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With early voting underway, false and misleading reports have emerged online.

15 minute read

A steady stream of false and misleading information is circulating online around the 2024 election. A Kentucky voting machine that registered a vote for Vice President Kamala Harris when the voter meant to select former President Donald Trump has been found to be user error, not fraud, according to officials in Laurel County, where the issue occurred. A video circulating widely on social media that shows a man who says he is a Haitian immigrant claiming he is planning to vote multiple times in Georgia is fake. U.S. intelligence officials confirmed on Friday that the video is the work of Russian influence creators.

Here’s a look at the facts.

CLAIM: A video showing a ballot marking machine in Laurel County, Kentucky, that marks Vice President Kamala Harris when the voter tries to select former President Donald Trump is proof of fraud.

THE FACTS: That’s false. This was an isolated incident caused by user error, according to Laurel County Clerk Tony Brown. He wrote on Facebook that officials were able to recreate the incident when pressing the areas in between boxes with candidate’s names. But voters are supposed to press the middle of the box to make their selection.

The machine was taken out of service until the Kentucky attorney general’s office investigated, according to Brown, and its use has since resumed. He added that there have been no other complaints about the machine — before or after the incident — and that the voter in the video said she was able to cast a ballot for her preferred candidate.

In the video, someone off camera tries to vote for Trump by pressing a small square in the top-left corner of a larger box with his name. Harris’ name is highlighted in green on the seventh attempt, indicating that it has been selected instead.

Posts claiming that the video shows election interference received hundreds of thousands of likes and shares on multiple social media platforms.

Brown originally wrote Thursday afternoon that officials had been unable to recreate the incident and that the machine had been taken out of service, but left in full view, until a representative from the Kentucky attorney general’s office could investigate. He explained in a follow-up post about three hours later that the incident was replicated following the representative’s arrival, but could not be recreated more than once.

The follow-up post contained a video showing how voters should make their selection. The correct candidate’s name is highlighted in green when the middle of each box is pressed. In a third post on Friday, Brown shared a video of himself demonstrating the entire process of how to use a ballot marking machine correctly.

“Don’t go to the side and hit this tiny box in the side in the corner because it won’t work that way,” he cautions.

Voters only use the machine to create their ballot, which is then fed into a separate vote scanner. They are asked to confirm their selections before the ballot is printed. If a voter realizes they made a mistake after the ballot prints, Kentucky law allows them to spoil it and receive another. Each voter can spoil up to two ballots.

James Young, a former Louisville elections director, confirmed in an X post that the video “does not depict any fraudulent activity or ‘voting flipping.’”

— Associated Press writer Melissa Goldin in New York contributed this item.

CLAIM: A video shows a Haitian immigrant talking about how he’s intending to vote multiple times in two Georgia counties for Vice President Kamala Harris.

THE FACTS: The video is “obviously fake,” and likely the product of Russian trolls “attempting to sow discord and chaos on the eve of the election,” according to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.

“This is false and is an example of targeted disinformation we’ve seen this election,” he said. He added that his office is working with federal and state partners, including the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, to combat the disinformation and identify its origin.

Intelligence officials confirmed on Friday that the video was manufactured by “Russian influence actors” and was part of “Moscow’s broader effort to raise unfounded questions about the integrity of the U.S. election and stoke divisions among Americans.”

The intelligence community expects Russia, in the days before the election and weeks and months after, “to create and release additional media content that seeks to undermine trust in the integrity of the election and divide Americans,” said the joint statement from the FBI, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

SANDY SPRINGS, Ga. — Residents of a Sandy Springs neighborhood are demanding answers after they spent a week without getting their mail.

Steven Lavine lives along Wickley Way, just off Spalding Drive, where he says the mail did not come for any of his neighbors on Sept. 25, a Wednesday.

“Thursday no mail, Friday no mail, Saturday no mail,” he said.

This past Wednesday, after one week of no mail, he drove to the Sandy Springs post office on Hightower Trail to get an explanation.

He spoke with one employee.

“They’re understaffed,” Lavine said. “That’s the only thing he could say to me.”

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After he filed his complaint, the mail came Wednesday. It again did not come Thursday but it was delivered Friday.

Sherry Silverman, who lives across the street, said even if the post office is strapped for people, waiting a week for mail is unacceptable.

“To me, that seems like an excuse because what can you say when they say we’re short staffed?” she said “There is no accountability. There’s just not accountability.”

Channel 2′s Bryan Mims went to the post office on Hightower Trail, but nobody could speak on camera. One employee told him she was unaware of any staffing issues. Mims also spoke on the phone with Tiffany Rowland, a regional spokesperson for the U.S. Postal Service.

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She said Friday afternoon that she was working to get information about what happened but did not have an immediate statement.

Even in this age of email and paying bills online, the residents of Wickley Way say traditional mail service is still vital. “When there’s so many agencies, departments, companies, that you have to reply by mail, what are you going to do?” she said. “You can’t trust the mail.”

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Lavine called the offices of Governor Brian Kemp and Senator Jon Ossoff, but he had not heard back Friday. He has a message for the postal service.

“Get your act together,” he said. “I do not know if you need to hire more employees if you need more federal funds to run this operation. But something needs to be done. I cannot go a week without mail.”

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