A new declassified intelligence document has revealed a host of countries attempted to interfere with the 2022 US midterm elections.
The report listed many countries as “diverse and growing group of foreign actors,” including China, Russia, Iran and Cuba, and claimed their efforts to meddle in the election had ramped up since 2018.
China specifically “approved efforts to try to influence a handful of midterm races” for both Republican and Democrat candidates, according to the dossier.
They tried to divide the rival parties and focussed mainly on a few specific candidates depending on whether or not they thought their policy proposals would benefit China. These candidates have not been named.
It’s assumed that this attempted interference was part of China’s Communist Party’s mission to “intensify efforts to influence US policy and public opinion in China’s favor,” which has been happening since 2020.
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The report said China “repeatedly” targeted Congress, which they viewed as a “locus of anti-China activity,” and so seized the midterms as an opportunity to show its people that American democracy is “chaotic, ineffective, and unrepresentative”.
They did this by focussing on polarisiing issues, such as abortion and gun control.
Russia’s involvement was specificially targeted at the Democrats – whom they sought to “denigrate” and “undermine confidence in the election”. They wanted to cast doubts on the integrity of the midterm elections.
They did this by claiming that US voting software was vulnerable to attacks, the “Democrats were stealing the elections,” and even going so far as to say Americans were expecting cheating to impact the elections.
It is believed this was done to undermine US support for Ukraine by identifying demographics and social media platforms that would push Russian propaganda.
Russian military officials said they would delay withdrawing from Kherson, Ukraine, until the day after the midterms “to avoid giving a named US political party a perceived win before the election”.
Iran is also accused of meddling in the elections as they also tried to undermine people’s confidence in democracy and widen existing social divisions. Their efforts were limited compared to those of Russia and China, as they had to deal with unrest and protests on home soil.
Other countries, including Cuba, targeted candidates based on how likely they would be to advance policies that would benefit them.
These foreign actors tried to harm public perception of democracy and the vladity of the midterms as a whole, rather than doctoring actual votes.
