Top Georgia official says fake video of voter fraud probably spread by Russia

A video circulating on social media purporting to show Haitians voting illegally for Kamala Harris is fake, according to the secretary of state in Georgia.

Brad Raffensperger said in a statement that the video had probably been created and spread by Russian government actors trying to interfere in the US election.

“This is obviously fake, and likely it is a production of Russian troll farms,” he wrote. “As Americans we can’t let our enemies use lies to divide us and undermine faith in our institutions – or each other.”

The video shows two people claiming to be from Haiti, saying they came to the US six months previously and have received US citizenship.

“We’re voting Kamala Harris. Yesterday, we voted in Gwinnett county, and today we’re voting in Fulton county,” the man says in the 20-second clip. “We have all our documents, driver’s license. We invite all Haitians to come to America and bring families.”

The video was reported to the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, and Raffensperger’s office said it confirmed the hoax after it discovered the driver’s license of one of the alleged “voters” was fake.

Trump and his campaign have made racist comments about Haitian immigrants “eating pets” and, far from apologizing after they were proved false, subsequently doubled down on the claims , leading to a rapid escalation of threats against the Haitian community in Springfield, Ohio, who have the legal right to live in the US.

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Raffensberger did not include a link to the video but it has been widely circulated on social media by prominent rightwing accounts – most prominently on X, which is owned by Elon Musk.

In his statement on Thursday, Raffensperger urged Musk to take the video down from X, and called on “leadership of other social media platforms to take it down” as well.

Despite promises when he bought it that he would purge the platform of disinformation, Musk has since done the opposite, not just allowing the spread of false and misleading posts but frequently sharing them himself, even after they have been debunked.

Raffensperger, a Republican, defended the integrity of Georgia’s election results in 2020 after Trump’s false claims that it had been “stolen”. On a call with the secretary of state, Trump asked him to “find” enough votes to change the result in Georgia, which Biden won.

Raffensberger refused, pointing out that there was no fraud. Trump later described him as an “enemy of the people”.

Trump is under federal indictment for his attempt to interfere with the presidential election in Georgia.

Russia, too, has made ongoing attempts to interfere with US elections. A US intelligence report from last year found that Russia is using spy networks, state-run media and social media to undermine public trust in elections, calling it “a global phenomenon”.