Quick News: Russian Interference (Again)

Yesterday (Sep 17), FBI Director Christopher Wray reaffirmed reports that Russia is trying to sway the 2020 election in Trump's favor. This, Wray claims is to "primarily denigrate Biden and what the Russians see as kind of an anti-Russian establishment".

Where the interference in 2016 was more direct---email hacking and digital election infrastructure attacks---in 2020 it's primarily indirect via misinformation on social media and propaganda (like Russian outlet RT).

President Trump responded to the hearing on Twitter: "But Chris, you don’t see any activity from China, even though it is a FAR greater threat than Russia, Russia, Russia. They will both, plus others, be able to interfere in our 2020 Election with our totally vulnerable Unsolicited (Counterfeit?) Ballot Scam. Check it out!"

The President is correct that China also has a stake in the upcoming election and has made efforts to sway it. The Washington Post reports that such attempts have been largely rhetorical, although a speech by Christopher Wray himself in July seems to imply more pernicious acts.

However, neither China nor Russia are making any attempts to sway the election via a "ballot scam". This is outright misinformation from Trump. As Wray noted in his hearing, interference in the 2020 election is primarily through misinformation.

Further, Mail-in voting is historically safe. According to a report from Brookings, overall rates of mail-in voting fraud are extremely low. Additionally, mail-in voting rates have been increasing over time with virtually no increase in fraud. In 2018 alone over a quarter of votes were cast by mail and the low rate of fraud obtained.

Therefore, the best defense against election tampering is not to denigrate mail-in voting-- as it pointlessly undermines faith in the democratic process. Rather, we should be careful where we get our information and practice meticulous fact-checking of the news we consume on social media.

For a great (and meticulously researched) repository for news organizations which are minimally biased and report factual information, check out the Ad Fontes Media Bias Chart. You can do your part to fight misinformation by consuming news from reliable sources.

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