American election officials are preparing to face external threats and unexpected situations in Washington

With the midterm elections just days away, communication between federal and election officials about foreign threats is at its weakest since the 2016 election, according to a number of sources working in the field of elections to Ufoq News. US intelligence officials are following familiar attempts by Russia, China and Iran to influence American voters, but the reduction in federal programs has hindered the ability of officials to communicate this information to those in charge of the electoral process, according to interviews conducted with about a dozen election security experts.

Those familiar with the matter indicated that the Department of Homeland Security's last-minute initiative to create an electronic platform to share information about threats does not have the same level of credibility among election officials compared to previous election cycles. In mid-October, a long-awaited classified briefing for election officials—the first since the start of the 2024 presidential election cycle—was plagued by technical difficulties, with federal officials unable to turn on the videoconferencing (the briefing was later rescheduled and held without those issues).

The Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) was at the heart of these last-minute security preparations. The agency played a pivotal role in protecting elections during President Donald Trump's first term, including warning election officials during the 2020 election about foreign influence operations.

But the agency was subjected to a sharp reduction in its capabilities during the subsequent period. Sources told Ofoq News that the administration has tried in recent months to rebuild its efforts related to election security, but without significant results.

The administration's embrace of conspiracy theories about election fraud, and its willingness to interfere in state-run elections, have raised doubts among election officials across the country about its political motives, and left them in a state of uncertainty about what it might do. David Pecker, another elections expert who works with officials from both parties, said the situation had led to information-sharing grinding to a halt.

In previous elections, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency ran a functioning coordination center, which was used to inform election officials of threats and receive information from them during polling day. In recent weeks, the agency has scrambled to try to create a new channel to exchange information with these officials.

However, sources familiar with the matter told the Ofoq News network that this initiative is unlikely to gain the same momentum or confidence enjoyed by previous channels of communication with election officials. In a statement to the Ufoq News Network on Friday, a spokesman for the agency stated that it had launched an “information exchange tool,” noting that “partners approved by government agencies at the federal, state, and local levels can access it daily upon their request.”

The agency did not respond to the network's questions about the number of election officials who had already used this platform. According to the sources, all of these facts create a complex threat environment for election security officials. They face foreign disinformation campaigns powered by artificial intelligence, with a federal government that is less predictable and less reliable than in previous elections.

Foreign Threats Remain Some election security experts are raising questions about whether officials at the state and local levels are directing their valuable time and resources — which should have been devoted to preparing for threats of foreign influence — to dealing with the possibility of interference by the Trump administration. This comes at a time when US intelligence assessments indicate that US opponents are still active in the final phase of the election campaign.

Election officials across the country have spent months, if not years, preparing for threats — seen as serious — by the Trump administration to interfere in the midterm elections. These necessary preparations include working with legal advisors to understand the scope and limits of federal powers over elections, and planning for a variety of scenarios, according to Jennifer Morrell, co-founder of Elections Group, a nonpartisan organization that provides training and guidance to election officials across the country.

Some election officials confirmed to Ofoq News that their work on preparing to confront foreign threats has not changed. "There has been no change in our office's focus or approach to preventing foreign interference in our election process," Lindsay Bachman, spokeswoman for the New Mexico Secretary of State's Office, told Ofoq News.

According to people familiar with US intelligence assessments, as in previous election cycles, Russia is trying to use disinformation to undermine Democratic candidates in the midterm elections, while China is focusing on candidates in local contests (at lower levels on the ballot) who are seen as anti-China. Federal officials are also closely monitoring groups of pro-Russian “cyber activists,” who have used low-cost cyberattacks to take down election-related websites ahead of the 2022 midterm elections.

According to private companies tracking this activity, in recent weeks, agents suspected of being Russian have posted a series of artificial intelligence-edited videos on the X platform (formerly Twitter) targeting Democratic Party candidates in the final weeks before the midterm elections. One of these clips includes a fabricated allegation of sexual assault against Jim Tallarico, the Democratic Party candidate for Senate in Texas.

Last month, Jim Himes, a Connecticut Democrat and the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, told reporters: “The Russians are trying everything possible... Their influence efforts have always been precise and targeted, and we have no reason to believe they have stopped doing that.”

American officials are also wary of hackers and Iranian entities that publish inflammatory content, and are known for being unpredictable and acting boldly. These are the first major American elections since the outbreak of the conflict between the United States and Iran last February.

According to a US intelligence assessment, in 2020 Tehran sought to undermine Donald Trump’s electoral chances through a “multi-pronged covert influence campaign,” which included extensive efforts to intimidate voters by impersonating members of the far-right Proud Boys group. Foreign activity is usually less intense during midterm election cycles than during presidential elections, and the Iranian position has been characterized by relative calm so far in these elections.

The price of a barrel of crude oil remained above the $100 barrier on Friday, while Americans have been suffering for months from high fuel prices, amid ongoing security concerns in the Middle East. Among the factors that raise questions about Iran's approach to the US midterm elections is the nature of the ongoing conflict, which Trump has threatened to reignite.

In this context, an analyst at Graphica, a threat intelligence company based in New York, who preferred to remain anonymous for security reasons, believes that hackers and Iranian entities that publish inflammatory content are characterized by being “extremely opportunistic.” The analyst explained that any threat - whether real or perceived - from the United States towards Iran during the election period may push these Iranian parties to intensify their activity in the midterm elections.