WASHINGTON – A relatively trouble-free presidential election was good news for those working to restore confidence in the system. Less encouraging has been the flood of misinformation aimed at undermining confidence in the vote and sowing chaos, a phenomenon that experts say is likely to get worse in the years to come.

The most important test for officials on Election Day was series of bomb threats were reported in five battleground states, some of which forced the temporary evacuation of polling places. Otherwise, the day passed like most other election days, with only routine issues, and former President Donald Trump’s lead allowed the presidential race to be called early Wednesday morning .

“High turnout and wide margins – that’s all we’re hoping for,” said Zach Manifold, the supervisor of elections in Gwinnett County, Georgia.

The more than 84 million people who voted earlyin person or by mail, eased the rush Tuesday and gave election workers more flexibility to respond to unexpected problems.

“Yesterday and the election period was a wonderful example of how important early voting was to maintaining security and how it really minimized and mitigated some of the threats that we saw,” said David Becker, a former attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice which directs the Center. for Election Innovation and Research, said the day after Election Day.

When the bomb threats came — starting early in the day in the Atlanta area and then spreading to Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — election officials were ready. They had spent most of the year meeting with local law enforcementtraining through different scenarios and updating their emergency plans.

“I’ve seen professionals all over the country say, ‘OK, here’s what we’re going to do,’” said Carolina Lopez, a former local elections official who leads the Partnership for Large Election Jurisdictions.

The FBI said the threats appeared to come from Russian email domains, although federal cybersecurity officials cautioned that the culprits were not necessarily Russian.

Interference from Russia and other foreign adversaries has been a constant theme throughout the election season.

Russia, Iran, and China have steadily increased their reliance on English-language disinformation in the months leading up to Election Day. Their motivations varied, but their tactics were similar: using networks of fake social media accounts and fake websites to spread content designed to erode trust in election security and American democracy.

Russia was particularly bold, creating and disseminating staged videos which aimed to defame Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz. The Kremlin’s efforts this year also concerned paying a Tennessee media company $10 million to produce pro-Russian content.

“Russia clearly interfered in this election,” said Brian Taylor, a political science professor and Russia expert at Syracuse University. He said Russia’s goals were “to help Trump and to sow chaos more generally – even though there is no evidence their activities changed the outcome.”

Experts say America’s adversaries are playing a long game, using disinformation to undermine Americans’ confidence in their own country and gradually diminish American power. Russia, in particular, favored Trump as a candidate because he is seen as less likely to support aid to Ukraine, said Emerson Brooking, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab, who follows foreign disinformation.

“None of this is going to go away after Election Day,” Brooking said. “What are Russia’s goals? It was not about electing President Trump, but about moving the United States in a particular direction. The election of Trump is a step in this process.”

Russia, Iran and China have rejected allegations they were seeking to interfere in US elections.

Steve Simon, president of the National Association of Secretaries of State, praised the rapid work done by federal agencies to expose misinformation. He said federal officials have in one day I identified Russia as being behind a viral video purporting to show voter fraud in Georgia.

“The nature of their response and the speed of their response really helped confront and limit the influence of these messages,” said Simon, who is the top state elections official in Minnesota.

Kim Wyman, former head of the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, said the agency had proven its worth this year given interference from other countries.

“What has certainly been demonstrated in this election is that foreign adversaries have not stopped trying to impact U.S. elections, and we anticipate that will continue in the future,” he said. said Wyman, who also served as Washington’s secretary of state.

She said she would like to see the Republican-controlled Congress continue to support CISA and the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, which works with states to improve election operations and certify voting systems.

Voting rights groups said they hoped an election without major problems would temper talk of widespread changes to voting procedures. During the campaign, Trump and his allies had talked about wanting a single day of voting, pushing false claims of widespread voter fraud with mail-in ballots. It’s unclear whether those discussions will continue, given that Republicans rallied in droves to vote early this year after Trump encouraged it.

The president-elect has spread election lies for years linked to his re-election loss in 2020. He repeatedly questioned voting procedures and accused Democrats of cheating before and during Election Day, but stopped making those claims once he took the lead.

“I hope we keep in place the things that work for the vast majority of voters,” said Jay Young, senior director of voting and democracy at Common Cause.

Young said he would be concerned about any attempt to restrict voting based on false claims, such as the one peddled by Republicans this year that large numbers of non-citizens votes. Republicans in Congress have been advance legislation on the question.

“There’s a lot of noise that’s not based in fact,” Young said. “Frankly, it’s my job to make sure that my organization and the groups that we’re a part of can’t let someone try to seize a moment to achieve a political goal. »

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Associated Press writer Ali Swenson contributed to this report.