Georgia's Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said a video depicting a Haitian immigrant voting multiple times in Georgia is "targeted disinformation," and urged social media outlets to remove the video.
The video, which has been shared by some prominent Republicans, shows a man claiming to have moved to the U.S. from Haiti six months ago and already gaining citizenship. The man in the video claims he has multiple state-issued identification cards, and would be able to vote for Kamala Harris in multiple Georgia counties.
The man in the video then says, "We invite all Haitians to come to America and bring all families."
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To become a U.S. citizen, one must first be a lawful permanent resident for a minimum of five years. Only U.S. citizens are allowed to vote in presidential elections.
"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 said. "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."
Raffensperger said the video is "obviously fake" and likely the production of "Russian troll farms."
"As Americans, we can’t let our enemies use lies to divide us and undermine our faith in our institutions - or each other," the Georgia secretary of state added.
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The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the lead federal agency that monitors the physical security and cybersecurity of systems and assets that support the nation's elections, initially said it was aware of the video and was investigating. On Friday, federal intelligence officials released a statement agreeing with Georgia election officials' assessment.
“The (Intelligence Community) assesses that Russian influence actors manufactured a recent video that falsely depicted individuals claiming to be from Haiti and voting illegally in multiple counties in Georgia," according to a joint statement from federal intelligence officials. "This judgment is based on information available to the IC and prior activities of other Russian influence actors, including videos and other disinformation activities. The Georgia Secretary of State has already refuted the video’s claims as false.
"Russian influence actors also manufactured a video falsely accusing an individual associated with the Democratic presidential ticket of taking a bribe from a U.S. entertainer. This Russian activity is part of Moscow’s broader effort to raise unfounded questions about the integrity of the US election and stoke divisions among Americans, as detailed in prior Office of the Director of National Intelligence election updates."
Gabriel Sterling, who is the chief operating officer under Raffensperger, decried those sharing the video.
"No responsible person would retweet this ridiculously obvious lie and disinformation," he said. "Those doing so are acting to further the efforts of America’s enemies and undermine the security of our nation. The judgment of those sharing this should be questioned in all things."
Chris Krebs, who was appointed to to lead CISA by then-President Donald Trump before he was later fired by Trump for contradicting his claims of election fraud following the 2020 election, responded to the video.
"More nonsense from Russian troll farms. Expect a deluge of pure nonsense like this in the next several weeks," Krebs said. "You’re the mark. They think you’re stupid. They think you’re incapable of half an ounce of critical thinking. Prove them wrong."
