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A fake video shows a man talking about voting for Harris twice

A fake video shows a man talking about voting for Harris twice

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The claim: Video shows a Haitian man describing a plan multiple times to vote for Kamala Harris in Georgia

An Instagram post from October 31 (direct link, archive link) features a man claiming to be from Haiti and describes a plan to vote for the Democratic presidential candidate in two Georgia counties. At one point he has four driver’s licenses in one hand.

“We came to America six months ago and we already have our American citizenship,” the man says. “We are voting for Kamala Harris. Yesterday we voted in Gwinnett County, and today we vote in Fulton County.”

The Instagram post was liked more than 6,000 times in five days. It also circulated widely Wires And Facebook.

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Our rating: False

The video is not authentic. Georgia’s foreign minister called it “targeted disinformation,” and federal intelligence officials say it was produced by Russian influence actors to undermine the presidential election.

Video is ‘targeted disinformation’ and not real

While experts statements have been described of widespread voter fraud deeply exaggeratedit stayed a key problem during the run-up to Election Day, with officials and voters promising to do so keep a close eye on it for any possible evidence of misconduct.

Fact check: Officials say voting error in Kentucky is an “isolated incident.”

But the Instagram post doesn’t show voter fraud. The alleged plan outlined in the clip is a fabrication that Georgian Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger described as “targeted disinformation.”

In one October 31 post On

A day later, three federal intelligence agencies agreed with Raffensperger’s assessment in a joint statementconcluding that the video was made by Russian influence actors. They reported that the determination was based on unspecified information collected during their investigation and on activity observed during previous disinformation campaigns.

The intelligence services came to similar conclusions about a “video falsely accusing an individual associated with the Democratic presidential ticket of taking bribes from an American entertainer.” The agencies did not provide details, but the site that initially shared the video in the Instagram post was behind an Oct. 30 post about X falsely claiming Vice President Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoffhad now tipped – charged music producer Sean “Diddy” Combs to a Department of Homeland Security raid in March in exchange for $500,000 USA TODAY previously reported this.

“This Russian activity is part of Moscow’s broader effort to raise unwarranted questions about the integrity of the U.S. election and to foment division among Americans,” said the Nov. 1 joint statement from the Office of the Director of the National Intelligence Service, the FBI and the United States Intelligence Community. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

In one November 2 interview with CNNRaffensperger pointed out several clues that indicate the video in the Instagram post is not authentic. Contrary to the speaker’s claim that he became a US citizen after six months, he noted: “People don’t come here in six months to get papers and citizenship papers.” Generally, people must be permanent residents of the US for at least five years. years, or three years if married to a citizen, to be eligible for naturalization, according to Citizenship and Immigration Services.

Georgia also does not issue multiple driver’s licenses for the same name, Raffensperger said.

“So we knew it just didn’t smell good in there,” he told CNN.

A American social media influencer and supporter of former President Donald Trump told CNN on November 4 he received $100 from a pro-Kremlin propagandist to include the video in the Instagram post, as well as the Emhoff video. The influencer, identified only as @AlphaFox78, his X username, said the payment came from Simeon Boikov – who CNN reported was a participant in previous Russian disinformation campaigns. That X user has since deleted the post containing the video.

USA TODAY has previously debunked false claims delayed election results in several states and a typo in Trump’s name on a voting machine in Virginia are both signs of fraud.

USA TODAY reached out to the Facebook user who shared the post but did not immediately receive a response. The Instagram user could not be reached.

AFP And Leading stories has also debunked the claim.

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