Latest news with #electioninterference
Mail & Guardian
a day ago
- Politics
- Mail & Guardian
Does Africa's supposed digital disadvantage protect it from election interference?
Data analytics and strategic manipulation have become the new tools in today's politics, even in Africa. Photo: Delwyn Verasamy, M&G With about 13 African countries coming from the polls in 2024 and others preparing for municipal elections in 2026, some analysts suggest, perhaps a bit too confidently, that African countries have been spared the worst of election interference simply because they are not yet as digitally advanced as other states in the world. But is the continent really safeguarded, or do we just minimise the effect of interference by digital technologies? As Africa undergoes a stagnation in its democratisation, increased attention is being paid to countries that still uphold democratic principles. This has prompted observers to assess how these nations are adhering to democracy or taking a decisive shift towards other Still, many argue that things could be worse if digital interference ever decided to join the party. But digital interference has certainly been occurring in Africa, just not with the same intensity or visibility as in more technologically advanced states. These states have integrated high-level digital infrastructure, innovation-driven economies and widespread access to Online platforms such as Facebook, X, and YouTube become arenas for misinformation, disinformation and algorithmic manipulation. Social media bots, fake accounts and data-driven micro-targeting are used to spread false information and polarise public opinion. A study by Using the Contrary to this, the International Telecommunication Union puts Africa's internet In Nigeria and Kenya, investigations have uncovered that Cambridge Analytica, the infamous data-crunching firm, played a shadowy role in manipulating elections in 2015 and 2017. Channel 4 News Ahead of Angola's 2022 election, In other cases, African states embraced biometric registration and digital results transmission . The only catch? They often forgot to bring cybersecurity along for the ride. In Kenya's On the other hand, countries such as the DRC and Senegal are accused of violating basic rights to freedom of expression and assembly by resorting to internet shutdowns. These blackouts are used to suppress dissent and restrict information. But they cut citizens off from critical, sometimes even lifesaving information, conveniently timed before or during elections. Other evidence of this occurred in Zimbabwe's August 2023 general elections were marred by accusations against the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, including premature announcement of results and allegations of voter suppression and irregularities. During South Africa's national and provincial elections in May 2024, the electoral commission had to deal with technical glitches that sparked public worry. This included a brief outage of the election results dashboard at the Results Operating Centre in Midrand, as well as power outages during the vote counting process. Both countries encountered issues that undermined public trust in their electoral bodies. Notably, digital interference was not a major focus of concern in either case; apparently, it takes more than a few server crashes and power outages to steal an election. It is fair to say that technologically advanced states do face greater vulnerability because of their reliance on digital infrastructure and widespread internet access. But Africa is not immune to election meddling; rather, its exposure to digital interference is currently less pronounced. This should not breed complacency. Instead, African nations must strengthen their electoral systems to avoid the pitfalls that have already compromised democracies elsewhere. Thuto Khumalo and Mihle Kambula are international relations students at the University of Johannesburg.
Daily Mail
3 days ago
- Politics
- Daily Mail
FBI alleges Chinese interference in 2020 election
FBI Director Kash Patel has turned over an intelligence report alleging that Chinese officials sought to rig the 2020 election with mail-in ballots by giving out tens of thousands of fake IDs. Newly declassified intelligence reports from August 2020 allege a vast conspiracy to benefit Democrat Joe Biden , officials who reviewed the file told Just the News. 'The FBI has located documents which detail alarming allegations related to the 2020 U.S. election, including allegations of interference by the CCP,' Patel wrote on X Monday evening. 'Specifically, these include allegations of plans from the CCP to manufacture fake driver's licenses and ship them into the United States for the purpose of facilitating fraudulent mail-in ballots – allegations which, while substantiated, were abruptly recalled and never disclosed to the public,' Patel told the outlet. The report was originally sent out to FBI offices around the country, but the memo was later recalled within weeks and never fully investigated on the grounds that the source needed to be interviewed again. The withdrawal came around the time that then-FBI Director Christopher Wray publicly testified that there were not any known election interference operations in the 2020 election, the officials said. The documents were requested by Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, who first raised concerns that the intelligence had not been fully investigated despite there being evidence of fake drivers' licenses. 'In accordance with Chairman Grassley's request for documents, I have immediately declassified the material and turned the document over to the Chairman for further review,' Patel said in a statement. Grassley's office has since requested additional documents from Patel in a letter, specifically one report from the FBI's Albany field office from September 2020. Sources familiar with the document told Just the News that the FBI report was based on a relatively new confidential source. The informant warned the agency that the Chinese government was producing fake U.S. drivers' licenses as a part of a plot to provide Chinese residents in the U.S. with forms of ID to vote in the 2020 election. These IDs would then be used to help the non-citizens vote using mail-in ballots, officials claim. U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) intercepted nearly 20,000 fake licenses around the time of the intelligence report, officials claim. 'Chairman Grassley is in receipt of an FBI document responsive to a request he made based on legally protected whistleblower disclosures,' the senator's office said in a statement. 'The document alleges serious national security concerns that need to be fully investigated by the FBI.' 'Grassley is requesting additional documentation from the FBI to verify the production, and is urging the FBI to do its due diligence to investigate why the document was recalled, who recalled it and inform the American people of its findings.'
Daily Mail
3 days ago
- Politics
- Daily Mail
Trump's FBI unveils shocking details of Chinese plot using 'fake ballots' to defeat him in 2020 election
FBI Director Kash Patel has turned over an intelligence report alleging that Chinese officials sought to rig the 2020 election with mail-in ballots by giving out tens of thousands of fake IDs. Newly declassified intelligence reports from August 2020 allege a vast conspiracy to benefit Democrat Joe Biden, officials who reviewed the file told Just the News. 'The FBI has located documents which detail alarming allegations related to the 2020 U.S. election, including allegations of interference by the CCP,' Patel wrote on X Monday evening. 'Specifically, these include allegations of plans from the CCP to manufacture fake driver's licenses and ship them into the United States for the purpose of facilitating fraudulent mail-in ballots – allegations which, while substantiated, were abruptly recalled and never disclosed to the public,' Patel told the outlet. The report was originally sent out to FBI offices around the country, but the memo was later recalled within weeks and never fully investigated on the grounds that the source needed to be interviewed again. The withdrawal came around the time that then-FBI Director Christopher Wray publicly testified that there were not any known election interference operations in the 2020 election, the officials said. The documents were requested by Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, who first raised concerns that the intelligence had not been fully investigated despite there being evidence of fake drivers' licenses. 'In accordance with Chairman Grassley's request for documents, I have immediately declassified the material and turned the document over to the Chairman for further review,' Patel said in a statement. Grassley's office has since requested additional documents from Patel in a letter, specifically one report from the FBI's Albany field office from September 2020. Sources familiar with the document told Just the News that the FBI report was based on a relatively new confidential source. The informant warned the agency that the Chinese government was producing fake U.S. drivers' licenses as a part of a plot to provide Chinese residents in the U.S. with forms of ID to vote in the 2020 election. These IDs would then be used to help the non-citizens vote using mail-in ballots, officials claim. According to officials, the plot was meant to benefit Biden. However, internal FBI memos about the report were recalled 'in order to re-interview the source,' Grassley's office claims. The FBI later advised: 'Recipients should destroy all copies of the original report and remove the original report from all computer holdings.' U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) intercepted nearly 20,000 fake licenses around the time of the intelligence report, officials claim. 'Chairman Grassley is in receipt of an FBI document responsive to a request he made based on legally protected whistleblower disclosures,' the senator's office said in a statement. 'The document alleges serious national security concerns that need to be fully investigated by the FBI.' 'Grassley is requesting additional documentation from the FBI to verify the production, and is urging the FBI to do its due diligence to investigate why the document was recalled, who recalled it and inform the American people of its findings.' Biden beat Trump by just a few thousand votes in several states. Biden won Arizona by roughly 10,000 votes. In Georgia the Democrat won by 12,000 votes. Trump lost Wisconsin by around 20,000 votes.
Bloomberg
11-06-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
Wisconsin Lawsuit Seeks to Ban Musk From Offering $1 Million Checks to Voters
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A government watchdog group in Wisconsin filed a lawsuit Wednesday seeking to prohibit billionaire Elon Musk from ever again offering cash payments to voters in the battleground state like he did in this spring's hotly contested Supreme Court race. Musk handed out $1 million checks to three Wisconsin voters, including two in person just days before the state's April 1 Supreme Court election, in an effort to help elect conservative candidate Brad Schimel. Two weeks before the election, Musk's political action committee, America PAC, offered $100 to voters who signed a petition in opposition to 'activist judges," or referred someone to sign it.
Yahoo
31-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Georgia mayor and two others jailed for trying to halt local election
CAMILLA, Ga. (WSAV) — The mayor of Camilla, Ga., and two former election officials have been jailed on felony charges stemming from efforts last November to halt a local election after one of the mayor's allies, Venterra Pollard, was disqualified from a city council race. Mayor Kelvin Owens was held at the Mitchell County jail Friday, two days after a grand jury indicted him on a felony charge of election interference and a misdemeanor count of conspiring to commit election fraud. Camilla, a farming community of about 5,000 people, is about 225 miles from Savannah. The city's former elections superintendent and her former deputy superintendent were also jailed. Rhunette Williford and Cheryl Ford were charged with the same crimes as the mayor, plus misdemeanor counts of failing to perform their duties as public officers. Mayor Owens had blamed the local upheaval on racial politics, saying that Pollard, who is Black, was targeted by white residents trying to wrest power from the majority Black population. The city of Camilla is nearly three-fourths Black. All three defendants remained in jail awaiting a hearing Monday. District Attorney Joe Mulholland, whose circuit includes Camilla, declined to comment on the indictment Friday. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
