The Department of Homeland Security intelligence branch warns federal and state authorities that it knows with “high confidence” that Russian actors are amplifying disinformation about universal mail-in voting.
The bulletin comes just one day after an ABC News report that DHS secretly blocked a July intelligence bulletin about a Russian smear campaign against Joe Biden. Both bulletins track the Russian influence campaign to events beginning in March.
“Russian state media and proxy websites in mid-August 2020 criticized the integrity of expanded and universal vote-by-mail, claiming ineligible voters could receive ballots due to out-of-date voter rolls, leaving a vast amount of ballots unaccounted for and vulnerable to tampering,” the bulletin notes.
“These websites also alleged that vote-by-mail processes would overburden the U.S. Postal Service and local boards of election,” it continues, “delaying vote tabulation and creating more opportunities for fraud and error.”
ABC News
Donald Trump first attacked mail-in voting as “massive fraud and abuse” and “the end of our great Republican party” in early April, less than a month after Russian agents published the same conspiracy.
Attorney General William Barr is also actively fear mongering about mail-in voting, despite telling Congress that he has no evidence to support his claims.
Sources
https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/03/politics/russia-intel-bulletin-mail-in-voting-warning/index.html
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/russia-amplifying-claims-mail-voter-fraud-intel-bulletin/story?id=72799959
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1247861952736526336
Photo: James Yu