Just days before the 2024 presidential election, Jen Easterly, the head of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) – and the nation’s top election security czar – foot stomped the notion that U.S. election infrastructure has never been more secure.
Despite the security of the voting machines – which are not connected to the internet – Easterly warned that the nation’s foreign adversaries, like China, Russia, and Iran, are attempting to make citizens believe the U.S. election process is not secure.
“It is not possible to technically hack into voting infrastructure in a way that would impact the outcome of the presidential election, [but] we should know that our foreign adversaries are absolutely going to try to make us believe that they have,” Easterly said during a Washington Post Live event on Oct. 30.
The CISA director said the intelligence community has tracked foreign malign adversary activity “at a larger scale than in any election cycle.”
She continued, “And now they are armed with tools like generative AI, which is helping to exacerbate and to accelerate their ability to do things like create fake personas and fake websites and spew their propaganda in the United States.”
For example, in a joint statement released today, CISA, the FBI, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said Russian influence actors manufactured a recent video that falsely depicted individuals claiming to be from Haiti and voting illegally in multiple counties in Georgia. Russian influence actors also manufactured a video falsely accusing “an individual associated with the Democratic presidential ticket of taking a bribe from a U.S. entertainer.”
“We as Americans need to be on guard,” Easterly warned. “We cannot allow our foreign adversaries to have a vote in our democracy.”
Easterly credited the security of U.S. election infrastructure to three factors: voting machines are not connected to the internet; 97 percent of registered voters will cast their ballots in jurisdictions where they would get a paper record that they could verify; and officials have safeguards in place – such as post-election audits – to ensure every vote is counted accurately.
“That’s why I have so much confidence in the security and integrity of our election infrastructure, and why I strongly believe that no matter who you vote for your vote will be counted as cast,” Easterly said.
The CISA director also homed in on the fact that state and local election officials have been preparing for this election cycle for over three years.
“Election officials have been preparing for these elections for years now. They’ve exercised, they’ve trained for it, they’ve prepared against a full range of scenarios. I know this because we’ve been on the ground running nearly 200 exercises,” Easterly said. “These incidents, while disruptive, will not impact the security and integrity of votes being cast and the votes that are passed as being counted.”
“At the end of the day, it’s unfortunate that we are seeing these things, but election officials have prepared for them, and they will continue to be able to deliver safe and secure and free and fair elections,” she concluded.
Justice Dept. Reinforces Election Security Days Before Nov. 5
Other leaders in the intelligence community are standing in unison with Easterly’s conviction that U.S. election infrastructure is secure, including the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division’s Voting Section.
In an Oct. 30 update, the Justice Department emphasized that it is equipped, alongside its partners like the FBI and state attorney generals, to “ensure that all qualified voters have the opportunity to cast their ballots and have their votes counted free of discrimination, intimidation, or criminal activity in the election process, and to ensure that our elections are secure and free from foreign malign influence and interference.”
Specifically, the department’s Civil Rights Division ensures compliance with the civil provisions of Federal statutes that protect the right to vote and with the criminal provisions of Federal statutes prohibiting discriminatory interference with that right.
The department’s Criminal Division oversees the enforcement of Federal laws that criminalize certain forms of election fraud and vindicate the integrity of the Federal election process, such as destruction of ballots, vote-buying, multiple voting, submission of fraudulent ballots or registrations, and alteration of votes.
The department’s National Security Division supervises the investigation and prosecution of cases affecting or relating to national security, including any cases involving foreign malign influence and interference in elections or violent extremist threats to elections.
“Protecting the right to vote, prosecuting election crimes, and securing our elections are all essential to maintaining the confidence of all Americans in our democratic system of government,” the Justice Department said.
