DHS Chief Warns Chinese Tech Infiltrates U.S. Elections

The Department of Homeland Security will require random audits of paper ballots in the midterm elections in the wake of ongoing concerns that voting tech companies use Chinese parts.

DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin sent a letter to the White House Transparency Task Force expressing the dangers of such tech infiltration. “Voting machines with components manufactured by foreign adversaries introduce significant security risks. These vulnerabilities mean that malicious actors could potentially compromise election infrastructure at any stage of the supply chain, even before the machines are assembled or deployed,” the letter reads. “If a component is tampered with during manufacturing, it could serve as a point of-entry for hackers, allowing for the possibility of synchronized attacks across multiple machines and jurisdictions.”

Mullin went on to declare that states must demonstrate that they have “conducted random post-election manual counts of paper ballots to ensure that any errors or manipulation is detected” in order to receive full grants.

The letter builds on previous reports indicating that China has interfered in U.S. elections. President Trump said in a July primetime address to the nation that China “carried out what is believed to be the largest compromise of election data in history, resulting in China’s illicit acquisition of 220 million U.S. voter files.”

Trump’s address brought attention to CIA reporting revealing an influence campaign from China. “The cover-up of this colossal security breach is even more disturbing in light of the additional information showing that China engaged in other election-related activities to undermine my first administration and our 2020 campaign,” Trump said. “The Chinese government sought to identify U.S. journalists who had reported negatively on the U.S. president and pay them large sums of money to write more negative articles about him—as many as they could.”

Following the address, the heads of several intelligence and national security agencies backed President Trump’s assertion, and confirmed that China “bought, stole, or hacked as many as 220 million Americans’ voter registration data.”