By Eric Tucker and Nomaan Merchant -
The Associated Press
Federal officials are warning ahead of November's midterm elections that Russia is seeking to cast doubt on the integrity of the vote, while China is interested in undermining US politicians it sees as a threat to Beijing's interests.
An unclassified intelligence report obtained by The Associated Press news agency indicates that China is likely trying to selectively influence some of the November election races to "hurt candidates it perceives as particularly hostile to Beijing."
In the report, which was sent to state and local officials in mid-September, intelligence officials said China sees less risk of meddling in the midterm elections compared to the presidential one.
While the officials said they did not identify any credible threats to the electoral infrastructure in the United States, the report comes at a time when more and more candidates and voters are publicly expressing their lack of confidence in the country's democratic processes.
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Foreign powers have long sought to influence public opinion in the United States, perhaps most notably when Russia secretly used social media to sow discord over contentious social policy issues ahead of the 2016 presidential election. The United States has been on high alert ever since, warning of efforts by Russia, China and Iran to meddle in American politics and shape the way voters think.
The United States grapples with foreign interference campaigns as it continues to grapple with domestic threats to poll workers and the systematic spread of falsehoods and misinformation about alleged election fraud.
Former President Donald Trump and many of his supporters, including candidates running to oversee elections in multiple states, continue to lie about the 2020 presidential election, even as no evidence of significant voter fraud has surfaced.
Voting center in Alexandria, Virginia, on September 26, 2022. Andrew Harnik / AP
"The current environment is quite complex, possibly much more complex than it was in 2020," Jen Easterly, director of cybersecurity at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), said Monday.
Russia is amplifying divisive topics already circulating on the internet, including questions about the integrity of the US election, but not creating its own content, according to a senior FBI official who spoke to reporters Monday on condition of anonymity on instructions from the FBI. the agency.
China's goals in general have more to do with shaping political debates, including at the state and local levels, than with the election results themselves.
However, China appears to have focused its attention on a "subset of candidates" that it sees as opposed to its political interests, the official explained.
In a high-profile case, the Justice Department charged several Chinese agents with a plot to undermine the candidacy of a Chinese dissident and student leader of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, who was running for a seat in Congress. from New York.
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The DHS report does not list specific careers or states where it believes China-linked actors could operate, but cites the case of the New York congressional candidate as an example.
It also suggests that China's interest in politics extends beyond the United States, and claims that Australian intelligence has since 2017 monitored attempts by the Chinese government to support certain legislators or candidates sympathetic to its interests.
Chinese and Russian officials and state media in those countries have repeatedly rejected US accusations of their alleged election meddling, and have in turn pointed to alleged US attempts to influence other countries.
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State and local governments are limited in what they can do against influence campaigns, since "their job is not to police the political conversation," explained Larry Norden, an election security expert at the Brennan Center for Justice.
“I think there are a lot of things that voters should do,” he added.
“If they see posts that speak about candidates in an emotionally charged or alarmist way, they should stop and check the accuracy of the claims, and if they are false, they should report them to social media companies.”
Scott Bates, the assistant secretary of state for Connecticut, noted that state election officials have responded to warnings about foreign interference since 2016.
"Our best defense is an educated population," he said.
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Some signs of interference operations by Russia and China are already public.
Meta, the company that owns Facebook and Instagram, reported in late September that it disabled a Russian disinformation network with fake news sites and hundreds of fake social media accounts.
The researchers also exposed a much smaller network that originated in China and was intended to spread divisive political content in the United States, though it only reached a small audience.
FBI and DHS officials said Monday that they are not aware of any credible threat to the nation's election infrastructure.
A senior FBI official said that while there is no indication that a foreign government plans to hack election equipment, they are concerned that they could spread exaggerated or false claims to undermine confidence in the election.
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In addition to concerns about cybersecurity and foreign interference campaigns, the FBI is increasingly focused on physical threats to poll workers.
The FBI created a task force in the summer of 2021 to deal with the influx of threats to election security workers.
Since then, it has received and reviewed more than 1,000 complaints of harassment.
Most of it came from emails, phone calls and social media, with most originating primarily from states where election results were being audited.
Of those reports, about 11% qualified as a possible federal crime.
The FBI has made four arrests.
Officials said in many cases they were unable to proceed further with their investigations because of the strict First Amendment protections an individual's political speech provides.
