American voters are likely about to be swamped by a flood of misinformation and influence campaigns engineered by U.S. adversaries.
According to senior U.S. intelligence officials, to sway the results of the upcoming presidential election and cast doubt on the process itself.
The latest assessment from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, issued Monday, comes just 29 days before the November 5 election that will see U.S. voters choose the country’s next president and cast ballots in hundreds of other state and local races.
“We’ve continued to see actors ramp up their activities as we get closer to Election Day,” said a senior U.S. intelligence official, briefing reporters on the condition of anonymity.
“They recognize that individuals are already voting, and operations can have a greater impact as we get closer to Election Day,” the official said, noting that the election itself may just be a starting point.
“The intelligence community expects foreign influence actors to continue their campaigns by calling into question the validity of the election results after the polls close,” the official added.
A second U.S. intelligence official warned the pace of such influence efforts, especially those targeting specific races or political campaigns, has also picked up.
U.S. officials said Monday that Russia, Iran, and China continue to be responsible for most of the influence efforts targeting U.S. voters.
And, they said, there have been no indications that any of those countries have changed their goals.
U.S. intelligence officials on Monday warned that Russia and Cuba have joined China, in targeting congressional, state, and local races.
“Moscow is leveraging a wide range of influence actors to influence congressional races, particularly to encourage the U.S. public to oppose pro-Ukraine policies and politicians,” the intelligence official said.
China late Monday again dismissed the U.S. concerns.
“China is not interested in the U.S. congressional election, and we have no intention and will not interfere in it,” Liu Pengyu, the spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, told VOA in an email.
