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 put up there was “A number of speak about huge CHEATING in Philadelphia” and that regulation 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 govt director of the Attorneys’ Committee for Civil Rights Underneath Regulation, mentioned throughout a day press briefing held by the umbrella voting rights group Election Safety.
Hewitt mentioned that is “outstanding” given the continued swirl of disinformation and litigation designed to maintain folks from voting.Â
“Individuals are voting right now and that is value noting,” he mentioned. “Democracy works while you let it, and generally we have to give it a nudge to ensure that there are not any obstacles in the way in which.”Â
Whereas scattered voting precincts skilled the type of issues you’d anticipate when polls open, like malfunctioning gear and longer-than-expected strains, a lot 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 brought about the non permanent closures of two Georgia polling locations. The FBI launched an announcement 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 e mail domains.
Hewitt emphasised that Georgia voters are secure on the polls and that the threats aren’t retaining folks from voting, simply making the method take longer. One of many polling locations will keep open longer to make up for time misplaced because of the bomb menace evacuations, and Hewitt mentioned his group is in search of an extension for the opposite.Â
The group can also be asking that some polling locations in Pennsylvania, together with these protecting Lehigh and Villanova universities, together with Lafayette School, keep open later on account of greater than 4-hour wait instances to vote at these places.Â
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 by 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 mentioned Individuals proceed to be hit with a “fireplace hose of disinformation” bent on undermining democracy, making it essential that they make sure that they’re getting their election data from trusted sources like state and native officers.
Easterly additionally mentioned that it is “very unlucky and really irresponsible” for anybody ready 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 mentioned.
