US officials say new Russian disinformation is targeting swing states on eve of election

Russia-linked disinformation operations have falsely claimed officials in battleground states plan to fraudulently sway the outcome of the extraordinarily close US presidential election, authorities warn hours before Election Day.

Success in the seven swing states is key to winning the White House for rivals Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, and those states have previously been the focus of unsupported accusations of election fraud.

“Russia is the most active threat,” the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency says.

“These efforts risk inciting violence, including against election officials,” they add, noting the efforts are expected to intensify through Election Day and in the following weeks.

It is the latest in a series of warnings from the ODNI about foreign actors — notably Russia and Iran — allegedly spreading disinformation or hacking the campaigns during this election.

Tehran and Moscow have both denied such allegations in the past.

The latest ODNI statement cites the example of a recent video that falsely depicted an interview with a person claiming election fraud in Arizona, which involved creating fake overseas ballots and changing voter rolls to favor Harris.

Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes called the video and its claims “completely false, fake and fraudulent.”

Authorities also say they expected Iranian-linked operations to try to stoke violence by spreading false content.