Rigged! Hacked! Tampering! Fraud! Even before one vote was cast in the 2016 election, rumors swirled about the integrity of the election. The cacophony of misinformation and innuendo has not stopped since the election and all of this has caused some Americans to lose faith in the electoral system. In the days leading up to the election a survey by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that only 4 in 10 Americans had a high degree of confidence that their votes would be counted correctly nearly a third of all who responded thought there was a great deal of voter fraud in the country despite the lack of evidence. This week, the National Association of Secretaries of State released the State Election Officials Report Facts & Findings on Cybersecurity and Foreign Targeting of the 2016 U.S. Election. The report is an effort by NASS to help improve voter confidence and show for a fact that the election was not “hacked”.
As Congress examines the impact of Russian involvement in the November 2016 election, it is important to provide the clearest and most accurate public record possible regarding election cybersecurity and foreign targeting of U.S. election infrastructure. The following findings are based on all unclassified documentation and evidence available to the National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS):
The November 2016 election was NOT HACKED.
The voting process was not hacked or subject to manipulation in any way. No credible evidence of hacking, including attempted hacking of voting machines or vote counting, was ever presented or discovered in any state, including during recount efforts that took place after the election. A joint DHS-DNI report details the foreign cyberattacks that took place against U.S. government, political and private sector entities that were attributed to Russia.2 Election officials remain concerned by unfounded conjecture that a lack of such tangible evidence indicates that hacking might have been overlooked or hidden from discovery, despite collaborative efforts with our intelligence services, cybersecurity firms, network defenders and state and local officials.
Full Article: electionlineWeekly.