Security Expert Warns That Russia Has Incentive To Create Fake Voter Fraud Stories

Clinton Watts: Russia Wants To “Target Voter Rolls” So “You Can Run An Influence Story That Says, 'There's Voter Fraud In The United States, That The Election's Rigged'”

Written by Media Matters Staff

Published

From CSPAN’s coverage of the March 30 Senate Intelligence Committee hearing, Disinformation: A Primer in Russian Active Measures and Influence Campaigns:

SEN. ANGUS KING (I-ME): Do you believe that [the Russians] will try again to compromise state-level election voting machines, registration rolls?

CLINTON WATTS: They could.

KING: But they tried this time.

WATTS: I don't think it's about breaking into the election machines. The goal is to create the perception that the vote may not be authentic. And so that's why it's smart to target voter rolls because just the act of hitting a voter roll doesn't change the votes, but then you can run an influence story that says, “There's voter fraud in the United States, that the election's rigged, that the count wasn't accurate,” and you can gain traction with it. It's a pinprick perception that they're trying to create.

Previously:

Sen. Mark Warner: Russia Used Internet Trolls To “Push Out Disinformation And Fake News” Which Was “Then Hyped By The American Media Echo Chamber”

Fake News Purveyors Echo Trump’s Bogus Claims Of Voter Fraud

Right-Wing Media Figures Conflate “Voter Fraud” With Voter Registration Inaccuracies