Cyberattacks, information warfare and foreign interference plagued the 2016 election. Four years later, much has changed. The Department of Homeland Security declared the 2020 election “the most secure in American history.”
Improvements to election infrastructure coupled with an evolving media industry have made America’s elections more secure than ever.
The paper trail of ballots was a major contributor to the integrity of this election. In-person voting in many states transitioned from electronic voting machines to hand-marked paper ballots, and more than 100 million Americans voted absentee or by mail.
In a Nov. 29 “60 Minutes” interview, former top cybersecurity official Chris Krebs credited the paper trail as the key to a secure election, adding that 95% of ballots had a paper backup.
The paper trail allowed accurate post-election audits and invalidated claims of voting machine fraud, he said.
President Trump nominated Krebs to serve as the first director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. When Trump established the agency in 2018, he tasked it with enhancing cybersecurity across all levels of government. In an initiative called #Protect2020, the agency attached cyberthreat detection sensors to election infrastructure in all 50 states and in many local election offices.
The shifting media landscape also played a major role in preserving the integrity of American democracy. News organizations and social media platforms have become more adept at fact-checking the president’s claims and calling out misinformation.
In a Nov. 6 televised speech, Trump asserted that ballots still being counted were fraudulent votes. “If you count the illegal votes, they can try to steal the election from us.”
In an unprecedented move, five major networks cut him off the air to fact-check his false statements. MSNBC was the first network to cut away after just 35 seconds.
“Here we are again in the unusual position of not only interrupting the President of the United States but correcting the president of the United States,” MSNBC anchor Brian Williams said.
Williams’ sentiments were echoed widely. “We’re interrupting this because what the president of the United States is saying, in large part, is absolutely untrue,” CNBC anchor Shepard Smith said.
Even Twitter cut off its live stream of his speech. Twitter has served a crucial role in preserving election security by policing misinformation on its platform. In May, the site started flagging the president’s inaccurate tweets. Warnings began appearing on his posts, making them harder to share and redirecting users to correct information.
Other social media platforms have followed suit. Facebook and TikTok both blocked hashtags that were spreading misinformation about the election.
Still, Trump continues to baselessly charge the system with fraud. But in the long term, this may have an upside. He has forced local governments to shore up their election systems and ignited media organizations to call out misinformation.
In this dark year, improved election security is a bright spot. Improvements still need to be made, but we’ve made a big step in the right direction.
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