This paper examines the methodological challenges of researching electoral disinformation and influence operations (IOs) in the Philippines, specifically during the 2025 midterm elections. The authors critique mainstream quantitative approaches for being overly platform-deterministic and for treating disinformation as discrete, isolated objects. In response, they propose connective ethnography—a collaborative, multi-sited qualitative approach—as a more comprehensive and ethical alternative. By drawing on six months of online and offline fieldwork in Laoag City and Cebu City, the study demonstrates how connective ethnography captures the "messiness" of IOs, including their vertical and horizontal scales, their grounding in local sociopolitical realities, and the nascent use of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI). The findings emphasize that understanding the true impact of IOs requires examining the everyday ways in which communities encounter and negotiate political information in compromised environments.