The video used a black actor with a foreign accent — a choice that may have been intended as a way to inflame existing divisions on American soil, according to Josephine Lukito, an assistant professor of journalism at the University of Texas at Austin who has researched Russian disinformation. .

It’s a common strategy in fake videos originating in Russia, she said.

“Tends to amplify racism, doesn’t it?” Lukito said. “There’s already this kind of discussion about immigrants voting illegally or about immigration in general. Russian disinformation absolutely exploits that.”

After the video was debunked, the user X who popularized it deleted his original post and shared several posts from other accounts denouncing it as fake.

America PAC, a super political action committee launched by Billionaire X owner Elon Musk will support Trump in his bid for a second term, was among those who denounced the video — a stark contrast to the misinformation frequently spread on X, often spurred by Musk himself. PAC declined a request for further comment.

There were several clues that immediately indicated the Bucks County video was fabricated. For example, under Pennsylvania law, election officials it has to wait to 7 a.m. ET on Election Day before they can begin processing mail-in ballots and getting them ready to be counted.

Other suggestions included the dark green color on the left side of the outer envelopes – it’s actually more of a kelly green — and the glossiness of the inner and outer envelopes, which in reality have a matte finish. Additionally, none of the envelopes in the video had voters’ return addresses written on them.

Complaints from citizens throughout Bucks County and a call from the Yardley Borough Police Chief alerted District Attorney Jennifer Schorn that the video was circulating online. Schorn was in a pretrial conference Thursday, and when he came out, he saw the calls about the video.

“Immediately at that point, we began to investigate the video and came to our final conclusion that it was, in fact, fabricated,” she said in a phone interview Friday.

Schorn was reluctant to describe how authorities reached their conclusion, citing concerns that later fraudsters might improve their tactics. She said her office has assigned two attorneys to look into the fraud allegations and that they will be “24/7” on Election Day.

Both Republicans and Democrats in the county called the video fake and expressed concern about how it could affect the election.

“To us, this is misinformation designed to scare voters and discourage them from using mail-in ballots or vote-by-demand that use the same mail-in voting process,” the Bucks County Republican Committee said. he wrote in a statement. “We’ve seen dirty, underhanded tactics this year, from defacing signs, letters threatening Trump supporters, and now this video is trying to scare voters in Bucks County.”

Pennsylvania Sen. Steve Santarsiero, chairman of the Bucks County Democratic Committee, called the video an attempt to “call into question our mail-in voting system and ultimately the outcome of the presidential election.” in a statement.

Officials said they were encouraged by the speed with which this misinformation and other harmful falsehoods were caught during this election cycle.

“I don’t blame Americans at all for wanting to be reassured that the system can be trusted,” Schorn said. “I don’t blame it because unfortunately, you know, there are criminal entities that undermine the processes. I felt peaceful yesterday. I felt it worked the way it was supposed to.”

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