Georgia says US election disinformation likely coming from Russian troll farms

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By Kanishka Singh

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s office said on Thursday “targeted disinformation” circulating online about the Nov. 5 U.S. election was probably a result of “foreign interference attempting to sow discord and chaos.”

The office, working with state and federal officials to track the source of the disinformation, urged billionaire Elon Musk, owner of X, and other social media companies, to remove it, saying it probably came from “Russian troll farms.”

Georgia is one of seven battleground states in Tuesday’s election, which polls show to be a tight race between Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris and Republican former President Donald Trump.

U.S. agencies have said Russia intends to fan divisive narratives ahead of the election, an accusation Russia has denied.

“Earlier today, our office became aware of a video purporting to show a Haitian immigrant with multiple Georgia IDs claiming to have voted multiple times,” Raffensperger’s office said in a statement.

“This is false, and is an example of targeted disinformation we’ve seen this election. It is likely foreign interference attempting to sow discord and chaos on the eve of the election.”

It is illegal to vote more than once in a U.S. election.

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) was investigating, Raffensperger’s office added.

“In the meantime, we ask Elon Musk and the leadership of other social media platforms to take this down,” it said. “Likely it is a production of Russian troll farms.”

Some posts from Thursday on X showed a video with claims that “illegal Haitian immigrants” had voted multiple times in Georgia. One such post drew more than half a million views.

It is illegal for noncitizens to vote in U.S. federal elections and state and private reviews have turned up very few instances of them doing so. Still, Trump and his allies have argued that large numbers of noncitizens could vote.

(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Don Durfee and Clarence Fernandez)