By Christina A. Cassidy, Associated Press
ATLANTA (AP) — For election officials preparing for the 2024 presidential election, the list of security challenges just keeps growing.
Many of the concerns from four years ago persist: the potential for cyberattacks targeting voter registration systems or websites that report unofficial results, and equipment problems or human errors being amplified by those seeking to undermine confidence in the outcome.
Add to that the fresh risks that have developed since the 2020 election and the false claims of widespread fraud being spread by former President Donald Trump and his Republican allies. Death threats directed at election workers and breaches of voting equipment inside election offices have raised questions about safety and security. Some states have altered their voting and election laws, expanded legislative control of local elections and added penalties for election workers who violate rules.
The turmoil has contributed to a wave of retirements and resignations among election staff, creating a vacuum of institutional knowledge in some local election offices.
With Trump running again and already warning that the 2024 vote is “on its way to being another rigged election,” election workers are bracing for a difficult year that will have no margin for error.
FOREIGN THREATS
National security experts have warned for years that foreign governments — primarily Russia, China and Iran — want to undermine the U.S. and see elections as a pathway to do it.
In 2016, Russia sought to interfere with a multi-pronged effort that included accessing and releasing Democratic emails and scanning state voter registration systems for vulnerabilities. Four years later, Iranian hackers obtained voter data and used it to send misleading emails.
In 2022, there were multiple instances in which hackers linked to Iran, China and Russia connected to election infrastructure, scanned state government…
Read the full article here
