WASHINGTON – The Department of Homeland Security is preparing for a potentially unprecedented array of election threats, including meddling by foreign governments, bomb threats, intimidation at the polls and the intentional spreading of disinformation to confuse voters, Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told USA TODAY in an exclusive interview.
“We are dealing with it with intensity,” Mayorkas said. “The right to vote and the integrity of the right to vote − and therefore of the election itself − is a fundamental element of our democracy.
“This is a nonpartisan effort,” he stressed. “And, in fact, all our efforts across this department are nonpartisan.”
A broad array of threats – and responses
DHS, especially through its Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, or CISA, is mobilizing more than ever before to help state and local election officials bolster election infrastructure against threats, Mayorkas said.
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In January 2017, in response to Russia’s aggressive effort to meddle in the 2016 presidential election and hack the Democratic National Committee’s servers, DHS designated the election process as part of the nation’s “critical infrastructure.” That means protecting election-related assets, systems and networks, whether physical or virtual, are made a top priority because they are considered “so vital to the United States that…
