US Elections 2020: FBI probes robocalls that asked voters to ‘stay home’

THE FBI is investigating strange robocalls asking voters across the US to stay at home on election day.

The sources of the spam calls which have been doing the rounds for almost a year however, remain unknown.

“There’s a little bit of confusion about this one across the industry,” Giulia Porter, vice president at RoboKiller, a company that fights robocalls, told the Reuters news agency.It became one of the biggest spam calls in the country on Tuesday, Ms Porter said.

One of the calls reportedly says: “Hello. This is just a test call. Time to stay home. Stay safe and stay home.

“New York State officials are also investigating allegations of robocalls spreading disinformation and encouraging people to stay home.

“Attempts to hinder voters from exercising their right to cast their ballots are disheartening, disturbing, and wrong,” New York Attorney General Letitia James said.

The FBI has said it is aware of reports of robocalls but has not commented further.

Janaka Stucky, a Democratic voter in Massachusetts, said he had received a robocall early on election day.”My first thought was that actually it was a municipal test call for a Covid lockdown thing,” he told Reuters.

“The more I thought about it I was like, oh this actually feels really off and weird and then started to feel like it was some sort of, maybe, voter suppression effort.

“Incumbent Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden are contesting the in one of the most divisive presidential polls in decades.