Photo: Reuters


The Department of Homeland Security assesses that the 2020 US elections were the “most secure in American history”.

The report came hours after Donald Trump tweeted the conspiracy theory that a voting machine system “DELETED 2.7 MILLION TRUMP VOTES NATIONWIDE” — and just before Trump, using the polemic of his friend and Fox TV commentator Sean Hannity, repeated that “tens of thousands of votes were stolen from us and given to [President-elect Joe] Biden”.

The report on election security was distributed by Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, responsible for helping states safeguard voting. It was composed by the Elections Infrastructure Government Coordinating Council, with officials from the cybersecurity agency, the Election Assistance Commission, and Secretaries of State and state election directors.

Implicitly rebuffing the disinformation from Trump, the report summarized:

While we know there are many unfounded claims and opportunities for misinformation about the process of our elections, we can assure you we have the utmost confidence in the security and integrity of our elections, and you should, too. When you have questions, turn to elections officials as trusted voices as they administer elections.

It follows assurances by officials of 49 states — only Texas declined to reply — in statements to The New York Times.

One of officials who signed the Commission statement, Benjamin Hovland, said it was prompted by repeated “baseless claims of voter fraud that none of us have seen any evidence of”. He confirmed that the group was aware of Trump’s Thursday tweet, as one of many disturbing assertions since the election.

Because of this politically motivated rhetoric, these baseless accusations, you’re seeing harassment of election officials, you’re seeing threats toward elections officials — completely unacceptable. We’ve seen these accusations time and time again. We’ve seen them by this president from the very start.”

What you see happening right now is playing right into the hands of our foreign adversaries who want to see us lose faith in our democracy.

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Fighting the “Hacking of Minds”

Christopher Krebs, the director of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency, said it was imperative to counter the “hacking of minds as well as infrastructure”.

Krebs has created a Rumor Control page on the cyberagency’s site, an initiative praised by Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf.

Recent posts have knocked back the disinformation that “votes are being cast on behalf of dead people” and “if results as reported on election night change over the ensuing days or weeks, the process is hacked or compromised”.

Krebs has also used his Twitter feed to swat away the conspiracy theories of Trump and his allies on Fox TV, such as the claim of a secret computer system switching votes from Trump to Biden.

But Rumor Control has incurred the displeasure of Trump’s staff, who have demanded the removal of information. The Trump team was especially angered at Krebs’ pushback on the Hammer-Scorecard conspiracy theory.

“Three sources familiar with the matter” said Krebs expects to be fired soon.

Bryan Ware, the assistant director for cybersecurity at CISA, handed in his resignation on Thursday. An “official familiar with his matter” said the White House asked Ware to leave his post.

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