Disinformation campaigns, ballot processing issues and other problems at the polls have made news in the lead-up to Election Day 2024, as election officials say they are confident in the safeguards in place for a safe and fair election.

Officials have been bracing for problems for months. In May, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee warned the 2024 election likely will be the most attacked by malicious foreign forces in American history. Now, some of those concerns have played out in headlines about multiple fake videos linked to a Russian disinformation campaign, according to U.S. intelligence officials.

Meanwhile, local election officials are combatting other problems with counting ballots. Officials in Oregon and Washington say a suspected arsonist set fire to ballot collection boxes and undated absentee ballots in Pennsylvania remain the center of a court fight.

Here’s a look at various problems surrounding the 2024 election, including allegations of disinformation from foreign governments:

Ballots damaged in suspected arson attacks

Officials in Oregon and Washington say a suspected arsonist set fire to ballot collection boxes earlier this week.

Portland police responded to a fire at a ballot box in the Buckman neighborhood at about 3:30 a.m. Monday, and police in neighboring Vancouver responded to another arson at a ballot box shortly after. The Portland fire damaged just three ballots thanks to a fire suppression system within the collection box.

The fire in Vancouver damaged almost 500 ballots when its fire suppression system failed. Election officials are sending new ballots to the voters impacted, but about six couldn’t be identified and others may have been burned up entirely, they said.

In Oregon, Portland Police Agency spokesperson Mike Benner said the suspect is believed to be a white male 30 to 40 years old with short hair or balding, a thin-to-medium build and thin face. The New York Times and ABC News, citing anonymous sources, reported that a message reading “Free Gaza” appeared on the devices used in Monday’s arsons.

“It is very possible the suspect intends to continue targeted attacks across the area,” Benner warned.

Fake videos of election fraud, false claims tied to Russia

U.S. intelligence officials say multiple fake videos depicting voter fraud have been linked to a Russian disinformation campaign, as Russia works to help Trump beat Vice President Kamala Harris in the election.

One video purported to show a someone who claimed to be a recent immigrant from Haiti and a friend voting twice for Harris in Georgia. “Russian influence actors” were behind that video, according to a statement from U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies.

Another video, which accused Harris and her husband, Douglas Emhoff, of tipping off now-indicted music producer Sean “Diddy” Combs of a raid in exchange for a bribe, was also assessed to be manufactured by Russian actors and false, according to a joint statement from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

Another video depicted mail-in ballots being destroyed in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, a key battleground suburb. The video was created and amplified by Russian actors, U.S. officials said.

Trump campaign accuses UK political party of interference

Trump’s campaign filed a legal complaint last month against Britain’s ruling Labour Party, accusing it of interfering in the U.S. election after a public post on LinkedIn by the party’s head of operations Sofia Patel acknowledged that dozens of party staff were helping campaign for Harris.

It is not illegal for foreign nationals to serve as campaign volunteers in U.S. elections, provided they are not compensated in any way, according to FEC rules. Britain Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the current and former Labour Party staff were campaigning on their own time and in a personal capacity.

The Trump campaign complaint accused the Labour Party officials of “blatant foreign interference” and questioned whether there was “illegal foreign campaign contributions and interference.”

Chinese national facing charges for voting in Michigan

A Chinese citizen studying at the University of Michigan, who has not been named by officials, is being charged after allegedly casting an irretrievable ballot illegally.

The Detroit News reports the vote is still expected to count because there isn’t a way to remove it from the system after it has been entered into a tabulator, a safeguard in place to protect voter privacy and prevent individual votes from being tied to voters.

The student registered to vote on Sunday using identification from the school and signed a document testifying that he was a U.S. citizen, the Michigan Secretary of State’s Office told the Detroit News. Officials in Michigan have not said whether the vote has any ties to foreign election interference attempts.

“Let this be clear: Voting records are public – any noncitizen who attempts to vote fraudulently in Michigan will be exposing themselves to great risk and will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and Washtenaw County Prosecutor Eli Savit said in a statement.

“Noncitizen voting is an extremely isolated and rare event. Investigations in multiple states and nationwide have found no evidence of large numbers of noncitizens registering to vote. Even less common is a noncitizen actually casting a ballot.”

Other potential ballot issues in the news

• A Pennsylvania court ordered the Erie County Board of Elections to offer new absentee ballots to nearly 20,000 voters who didn’t receive them and stay open for longer office hours until Election Day to receive them.
• Election officials and lawmakers are worried that U.S Postal Service delays could prevent thousands of ballots from being counted this year, in what could be an extremely close presidential contest.“Voters should never have to worry about if their ballot will be postmarked on time or if their ballot will reach their election center in time to be counted,” said Rep. David Joyce, R-Ohio.
• The Supreme Court on Friday declined to block Pennsylvania from counting some provisional ballots in Tuesday’s election, a decision potentially affecting thousands of votes in the battleground state. The court rejected the Republican Party’s emergency request to intervene after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court said voters should be able to cast provisional ballots if they failed to encase an absentee ballot in the required secrecy sleeve.