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What makes Nevada a ‘pure battleground’ state

During the U.S. presidential election, all eyes will be on the seven so-called battleground states that are expected to determine the outcome of the 2024 contest. While some battleground states have shifted politically over the years, the Western swing state of Nevada has reliably voted right down the middle. Camera: Miguel Amaya
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New evidence China, Russia and Iran targeting US elections

WASHINGTON — There is new evidence China, Iran and Russia are aggressively expanding their efforts to influence American voters to potentially sway the result of the upcoming U.S. elections.

Two threat intelligence reports Wednesday, one from software giant Microsoft and the other from the cybersecurity firm Recorded Future, detail growing activity by cyber actors linked to each country — all aiming to impact U.S. public perceptions with less than two weeks before voters go to the polls.

The biggest change, according to Microsoft, comes from Chinese-linked actors known to researchers as Spamouflage or Taizi Flood.

“Chinese influence operations have recently taken a new turn, shifting focus to several down-ballot candidates and members of Congress,” Microsoft said, noting that starting in September, China has targeted at least four prominent Republican lawmakers, all of whom are known critics of the government in Beijing.

Most recently, the Chinese-linked accounts targeted Texas Republican Michael McCaul, accusing the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee of “abusing power for personal gain.” 

Late last month, other Spamouflage began going after Tennessee Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn, Microsoft said. And earlier this month, the same effort began promoting Blackburn’s opponent in the November 5 election.

Other targets include Alabama Republican Representative Barry Moore, who was subjected to content criticizing his support for Israel, and the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Republican Marco Rubio, who was accused of corruption.

The Chinese Embassy in Washington rejected the allegations in the Microsoft report.

“The presidential elections are the United States’ domestic affairs,” embassy spokesman Liu Pengyu told VOA Wednesday, echoing previous Chinese denials. 

“Such allegations are full of malicious speculations against China, which China firmly opposes,” he added.

U.S. lawmakers, however, said they were not surprised by the uptick in malign activity.

“The CCP [Chinese Communist Party] cannot stand anyone who supports and gives a voice to those they oppress; their response is to sanction and attack,” McCaul said in a statement to VOA. 

“I consider it a badge of honor when the CCP — a leading abuser of human rights, censor of free speech, and oppressor of its own people — takes issue with my work,” he said. 

Rubio, the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, called for the Chinese influence efforts to “be taken very seriously.”

“China is becoming increasingly more aggressive,” Rubio said in a statement to VOA. “China’s goal is to shape American opinion on critical issues and target specific candidates, especially those they view as anti-China.”

Growing threats

The reports from Microsoft and Recorded Future warn Beijing is not alone.

Specifically, the reports caution the Russian-linked cyber actors, known to researchers as Storm-1679 or Operation Overload, have increased their pace of operations over the past month and a half and are showing signs that more influence operations are on the way.

“Operation Overload is very likely to ramp up its activities,” said the Recorded Future report.

Recorded Future said many of the Russian efforts, of late, have sought to provoke anger toward the LGBTQ+ community “using disinformation to perpetuate discriminatory beliefs around transgender individuals, perceived behavioral issues, gender transition and reassignment surgeries, and pharmaceutical treatments.”

Other influence operations, the report said, are making use of AI-generated voiceovers to emulate the style of U.S. broadcast journalists.

Microsoft said the Russian cyber actors also have found ways to reach additional U.S. voters by shifting much of the content from the Telegram social media platform to X.

“Storm-1679 videos posted to X received higher levels of engagement,” Microsoft said.

Microsoft researchers also warned there are signs Iran is also ramping up its election interference efforts.

The Microsoft report says that in one instance, less than two weeks ago, “an online persona operated by Iran began falsely posing as an American and called on Americans to boycott the elections due to both candidates’ support for Israel’s military operations.”

Russia and Iran, like China, have repeatedly denied any involvement in efforts to meddle with the U.S. election.

But the new findings from Microsoft and Recorded Future align with assessments from U.S. intelligence officials.

“Foreign actors — particularly Russia, Iran and China — remain intent on fanning divisive narratives to divide Americans and undermine Americans’ confidence in the U.S. democratic system consistent with what they perceive to be in their interests,” according to a declassified assessment issued Tuesday by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

U.S. intelligence officials have previously said Russia has been working to boost the chances of former president and current Republican nominee Donald Trump, while Iran has been working to hurt Trump’s reelection bid and instead buoy the campaign of Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee.

And while there is little evidence to suggest China has sought to affect the U.S. presidential race, intelligence officials have said Beijing has been focusing its efforts on congressional and state and local candidates perceived to be promoting policies detrimental to Beijing’s interests.
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US Justice Department warns Musk’s super PAC over $1 million giveaways

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Justice Department has sent a letter to Elon Musk’s super PAC warning that the billionaire Tesla CEO’s $1 million giveaways may violate federal law, several media organizations reported on Wednesday, citing people briefed on the matter.

A letter from the department’s public integrity section, which investigates potential election-related law violations, went to the PAC.

The Justice Department and Musk’s America PAC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

South African-born Musk, who has thrown his support behind Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump ahead of the November 5 election, announced on Saturday while speaking before a crowd in Pennsylvania that he was giving away $1 million each day until Election Day to someone who signs his online petition supporting the U.S. Constitution.

He handed $1 million checks to two separate people over the weekend — one to a man in Harrisburg on Saturday and another to a woman in Pittsburgh on Sunday.

Musk, ranked by Forbes as the world’s richest person, so far has supplied at least $75 million to America PAC, according to federal disclosures, making the group a crucial part of Trump’s bid to regain the White House.
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Voting for Harris another milestone in former President Jimmy Carter’s legacy

Plains, Ga. — In a cavernous store filled with trinkets and knick-knacks, Philip Kurland is surrounded by politics.

“We’re the largest political memorabilia dealer in the United States,” he tells VOA as he sorts through numerous bins that line his shop.

If there’s a button or badge supporting a political candidate, chances are Kurland has it, as he stops and inspects one button in particular.

“This is the number one button people request and come in for,” as he proudly shows an image of a smiling peanut shell.

Every four years, Kurland stocks up on items featuring the candidates of the moment, and gauges support by the volume of related memorabilia he sells.

“Our sales have always equaled to who has won,” said Kurland. “This year’s election is really hard to even say by my sales.”

His store isn’t just any ordinary shop in the country. It’s the Plains Trading Post … as in Plains, Georgia, the hometown of former U.S. President Jimmy Carter with a population of around 600 people, where the streets are lined with dueling signs from the current election supporting both Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump.

“For the first time ever, I’d say there was some tension over the upcoming election,” Kurland told VOA.

In 2020, Democrat Joe Biden won Sumter County which encompasses Plains, and narrowly won the state of Georgia by 11,779 votes out of more than 5 million cast.

“It’s shocking that we’re a battleground state now,” said Kurland, acknowledging that polls continue to show a close race in Georgia this election cycle where both campaigns recognize every vote counts, including a prominent one cast by mail-in ballot from the most famous resident of Plains.

“I don’t think he’d miss any opportunity to vote,” said Kurland, “I can remember one time when they passed a new law in the state that you had to show an ID, and he went to vote and didn’t have an ID, and they said, ‘you can’t vote.’

And he said, ‘I’m the president of the United States!’ and they said, ‘well, we’re sorry,’ and he had to go home and get an ID to vote, which I thought was hilarious.”

“He was excited to turn 100, but he’s more excited to cast his ballot for Vice President Harris,” Jason Carter, Jimmy Carter’s grandson, explained to VOA during a recent interview.

Jason Carter currently serves as chairman of the board of the former president’s global nonprofit Carter Center.

“It would be an incredible story, at the end of his 100-year life, that is continuing on as we know, to have grown up in the segregated south and for one of his last political acts is to help elect a Black woman who is a president, I do think it would be important,” he said.

“Jimmy Carter has already said it was important for him to vote for Barack Obama in 2008,” said Joe Crespino, a professor of history at Emory University.

Crespino believes Carter’s vote this year is directly connected to his legacy, specifically his efforts to get the Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, or ERA — which prohibits sex discrimination — ratified by some U.S. states while he was president in the 1970s.

“Voting for the first female candidate of color would be important for him not only because of his experiences with race over the course of his life but also his experiences in trying to advance women in public life,” he said.

More than 40 years after Carter served in the White House, the ERA is still an unsettled issue as legal debates over its ratification continue.

Jason Carter believes with a vote in the 2024 election, his grandfather is thinking as much about the future as he is the past.

“I think he wants to see this country brought back together,” said Carter. “I think he wants to reduce that polarization; I think he wants us to focus on what makes us Americans first and fundamentally, and I think he thinks she [Harris] can do that.”

Kurland said not everyone in Plains agrees with Jimmy Carter, or his candidate of choice, as he sees not just the tourists but some of the locals stopping in to pick up memorabilia.

“Some days you can’t get eight people to say the sun is shining at the same time,” he said.

But Kurland admits everyone in Plains honors the man who continues to draw tens of thousands of tourists to their small town each year.

“Even though he’s come out for Kamala Harris, everyone that’s not for her would instantly forgive him and still love him,” Kurland said.

As election day nears, Jimmy Carter continues to receive hospice care in his modest home in Plains on the edge of town, not far from the Depression-era boyhood farm where his story began 100 years ago.
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Eligible Latino voters reach record numbers in 2024

With a record number of Latino voters eligible for the 2024 election, their influence will likely be felt more than previous elections. Examining how this dynamic group shaped past elections in the pivotal state of Florida and key battlegrounds across the country can offer clues about how Latinos might impact the upcoming race.
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Britain Prime Minister Starmer plays down Trump team claims of interference 

London — Britain’s prime minister Keir Starmer on Wednesday played down allegations made by Republican Party presidential candidate Donald Trump’s team of “blatant foreign interference” by his Labour Party in the U.S. election, saying it was normal for its volunteers to campaign.   

Starmer also insisted that he maintained “a good relationship” with Trump, having met him for talks last month.   

The former president’s legal team filed a complaint to the U.S. Federal Election Commission alleging the “British Labour Party made, and the [Kamala] Harris campaign accepted, illegal foreign national contributions.”   

The filing cited media reports that Labour officials, including the prime minister’s new chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, traveled to the United States to advise the Harris campaign.   

Trump’s team also submitted a now-deleted LinkedIn post by Labour director of operations Sofia Patel calling for volunteers to travel to North Carolina, saying “we will sort out your housing.”   

Foreign nationals are allowed to volunteer in U.S. elections but may not be compensated.   

Starmer told media traveling with him to a Commonwealth meeting on the Pacific island of Samoa that his party had done nothing wrong, and that the volunteers had paid for themselves.   

“The Labour party has volunteers, who have gone over pretty much every election,” he said.   

“They’re doing it in their spare time, they’re doing it as volunteers, they’re staying, I think, with other volunteers over there.”   

“That’s what they’ve done in previous elections, that’s what they’re doing in this election and that’s really straightforward.”   

He also denied suggestions that it could damage relations with Britain’s most important ally should Republican party candidate Trump beat Democrat Harris and secure a return to the White House.   

Starmer said he had “established a good relationship” with the former president, having met him last month for a two-hour dinner at the former real estate tycoon’s Trump Tower residence in New York.   

Adding to the dispute, Trump surrogate Elon Musk wrote on his X site on Tuesday that “this is war” after leaked documents from campaign group Center for Countering Digital Hate appeared to show that one of its objectives was to “kill Musk’s Twitter,” X’s former name.   

The campaign group and think-tank is led by a former Labour adviser and McSweeney is a former director. 
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‘Made in China’ election merchandise floods US market

WASHINGTON — As the United States presidential election enters its final phase, more and more voters are expressing support for their favored candidate by wearing election merchandise.

What they may not realize is that the “Make America Great Again” Trump hat or “Childless Cat Lady for Harris” T-shirt they’re wearing quite possibly was made in China.

With the help of e-commerce platforms, Chinese traders are flooding the market for U.S. election merchandise with cheap goods. Anecdotal evidence suggests U.S. makers of these products are struggling to compete.

“I think the amount of stuff on Amazon and Etsy that’s coming from China and other countries in cargo ships and unloaded on American shores is drastically impacting American manufacturers’, like myself, ability to compete and grow our own business. I think it’s dramatic,” said Ben Waxman, founder and co-owner of American Roots, an American apparel company.

Waxman wouldn’t share production or profit figures with VOA Mandarin Service because of privacy concerns, but he did say his U.S.-made campaign T-shirts, for example, sell for about $15 each, while those on Chinese online retailer Temu can sell for as little as $3.

“It’s more expensive when you pay higher wages, living wages, and abide by environmental standards,” Waxman said, referring to long-standing criticisms of China’s manufacturing practices.

His unionized company has been producing campaign merchandise for presidential candidates since 2016, mainly T-shirts and sweatshirts, with all raw materials and production sourced within the U.S.

Flooding the market

VOA Mandarin Service was unable to find total sales figures for made-in-America election merchandise versus made-in-China ones. But the massive number of Chinese-made election products for sale on e-commerce platforms, including Amazon and eBay, show they are flooding the market.

On Temu alone, tens of thousands of election-themed items have been sold at a fraction of the price of the official campaigns’ versions.

Among them, a “Make America Great Again” hat costs less than $4, while the official Trump campaign store website, which boasts “All Products Made in the USA,” sells them for 10 times that price at $40 each.

Likewise, Temu’s “Kamala Harris 2024” hats can sell for less than $3 each, while the official Kamala Harris campaign store website sells “Kamala” hats for $47 each.

The Harris campaign also vowed to only sell products made in the U.S. on its official websites.

VOA asked both campaigns for comment but didn’t receive a response by the time of publication.

The stark contrast in prices highlights the challenges the U.S. faces in reducing its dependence on Chinese products and closing a trade loophole, known as the de minimis loophole, that allows Chinese companies to ship goods worth less than $800 to the U.S. without paying import duties.

Kim Glas, president and CEO of the National Council of Textile Organizations, a labor union-aligned organization, said abuse of the de minimis loophole is rampant, adding that her group “lost 21 manufacturing operations over the last 18 months.”

Glas said some of NCTO’s member manufacturers found sales of campaign products are slower this year than in any previous U.S. election cycle.

VOA Mandarin reached out to Amazon and eBay for comments on the volume of presidential campaign merchandise imported from China on their websites and their regulations of the Chinese vendors but didn’t receive a response by the time of publication.

Temu didn’t comment on election product sales in the U.S., but the company’s spokesperson replied in an email to VOA Mandarin, “Temu’s growth isn’t dependent on the de minimis policy. The primary drivers behind our rapid expansion and market acceptance are the supply-chain efficiencies and operational proficiencies we’ve cultivated over the years.”

The spokesperson added, “We are open to and supportive of any policy adjustments made by legislators that align with consumer interests.”

U.S. textile industry representatives note the irony of the two U.S. presidential candidates talking tough on trade with China while their own followers are buying China-made products to show their support for them.

“If someone is supporting a candidate because of that candidate’s economic policy and their position toward improving our economy and improving our environment and improving our labor conditions, and doing so by increasing the amount of domestic manufacturing, and then they’re supporting a candidate by buying a product that’s made in a country that stands for the opposite of that, they’re actually doing themselves and the candidate and the economy a disservice,” said Mitch Cahn, president of Unionwear, a New York-based apparel company that has supplied more than 300,000 baseball caps to Harris’ campaign.

‘Anybody can make the product’

Cahn notes that anyone can produce campaign products because the campaigns don’t control their intellectual property. They think “it’s more valuable for them to have a person wear the campaign’s name on their head than it is to make money from selling the merchandise.”

“When anybody can make the product and sell it, a lot of the products are going to end up being made in China because there’s just not a lot of manufacturers here,” he told VOA Mandarin.

The Associated Press reported on October 18 that thousands of Donald Trump’s “God Bless America” Bibles were printed in China. The AP also noted that most Bibles, not just the Trump-backed one, are made in China.

Critics note Trump’s promotion of Made in the USA products could be undermined by the revelation.

“In past [election] years, this would’ve been a scandal,” says Marc Zdanow, a political consultant and CEO of Engage Voters U.S. “I think Trump voters just don’t care. … I guess the question is whether or not this rises to the top for those voters who are still undecided. This issue is certainly one that could be enough to push this group away from Trump.”

Chris Tang, a business administration and global management professor at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management, told VOA Mandarin the impact of merchandise made in China on the U.S. economy is not simply about one-sided manufacturing job losses. Consumers also get these products at low prices.

“While there are job losses in manufacturing, it creates opportunities for small businesses to import small quantities quickly using [online Chinese sellers like] Alibaba to find suppliers to produce election merchandise quickly and sell them online quickly.”

Tang said the U.S. should develop a manufacturing sector that focuses on high-value products, not cheap ones such as U.S. election merchandise.
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US warns ramped-up election influence efforts aim to stoke violence

WASHINGTON — Efforts by U.S. adversaries to divide Americans and sow growing distrust in the upcoming presidential election have already begun to intensify, according to senior U.S. intelligence officials, who warn some countries appear to be leaning toward additional measures to spark election-related violence.

The latest declassified assessment, issued Tuesday by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, comes just two weeks before voters head to the polls November 5 to choose a new president and vote on a series of statewide and local races and initiatives.

“Foreign actors — particularly Russia, Iran and China — remain intent on fanning divisive narratives to divide Americans and undermine Americans’ confidence in the U.S. democratic system consistent with what they perceive to be in their interests,” according to the assessment.

But it warns U.S. intelligence agencies are “increasingly confident” that Russia is starting to engage in plans “aimed at inciting violence.”

It further assesses Iran also “may try to incite violence.”

Post-poll closing concerns

Of particular concern is what appears to be a growing focus on the hours, days and weeks after the polls close, when state and local election officials begin to tally and certify the results.

U.S. adversaries “probably will be quick to create false narratives or amplify content they think will create confusion about the election, such as posting claims of election irregularities,” said a U.S. intelligence official, briefing reporters on the condition of anonymity to discuss the assessment in additional detail.

The official said Russia, Iran and China “may perceive a window of vulnerability to push disinformation or foment or amplify protests and threats” starting with the moment polling centers close and extending to January 6, when the presidential results are certified by a joint session of Congress.

“Foreign driven or amplified violent protests, violence or physical threats to election workers or state and local officials could challenge state and local officials’ ability to conduct elements of the certification and Electoral College process,” the official said. “Particularly if they prevent necessary physical access to facilities or venues.”

U.S. intelligence officials have previously warned that Russia and Iran have been especially active, running a variety of influence operations targeting U.S. voters, with a high likelihood that these efforts would extend beyond the November 5 election.

Russia, they said, has been working to boost the chances of former president and current Republican nominee Donald Trump, while Iran has been working to hurt Trump’s reelection bid and instead buoy the campaign of Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee.

China, according to U.S. intelligence officials, has so far stayed out of the presidential race, focusing its efforts on congressional and state and local candidates perceived to be promoting policies detrimental to Beijing’s interests, including those voicing support for Taiwan.

Officials said Tuesday that new intelligence streams have raised concerns that Moscow, especially, will try to foment violence once the polls close.

“We expect Russia will be more aggressive in this period if the vice president [Kamala Harris] wins the election,” the intelligence official said. “Russia would prefer the former president to win, and they would seek to more aggressively undermine the presidency of the then-president-elect.”

Russia, China and Iran have all rejected previous U.S. accusations of election meddling.

Russia and Iran have yet to respond to requests from VOA for comment, but China on Tuesday again rejected the latest U.S. intelligence findings.

“The presidential elections are the United States’ own affairs,” Liu Pengyu, the spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, told VOA in an email. “China has no intention and will not interfere.”

U.S. intelligence officials, though, point to what they describe as growing examples of malign intent, especially by Russia and Iran.

Influence operations

In one example, the officials said Russian-linked actors were responsible for a post on the X social media platform earlier this month that contained false allegations against Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz.

“There are several indicators of manipulation that are consistent with the influence, efforts and tactics of Russian influence actors this cycle,” the U.S. intelligence official said.

In another case, U.S. officials said a Russian intelligence unit sought to recruit what they assess to likely be an unwitting American to organize protests.

They also point to actions taken last month by multiple U.S. agencies to counter several Russian influence efforts, including the use of fake websites and the creation of a shell company to funnel $10 million to a U.S. media company to push pro-Russian propaganda.

Also last month, the U.S. placed bounties and lodged criminal charges against three Iranian hackers, all accused of seeking to undermine the Trump reelection campaign.

And there are fears that even these types of ongoing influence operations, which often seek to exploit divisive political issues, could lead to problems.

“Even if these disinformation campaigns are not specifically calling for violence, the tactics used to undermine confidence in the democratic institutions can lead to violence, even if not deliberately called for,” said a senior official with the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, or CISA, who, like the U.S. intelligence official, spoke on the condition of anonymity.

‘Expect disruptions’

And while U.S. officials express confidence that safeguards are in place to prevent U.S. adversaries from attacking or hacking systems used to record and tally votes, there is concern that they will target other U.S. infrastructure to try to induce panic or violence.

“That is a real possibility,” said the CISA official, adding the U.S. public should “expect disruptions.”

“We’re going to see a voting location lose power,” the official said. “We’re going to see potentially some type of impact on a transportation system. We’re going to see a potential ransomware attack against a local election office.”

CISA officials say they have been working with state and local election officials to make sure they are prepared to handle sudden disruptions. And state officials say they are prepared.

“All states consider their election infrastructure and IT [information technology] systems a potential target for threats,” said Steve Simon, Minnesota’s secretary of state and the president of the National Association of Secretaries of State, during a call with reporters Monday.

“Chief elections officials throughout the United States have worked really tirelessly and consistently to mitigate risks to our election systems and processes,” said Simon.
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Where have all the bellwether counties gone?

From 1980 to 2016, 19 U.S. counties voted for the presidential winner every time. But the streak was broken in 2020, when only one of those counties, in Washington state, voted for the winner, President Joe Biden. The rest voted for Donald Trump, the incumbent.
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At 100, former President Carter votes for Kamala Harris

After becoming the first U.S. president to reach the age of 100, Jimmy Carter was able to fulfill a wish that he had expressed to his family. VOA’s Kane Farabaugh has more from Georgia. Some VOA footage by Adam Greenbaum.
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