March 1, 2024 • 20 mins
Have you shared a meme as a joke to convince someone not to vote, by sharing the wrong date? A joke is one thing, but deliberately keeping someone from voting is another. On today's episode, we discuss a critical topic: election crimes and fraud. Join us as we sit down with @fbielpaso Special Agent Will Perrin to explore the intricacies of safeguarding our democratic processes and combating fraudulent activities that threaten the integrity of our elections.
Follow online at @firstfridaysfbi and follow El Paso FBI @fbielpaso.
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First Fridays with the FBI is a TV program and podcast founded by El Paso citizens encouraging situational awareness to assist the public with being aware about preventing acts of domestic and international violence. Highlighting the need for citizens to remain vigilant while encouraging communities to be advocates in the effort to prevent crime and violence, the goal is to encourage listeners to consider careers in law enforcement and share vital information with family, friends, and the community. Disclaimer: This podcast/show is not endorsed by the FBI or any governmental entity. It was created and founded by a non-law enforcement citizen for the community, to support the efforts of the nation's leading law enforcement agency to educate the community on how to prevent and report crimes.
Follow online at @firstfridaysfbi and follow El Paso FBI @fbielpaso.
=======
First Fridays with the FBI is a TV program and podcast founded by El Paso citizens encouraging situational awareness to assist the public with being aware about preventing acts of domestic and international violence. Highlighting the need for citizens to remain vigilant while encouraging communities to be advocates in the effort to prevent crime and violence, the goal is to encourage listeners to consider careers in law enforcement and share vital information with family, friends, and the community. Disclaimer: This podcast/show is not endorsed by the FBI or any governmental entity. It was created and founded by a non-law enforcement citizen for the community, to support the efforts of the nation's leading law enforcement agency to educate the community on how to prevent and report crimes.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome to First Fridays with the FBI. I am your host, Monica Tucker,
and I know it's been a minutesince we've been live, but this
is an important, important, importantshow, and I'm going to introduce our
guest today, Fbil Paso special AgentWill Parent and I got to make sure
(00:20):
they can see you all right.Hello, Welcome, Welcome to First Fridays
with the FBI. Thank you,happy to be here. This is an
important thing with all we have goingon with the election, so you know,
thank you for having us so wecan we can discuss this important issue.
Thank you. And before we juststarted, you know, some of
our viewers and listeners like to knowa little bit about some of the FBI
agents. We let them know they'rereal people just like just like us.
(00:43):
So sure can tell us a littlebit about yourself. Sure. I've been
with the FBI for about the lasteight years, all in Ol Paso.
I've been working as the election Crimescoordinator for our office for about the last
five years. I grew up inthe desert southwest about you know, four
or five hours from El Paso,so very familiar with this region and folks
that you know typically live out here. The family values and stuff that we
(01:06):
that we all usually see out hereand yeah, you know, we're here
in al Paso and we like thiscommunity so great. Thank you for sharing
that. And we're talking about animportant topic today because it's that season election
shine. So what has the FBIdone to prepare for the upcoming elections?
Okay? Well, the FBI hasa twenty twenty four election security plan and
it includes a cross programmatic coordination betweena bunch of our divisions that work different
(01:32):
violations, and we combine our operationsand intelligence efforts and we combat that broad
range of threats to the US elections. And some of the divisions that are
involved are the Criminal, Investigative,cyber, counter intelligence, and counter terrorism,
you know, so we all worktogether in this space to ensure that
you know, whatever that threat is, you know, we can appropriately work
(01:53):
on that and mitigated. Okay,and I'm going to go back, go
back that first one. So whatare the biggest threats to America's twenty twenty
four elections? Right? Well,I give you based on the divisions that
we have working on this, youknow, we have in the election space,
there are ever evolving threats from thosewho would seek to undermine our elections.
And some of those things would includelike malicious cyber activity against election infrastructure,
(02:15):
foreign malign influence operations, your historicalelection related crimes, and then even
threats of violence surrounding the elections,you know, and we can get into
more of that later. Also,you know, there's talking about the cyber
aspect of it. It's not alwayscyber attacks from nation states that we have
to consider. There are criminal activistsand activists that would target election infrastructure,
(02:40):
either for financial gain or just politicalreasons. So those are all things that
we'll have to look at and youknow, try to stay ahead of when
we work in this space. AndI think just some of us didn't realize
that it was a big deal,but I'm glad you're to shed some might
on it. Show. So whatfalls under election crimes? Like from what
I've seen, you know, whenit comes to can you get provide some
(03:00):
examples? Sure? Sure? SoHistorically, like I said, elections are
ever changing, right in the threatsthat we face, but your historical election
related crimes fall into three categories.There are the campaign finance crimes, voter
and ballot fraud, and then thereare civil rights violations. Surrounding the election
because it is a constitutionally protected activity. Talking about campaign finance crimes, those
(03:23):
are all governed by the Federal ElectionCampaign Act, It's also known as FIICA.
That act grants exclusive federal criminal jurisdictionto the FBI and then for administrative
matters to the Federal Election Commission.To describe FIKA, it basically governs how
the sources and the amounts of campaigncampaign donations excuse me, and then just
(03:46):
requires appropriate disclosures of campaign funds andactivities throughout the election process. Okay,
So that's something that is historically underelection crimes that we would look into.
Also, there's the voter and theballot fraud, and that's what a lot
of people think of when they thinkof elections or something the FBI would look
into. And I'll give you someexamples of that to help folks understand what
(04:09):
all that entails. Okay, Soif a voter intentionally gives false information when
voting or registering to vote, that'san example of that. If an ineligible
person tries to vote in a federalelection, that could be a federal crime,
and that would think of like noncitizens or some convicted felons. You
know, if you're prohibited from votingin a federal election, you shouldn't try
(04:32):
to do that. If an individualtries to vote more than once in a
federal election, that's a federal crime. If any election official uses their position
inappropriately to try to affect an election, that would be something would look at.
And then finally, you know,bribes surrounding the voting process. If
there's a voter who you know,is offered something or receive something of value
(04:55):
in exchange for a specific vote,that would be something that we would look
into for the voter in ballot fraud. And then lastly there's civil rights,
okay, and civil rights is animportant one. You know, that would
include like voter suppression or voter intimidationattempts, you know, trying to get
a person or a group of peopleto not exercise their right, you know,
(05:15):
and you can think of some ofthose themes. If information goes out
that would you know, misinformation tochange the time, place, or manner
of an election to try to getpeople to not vote, that would be
a suppression or an imitation intimidation thingwe would look at. Also, if
there is you know, threats ofphysical harm or economic harm towards voters to
(05:36):
try to prevent them from voting.That's also something that falls under a civil
rights violation we would look into.So when does the FBI have a jurisdiction
when it comes to investigating election ofcrimes? Yep, great question. So
in general, it is the individualstates job to administer a fair and free
election. Okay, However, theFBI plays an important role in protecting federal
(05:59):
interests in the those elections you know, and preventing violations of Americans constitutional rights.
So to give you an idea,I'll name some of these off.
But these are specific instances that wouldgive the FBI jurisdiction in an election.
Okay, if there's a ballot thatincludes one or more federal candidates or federal
measures, that gives the FBI jurisdiction. If there's an alleged crime involving official
(06:24):
misconduct by an election official, allegedactivity pertaining to fraudulent voter registration. Again,
I mentioned in eligible person's voting ina federal election. Going back to
like your non citizens or ineligible convictedfelons, right interstate facilities that are used
to violate state election laws. That'ssomething that gives the FEDS and the FBI
(06:46):
the ability to look into that.And then lastly, if there's activity involving
federal campaign financial lots, which wetalked about a little bit earlier, that's
those are generally what gives the FBIin the federal government the ability to look
into a crime during an election,potential crime. Right, So what does
the FBI not investigate? Now thisis probably uh, you know, just
(07:06):
as important as what we do investigate, right and having folks understand, So
let me go through some of thesethings and help clear up some confusion about
what we we can and cannot do. Okay, So, the FBI does
not investigate voter facilitation activities and whatthat means. If somebody is offered a
ride to go vote, you know, if they're offered time off from work
(07:29):
to go vote, or even ifgetting a stamp, you know, getting
a stamp from somebody like to usean absentee ballot, those are not things
that the FBI is going to lookinto, Okay. So in general,
violations of state campaign finance law wedon't look into. There are there are
some nuances and exceptions to that.If if there's other federal statutes that are
violated, but in general, wedon't look at the state campaign stuff.
(07:49):
Okay, now if this one,this one we get questions about all the
time if campaigns or candidates are distributinginaccurate can paign literature, or making false
claims about themselves or an opponent.Yeah, we do not get into that.
That's like the political aspect of elections, and we don't delve into that.
(08:13):
If individuals are campaigning too close tothe polls, that is a state
issue and that's up to the stateand local authorities to deal with. So
the FBI does not get involved inthat. Okay. If a candidate,
you know, going back to thepolitical part of a candidate's trying to convince
one of their opponents to withdraw froma race, we're not going to get
involved. I'm not going to lookat that. Okay, that's like part
(08:35):
of the whole campaigning stuff. Right. This is an important one. Honest
mistakes by polling place workers. Everybody'saware of potential wrongdoing, but in cases
of honest mistakes, we're not goingto look at that. People should keep
in mind that most of our pollingworkers are volunteers, oftentimes students, oftentimes
retirees. They're just trying to dothe best they can and help out.
(08:56):
And so yeah, honest mistakes arenot something that we're interested in, Okay.
And then lastly and maybe most importantlyis once the elections are ongoing,
folks want to know the results ofthe races, right, and the elections
and getting involved because the results aren'tcoming out fast enough or aren't being announced,
that's not something the FBI is goingto get involved. We let the
(09:16):
state administer that election, We letthem go through their processes and ultimately just
let them do their job without usinterfering. So we're not going to get
involved in anything. Well, asyou can hear, they're not going to
get involved in what we probably consideredthe little Well, can the FBI personnel
be like live and active at electionpoll site? Right? So, just
(09:37):
like every other eligible American we have, the FBI agents have the right to
vote. Right, So agents andpersonnel from any part of the federal government
can show up to vote. Okay. So you might have a family member,
neighbor that you recognize, you've seenthem at the polls, they're probably
just voting. We can do thatnow. On the other hand, in
conjunction with our work and our officialdo these federal employees can't be posted at
(10:03):
the at the polling centers and wherevotes are taking place. Okay, that's
again that's a state and local issue. So and like I said, in
conjunction with our work, we willnot be there, we won't view at
the polls, and we won't respondto the polls. Okay, that's a
state issue, and we let ourstate partners do their job. Does the
FBI investigate threats to election workers?Yes, So as a result of some
(10:24):
of the things that we saw duringand after the twenty twenty election, threats
of violence, you know, thoseinstances increased dramatically. In response to that.
In twenty twenty one, the Departmentof Justice, in conjunction with the
FBI, we've created an Election ThreatsTask Force, and the purpose of that
is to identify, investigate, andmitigate threats targeting election workers, right preventing
(10:46):
those folks from doing their jobs.So, in the event that the FBI
gets information involving a potential threat,we work with the DOJ work together to
get a determination on whether it's somethingthat we can look at federally. You
know, threats can be conveyed ina number of ways online, in person,
over the phone, and so there'ssome nuance to how federal government can
(11:07):
get involved. But even in theinstances where the FBI can't get involved,
we work very closely with our stateand local partners make sure they have that
information and so that we all worktogether to make sure that real threats are
taken care of and work well.I absolutely have fifty million other questions,
but I'm not going to give youall those, but i will ask this
(11:28):
because I've seen it on social mediaand I don't think that I've ever done
it before. But what about peoplewho post like the wrong dates for people
to whether it's early voting or theactual voting date. What if they post
the wrong date to get people massto you know, go right right now.
That's a great question. Kind ofhit on it earlier, But unfortunately,
(11:48):
some of that activity may fall undersome of the civil rights things that
we look at. Okay, anybodywho is trying to persuade somebody or you
know, convince them that the time, place, or manner of an election
or a vote is different than whatit actually is. That's something that we
the FBI would look into, righteverybody has that constitutional right to vote,
(12:09):
and so prevent trying to prevent somebodyfrom doing that by giving false information,
you know, when it's a seriousthing, that's potentially something we would look
into. Keep in mind that Iknow that memes go out on social media,
people joke about that, but aswe get closer to the election time
and everything, that's definitely not somethingto joke about. We take it very
serious because it can be missed.Even if joking, it could be misconstrued
(12:31):
as an honest attempt to suppress anindividual or a group's right to vote.
We just don't want to do that. We want to steer clear of that.
Even though some of those things arefunny, you know, we've got
to take them serious and not tryto put out any false information. So
people, if I've ever done thator shared a me, I'm sorry,
I didn't realize I could. Oh, it was a crime. So when
(12:52):
it comes to the elections, protectingthe elections from boring and foreign and middling
information, what's the FBI doing aboutthat? Okay? So after in the
fall twenty seventeen, the FBI establishedthe Foreign Influenced Task Force, and the
purpose of that is to identify andcounteract foreign malign influence operations targeting the United
(13:13):
States. Okay, putting out wetalked about with candidates and everything. Putting
out misinformation in general in general isnot a crime, and it's not something
that we would look into. Butwhen it comes from a foreign source,
you know, and it's like aforeign tempt to affect an election, that's
definitely something the FBI would look into. That Foreign Influenced Task Force is made
(13:33):
up of a number of our partners, and when that information comes to light,
we work to see what the sourceof the misinformation is and if it's
foreign, we definitely work to mitigateand correct that so that you know,
the American people aren't being persuaded byforeign power or something trying to meddle in
our elections. So, and whatis the threat posed by deep faith And
(13:54):
that's the whole other topic in itself. Well, yes, when it comes
to the election, you're yeah,a great quote. So the deep fakes,
that's like something we've seen. It'sever evolving technologies getting better daily.
The real concern with that is ifit is like a coming from a foreign
source. Again, misinformation in generalis not a crime, but it's all
about the source and the deep fakesare getting so good that it's it's it's
(14:16):
getting hard to detect what's real andwhat's not. So we're definitely cognizant of
that, and we're working with allof our partners in the election space and
the intelligence community to and even theprivate sector to get ahead of that issue,
to try to understand it and mitigateit the best we can. But
you know, it's it's something thatit's only going to grow as an issue
and we're going to have to workhard to try to stay ahead of that.
(14:39):
Yeah. So when it comes tothose deep fakes and you know,
the mean footfalls information, does theFBI add social media companies to take them
down or block them? Yeah?No, no, you know, we
don't request or expect the social mediacompanies to do anything like that or take
a particular action on our behalf.In general, they the social media companies
can provide information to us if theychoose so, and they, you know,
(15:01):
following all applicable rules and laws,they can absolutely give information to us.
And in most instances, the socialmedia companies have their own teams that
look at those sorts of activities.If there are users that violate their own
internal user agreement policies. The socialmedia companies can choose to take those down
if applicable, but we don't askthem to do that, and so that's
(15:24):
something we don't do. But ifthey can definitely share information that they see,
if they think it's appropriate to shareit with us or any of the
other partners that we work with inthe space. Now, how does the
FBI balance the need for thorough investigationswith respecting individuals' rights and privacy during you
know, inquiries related to election fromYeah, sure, So our mission the
(15:46):
FBI is to protect American people andhelp uphold the constitution right so that that
right to vote is in the constitution, So we want everybody to they choose
to do so, have that right. But we also take election related allegation
seriously. So if it's something warrantedand it invokes one of those things we
talked about that we would have jurisdiction, we'll look into it. However,
(16:07):
there are a lot of rules andpolicies that guide how we do that so
that we do it in a waythat is the least intrusive, and it's
always done in a way that it'sprivate. We don't talk about those things
that we look into because oftentimes wereceive information that's not accurate, and we
would never want to jeopardize somebody's reputationbecause of something we're doing in good faith.
(16:32):
So people should be able to knowthat we don't care about who they
vote for, what their political viewsare, any of their information, anything
like that. You know, that'snever a consideration for something we would look
into. We definitely don't look intoanything that's First Amendment protected. We never
do that. However, if itis a potential election crime, we will
(16:55):
follow the policies that we always havethat govern what we do, and will
do so in a manner that's professionaland thorough and we'll, you know,
we'll find out what we have andgo from there. You know, in
consultation with the Department of Justice.We never do that in a vacuum.
We work with our partners to makesure we're doing it the right way.
Where can we because I am aconcern to where can we find out you
(17:15):
know, more about an or reportelection crimes? Sure so, because we
talked about the threats of violence orpotential threats of violence, we might see
we hope we don't, but wemight if there's any active violence or imminent
active violence, the only appropriate thingis to call nine to one one first,
Okay, So an emergency situation,that's our course of action nine to
(17:37):
one one guys. However, ifit's something else that we've talked about that's
not your typical election related crime,we we definitely encourage folks to report something
if they think it's not right,and there's a couple of ways that they
can do that. They can calltheir local field office, though for our
fbio passo, I can give youthe number nine one five eight three two
five thousand. People that don't liketo talk to anybody on the phone,
(18:00):
they can do that online also,right, and that's at our tip dot
FBI dot gov dot gov. Andthen there's a there's a hotline that anybody
can call and it's one eight hundredcall it call FBI. If folks are
unsure of where their field office isor something like that, you know,
you can call any FBI office providethat information. Depending on where they're at,
(18:22):
We'll get it to the right place. So don't have a fear about
calling the wrong office or something likethat. We'll take that information if appropriate
and we'll get it to where itneeds to go. Okay, okay,
well great, I appreciate you comingon, happy to do so because this
is an important topic. Again,it's election season, so I hope everyone's
listening and understand what's happening and don'tshare means that tell a lie to avoid
(18:45):
the crime. But you know,before you go, I do ask every
FBI agent that we talk to alittle bit about themselves. So okay for
l passo. Sure, since youknow you're hear our passo, tell us
where if there's a place or somewhereyou'd like to go or you think everyone
should visit before they leave Al Paso. Oh, that's a great question.
(19:07):
There's lots of places. You know. The local food is unique and great
and everybody should come to El Pasoto experience that, especially you know the
Mexican and the Hispanic influence food.The weather's great, so coming here to
experience any of the things we havehere is always a good idea. Maybe
avoid June through August, but outsideof that, you know, the weather
(19:29):
is great, and I'll passo andjust know too that anything you do here,
the people are friendly. This isa big city, but it's it's
also a place that has that faultthat small town feel. People are still
friendly, they say thanks, whenyou hold the door, they'll hold the
door for you. And so justall those things combine, this is a
good place to visit, do anythinganything within the community. So it's been
(19:51):
good to me, my family andI since we've been here, and people
should visit and take advantage of thosethings. Well, thank you very much.
I'm happy. Yeah, thank youfor having We appreciate you for sharing
this information with us, and hopefullyeveryone will take eat
Welcome to First Fridays with the FBI. I am your host, Monica Tucker,
and I know it's been a minutesince we've been live, but this
is an important, important, importantshow, and I'm going to introduce our
guest today, Fbil Paso special AgentWill Parent and I got to make sure
(00:20):
they can see you all right.Hello, Welcome, Welcome to First Fridays
with the FBI. Thank you,happy to be here. This is an
important thing with all we have goingon with the election, so you know,
thank you for having us so wecan we can discuss this important issue.
Thank you. And before we juststarted, you know, some of
our viewers and listeners like to knowa little bit about some of the FBI
agents. We let them know they'rereal people just like just like us.
(00:43):
So sure can tell us a littlebit about yourself. Sure. I've been
with the FBI for about the lasteight years, all in Ol Paso.
I've been working as the election Crimescoordinator for our office for about the last
five years. I grew up inthe desert southwest about you know, four
or five hours from El Paso,so very familiar with this region and folks
that you know typically live out here. The family values and stuff that we
(01:06):
that we all usually see out hereand yeah, you know, we're here
in al Paso and we like thiscommunity so great. Thank you for sharing
that. And we're talking about animportant topic today because it's that season election
shine. So what has the FBIdone to prepare for the upcoming elections?
Okay? Well, the FBI hasa twenty twenty four election security plan and
it includes a cross programmatic coordination betweena bunch of our divisions that work different
(01:32):
violations, and we combine our operationsand intelligence efforts and we combat that broad
range of threats to the US elections. And some of the divisions that are
involved are the Criminal, Investigative,cyber, counter intelligence, and counter terrorism,
you know, so we all worktogether in this space to ensure that
you know, whatever that threat is, you know, we can appropriately work
(01:53):
on that and mitigated. Okay,and I'm going to go back, go
back that first one. So whatare the biggest threats to America's twenty twenty
four elections? Right? Well,I give you based on the divisions that
we have working on this, youknow, we have in the election space,
there are ever evolving threats from thosewho would seek to undermine our elections.
And some of those things would includelike malicious cyber activity against election infrastructure,
(02:15):
foreign malign influence operations, your historicalelection related crimes, and then even
threats of violence surrounding the elections,you know, and we can get into
more of that later. Also,you know, there's talking about the cyber
aspect of it. It's not alwayscyber attacks from nation states that we have
to consider. There are criminal activistsand activists that would target election infrastructure,
(02:40):
either for financial gain or just politicalreasons. So those are all things that
we'll have to look at and youknow, try to stay ahead of when
we work in this space. AndI think just some of us didn't realize
that it was a big deal,but I'm glad you're to shed some might
on it. Show. So whatfalls under election crimes? Like from what
I've seen, you know, whenit comes to can you get provide some
(03:00):
examples? Sure? Sure? SoHistorically, like I said, elections are
ever changing, right in the threatsthat we face, but your historical election
related crimes fall into three categories.There are the campaign finance crimes, voter
and ballot fraud, and then thereare civil rights violations. Surrounding the election
because it is a constitutionally protected activity. Talking about campaign finance crimes, those
(03:23):
are all governed by the Federal ElectionCampaign Act, It's also known as FIICA.
That act grants exclusive federal criminal jurisdictionto the FBI and then for administrative
matters to the Federal Election Commission.To describe FIKA, it basically governs how
the sources and the amounts of campaigncampaign donations excuse me, and then just
(03:46):
requires appropriate disclosures of campaign funds andactivities throughout the election process. Okay,
So that's something that is historically underelection crimes that we would look into.
Also, there's the voter and theballot fraud, and that's what a lot
of people think of when they thinkof elections or something the FBI would look
into. And I'll give you someexamples of that to help folks understand what
(04:09):
all that entails. Okay, Soif a voter intentionally gives false information when
voting or registering to vote, that'san example of that. If an ineligible
person tries to vote in a federalelection, that could be a federal crime,
and that would think of like noncitizens or some convicted felons. You
know, if you're prohibited from votingin a federal election, you shouldn't try
(04:32):
to do that. If an individualtries to vote more than once in a
federal election, that's a federal crime. If any election official uses their position
inappropriately to try to affect an election, that would be something would look at.
And then finally, you know,bribes surrounding the voting process. If
there's a voter who you know,is offered something or receive something of value
(04:55):
in exchange for a specific vote,that would be something that we would look
into for the voter in ballot fraud. And then lastly there's civil rights,
okay, and civil rights is animportant one. You know, that would
include like voter suppression or voter intimidationattempts, you know, trying to get
a person or a group of peopleto not exercise their right, you know,
(05:15):
and you can think of some ofthose themes. If information goes out
that would you know, misinformation tochange the time, place, or manner
of an election to try to getpeople to not vote, that would be
a suppression or an imitation intimidation thingwe would look at. Also, if
there is you know, threats ofphysical harm or economic harm towards voters to
(05:36):
try to prevent them from voting.That's also something that falls under a civil
rights violation we would look into.So when does the FBI have a jurisdiction
when it comes to investigating election ofcrimes? Yep, great question. So
in general, it is the individualstates job to administer a fair and free
election. Okay, However, theFBI plays an important role in protecting federal
(05:59):
interests in the those elections you know, and preventing violations of Americans constitutional rights.
So to give you an idea,I'll name some of these off.
But these are specific instances that wouldgive the FBI jurisdiction in an election.
Okay, if there's a ballot thatincludes one or more federal candidates or federal
measures, that gives the FBI jurisdiction. If there's an alleged crime involving official
(06:24):
misconduct by an election official, allegedactivity pertaining to fraudulent voter registration. Again,
I mentioned in eligible person's voting ina federal election. Going back to
like your non citizens or ineligible convictedfelons, right interstate facilities that are used
to violate state election laws. That'ssomething that gives the FEDS and the FBI
(06:46):
the ability to look into that.And then lastly, if there's activity involving
federal campaign financial lots, which wetalked about a little bit earlier, that's
those are generally what gives the FBIin the federal government the ability to look
into a crime during an election,potential crime. Right, So what does
the FBI not investigate? Now thisis probably uh, you know, just
(07:06):
as important as what we do investigate, right and having folks understand, So
let me go through some of thesethings and help clear up some confusion about
what we we can and cannot do. Okay, So, the FBI does
not investigate voter facilitation activities and whatthat means. If somebody is offered a
ride to go vote, you know, if they're offered time off from work
(07:29):
to go vote, or even ifgetting a stamp, you know, getting
a stamp from somebody like to usean absentee ballot, those are not things
that the FBI is going to lookinto, Okay. So in general,
violations of state campaign finance law wedon't look into. There are there are
some nuances and exceptions to that.If if there's other federal statutes that are
violated, but in general, wedon't look at the state campaign stuff.
(07:49):
Okay, now if this one,this one we get questions about all the
time if campaigns or candidates are distributinginaccurate can paign literature, or making false
claims about themselves or an opponent.Yeah, we do not get into that.
That's like the political aspect of elections, and we don't delve into that.
(08:13):
If individuals are campaigning too close tothe polls, that is a state
issue and that's up to the stateand local authorities to deal with. So
the FBI does not get involved inthat. Okay. If a candidate,
you know, going back to thepolitical part of a candidate's trying to convince
one of their opponents to withdraw froma race, we're not going to get
involved. I'm not going to lookat that. Okay, that's like part
(08:35):
of the whole campaigning stuff. Right. This is an important one. Honest
mistakes by polling place workers. Everybody'saware of potential wrongdoing, but in cases
of honest mistakes, we're not goingto look at that. People should keep
in mind that most of our pollingworkers are volunteers, oftentimes students, oftentimes
retirees. They're just trying to dothe best they can and help out.
(08:56):
And so yeah, honest mistakes arenot something that we're interested in, Okay.
And then lastly and maybe most importantlyis once the elections are ongoing,
folks want to know the results ofthe races, right, and the elections
and getting involved because the results aren'tcoming out fast enough or aren't being announced,
that's not something the FBI is goingto get involved. We let the
(09:16):
state administer that election, We letthem go through their processes and ultimately just
let them do their job without usinterfering. So we're not going to get
involved in anything. Well, asyou can hear, they're not going to
get involved in what we probably consideredthe little Well, can the FBI personnel
be like live and active at electionpoll site? Right? So, just
(09:37):
like every other eligible American we have, the FBI agents have the right to
vote. Right, So agents andpersonnel from any part of the federal government
can show up to vote. Okay. So you might have a family member,
neighbor that you recognize, you've seenthem at the polls, they're probably
just voting. We can do thatnow. On the other hand, in
conjunction with our work and our officialdo these federal employees can't be posted at
(10:03):
the at the polling centers and wherevotes are taking place. Okay, that's
again that's a state and local issue. So and like I said, in
conjunction with our work, we willnot be there, we won't view at
the polls, and we won't respondto the polls. Okay, that's a
state issue, and we let ourstate partners do their job. Does the
FBI investigate threats to election workers?Yes, So as a result of some
(10:24):
of the things that we saw duringand after the twenty twenty election, threats
of violence, you know, thoseinstances increased dramatically. In response to that.
In twenty twenty one, the Departmentof Justice, in conjunction with the
FBI, we've created an Election ThreatsTask Force, and the purpose of that
is to identify, investigate, andmitigate threats targeting election workers, right preventing
(10:46):
those folks from doing their jobs.So, in the event that the FBI
gets information involving a potential threat,we work with the DOJ work together to
get a determination on whether it's somethingthat we can look at federally. You
know, threats can be conveyed ina number of ways online, in person,
over the phone, and so there'ssome nuance to how federal government can
(11:07):
get involved. But even in theinstances where the FBI can't get involved,
we work very closely with our stateand local partners make sure they have that
information and so that we all worktogether to make sure that real threats are
taken care of and work well.I absolutely have fifty million other questions,
but I'm not going to give youall those, but i will ask this
(11:28):
because I've seen it on social mediaand I don't think that I've ever done
it before. But what about peoplewho post like the wrong dates for people
to whether it's early voting or theactual voting date. What if they post
the wrong date to get people massto you know, go right right now.
That's a great question. Kind ofhit on it earlier, But unfortunately,
(11:48):
some of that activity may fall undersome of the civil rights things that
we look at. Okay, anybodywho is trying to persuade somebody or you
know, convince them that the time, place, or manner of an election
or a vote is different than whatit actually is. That's something that we
the FBI would look into, righteverybody has that constitutional right to vote,
(12:09):
and so prevent trying to prevent somebodyfrom doing that by giving false information,
you know, when it's a seriousthing, that's potentially something we would look
into. Keep in mind that Iknow that memes go out on social media,
people joke about that, but aswe get closer to the election time
and everything, that's definitely not somethingto joke about. We take it very
serious because it can be missed.Even if joking, it could be misconstrued
(12:31):
as an honest attempt to suppress anindividual or a group's right to vote.
We just don't want to do that. We want to steer clear of that.
Even though some of those things arefunny, you know, we've got
to take them serious and not tryto put out any false information. So
people, if I've ever done thator shared a me, I'm sorry,
I didn't realize I could. Oh, it was a crime. So when
(12:52):
it comes to the elections, protectingthe elections from boring and foreign and middling
information, what's the FBI doing aboutthat? Okay? So after in the
fall twenty seventeen, the FBI establishedthe Foreign Influenced Task Force, and the
purpose of that is to identify andcounteract foreign malign influence operations targeting the United
(13:13):
States. Okay, putting out wetalked about with candidates and everything. Putting
out misinformation in general in general isnot a crime, and it's not something
that we would look into. Butwhen it comes from a foreign source,
you know, and it's like aforeign tempt to affect an election, that's
definitely something the FBI would look into. That Foreign Influenced Task Force is made
(13:33):
up of a number of our partners, and when that information comes to light,
we work to see what the sourceof the misinformation is and if it's
foreign, we definitely work to mitigateand correct that so that you know,
the American people aren't being persuaded byforeign power or something trying to meddle in
our elections. So, and whatis the threat posed by deep faith And
(13:54):
that's the whole other topic in itself. Well, yes, when it comes
to the election, you're yeah,a great quote. So the deep fakes,
that's like something we've seen. It'sever evolving technologies getting better daily.
The real concern with that is ifit is like a coming from a foreign
source. Again, misinformation in generalis not a crime, but it's all
about the source and the deep fakesare getting so good that it's it's it's
(14:16):
getting hard to detect what's real andwhat's not. So we're definitely cognizant of
that, and we're working with allof our partners in the election space and
the intelligence community to and even theprivate sector to get ahead of that issue,
to try to understand it and mitigateit the best we can. But
you know, it's it's something thatit's only going to grow as an issue
and we're going to have to workhard to try to stay ahead of that.
(14:39):
Yeah. So when it comes tothose deep fakes and you know,
the mean footfalls information, does theFBI add social media companies to take them
down or block them? Yeah?No, no, you know, we
don't request or expect the social mediacompanies to do anything like that or take
a particular action on our behalf.In general, they the social media companies
can provide information to us if theychoose so, and they, you know,
(15:01):
following all applicable rules and laws,they can absolutely give information to us.
And in most instances, the socialmedia companies have their own teams that
look at those sorts of activities.If there are users that violate their own
internal user agreement policies. The socialmedia companies can choose to take those down
if applicable, but we don't askthem to do that, and so that's
(15:24):
something we don't do. But ifthey can definitely share information that they see,
if they think it's appropriate to shareit with us or any of the
other partners that we work with inthe space. Now, how does the
FBI balance the need for thorough investigationswith respecting individuals' rights and privacy during you
know, inquiries related to election fromYeah, sure, So our mission the
(15:46):
FBI is to protect American people andhelp uphold the constitution right so that that
right to vote is in the constitution, So we want everybody to they choose
to do so, have that right. But we also take election related allegation
seriously. So if it's something warrantedand it invokes one of those things we
talked about that we would have jurisdiction, we'll look into it. However,
(16:07):
there are a lot of rules andpolicies that guide how we do that so
that we do it in a waythat is the least intrusive, and it's
always done in a way that it'sprivate. We don't talk about those things
that we look into because oftentimes wereceive information that's not accurate, and we
would never want to jeopardize somebody's reputationbecause of something we're doing in good faith.
(16:32):
So people should be able to knowthat we don't care about who they
vote for, what their political viewsare, any of their information, anything
like that. You know, that'snever a consideration for something we would look
into. We definitely don't look intoanything that's First Amendment protected. We never
do that. However, if itis a potential election crime, we will
(16:55):
follow the policies that we always havethat govern what we do, and will
do so in a manner that's professionaland thorough and we'll, you know,
we'll find out what we have andgo from there. You know, in
consultation with the Department of Justice.We never do that in a vacuum.
We work with our partners to makesure we're doing it the right way.
Where can we because I am aconcern to where can we find out you
(17:15):
know, more about an or reportelection crimes? Sure so, because we
talked about the threats of violence orpotential threats of violence, we might see
we hope we don't, but wemight if there's any active violence or imminent
active violence, the only appropriate thingis to call nine to one one first,
Okay, So an emergency situation,that's our course of action nine to
(17:37):
one one guys. However, ifit's something else that we've talked about that's
not your typical election related crime,we we definitely encourage folks to report something
if they think it's not right,and there's a couple of ways that they
can do that. They can calltheir local field office, though for our
fbio passo, I can give youthe number nine one five eight three two
five thousand. People that don't liketo talk to anybody on the phone,
(18:00):
they can do that online also,right, and that's at our tip dot
FBI dot gov dot gov. Andthen there's a there's a hotline that anybody
can call and it's one eight hundredcall it call FBI. If folks are
unsure of where their field office isor something like that, you know,
you can call any FBI office providethat information. Depending on where they're at,
(18:22):
We'll get it to the right place. So don't have a fear about
calling the wrong office or something likethat. We'll take that information if appropriate
and we'll get it to where itneeds to go. Okay, okay,
well great, I appreciate you comingon, happy to do so because this
is an important topic. Again,it's election season, so I hope everyone's
listening and understand what's happening and don'tshare means that tell a lie to avoid
(18:45):
the crime. But you know,before you go, I do ask every
FBI agent that we talk to alittle bit about themselves. So okay for
l passo. Sure, since youknow you're hear our passo, tell us
where if there's a place or somewhereyou'd like to go or you think everyone
should visit before they leave Al Paso. Oh, that's a great question.
(19:07):
There's lots of places. You know. The local food is unique and great
and everybody should come to El Pasoto experience that, especially you know the
Mexican and the Hispanic influence food.The weather's great, so coming here to
experience any of the things we havehere is always a good idea. Maybe
avoid June through August, but outsideof that, you know, the weather
(19:29):
is great, and I'll passo andjust know too that anything you do here,
the people are friendly. This isa big city, but it's it's
also a place that has that faultthat small town feel. People are still
friendly, they say thanks, whenyou hold the door, they'll hold the
door for you. And so justall those things combine, this is a
good place to visit, do anythinganything within the community. So it's been
(19:51):
good to me, my family andI since we've been here, and people
should visit and take advantage of thosethings. Well, thank you very much.
I'm happy. Yeah, thank youfor having We appreciate you for sharing
this information with us, and hopefullyeveryone will take eat
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