“A preliminary review of the documents reveals what we expected: there is no evidence of vote manipulation in the 2020 election. But these documents also expose what we have been warning about for years – that our election systems are poorly secured, and much can and should be done to mitigate these vulnerabilities. 

A newly released report from the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), based on information developed primarily during the Biden administration, warns that our election infrastructure includes significant weaknesses. These vulnerabilities are due in part to deficient cybersecurity practices by election administrators and vendors’ lack of transparency and reluctance to address security threats. Importantly, the report also debunks the widely held and often repeated notion that voting systems are not at risk to remote attacks because they are not connected to the internet, citing, among other factors, poor network segmentation. The report reveals “[i]n multiple cases, CISA assessors gained full network control within hours or days, demonstrating that many [state, local and tribal territory] partners remain soft targets incapable of stopping even moderately skilled adversaries.”

These documents illustrate a significantly damaging and corrosive aspect of the Big Lie that is often overlooked. The assertion of false claims that the 2020 election was stolen bred the false counternarrative that our elections are adequately secured. Neither serve our democracy.”