College students receive voter intimidation emails, told to vote one way “or else”
College students were among the targets of voter intimidation emails that began circulating just over a week before Election Day. Students at the University of Florida and Oklahoma University said they received messages threatening them to vote for President Donald Trump and to change their voter affiliation to Republican “or else.”
The emails appeared to be coming from a pro-Trump group called Proud Boys, a self-described militia group. However, Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe connected Iran to the threatening emails. Officials said Wednesday that Iran and Russia are using voter data from sources that are public or available for purchase.
Ratcliffe said the voter information “can be used by foreign actors to attempt to communicate false information to registered voters that they hope will cause confusion, sow chaos and undermine your confidence in American democracy.”
One email to a student mentioned personal information and included threats if they did not comply.
“We are in possession of all your information (email, address, telephone# everything),” the email read. “You are currently registered as a Democrat and we know this because we have gained access into the entire voting infrastructure. You will vote for Trump on Election Day or we will come after you. Change your party affiliation to Republican to let us know you received our message and will comply. We will know which candidate you voted for. I would take this seriously if I were you.”
The email came from info@officialproudboys.com, although officials did not link the email back to the Proud Boys group.
Google said 25,000 of their Gmail users alone received the emails, while spam blockers kept many others from being delivered.
Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida and Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, two members of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, released a joint statement about foreign interference in the upcoming election.
“As we enter the last weeks before the election, we urge every American — including members of the media — to be cautious about believing or spreading unverified, sensational claims related to votes and voting,” the statement said.
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