Gov. Josh Shapiro praised Bucks County election officials and the Department of State in their response to a fake, Russian-made video that showed someone allegedly destroying mail-in ballots that belonged to Donald Trump voters.
Gov. Josh Shapiro on Saturday responded to a widely circulated fake video of someone destroying mail-in ballots from Donald Trump supporters in Bucks County.
The video, which the FBI, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said was created by Russia, was quickly debunked as a manufactured video by Bucks County election officials.
Shapiro spoke at a canvass launch in Bucks County on Saturday for Ashley Ehasz, who is challenging Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Bucks) and Anna Payne, who is running for the Pennsylvania House, and he praised Bucks County officials for acting quickly.
“Commissioner Harvie and Commissioner Marseglia [are] doing a great job along with all of their team on the ground here in Bucks County running the election to ensure that we once again have a free and fair, safe and secure election. Just like we did in 2020 and in 2022 and in 2023,” Shapiro told reporters.
Shapiro then explained to reporters how his administration is ready to handle misinformation and disinformation that may swirl ahead of and after next month’s election.
“As we learned from the Department of Justice last night, the Russians seemingly have a hand in putting that mis- and disinformation out there. It’s one of the reasons why about a year ago, I created the State Election Protection Task Force, led by Secretary of State Al Schmidt,” Shapiro said.
“Part of the responsibility of the Election Protection Task Force is to deal with mis- and disinformation, and [Schmidt] and his team together with the Bucks County team, did an outstanding job over the last couple days getting the word out that it’s fake.”
Bob Harvie, one of Bucks County two Democratic commissioners, told The Keystone that he wasn’t surprised that foreign actors targeted Bucks County, being a swing county in the largest swing state.
“We’re not really surprised that Bucks County was targeted. I mean, we are the biggest swing county in Pennsylvania. The election in many ways is going to go through this county,” Harive said.
Bucks County officials, according to Harvie, realized the video was a fake as they noticed the ballots and other materials in the video.
“We knew instantaneously, as soon as we saw it, that it was false,” Harvie said.
“We knew from the materials depicted in the video clearly did not match what we have. We deal with a hundred thousand ballots and envelopes so we know what they look like. So it was pretty instantaneous. We contacted law enforcement right away at the county level and state level and the FBI and we reacted very swiftly to make sure that the news got out from our lips to the public.”
