Experts worry U.S. elections vulnerable due to COVID-19

 Cybersecurity experts are increasingly worried that U.S. elections are growing even more vulnerable to outside interference because of the coronavirus pandemic.

They say funds to prevent interference and ensure people can vote safely are running thin, despite the fact that Congress has passed $825 million in funding for election security since December.

The chaos caused by COVID-19, which has forced states to delay or cancel primary elections and move toward allowing residents to vote absentee, has presented a new array of challenges for states that had already been focused on election security.

EAC chairman weighs in: “Certainly we are in an unprecedented time and these are unprecedented challenges, and these are challenges created at the intersection of these two issues,” said Benjamin Hovland, the chairman of the Election Assistance Commission (EAC). “The challenges of disinformation and misinformation is one of the biggest areas of concern.”

Paul Rosenzweig, a resident senior fellow for national security and cybersecurity at nonprofit group the R Street Institute, told The Hill he also was concerned the pandemic could increase disinformation efforts.

Foreign powers likely to interfere: “I have absolutely no reason to think that the virus will in any way stop Russia from its activities, or China or Iran for that matter, in fact to the contrary it seems to have given them yet another way of pressing on the polarized splits in America’s body politic,” Rosenzweig said.

If there are fewer people staffing polling spots because of health concerns and social distancing, or if more voters cast votes by mail, it will also create security concerns, Hovland and Rosenzweig said.

Rosenzweig said machines used to count mailed-in paper ballots could become a problem.

“I think most people don’t realize that to count vote-by-mail ballots, most states are likely going to use machines,” Rosenzweig said. “The machine security is going to be the same, with the added problem that there will be a lot fewer observers, so tactical level fraud will be possible when there are only two guys working a machine.”