Federal cyber officials are cautioning voters against fears that election website outages will prevent people from voting or having their votes accurately counted.
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) uses a “Rumor Control” website to counter what it perceives as common false narratives about election infrastructure, which it then shared on social media ahead of Tuesday’s election.
The agency said Monday that an election website experiencing an outage or vandalism, or showing incorrect results is not indicative of vote counts being lost or manipulated.
“Reality: An election website outage won’t impact either your ability to vote or for votes to be counted accurately,” the agency tweeted.
The message comes amid concerns about hackers targeting close midterm election contests coast-to-coast. CISA had witnessed no specific or credible threat to disrupt election infrastructure as of Tuesday morning and cyber activity appeared quieter than in previous elections, according to reports.
America’s adversaries such as Russia still appear intent on spreading fear and doubt about the veracity of the 2022 elections, however. Kremlin-connected entrepreneur Yevgeny Prigozhin said Monday he had interfered in U.S. elections and planned to do so again.
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“Gentlemen, we have interfered, are interfering and will interfere,” Mr. Prigozhin said in remarks on social media. “Carefully, precisely, surgically and in our own way, as we know how to do.”
Mr. Prigozhin previously denied Russia’s involvement in attempted election interference, but White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Monday that Mr. Prigozhin’s remarks “do not tell us anything new or surprising.”
The Russian claims of election meddling oppose the U.S. government’s assertions about election security, as voters head to the polls.
The FBI and CISA published an assessment in October 2022 that said cyber actors’ efforts to compromise election infrastructure were unlikely to cause large disruptions or stop voting.
“As of the date of this report, the FBI and CISA have no reporting to suggest cyber activity has ever prevented a registered voter from casting a ballot, compromised the integrity of any ballots cast, or affected the accuracy of voter registration information,” the agencies said in October. “Any attempts tracked by FBI and CISA have remained localized and were blocked or successfully mitigated with minimal or no disruption to election processes.”
• This story is based in part on wire service reports.
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• Ryan Lovelace can be reached at rlovelace@washingtontimes.com.
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