With polls beginning to shut within the Japanese United States, election officers and voting rights advocates say that voting associated issues have to this point been minimal, however federal officers nonetheless warned of the risks of disinformation operations designed to undermine belief within the democratic system.
In the meantime, former President Donald Trump continued to make baseless claims that the election is rigged, saying in a Tuesday afternoon Reality Social submit there was “Quite a lot of speak about huge CHEATING in Philadelphia” and that legislation enforcement was on the way in which. However the Philadelphia Police Division instructed CNN they did not know what Trump was referring to. Trump additionally made comparable feedback about Detroit, with police there additionally debunking claims of a heavy police response.
Whereas there have been some minor and remoted incidents, the overwhelming majority of American voters are casting ballots with no downside, Damon Hewitt, president and government director of the Attorneys’ Committee for Civil Rights Beneath Regulation, stated throughout a day press briefing held by the umbrella voting rights group Election Safety.
Hewitt stated that is “exceptional” given the continued swirl of disinformation and litigation designed to maintain individuals from voting.
“Persons are voting at this time and that is price noting,” he stated. “Democracy works whenever you let it, and generally we have to give it a nudge to be sure that there aren’t any obstacles in the way in which.”
Whereas scattered voting precincts skilled the sort of issues you’d anticipate when polls open, like malfunctioning gear and longer-than-expected strains, many of the points had been localized and simply dealt with on the native stage.
Early within the day, a number of non-credible bomb threats prompted the non permanent closures of two Georgia polling locations. The FBI launched a press release later within the day saying that it was conscious of a number of bomb threats throughout a number of states however none of them had been deemed credible. It added that lots of them appeared to originate from Russian electronic mail domains.
Hewitt emphasised that Georgia voters are secure on the polls and that the threats aren’t maintaining individuals from voting, simply making the method take longer. One of many polling locations will keep open longer to make up for time misplaced as a result of bomb risk evacuations, and Hewitt stated his group is in search of an extension for the opposite.
The group can also be asking that some polling locations in Pennsylvania, together with these overlaying Lehigh and Villanova universities, together with Lafayette School, keep open later on account of greater than 4-hour wait occasions to vote at these places.
In a separate afternoon convention name, officers for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Safety Company confirmed that, total, voting goes easily in most places and that federal officers aren’t monitoring any disruptions on the nationwide stage.
However CISA officers stay involved that America’s adversaries, significantly Russia and to a lesser extent Iran, will proceed to ramp up their disinformation operations via Tuesday and within the days following the election in an effort to undermine the democratic course of.
On a Monday night name with reporters, CISA Director Jen Easterly stated People proceed to be hit with a “fireplace hose of disinformation” bent on undermining democracy, making it important that they be certain that they’re getting their election info from trusted sources like state and native officers.
Easterly additionally stated that it is “very unlucky and really irresponsible” for anybody able of authority or affect, together with Trump and supporter Elon Musk, proprietor of the social media platform X, to unfold election disinformation.
“It is corrosive to our democracy, it does the work of our overseas adversaries for them, and it is creating very actual threats to election officers of each events,” Easterly stated.
