There are people, foreign and domestic, who want to destroy election integrity

With less than a month to go before the general election, it’s hard to know which poses a bigger threat to election security in the United States — domestic vigilantes or sophisticated foreign influence campaigns.
Earlier this month, Utah Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson delivered an important speech not long after her office was the target of a letter containing white powder, which had been intercepted by the FBI.
“Attacks on our elections and the people who run them are attacks on the political institutions that exist to protect our liberty and free government,” she said.
She described accusations of widespread corruption involving state and county election officials and volunteers as spreading fear and doubt while causing confusion, delay and chaos, and giving rise to harassment and intimidation.
She was careful to note that Utah’s election system may be in need of some improvements, but that this must be determined in a credible, fact-based manner. Indeed, a report this week from the Legislative Auditor General’s office found ways in which signature verification processes and standards, concerning petitions candidates circulate in order to gain access to primary ballots, could be improved.
However, she noted that “election vigilantes” do little good, especially when they spread false conclusions about corruption.
Despite opinion polls showing overwhelming support for Utah’s vote-by-mail system, some spread doubt needlessly.
“We don’t score political points by speaking truth in elections in my party, and that’s hard,” Henderson, a Republican, told reporters. Noting the many safeguards in place for accepting and tabulating results, she said Utah’s mail-in voting system is more secure and accurate than in-person voting. It’s also more accurate than hand-counting ballots.
As CBS News reported last month, “Election experts resoundingly agree that hand-counting ballots takes longer than counting with machines, it’s less reliable, and it’s a logistical nightmare for U.S. elections.” Those who favor a return to hand-counted ballots have yet to build an evidence-based case for their opinion.
Not long after Henderson’s remarks, the Justice Department in Washington issued its final pre-election report on election interference, raising serious concerns about efforts in Russia and Iran to influence or disturb outcomes.
As they have for a while now, intelligence officials believe Russia prefers Donald Trump as president, and that Iran prefers Vice President Kamala Harris. To the latter point, some officials believe Iran has backed assassination plots against Trump in order to exact revenge for the death of Iranian Gen. Qasem Soleimani, killed by a U.S. airstrike while Trump was president in 2020.
The intelligence community believes China is not trying to influence the U.S. presidential election.
These allegations are serious and disturbing, especially those concerning possible assassination attempts.
Matthew Olsen, head of the Justice Department’s National Security Division, told CBS News that Russia is using artificial intelligence to manufacture fake video content and to spread its own propaganda through U.S. social media influencers.
Justice Department officials seized 32 internet domains in September that Russia allegedly used for its worldwide influence campaigns, including those directed at the U.S. elections. In some cases, Russian operations publish fake reports that look just like legitimate U.S. news sites.
Part of Russia’s strategy is to plant false information that divides Americans. That task is all too easy at a time when many Americans are hyper-partisan, eager to pass along information without any attempts to verify their veracity.
“They created these fake websites. They look very real,” Olsen told CBS. “It is hard for the average American to understand the sophistication of these efforts. But that’s why we’re trying to be as transparent as possible about the nature of the threat.”
It makes sense that America’s enemies would attempt to weaken the nation by attacking its election system, which is so fundamental to democracy, but that’s no reason for people to fall victim.
Americans need to develop a sense of outrage that hones their sense of skepticism. They need to engage the independence streak that prompted their ancestors to establish a thriving civilization on the continent.
Whether foreign or domestic, the enemies of American democracy must be identified and rendered meaningless as voters strive to make intelligent, well-reasoned election decisions.