Remember election security? The Russians? What happened in 2016?
With much of the focus on mail-in ballots, drop boxes and other mechanics of voting during a public health crisis, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security want to make sure Americans know: Foreign actors are again trying again to disrupt our presidential election — including with a disinformation campaign about the results.
"The increased use of mail-in ballots due to Covid-19 protocols could leave officials with incomplete results" the night of Nov. 3, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (a part of DHS) and the FBI emphasized in a joint statement on Tuesday, and "foreign actors and cybercriminals" are expected to spread misinformation and disinformation to "exploit the time required to certify and announce elections' results."
The warning was issued as the Brennan Center for Justice,a progressive think tank that has done significant research on a broad range of election threats, issued a new study concluding that great improvement has been made in securing election systems from hacking, especially in the swing states that will decide the presidency.
The government agencies acted as the Washington Post reported on a classified CIA assessment that President Vladimir Putin and his top aides "are aware of and probably directing Russia's influence operations" aimed at interfering in the election to the benefit of President Trump. He and several top congressional Republicans have recently sought to cast China as the bigger threat, a view FBI Director Christopher Wray explicitly contradicted in testimony to Congress last week
While better prepared for outright hacking of election systems — the main thrust of Russian operatives in the last presidential election — the FBI and CISA said foreign meddlers could create phony websites and change existing websites to spread false information "in an attempt to discredit the electoral process and undermine confidence in U.S. democratic institutions."
In particular, the public should realize that the final results from the election may not be available for days or weeks in some states. In that time, foreign agents could try to spread false reports of voter suppression, cyberattacks, voter fraud and other problems to make people believe the results are not legitimate.
People are urged to "critically evaluate the sources of the information they consume" and double-check and verify information before sharing it.
Suspicious or possibly criminal activity should be reported to a local field office of the FBI.
The report by the Brennan Center follows up on several earlier in the year, when much of the nation was focused on whether Russian or other foreign agents would again try to hack into election systems around the country as they did in 2016.
The good news, according to the report, is "that there has been substantial progress in the last few years, and indeed the last few months, to implement the kind of backup and security features that should allow all voters to cast ballots that will count, even in the event of a successful cyberattack or other unforeseen system failure."
Still, more needs to be done in certain areas, the report states. The report focused on Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — all states that could be carried by either Trump or former Vice President Joe Biden.
One key element of election security — making sure a paper record is created when someone votes so the results can be audited — has seen great improvement. Four years ago, the report said, one in five voters cast a ballot on paperless voting machines, but this fall less than 4 percent of voters will use such machines.
Nearly all of the 12 states have in place the other key element of security: the ability to conduct audits of the results to ensure their accuracy. "Although the widespread use of audts is reassuring," the report states, "it should be noted that their quality varies widely."
Also, according to the report, states have done a good job of
- Securing polling places and early voting sites.
- Offering drop sites for absentee ballots.
- Creating backups for electronic poll books so voters' registration can be verified.
- Recruiting poll workers to replace elderly workers who may opt out because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The focus now for election officials, the report concludes, is on educating the public about the voting process this year.
The report notes that a half-million mail-in ballots were rejected during the primaries because of minor mistakes, such as forgetting to sign the ballot.
"No election is perfect," the report concludes. "We should expect that there will be some problems."
"Ultimately, the most important question is not whether Election Day problems will occur. Rather, it is whether the system is resilient enough to overcome those difficulties so voters can cast ballots that will count."
A golden tray sits on the Resolute Desk as President Donald Trump speaks during an announcement on American nuclear innovation in the Oval Office at the White House on July 24, 2026, in Washington, D.C. Trump is signing multiple executive orders targeting the nuclear energy sector and easing rules for new reactors and nuclear fuel supply chains.
Trump’s hubris rivals the fallen heroes of ancient Greek mythology
In January, the New York Times asked President Donald Trump if there were any limits on his global powers.
“Yeah,” the president responded, “there is one thing. My own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me.”
That was eight months ago, but fortunately Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster adaptation of “The Odyssey” has made ancient Greek literature newly relevant. Before that window closes, I’d like to talk about hubris.
Today, the term mostly means excessive pride or arrogance. That’s part of what the Greeks meant by it too, but the meaning was a bit richer and more specific. Hubris was an insolent or outrageous act that offended the gods, often because the transgressor was claiming abilities or authorities that solely belonged to supreme beings.
Nolan renamed and slightly modified the concept of xenia for the film, calling it “Zeus’ law.” In the director’s telling, mortals should follow the rules laid out by the gods, specifically the requirement to treat strangers with respect lest they be gods in disguise.
In a sense, hubris is the opposite, or at least the rejection, of xenia. The hubris of the suitors, and at times Odysseus himself, invites punishment by the gods and their mortal instruments.
Which brings me back to Donald Trump. His claim that there are no constraints on his personal power to dictate events on the global stage was one of the greatest expressions of hubris ever uttered by a political leader.
Trump’s claim was obviously false when he made it.
He vowed that he could end the Russia-Ukraine war in 24 hours. He’s proved powerless to make that happen. If he had divine powers to work his will, why would he have balked at implementing his tariffs so often that Wall Street adopted the “TACO trade” term for his deals? “TACO” stands for “Trump always chickens out.”
And why would Trump have made so many embarrassing concessions to China — from rescinding tariffs on Chinese goods to allowing them to buy crucial and incredibly valuable computer chips?
But Trump saw his success at capturing Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro as proof of his ability to launch missiles to the same effect as Zeus’ lightning bolts. Trump believed he was the most powerful man who ever lived.
This is no exaggeration. In March, when the Iran invasion seemed successful, Trump gave a document penned by“Presidential Historian David King” to New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan purporting to prove that Trump was “the most powerful person to have EVER walked this planet.” King was, in fact, a businessman and occasional caddy for legendary golfer Gary Player.
King compared Trump favorably to many of history’s most powerful, and often heinous, figures: Alexander the Great, Attila the Hun, William the Conqueror, Napoleon Bonaparte, Joseph Stalin, Genghis Khan, Mao Tse Tung, Adolf Hitler and Vladimir Lenin. Many of these men thought they were the most powerful person in the world, too. And many were defeated precisely because they believed it.
At least Napoleon and Hitler had a string of truly impressive victories before they learned the folly of hubris. The limits on Trump’s power have been exposed by far less august forces than the combined might of the allies in World War II or the fearsome Russian winter.
Iran is a comparatively middling power. But the regime’s ability to absorb punishment while imposing its will on the Strait of Hormuz has proved to be a greater constraint on Trump’s power than his morality or mind. We should note that, at least rhetorically, his morality has not proved much of a constraint. He has repeatedly promised to destroy Iranian “civilization” if the regime refuses to capitulate.
But they haven’t — and won’t anytime soon — because the regime’s tolerance for pain far outstrips Trump’s. The combined fear of skyrocketing oil prices, outrage of Gulf state potentates, diminishing weapon supplies and domestic unpopularity is doing the work that international law, congressional oversight and the collective opinion of foreign policy experts can’t or won’t do.
If I considered Trump more heroic than reason and facts could allow, I would say his Sisyphean predicament has the whiff of Greek tragedy to it. Trump is vexed by the fact that the Iranians won’t honor deals or ratify his countless premature claims of victory — giving new meaning to his vow that his presidency would make people tired of winning. It’s almost like they’re out-Trumping Trump.
Things might have gone better if he’d heeded that great Greek tragedian Sophocles: “For Zeus utterly abhors the boasts of a proud tongue.”
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Jonah Goldberg is editor-in-chief of The Dispatch and the host of The Remnant podcast. His Twitter handle is @JonahDispatch.