The Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has issued a memo to election officials and digital voting providers warning them of “significant security risks" posed by online voting, CyberScoop reported Monday.
The return of ballots online by voters “faces significant security risks to the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of voted ballots,” CISA said in the advisory. “These risks can ultimately affect the tabulation and results and, can occur at scale.”
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Election Assistance Commission signed off on the DHS memo.
“[W]e recommend paper ballot returns as electronic ballot return technologies are high-risk even with controls in place,” the agencies said in a joint statement. “Election officials are best positioned to evaluate the risks and make decisions accordingly.”
Rep. Jim Langevin (D-R.I.), a House Homeland Security Committee member, called on CISA to publicly release the document to better inform the voters of the potential risk associated with internet-connected voting. “Our intelligence community has warned that malicious state actors such as Russia are trying to interfere in our elections, and we must heed the recommendations of the experts at CISA to bolster our systems,” he said in a statement.