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FBI agents claim Russian disinformation campaign is behind fake video of destroyed Bucks County ballots • Pennsylvania Capital-Star

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

The video was posted on Thursday on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, and claims to show a man tearing up mail-in ballots for former President Donald Trump and Republican 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 designed to sow division and distrust in our electoral systems and ridicule the people who work incredibly hard to ensure a free and fair election is conducted,” said election commissioners Bob Harvie, Diane Ellis-Marseglia and Gene DiGirolamo in a joint statement. “The election committee strongly condemns this targeted spread 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.

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

“It's blatantly fraudulent, and I saw it last night,” Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt said Friday during a tour of voting facilities in Philadelphia. “And anyone who has experience processing mail-in ballots or knows anything about election administration could see it from a mile away.”

“I think the worrying thing is that people are being deceived by videos like this. “Even something as simple as this can cause great harm by undermining confidence in the election results or making people believe that their vote will not be counted,” he added.

In a joint statement on 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 that the intelligence community “assesses that Russian actors have manufactured and enhanced a “Recent video incorrectly showing a person tearing up ballots in Pennsylvania, according to available information [intelligence community] and past 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-in ballots. Despite numerous attempts by Trump and his allies to sow doubt about the election results, no credible evidence of manipulation or fraud has ever been found.

Federal authorities said Friday that the fake Bucks County video was “part of Moscow's broader efforts to raise unfounded questions about the integrity of U.S. elections and stoke divisions among Americans.”

They added that in the run-up to Election Day, the intelligence community “expects Russia to create and publish additional media content aimed at undermining confidence in the integrity of the election and dividing Americans.”

This story was amended to update the headline after publication on October 25, 2024 at 9:18 p.m.

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