Raffensperger says viral video of alleged voting fraud ‘obviously fake’ and likely foreign meddling in Georgia’s elections

By Jason Morris, Paul P. Murphy and Sean Lyngaas, CNN

(CNN) — Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on Thursday said the state had been targeted by election disinformation, pointing to a viral video of alleged voter fraud that he suggested could be the result of foreign meddling.

The original video, which emerged on the social media platform X on Thursday, had well over half a million views and purportedly showed a Haitian immigrant claiming he voted several times for Vice President Kamala Harris in the presidential election.

Raffensperger, the top election official in the battleground state, said the video was “obviously fake” and was intended to raise illegitimate concerns about Georgia’s voting process. He said he’s working with state officials and federal authorities to “combat” the video and “identify the origin of it.”

“Earlier today, our office became aware of a video purporting to show a Haitian immigrant with multiple Georgia ID’s claiming to have voted multiple times,” Raffensperger said in a statement. “This is false, and is an example of targeted disinformation we’ve seen this election.”

“CISA [Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency] is currently investigating,” Raffensperger said. “In the meantime, we ask Elon Musk and the leadership of other social media platforms to take this down. This is obviously fake and part of a disinformation effort. Likely it is a production of Russian troll farms.”

CNN reached out to the X account that appeared to have posted the video on Thursday to ask for information and context about the content. The account has been active on Twitter since 2009.

Former CISA director Chris Krebs also attributed the video to “more nonsense from Russian troll farms.”

“Expect a deluge of pure nonsense like this in the next several weeks,” he continued.

Amy Kremer, who has a seat on the Republican National Committee, shared the video on X, asking, “How did they get multiple IDs?” and saying it “is illegal & not okay.”

Gabriel Sterling, the chief operating officer in the Georgia secretary of state’s office, fired back at Kremer on social media for sharing the video.

“No responsible person would retweet this ridiculously obvious lie and disinformation. Those doing so are acting to further the efforts of America’s enemies and undermine the security of our nation. The judgement of those sharing this should be questioned in all things,” Sterling said on X.

Raffensperger said Thursday that “as Americans we can’t let our enemies use lies to divide us and undermine our faith in our institutions – or each other.”

Over half of Georgia’s voters have already cast their ballots, as early voting turnout has shattered previous records set in 2020 across the state.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2024 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.