A model of this story appeared in CNN’s What Issues publication. To get it in your inbox, join free right here.
CNN
—
Former President Donald Trump and one in all his most vocal supporters, tech billionaire Elon Musk, have alleged with out proof that the potential for voter fraud is a significant risk.
As an illustration, Trump has claimed, with out offering proof, that there’s “dishonest” in Pennsylvania. Musk has used X to unfold unfounded allegations about voting programs, laying groundwork to query the election earlier than it occurs.
Voting is finally an act of religion in democracy, and undercutting the system, regardless of all of the proof on the contrary, is clearly a technique on the a part of Trump’s allies.
To raised perceive the safety of US voting programs and why there’s no indication that they’re not safe, I talked to CNN’s Zachary Cohen, who covers nationwide safety, and Sean Lyngaas, who covers cybersecurity. They’re each half of a bigger group of reporters at CNN who’re centered on election safety.
Our dialog, edited for readability, is under:
WOLF: The corporate most individuals have heard of is Dominion, which gained a $787 million settlement with Fox Information associated to 2020 election lies. How a lot of the nation makes use of Dominion? And are there alternate options?
LYNGAAS: A giant portion of the nation, quite a few states, use Dominion in some type. There are three massive election gear distributors within the US: Dominion; ES&S, or Election Programs and Software program; and Hart InterCivic. They represent the overwhelming majority of election infrastructure. You cowl a giant portion of the nation with that.
Nevertheless, there are quite a lot of different smaller distributors. Dominion may be very, quite common, however in a given election workplace, I believe you will have a number of distributors. They’re not placing all their chips in a single basket, so if one thing catastrophic had been to occur, they’ve a backup plan.
WOLF: How does the method of voting usually work with these programs?
LYNGAAS: You might have totally different gear that handles the voter registration database, so if you present up on voting day or everytime you go to vote, they will evaluate what’s in that voter registration to what’s in entrance of them by way of their information.
About 97% of votes are solid with a paper file. Federal officers, election officers are utilizing that as a degree of reference to attempt to persuade folks that their vote is safe and correct, which it’s.
Voting machines – some are a contact pill the place you will have a panel, and also you make your selection and print that out. In different programs, a voter fills out the poll with a pen after which feeds it right into a voting machine.
COHEN: There’s a standard false impression that the voting machines are the whole course of. In actuality, they’re one a part of an even bigger system that goes into casting, then storing and counting votes. In quite a lot of states, a county will switch the info they get from the machines themselves through USB and go manually plug that into a pc.
All that information is then gathered and picked up on-line by the secretary of states or by whoever is in cost, finally, of preserving that information. Then there’s clearly the paper poll a part of it, which is extra about reassuring the voter, but in addition can be utilized as an audit software as nicely.
WOLF: What are the consequential modifications that we’ve seen since 2020?
COHEN: The most important factor has been a kind of struggle over what’s truth and what’s fiction because it pertains to voting machines. Due to the prevalence of Dominion programs particularly, that’s the rationale why these purveyors of disinformation have actually harped on Dominion and alleged quite a lot of conspiracies about vote flipping.
We’re seeing quite a lot of those self same narratives resurface now. As a result of Dominion is used throughout so many alternative states, should you spotlight an alleged drawback with one system in a single state, you would then make an argument that it’s impacting your complete vote throughout the nation.
That’s what we’ve seen – these pro-Trump operatives and legal professionals making an attempt to argue forward of 2024 that these programs are unreliable, that there’s already proof that they’re being manipulated. However there isn’t any proof that votes have been flipped or that any person has hacked these programs already or in previous elections – so it’s kind of a struggle about fact quite than a struggle in regards to the system themselves.
WOLF: When you’re speaking about USB ports and exhausting drives, that’s fairly low-tech. What are the ensures these programs are safe? What are the precautions in opposition to hacking?
LYNGAAS: One of many important precautions is the chain of custody over the info. With the exception final cycle of the Espresso County (Georgia) break-in, the place you had individuals who had been approved to have entry to the ability let somebody in.
That’s hopefully a uncommon exception, as a result of 99.9% of the folks operating elections don’t try this. It’s intently guarded who has entry to the tabulators and the backend information that’s used to ensure all of the voters are within the system, after which the paper path might be the most important safeguard.
COHEN: I believe it’s actually essential to notice that one thing that has modified since 2020 is that we’ve discovered there are authentic issues about vulnerabilities, significantly relating to the backend a part of the voting system.
Sean was referencing the break-in the Espresso County Elections Workplace, the place an election employee gave individuals who didn’t have authorization entry to these programs – mainly unfettered entry to repeat your complete software program platform that that county was utilizing. We noticed one thing comparable in Mesa County, Colorado.
We’ve seen in Michigan, these pro-Trump operatives and legal professionals spent the final 4 years making an attempt to get entry to those programs that they aren’t speculated to have entry to.
In Georgia, we’ve already seen native Republican officers cite not simply the Espresso County information and election software program that they had been capable of copy as a part of a lawsuit, elevating questions preemptively in regards to the validity of the 2024 rely. However we’ve seen them suggest and counsel the vulnerabilities themselves are motive sufficient to file lawsuits and finally sign that they intend to make use of that to problem the result if Trump loses.
LYNGAAS: All software program has vulnerabilities, however we nonetheless don’t have any proof {that a} vulnerability in Dominion software program, or another software program, has been exploited in any election to trigger any form of affect.
The opposite factor I’d say is that not simply since 2020, however in years prior too, there’s been what we name penetration testing of quite a lot of this gear. An election vendor, whether or not it’s ES&S or Dominion or Hart, they’ll ship it out to Idaho Nationwide Labs, for one, which is below the Division of Power, the place they’ve a few of the smartest cyber folks within the recreation. And so they’ll break aside the system and see what vulnerabilities do exist on the market.
Election safety advocates have wished that kind of program to step up extra, and to be highlighted and to be entrance and middle. It’s nonetheless happening.
However on this post-2020 surroundings, if you discuss any form of vulnerability within the system, it will get weaponized by way of how folks devour that data. I’m a cybersecurity reporter, and I really like protecting when there’s a vulnerability and it’s mounted and it’s a excellent news story. However folks don’t see the excellent news for what it’s.
The very last thing I’d say by way of a reassurance to people is that quite a lot of these software program flaws which are present in some voting gear, to have the ability to reap the benefits of them, you typically have to be standing proper close to the machine. Individuals would see one thing happening. In order that helps.
I believe sadly, the general public dialogue has been poisoned by this notion that any form of flaw is proof of fraud, which is simply completely false. I can’t say that sufficient.
WOLF: Any person like Elon Musk is sensible sufficient to know that there’s no proof of these things, however he continues to push the conspiracy theories. What do we predict is to be gained from undercutting folks’s religion within the system?
COHEN: All of the proof so far means that effort is sort of fully geared towards preemptively sowing doubt in regards to the course of itself, in order that if Donald Trump or if Kamala Harris wished, they may use that as the premise of post-election litigation.
Say they lose a key swing state, or any key swing states, as a result of all of them do use Dominion programs – it’s about making a file that permits them to probably file lawsuits to name the result of the election into query.
One of many vulnerabilities that’s actual however hasn’t truly been exploited in a earlier election: there’s actually no method to know. They don’t actually need to show that these vulnerabilities had been manipulated or exploited. They simply must create sufficient doubt within the course of to provide a decide pause.
WOLF: On the finish of the day, casting a poll is an act of religion within the system.
COHEN: Take into consideration the Maricopa audit after the 2020 election. That went on for months after January 6 (2021). That was funded by right-wing MAGA darkish cash teams with the intention of proving this idea that Trump truly gained Arizona, and on the finish of the day, Doug Logan and the Cyber Ninjas proved the other, that (Joe) Biden gained.
LYNGAAS: It will get much less consideration that they discovered nothing they usually validated the result.
On Musk, he has turned to this difficulty with all of the platform that he has – a whole lot of hundreds of thousands of followers on the platform that he owns, and it’s inflicting actual issues for individuals who run elections and people who find themselves making an attempt to get the reality out.
Stephen Richer, the county recorder in Maricopa County, Arizona, has tried to tweet at Musk to attempt to simply pierce, to place a bit of dent within the large noise of conspiracies that (Musk is) placing out. Richer advised CNN he has tried to get intermediaries to go Musk notes in regards to the integrity of elections, to no avail. Nobody’s been capable of change Musk’s thoughts.
COHEN: You discuss one thing that’s modified since 2020. In 2020, we didn’t have the CEO and proprietor of one of the used social media platforms decide a facet and have a said political agenda in what view he’s amplifying – not simply by means of his personal account, however by means of the algorithm of his platform. He’s on Workforce Trump, and so due to this fact all the things that he’s amplifying and pushing on the market must be considered inside that context.
WOLF: You stated there are pure vulnerabilities for any system. What are the vulnerabilities which are making election officers nervous, or what are those that have to be addressed?
LYNGAAS: In a super world, there can be a sturdy pipeline of this, the place we’d be discovering and fixing them. That’s nonetheless taking place, however persons are far more reluctant to speak about it publicly due to the way in which it will get distorted and weaponized.
The brief reply to your query is: I don’t know of any evident software program vulnerability in election infrastructure that hasn’t been addressed.
COHEN: On the similar time, although, we will’t ignore the truth that we’ve discovered since 2020 that election officers themselves, even when it’s a really, very small share of them, are vulnerable to the identical misinformation / disinformation narratives as you and I are. It’s been confirmed out that some election officers will take it upon themselves to do issues that they’re not speculated to do within the identify of that disinformation.
LYNGAAS: Yeah, I believe the most important risk is an insider risk. When you will have somebody who needs to subvert the method, that’s an enormous drawback, and so that you’re reliant on their colleagues talking up. Or if it will get to legal conduct, the FBI being conscious of it and investigating it.
Everybody I discuss to says the sentencing of Tina Peters to 9 years in Colorado could possibly be an enormous deterrent. When you take heed to the decide, it’s virtually like he was speaking to another person when he was sentencing, that it was a message for anybody else who would try this, as a result of that’s the place the actually severe hurt is available in.
COHEN: We all know folks, these pro-Trump operatives and legal professionals, have already gotten entry to election software program – voting software program, voting programs in Georgia, copied your complete election database from a number of counties.
However on the finish of the day, they’ve confirmed that the entry itself can be utilized, no matter whether or not they can show it’s been exploited, to file this post-election litigation and mainly attempt to solid your complete course of into chaos. That’s the factor folks want to pay attention to.
