Feds say Russian disinformation campaign behind faked video of PA ballots being destroyed

26 October 2024

A screen shot of the fake video purporting to show ballots in Bucks County cast for GOP candidates being destroyed (Via Tom Sofield/X)

A falsified video purporting to show mail-in ballots being destroyed and thrown away in Bucks County was a part of a Russian disinformation campaign, federal officials said Friday.

The video was posted to X, the platform formerly known as Twitter on Thursday, claiming to show a man tearing up mail-in ballots cast for former President Donald Trump, and GOP U.S. Senate candidate Dave McCormick.

The Bucks County Board of Elections issued a statement saying it was aware of the video and that it was fake, noting that the envelope and other materials were clearly not authentic.

This type of behavior is meant to sow division and distrust in our election systems, and makes a mockery of the people working incredibly hard to ensure a free and fair election is carried out,” Board of Elections Commissioners Bob Harvie, Diane Ellis-Marseglia and Gene DiGirolamo said in a joint statement. “The Board of Elections unequivocally condemns this purposeful spreading of dangerous disinformation. We will not be distracted from the job the voters of Bucks County have entrusted to us.

The video is no longer on X.

“It is conspicuously fake, and I saw it last night,” Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt said during a tour of Philadelphia election facilities on Friday. “And anyone who has any experience processing mail ballots or knows a lot about election administration would be able to spot it a mile away.”

“I think that’s what’s so concerning about it is that you have people deceived by videos like that, even something as simple as that can do great harm in undermining confidence in election results or leading people to believe that their vote won’t be counted,” he added.

In a joint statement Friday, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) said the intelligence community “assesses that Russian actors manufactured and amplified a recent video that falsely depicted an individual ripping up ballots in Pennsylvania, judging from information available to the [intelligence community] and prior activities of other Russian influence actors, including videos and other disinformation activities.”

Pennsylvania was the target of numerous conspiracy theories following the 2020 election, after ballot-counting in Philadelphia took several days, due to the high volume of mail ballots. Despite numerous attempts by Trump and his allies to sow doubt about the election results, no credible evidence of tampering or fraud was ever found.

The federal authorities said Friday the faked Bucks County video was “part of Moscow’s broader effort to raise unfounded questions about the integrity of the US election and stoke divisions among Americans.”

In the lead up to election day, they added, the intelligence community “expects Russia to create and release additional media content that seeks to undermine trust in the integrity of the election and divide Americans.”

This story was modified post-publication Oct. 25, 2024 at 9:18 p.m. to update the headline.

Pennsylvania Capital-Star is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Pennsylvania Capital-Star maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Kim Lyons for questions: info@penncapital-star.com. Follow Pennsylvania Capital-Star on Facebook and X.

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