urged Americans to remain on guard as the vote counting began.