The federal government has halted election security activities and ended funding for the system that alerts state officials of election security threats across state lines, a representative of the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency told state election officials last week.
The March 3 email, obtained exclusively by Votebeat, confirmed for secretaries of state and state election directors what they had read in news reports and noticed happening in practice: that President Donald Trump’s administration has suspended or dismantled federal support for election security, at least for now.
The administration stopped funding the Election Infrastructure Information Sharing and Analysis Center, or EI-ISAC, which alerts state officials of active election threats in other states, because it “no longer supports Department priorities,” CISA’s acting chief external affairs officer, Erin Buechel Wieczorek, wrote in the email. CISA is part of the Department of Homeland Security.
CISA has also taken “appropriate actions” against employees who under the Biden administration had helped states monitor false information about elections posted on social media, Wieczorek wrote, adding that those actions were “ongoing.”
The message went to leaders at the National Association of State Election Directors and the National Association of Secretaries of State.
A spokesperson for CISA declined to comment further, or to confirm the number of employees fired. In initial cuts, in line with the administration’s goal of reducing the size of the federal government, about 130 CISA employees were terminated, according to press reports.
Category Archives: voting technology
“Election security aid is on the chopping block, rattling local officials”
State and local election officials who have grown to rely on the federal government’s cybersecurity assistance fear that the Trump administration may permanently block that aid by Thursday.
Such funding, which began in President Donald Trump’s first term and is funnelled through the country’s top domestic security body, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), stopped in February. Those programs include free on-site and remote security testing of election machines and the websites that report election results, and ad hoc “situation rooms” where election officials can virtually gather and discuss security tactics in real time.
“Taking away that funding would be a very, very bad idea,” said Howie Knapp, the executive director of South Carolina’s State Election Commission,” told NBC News.
“We all know as taxpayers there is government bloat enough, but this is protecting the core function of democracy,” Knapp said. “If there’s government cuts to be made, I would recommend they don’t start with securing our nation’s elections.”
CISA, which is under the Department of Homeland Security, plans to make a decision on the future of federal election security assistance by Thursday, according to a Feb. 14 agency memo obtained by NBC News. The memo was first reported by Wired.
In an emailed statement, a DHS spokesperson confirmed CISA has “strategically paused all elections security activities.”
The potential cuts come amid a government-wide reduction in federal staffing and programming in Trump’s first weeks back in office. At CISA alone, more than 140 employees have been laid off since Trump took office, a DHS spokesperson told NBC News.
Most of the free election cybersecurity services that the federal government provides to states are funded by CISA but conducted through an organization called the Elections Infrastructure Information Sharing & Analysis Center (EI-ISAC), which is run by the nonprofit Center for Internet Security. In a separate Feb. 14 letter to CISA obtained by NBC News (separate from the agency memo of the same day), the Department of Homeland Security ordered the Center for Internet Security to “terminate” those election services….
“The Trump Administration Is Going After Our Elections Too”
Larry Norden and Derek Tisler at Slate:
In its crusade against federal agencies, the Trump administration is targeting our election system, making potentially dangerous reductions to protections that help keep elections free, fair, and secure. On Friday, the acting director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency sent a memo to all agency staff notifying them that “all election security activities” would be paused pending the results of an internal investigation. The memo also stated that the administration was cutting off all funds to the Election Infrastructure Information Sharing and Analysis Center—a Department of Homeland Security–funded organization that helps state and local officials monitor, analyze, and respond to cyberattacks targeting the nation’s election hardware and software.
The work of CISA and the EI-ISAC has been central to election security in the United States for most of the past decade, providing state and local election officials with critical tools and assistance to defend against cyber and physical threats to election systems. These steps and other recent blows to federal election guardrails were foretold in Project 2025. Understanding the playbook will help us be ready to push back when the next shoes drop.
“Top US Election Security Watchdog Forced to Stop Election Security Work”
Eric Geller for Wired:
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has frozen all of its election security work and is reviewing everything it has done to help state and local officials secure their elections for the past eight years, WIRED has learned. The move represents the first major example of the country’s cyberdefense agency accommodating President Donald Trump’s false claims of election fraud and online censorship.
In a memo sent Friday to all CISA employees and obtained by WIRED, CISA’s acting director, Bridget Bean, said she was ordering “a review and assessment” of every position at the agency related to election security and countering mis- and disinformation, “as well as every election security and [mis-, dis-, and malinformation] product, activity, service, and program that has been carried out” since the federal government designated election systems as critical infrastructure in 2017.
“CISA will pause all elections security activities until the completion of this review,” Bean added. The agency is also cutting off funding for these activities at the Elections Infrastructure Information Sharing & Analysis Center, a group funded by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that has served as a coordinating body for the elections community.
“States Must Take the Lead on Election Security”
Derek Tisler Brennan Center brief:
American elections face increasingly complex cyber and physical security threats from foreign adversaries, emerging technology, and escalating risks of political violence. Fortifying election systems against these threats is essential.
Historically, state and local governments have been responsible for ensuring the integrity of our electoral system, and that remains true. Decentralized election administration has been a significant source of strength for election security.
But over the past decade, federal support has increased as Congress and federal agencies provided state and local officials with funding and expertise and facilitated information sharing on the threat landscape. As security threats continue to evolve and with election officials now operating as frontline national security figures, that support has helped make U.S. election systems more resilient than ever.
However, the incoming Trump administration may roll back federal support for election security, as outlined in Project 2025. Therefore, it is critical that states step up and reclaim additional responsibilities to ensure our electoral system is protected against threats that experts agree are likely to grow in the coming years….
“The Top Cybersecurity Agency in the US Is Bracing for Donald Trump”
Eric Geller for Wired:
Donald Trump helped create the US government’s cybersecurity agency during his first term as president. Six years later, employees of that agency are afraid of what he’ll do with it once he retakes office.
Trump’s alliances with libertarian-minded billionaires like Elon Musk and his promises to cut government spending and corporate oversight have alarmed staffers at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the component of the Department of Homeland Security that defends US government computer systems from hackers and helps state and local governments, private companies, and nonprofit groups protect themselves.
CISA, which the Trump administration and Congress created in 2018 by reorganizing an existing DHS wing, became a target of right-wing vitriol after its Trump-appointed director rebuffed the president’s election conspiracy theories in 2020 (prompting Trump to fire him) and after it worked with tech companies to combat online misinformation during the 2022 election….
CISA is also bracing for changes to its election security mission. The agency has already dramatically scaled back conversations with social media companies about online misinformation following a right-wing backlash, but Trump’s team could force CISA to abandon even more of its election security work. CISA staffers worry that Trump will block the agency from participating in state and local election officials’ “Trusted Info” initiative, which encourages Americans to listen to their local election supervisors instead of provocative online claims.
“I think that work is probably dead,” says a third CISA employee.
South Dakota governor Kristi Noem, Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Homeland Security, embraced election conspiracies after Biden’s win in 2020. “Kristi Noem is a Trump loyalist who has backed him in election denial claims, and now she’s going to be in charge of the agency that oversees [CISA],” says the cyber official. “I have a lot of questions about what happens there.”
The third CISA employee expects to see the “persecution of those who have done election security work” once Trump takes office….
“Donald Trump Announces Plan to Change Elections”
Sort of. The Newsweek headline should really read “Donald Trump Announces Policy Goals” for elections, since all of what he’s proposing would require legislation: “We’re gonna do things that have been really needed for a long time,” he said. “And we are gonna look at elections. We want to have paper ballots, one day voting, voter ID, and proof of citizenship.”
“US Postal Service touts timely delivery of mail ballots despite concerns from election officials”
Here’s the AP report on a 99.88% rate for delivery within one week of 99.22 million ballots. Along with the USPS press release and more detailed report.
“Audit of Georgia ballots proves that Dominion Voting Machine conspiracy theories are false”
USA Today out with a Monday report on Georgia’s audit of the 2024 elections, completed last week. The full ballot image audit report is here.
New Paper–“An Internet Voting System Fatally Flawed in Creative New Ways”
Andrew W. Appel (Princeton, Computer Science) and Philip B. Stark (UC Berkeley, Statistics) have a new paper cautioning about a new software designed to accelerate the count for overseas votes by relying on the internet.
. . . . The enunciated motivation for the [“MERGE”] protocol is to allow (electronic) votes from overseas military voters to be included in preliminary results before a (paper) ballot is received from the voter. MERGE contains interesting ideas that are not inherently unsound; but to make the system trustworthy–to apply the MERGE protocol–would require major changes to the laws, practices, and technical and logistical abilities of U.S. election jurisdictions. The gap between theory and practice is large and unbridgeable for the foreseeable future. . . .
“Trump’s Allies Revive Debunked Voting Machine Theories”
It has been nearly four years since a parade of judges dismissed wild claims from Donald J. Trump and his associates about hacked election machines and a year and a half since a leading machine company obtained a $787.5 million settlement from Fox News over the debunked conspiracy theories.
But Mr. Trump’s presidential campaign and his closest allies are again trotting out the theories as part of a late-campaign strategy to assert that this year’s election is rigged — although this time Mr. Trump’s campaign appears to be largely acting behind the scenes.
The theories are rampant on social media and widely embraced by activists. They have frequently shown up in the blitz of lawsuits that Republicans have filed in the run-up to the election, including a Georgia lawsuit that a judge dismissed this month, calling the security concerns about voting machines raised in the suit “purely hypothetical.”
Mr. Trump’s name was not on the suit, nor was the Republican National Committee’s. But text messages reviewed by The New York Times suggest that the former president’s top aides were behind it.
The lawsuit was filed by a county Republican Party only after the state Republican Party in Georgia refused, despite requests from “Trump inner circle/high up in RNC,” Alex B. Kaufman, the state party’s general counsel, wrote in a text to another Republican official last month.
“We had immense pressure from above and below to bring this, and said absolutely not,” he added in another message.
Josh McKoon, the chairman of the Georgia Republican Party, denied that the Republican National Committee or the Trump team had asked the state party to file the lawsuit.
“I, at no time, was under any pressure from anyone,” he said.
The Trump campaign and Mr. Kaufman did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Theories about voting machines were some of the most far-fetched and easily debunked of the claims that Mr. Trump tossed out in his attempt to hold on to power after his defeat in 2020. Mr. Kaufman, in his texts, said the state party’s priority was “protecting sensible” election rules. While the machines are not without potential vulnerabilities, there has been no evidence to support the conspiracy theories that have proliferated — the most prominent being that the machines are programmed to flip votes away from Mr. Trump…
“U.S. cybersecurity chief says election systems have ‘never been more secure'”
Amid widespread concerns of outside interference influencing the results this year’s presidential election, the head of the country’s cybersecurity agency says election infrastructure is more secure than ever.
State and local election officials across the country have made big improvements to strengthen both physical and cyber security at polling and voting locations to preserve election integrity, said Jen Easterly, the director of the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, in an interview with Weekend Edition.
After Russia’s attempts to influence the U.S. presidential election in 2016, CISA was created to work with state and local officials to make sure voting machines aren’t vulnerable to hacks.
“I can say with confidence based on all the work that we’ve done together since 2016, that election infrastructure has never been more secure,” Easterly said. “There are cyber threats, there are physical threats to election officials, but we’re at a point now with our election infrastructure secure and the election community prepared to meet the moment on the 5th of November.”
Her confidence in election integrity comes as intelligence officials warn that foreign adversaries — mainly Russia, Iran and China — are stepping up efforts to undermine voter trust in the democratic process, sway voters and inflame partisan divisions…..
“Georgia Republicans sow doubt about Dominion voting machines in 2020 throwback”
Just weeks before early voting begins in Georgia, Republican Party officials and Donald Trump allies are trying to preemptively sow doubt about the viability of Dominion systems used across the key swing state, arguing in court that the machines should not be used because they are not safe or secure.
In a replay of 2020 tactics, Republicans have continued to claim without proof that Dominion voting systems are susceptible to mass manipulation and vote-flipping by a nefarious actor. And GOP officials in DeKalb County in Georgia, aided by a familiar cast of pro-Trump lawyers, have signaled they are planning to once again question the 2024 election results if Trump loses.
They have sued in state court, arguing the Dominion voting machines are not in compliance with Georgia law and want the Secretary of State’s office to make voting records and ballot images available for public inspection within 24 hours of the election. But the lawsuit is also raising concerns that the DeKalb County GOP officials are attempting to mislead voters so they can explain away a potential loss in November….
The GOP officials who filed the lawsuit say they have obtained new evidence about the vulnerabilities of the Dominion systems, a claim that Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, and state election officers say is false. The lawsuit also theorizes that the systems may have already been compromised, despite offering no proof to support that claim.
The plaintiffs are using the “same tired claims that have been rejected by courts again and again,” Elizabeth Young, who is representing Raffensperger’s office, told Judge Scott McAfee at a court hearing this week to determine whether the lawsuit will move forward and additional evidence can be presented. “There is not much credibility in the claim.”
Marilyn Marks, executive director of the Coalition for Good Governance, a nonprofit voting rights organization that has raised concerns about vulnerabilities in Georgia’s voting systems as part of a separate lawsuit against state election officials, told CNN she is skeptical about the true intention of the DeKalb County complaint.
“I fear they are just attempting to lay the groundwork for challenging the election based on further exposing the serious weaknesses of the system, demonstrating that the results can be manipulated,” said Marks, who is pushing for Georgia to use hand-marked paper ballots.
Voting Machine Conspiracies Persist
NYT:
Nearly four years later, zealous supporters of former President Donald J. Trump who promoted the conspiracy theory that Dominion Voting Systems had rigged its machines to rob him of the 2020 election are still at it.
Even though Dominion has aggressively defended itself in court, a network of pro-Trump activists has continued to push false claims against the company, often by seeking to use information gleaned from the very defamation lawsuits the firm has filed against them.
The network includes wealthy business executives like Patrick Byrne, who once ran Overstock.com, and Mike Lindell, the founder of the bedding company MyPillow. Both have sought without credible evidence to put Dominion at the heart of a vast conspiracy to deny Mr. Trump a victory.