U.S. President Donald Trump’s election-security adviser last year explored a proposal to ban voting machines used in more than half of U.S. states by classifying their components as national-security risks, according to two people familiar with the matter.
White House adviser Kurt Olsen, who has been tasked with examining claims of election fraud, pushed the idea targeting Dominion Voting Systems. It was part of wider discussions on shifting control of elections from states to the federal government and replacing machines with hand-counted paper ballots.
The proposal advanced far enough that Commerce Department officials briefly reviewed possible legal grounds before it was dropped for lack of supporting evidence, the sources said.
Worries About More Election Chaos
Democrats and election-integrity experts worry that, with Republicans expected to suffer losses in the midterms, the administration aims to suppress voting and pave the way to challenge losses with more baseless claims of election fraud.
More than 98% of U.S. election jurisdictions already produce a paper record for every vote, the U.S. Election Assistance Commission said last year. Those votes are mostly cast on machines that print a paper record, or hand-marked but counted by electronic readers. Election-security experts broadly support the current combination of technology and paper ballots, which provides a voter-verified trail for post-election audits.
Proponents of hand-marked, hand-counted ballots argue they eliminate hacking concerns. But they pose different risks, said Alex Halderman, a University of Michigan computer-science professor, including counting mistakes and ballot-box stuffing.
“Changing to hand counting would be chaotic,” he said, “and it might facilitate cheating.”
White House spokesman Davis Ingle characterized the reporting for this story as selectively leaked and called it misinformation.
Olivia Coleman, a spokesperson for Gabbard’s agency, said the story contained “inaccuracies and false descriptions” of the agency’s work on election security, without elaborating.
Scouring Voting Machines For Traces Of ‘Foreign Adversaries’
U.S. officials reportedly relied in part on a long-debunked theory that Dominion Voting Systems machines were compromised by Venezuelan-linked code to rig the 2020 election, according to sources. Repeated investigations, lawsuits and a $787.5 million defamation settlement with Fox News in 2023 have found no evidence of any hacking or foreign manipulation of Dominion systems.
The effort to scrutinise voting machines extended into federal agencies, including discussions about treating components as national-security risks and reviewing supply-chain vulnerabilities in election technology. Officials examined machines used in Puerto Rico and other jurisdictions, but cyber analyses found only known software issues and no evidence of foreign-origin code or interference.
Despite internal reviews and lack of supporting evidence, discussions continued within parts of the administration about election security risks linked to voting systems, before ultimately producing no formal action.
(With inputs from Reuters)
