A polling station in Atlanta on Oct. 16.Megan Varner/Reuters
This article is part of The Globe’s initiative to cover dis- and misinformation. E-mail us to share tips or feedback at disinfodesk@globeandmail.com.
A misleading video posted on X alongside claims that “illegal Haitian immigrants” had voted multiple times in Georgia has been debunked by officials and linked to Russian disinformation efforts.
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s office said the video was likely a “production of Russian troll farms” in a statement on Thursday. “This is false, and is an example of targeted disinformation we’ve seen this and other elections. It is likely foreign interference attempting to sow discord and chaos on the eve of the 2024 presidential election,” the statement said.
The Globe and Mail compared the driver’s licences shown in the video with genuine examples. The IDs in the video have rough borders with visible edges that don’t match a real licence, suggesting they may be counterfeit. We are not directly linking to the video so it is not amplified.
Annotated comparison of Georgia driver's licences in a screenshot of a misleading video on the left, and a sample licence on the right. Note the edges of licences from the video are not as clean or neat as in the genuine licence.
Reporters from BBC Verify searched for addresses visible in the apparently faked IDs and connected two to non-residential addresses.
Georgia is one of seven battleground states in Tuesday’s election, where polls show a tight race between Democratic Vice-President Kamala Harris and Republican candidate Donald Trump.
Cases of non-citizens voting are statistically rare, and they have not historically occurred in numbers that would affect the outcome of any race. The Brennan Center for Justice, which advocates for voting rights, surveyed local election officials in 42 jurisdictions with high immigrant populations after the 2016 election. It found only 30 cases of suspected non-citizens voting, out of 23.5 million votes cast, or 0.0001 per cent.
Fact check: Screenshot used to advance false claim U.S. overseas voting program is open to abuse
With a report by Reuters