Election 2024: Disinformation Not Stopping Americans From Voting

With polls starting to close in the Eastern United States, election officials and voting rights advocates say that voting related problems have so far been minimal, but federal officials still warned of the dangers of disinformation operations designed to undermine trust in the democratic system.

Meanwhile, former President Donald Trump continued to make baseless claims that the election is rigged, saying in a Tuesday afternoon Truth Social post there was “A lot of talk about massive CHEATING in Philadelphia” and that law enforcement was on the way. But the Philadelphia Police Department told CNN they didn’t know what Trump was referring to. Trump also made similar comments about Detroit, with police there also debunking claims of a heavy police response.

While there have been some minor and isolated incidents, the vast majority of American voters are casting ballots without a problem, Damon Hewitt, president and executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, said during an afternoon press briefing held by the umbrella voting rights group Election Protection.

Hewitt said that’s “remarkable” given the continued swirl of disinformation and litigation designed to keep people from voting. 

“People are voting today and that’s worth noting,” he said. “Democracy works when you let it, and sometimes we need to give it a nudge to make sure that there are no obstacles in the way.” 

While scattered voting precincts experienced the kind of problems you’d expect when polls open, like malfunctioning equipment and longer-than-expected lines, most of the issues were localized and easily handled at the local level.

Early in the day, several non-credible bomb threats caused the temporary closures of two Georgia polling places. The FBI released a statement later in the day saying that it was aware of multiple bomb threats across several states but none of them had been deemed credible. It added that many of them appeared to originate from Russian email domains.

Hewitt emphasized that Georgia voters are safe at the polls and that the threats aren’t keeping people from voting, just making the process take longer. One of the polling places will stay open longer to make up for time lost due to the bomb threat evacuations, and Hewitt said his group is seeking an extension for the other. 

The group is also asking that some polling places in Pennsylvania, including those covering Lehigh and Villanova universities, along with Lafayette College, stay open later as a result of more than 4-hour wait times to vote at those locations. 

In a separate afternoon conference call, officials for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency confirmed that, overall, voting is going smoothly in most locations and that federal officials aren’t tracking any disruptions at the national level.

But CISA officials remain concerned that America’s adversaries, particularly Russia and to a lesser extent Iran, will continue to ramp up their disinformation operations through Tuesday and in the days following the election in an effort to undermine the democratic process.

On a Monday evening call with reporters, CISA Director Jen Easterly said Americans continue to be hit with a “fire hose of disinformation” bent on undermining democracy, making it critical that they make sure they’re getting their election information from trusted sources like state and local officials.

Easterly also said that it’s “very unfortunate and very irresponsible” for anyone in a position of authority or influence, including Trump and supporter Elon Musk, owner of the social media platform X, to spread election disinformation.

“It’s corrosive to our democracy, it does the work of our foreign adversaries for them, and it’s creating very real threats to election officials of both parties,” Easterly said.