CT election officials say voting systems are secure, despite President Trump’s claims
In a primetime address, President Donald Trump claimed that voting systems are vulnerable to "hacking, exploitation and foreign interference." But Connecticut election leaders insist that the state's system is secure.
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Election officials insist that Connecticut’s voting system is secure, despite claims from President Donald Trump in a televised address Thursday night.
Trump’s Homeland Security secretary doubled down on Friday, threatening state election officials with “prison time” if they don’t implement recommended changes.
"AMERICANS WERE BLATANTLY LIED TO"
In a primetime speech, Trump claimed that China tried to interfere with the 2020 election, which he lost to Joe Biden.
“For many years, Americans were blatantly lied to about the security of our election infrastructure,” Trump said in the primetime speech. “The election system we have dangerously exposes and really exposes like levels never thought possible to hacking, exploitation and foreign interference.”
The Trump administration also released dozens of newly declassified documents, but offered no proof that any vote was actually changed. The White House claimed that China “compromised” 18 states’ voter rolls, including Connecticut.
But voter registration is public - anyone can look it up online.
“The voter data file is everywhere,” said Secretary of the State Stephanie Thomas, Connecticut’s top election official. “The public voter file that is available that most people have access to does not include a lot of sensitive personally identifiable information."
SECURE VOTING SYSTEM?
The documents also revealed potential security holes – many of which have already been publicized.
In 2020, a National Intelligence Council memo warned that “localized” tabulators and voter registration databases are vulnerable to hackers.
“Adversaries could alter data to potentially prevent individuals from voting, causing delays on election day or forcing voters to use provisional ballots,” the NIC concluded. “But [it] would be difficult to manipulate on a wide enough scale to alter the election outcome.”
Thomas said state and local voter registrars are already a step ahead.
“Connecticut has very strong cyber defense mechanisms in place,” she said. “And it’s important to know that it doesn’t run through our office. This is state cyber; this is the Connecticut Intelligence Center.”
In Connecticut, voting machines keep paper ballots and are not connected to the internet. Each town also has both a Republican and Democratic registrar.
DHS THREATENS PRISON TIME
Trump also claimed that at least 250,000 noncitizens and dead people are registered to vote in California, Nevada, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. But election experts said that the administration’s Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements system (SAVE) uses faulty methodology that likely counts newly naturalized citizens who are legally eligible to vote.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin threatened state election officials with criminal prosecution on Friday if they fail to go along with the president’s security demands.
“If the election officials, once we gave them the information they need to secure their elections – and they chose not to – then those individuals can also be held accountable by fines, by penalties and even, depending on how far it goes, prison time,” he said.
The U.S. Justice Department ordered Connecticut and other Democrat-led states to turn over full voter rolls, which include sensitive information like Social Security numbers.
But more than a dozen judges have rejected the demand.
“Every court to consider the DOJ’s demands – 15 of them to date, six of those judges appointed by President Trump – have confirmed that the federal government cannot legally demand access to states’ sensitive voter data,” said David Becker, the executive director of the nonprofit Center for Election Innovation and Research. “What he’s suggesting is illegal.”
To address Trump's concerns, Mullin said the nation’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, which sits under DHS, would release an updated election infrastructure plan within 30 days and provide cyber threat resources to election officials if they participate in SAVE.
However, Trump has broadly dismantled the agency’s election security operation.
TROOPS AT POLLING PLACES?
Connecticut’s congressional delegation worries that Trump wants to interfere in this year’s midterms.
“I think the President is trying to preemptively get involved in the upcoming elections,” said Rep. Jahana Hayes (D-Waterbury).
Rep. Jim Himes (D-Greenwich), the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, believes Thursday night’s address is a prelude to sending troops into voting precincts.
“Now you have either ICE or National Guard or who knows under the orders of the President, showing up at polling places,” he said. “There is zero evidence that any foreign power – and I’ve been looking at this extremely closely from my perch on the ‘Gang of Eight,’ where we get the most sensitive information.”
The Associated Press wire services contributed to this report.
