FBI on alert for attempts to derail vote

Verify information before sending on, LR agents warn

The Little Rock office of the FBI is preparing for election season with unique challenges between mail-in voting, increased foreign government intervention and more worry of political violence.

Early voting in Pulaski County begins today with 12 available polling sites, and the Pulaski County clerk has organized an absentee ballot drive-thru that will also open today.

The biggest challenge for federal agents, according to FBI spokesman Connor Hagan, is the increased number of countries attempting to influence the United States elections.

“We’re heading into a pretty contentious election season across the board, and, alongside our partners, we’re ready to defend our democratic institutions,” he said.

It is unusual for the FBI to share as much information as it has done for this election, according to Hagan. This is to counteract as much of disinformation as possible.

“In my opinion five years in as a public affairs officer, rarely does the FBI share this much information,” Hagan said. “We have come out with pretty significant assessments not only with what countries are doing the misinformation and disinformation campaigns but what their ultimate goals are.”

Three countries primarily are looking to affect the election in the United States this year, according to Special Agent Ryan Kennedy of the Little Rock office. Russia, which also interfered in the 2016 election, is one of them.

“It really started with the 2016 election and the intelligence community report that came out after,” Kennedy said. “That was pretty specific in regards to Russian attempts to interfere with our elections and attempts to drive people apart. And that has not stopped. It has continued since 2016, and we’ve had other countries join that bandwagon as well.”

The three countries, Russia, China and Iran, have their own agendas for interference, according to Hagan, but there is a key similarity on how they accomplish those — by dividing the voter base.

“Any foreign adversary, they are going to be looking to divide us across the political spectrum,” Hagan said. “I don’t care if you’re left or right or forward backward. They are using whatever hot button topics to try to divide.”

The motivations are simple, according to Hagan.

China sees President Donald Trump as a threat, and it is sowing seeds of discourse in favor of his opponents.

Russia is trying to denigrate former Vice President Joe Biden and support Trump.

Iran is just trying to cause as much chaos as possible, not favoring one candidate over another.

The interference in elections is not coming from a hacker physically changing votes, according to Hagan. The biggest area of worry is social media and sharing false information.

“If they are successful, it comes from people maybe being a little lazy about what they read,” Hagan said. “They see something on Facebook or on social media and instead of saying that seems unusual and looking at other news sources to make sure that is accurate, they post it. They blast it out there.”

The social media posts are crafted to agitate readers and turn Americans against one another, according to Hagan.

He suggests voters be careful what they read online.

“Memes aren’t news,” Hagan said. “I appreciate a good meme just like any other 30-year-old, but when you’ve got people who are posting stuff and just putting it out there and suddenly it’s a gospel truth from a Twitter account that you like and follow, that doesn’t mean that’s always 100% accurate. I tried to tell the same thing to several of my family members.”

Aside from social media posts online, the FBI is working with a team of agencies to ensure the election is safe from threats, including fraud.

“One of the things that we are doing around the country is every field office is going to be standing a command post during election week, and we’re going to have a national command post ready as well to intake that kind of information,” Kennedy said. “So something people should be aware of is if they do see something at a polling place that is concerning that they do believe is illegal or maybe a safety issue then they need to call us and local law enforcement.”

During a particularly contentious election, there has been some worry over violence breaking out at polling places. According to Hagan, the FBI is prepared to assist in any calls, but the preparations for safety are primarily for local law enforcement.

“We have a working group that rivals any other task force you can think of,” Hagan said. “We have DHS, FBI, both U.S. attorneys’ offices in the eastern and western district [of Arkansas]. We’ve got the secretary of state for Arkansas and the Postal Inspection Service.”

The cluster of agencies has played out how they would respond to multiple scenarios within their own jurisdictions.

Hagan specifically said the secretary of state would be involved with investigating violence at polling places and similar threats.

Multiple attempts to contact a secretary of state spokesman were unsuccessful.

Kennedy thinks a good lesson to learn is part of something the agency teaches in its youth program: Think before posting.

“Don’t just retweet, repost,” Kennedy said. “Do the research first. Educate yourself on the issues. Make sure that what you’re reposting is valid information before you’re sending it out there.”