A high-stakes election half a world away is making its presence felt in the Bay Area.
French nationals in the Bay Area on Saturday cast their ballots for either centrist Emmanuel Macron or far-right nationalist Marine Le Pen as the European country preps for Sunday's presidential runoff. The fate of Europe's future, worldwide economic markets and diplomatic relations are expected to be impacted by the results.
While Macron remains the favorite headed into Sunday, his campaign was hacked and "a significant amount of data" — and some fake information — was leaked on social networks, according to France's election campaign commission. It is unclear who was behind the attack, but some are questioning Russia's alleged involvement.
Remi Demarast, who voted for Le Pen, called that notion "fake news."
"That's ridiculous," he said. "Everything is about, 'Oh my God, the Russians are evil.'"
Morgan Lagier, who supports Macron, claims Le Pen's camp is spewing "fake news" before alleging that Russia was indeed behind the hack in some form.
"I'm pretty sure that Russia is partly involved," she said.
Local
Presidential voting kicked off Saturday in France's territories across the globe. Voters in France will hit the polls Sunday.
