CISA says there's no evidence of election fraud; 2020 election was the most secure in American history

November 13, 2020

The members of Election Infrastructure Government Coordinating Council (GCC) Executive Committee - Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), released a statement noting that the 2020 election was the most secure in American history.

The members of the GCC Executive Committee include Assistant Director Bob Kolasky, U.S. Election Assistance Commission Chair Benjamin Hovland, National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS) President Maggie Toulouse Oliver, National Association of State Election Directors (NASED) President Lori Augino, and Escambia County (Florida) Supervisor of Elections David Stafford – and the members of the Election Infrastructure Sector Coordinating Council (SCC) – Chair Brian Hancock (Unisyn Voting Solutions), Vice Chair Sam Derheimer (Hart InterCivic), Chris Wlaschin (Election Systems & Software), Ericka Haas (Electronic Registration Information Center), and Maria Bianchi (Democracy Works).

“The November 3rd election was the most secure in American history. Right now, across the country, election officials are reviewing and double checking the entire election process prior to finalizing the result. When states have close elections, many will recount ballots. All of the states with close results in the 2020 presidential race have paper records of each vote, allowing the ability to go back and count each ballot if necessary. This is an added benefit for security and resilience. This process allows for the identification and correction of any mistakes or errors. There is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised," says the statement. “Other security measures like pre-election testing, state certification of voting equipment, and the U.S. Election Assistance Commission’s (EAC) certification of voting equipment help to build additional confidence in the voting systems used in 2020. 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.”

The statement is part of an effort by CISA to debunk misinformation in its Rumor Control webpage, where people can obtain information on questions they may have about the legitimacy of the election, and learn more about mis- and disinformation from CISA’s Countering Foreign Influence Task Force.

Reuters recently reported that CISA director Christopher Krebs, who worked on protecting the election from hackers but drew the ire of the Trump White House over efforts to debunk disinformation (such as the statement above), has told associates he expects to be fired. Bryan Ware, assistant director for cybersecurity at CISA, also confirmed to Reuters that he had handed in his resignation on Thursday. Ware did not provide details, but a U.S. official familiar with his matter said the White House asked for Ware’s resignation earlier this week.

Maria Henriquez joined Security Magazine in 2019 as its Associate Editor. Since then, she has been covering the security industry and reporting on issues affecting enterprise security leaders, to include cybersecurity, leadership and management, risk and resilience and pressing security challenges facing the industry. Within her role at Security, she works to produce several Special Reports and other stories for the monthly eMagazine, Newswire articles, Web Exclusive features, as well as manage social media, the 5 minutes with series, and the Today’s Cybersecurity Leader and Security enewsletter. She graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a bachelor’s in English and Creative Writing.

Ransomware and the propulsion of the extortion economy has rapidly eclipsed into a national priority. Recently, we observed the catastrophic impact of a widescale ransomware attack impacting gas pipelines and raising national gas prices overnight.