2026年11月1日10:00:15.192Z / 美国有线电视新闻网（CNN）
多位选举领域消息人士告诉CNN，距离中期选举仅剩几天之际，联邦官员向选举官员传递外国威胁的渠道正处于2016年选举以来的最弱状态。
对近十几位选举安全专家的采访显示，美国情报部门正在监测俄罗斯、中国、伊朗等国试图影响美国选民的常规行动，但联邦项目的削减削弱了官员向选举官员传递此类信息的能力。
一位知情人士表示，国土安全部最后一刻搭建的分享威胁情报在线平台，在本届选举周期中获得选举官员的信任度远不及以往。10月中旬，原定与选举官员进行的重要机密简报——2024年总统选举周期以来的首次此类活动——因技术故障受挫，联邦官员无法接通视频会议（后续已重新安排简报，且未再出现问题）。
国土安全部下属的网络和基础设施安全局（CISA）一直处于这些最后时刻安全准备的核心。CISA在唐纳德·特朗普总统首个任期内承担了捍卫选举的重要职责，包括在2020年选举期间向选举官员发出外国影响力行动警告。但在特朗普第二个任期内，该机构遭到严重削弱。消息人士告诉CNN，近几个月来，政府试图重建其选举安全工作，但收效甚微。
政府对选举欺诈阴谋论的追查，以及其干预州级选举的意愿，也让全国各地的选举管理人员对其政治动机产生怀疑，并不确定其可能采取何种行动。
“选举官员与联邦政府之间的关系已经破裂，”长期从事选举安全工作、曾在CISA担任顾问的瑞安·马西亚斯表示，“在很多情况下，选举官员甚至不知道在发生（网络或实体）事件时该联系谁。”
与两党官员合作的选举专家大卫·贝克尔指出，这意味着信息共享已经停滞。
“我不认识任何一位选举官员——无论属于民主党还是共和党——本届选举期间正主动与联邦政府分享网络安全信息，”前司法部律师、非营利组织“选举创新与研究中心”联合创始人贝克尔补充道，“这与过去四次联邦选举形成鲜明对比。”
在过去的选举中，CISA一直监督着一个强大的协调中心，负责向选举官员传递威胁信息并接收其在选举日反馈的信息。近几周，该机构紧急试图搭建一条新的与选举官员的信息共享渠道。
但多位知情人士告诉CNN，这一举措不太可能像过去那样获得选举官员的支持或信任。
https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2026/10/30/arizona-election-official-trump-briefings-cisa.cnn
CISA一位发言人周五告诉CNN，该机构已推出一个“信息共享工具”，且“授权的联邦、州和地方政府合作伙伴可应其要求每日访问”。对于有多少选举官员访问过该平台，CISA未回复CNN的询问。
消息人士称，这一切导致选举安全官员面临复杂的威胁环境：他们不仅要应对人工智能推动的外国虚假信息，还要面对一个比以往选举更不可预测、更不可靠的联邦政府。
“外国对手并未放弃对我们选举的干预，”一位前CISA官员告诉CNN，“联邦政府已抛弃了（选举官员）。我接触到的选举官员仍担心外国干涉，但他们没有从联邦政府获得任何信息，只能尽力自己填补空白。”
这种被联邦政府忽视的感受并非选举官员独有。
拥有26个州选举设备的多明尼投票系统（Dominion Voting Systems）新东家告诉CNN，特朗普政府在网络安全支持方面的缺失“令人失望”。
去年收购多明尼并将其更名为“自由投票”（Liberty Vote）的选举行业资深人士斯科特·利恩德克表示，联邦当局提供的帮助与往年相比有所不足。
“我们没有过去那样的互动，”利恩德克说，“我希望未来这种对话能有所改善。”
2020年选举后，特朗普的许多盟友虚假声称多明尼的机器操纵了选举结果。2023年，福克斯新闻为解决有关这些阴谋论的诽谤诉讼，向该公司支付了逾7.87亿美元。
针对本文关于选举安全的提问，CISA发言人回应称：“CISA始终完全具备并准备好应对我国面临的任何国家安全网络威胁。”该发言人补充道：“应要求，CISA为州和地方选举官员及选举供应商提供自愿、免费的服务，包括技术专业知识、漏洞扫描和抗灾能力建设支持。”
外国威胁依然存在
一些选举安全专家担心，州级和地方官员是否正将宝贵的时间和资源从应对外国影响力威胁，转向应对特朗普政府可能的干预——尽管美国情报评估显示，美国对手在竞选最后阶段仍十分活跃。
全国各地的选举官员花了数月甚至数年时间，为应对特朗普政府干预中期选举的可信威胁做准备。无党派“选举集团”（为全国选举官员提供培训和指导的组织）联合创始人詹妮弗·莫雷尔表示，这些必要准备包括与法律顾问合作，了解联邦当局对选举的权限范围和限制，以及为一系列场景制定预案。
“与此同时，外国干涉和网络威胁并未消失，”她告诉CNN，“我担心这种额外压力会进一步消耗我们第一道防线的人员。”
莫雷尔曾在科罗拉多州和犹他州担任选举官员，她表示，尽管中期选举前已做好充分准备，但即便是训练最有素的选举工作人员在疲惫时也更容易受到攻击，“这时就可能出错，网络钓鱼尝试也更可能得逞。”
一些选举官员告诉CNN，他们为应对外国威胁所做的工作重点和方法没有变化。
“我们办公室在预防外国对选举进程干涉方面的工作重点和方法没有改变，”新墨西哥州国务卿办公室发言人林赛·巴赫曼告诉CNN。
据了解美国情报评估的人士透露，与以往选举周期一样，俄罗斯正试图利用虚假信息诋毁中期选举中的民主党候选人，而中国则专注于那些被视为反华的下级选区候选人。
联邦官员也在密切关注与俄罗斯结盟的“黑客活动家”，他们曾在2022年中期选举前利用低成本网络攻击导致选举相关网站下线。
追踪相关活动的私营公司显示，近几周，疑似俄罗斯特工在X平台上发布了大量经过AI修改的视频，在中期选举最后几周攻击民主党候选人。其中一段视频包含对得克萨斯州民主党参议院候选人詹姆斯·塔拉里科的性侵虚假指控。
“俄罗斯正不惜一切手段制造混乱和无政府状态，”众议院情报委员会资深民主党人、康涅狄格州众议员吉姆·海姆斯上月对记者表示，“中国……在其影响力行动上一直极为精准。我们没有理由认为他们没有继续这类活动。”
美国官员还对伊朗的黑客和网络喷子保持警惕，他们以不可预测和大胆著称。这是自2月美伊战争开始以来的首次重大美国选举。
美国情报评估显示，2020年，德黑兰通过“多管齐下的秘密影响力行动”试图破坏特朗普的选举前景，其中包括模仿极右翼“骄傲男孩”组织恐吓选民的激烈行动。
与总统选举相比，外国特工在中期选举期间有时活跃度较低，而德黑兰在本届中期选举中目前相对低调。
尽管如此，海姆斯表示，伊朗明白“他们目前掌握着影响选举的重要杠杆，并且正在利用它。而这当然是油价的原因。”
原油价格周五仍维持在每桶100美元以上，且受中东持续安全问题影响，美国民众已面临数月的高汽油价格。
围绕伊朗对美国中期选举的态度，一个关键问题是战争状态——特朗普威胁要重启战争。
总部位于纽约的威胁情报公司Graphika的一位分析师出于安全原因要求匿名，他表示，伊朗的黑客和网络喷子“非常投机但也反应性强”。这位分析师称，美国对伊朗的真实或感知威胁可能会在选举期间触发伊朗特工在中期选举中更加活跃。
此外，联邦层面缺乏选举专家，2025年多名曾在CISA工作的前选举官员被迫离职。
专家表示，更重要的是，特朗普的一些政治任命者用来描述选举基础设施安全弱点的措辞，暴露了他们对选举运作方式缺乏了解。这并未让选举官员相信联邦官员在掌控威胁。
国土安全部部长马克韦恩·马伦周二告诉CISA员工，中期选举将安全举行，同时对选举系统的漏洞提出模糊且无根据的说法。
“我们的工作是确保选票合法并被计票，”马伦在向CNN提供的讲话录音中表示，“我们的工作是确保不存在漏洞，让不良行为者能够进入系统更改选票。”
计票工作由地方选举官员负责，而非联邦官员。
马伦还对过去的选举提出质疑，声称未具名的“漏洞”和“投票程序”造成了“巨大危害”。他没有提供任何证据。
被问及马伦的言论时，国土安全部一位发言人告诉CNN：“州和地方选举官员负责管理选举、根据州法律确定选票有效性并计票。CISA帮助保护他们依赖的系统和基础设施，以便他们能够安全、不受干扰地开展工作。”
由保守派记者约翰·所罗门领导的白宫特别工作组在数月内发布了数百份解密文件，特朗普利用这些文件对选举完整性提出质疑。
亚利桑那州国务卿办公室首席信息安全官迈克尔·穆尔认为，此前曾向联邦官员共享敏感网络安全信息的选举官员，因白宫发布这些文件而本质上“再次受害”，因为这些信息被用来质疑选举的公正性。
所罗门在给CNN的一份声明中表示：“这些都是具有重大公共重要性的事项，值得白宫给予的透明度。”
“如果我们把威胁情报分享政治化，人们就会停止分享，”穆尔告诉CNN。
CNN的马歇尔·科恩为本报道做出了贡献。
Election officials brace for foreign threats — and an unpredictable Washington
2026-11-01T10:00:15.192Z / CNN
With the midterms just days away, the channels for federal officials to communicate foreign threats to election officials are at their weakest since the 2016 vote, numerous sources who work in elections told CNN.
US intelligence officials are tracking familiar efforts by Russia, China and Iran to influence American voters, but cuts to federal programs have hobbled officials’ ability to relay that information to election officials, according to interviews with nearly a dozen election security experts.
A last-minute Department of Homeland Security effort to create an online platform to share threat intelligence doesn’t have anywhere near the same credibility with election officials as in past election cycles, people familiar with the matter said. And in mid-October, a much-anticipated classified briefing for election officials, the first since the 2024 presidential election cycle, was marred by technical difficulties, as federal officials were unable to get the video call to work. (The briefing was rescheduled and occurred without those difficulties.)
DHS’ Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has been at the center of those eleventh-hour security preparations. CISA took on a big role defending elections in President Donald Trump’s first term, including warning election officials during the 2020 vote about foreign influence operations.But the agency was gutted during Trump’s second term. In recent months, the administration has tried to rebuild its election-security work, though to little effect, sources told CNN.
The administration’s pursuit of election-fraud conspiracies and its willingness to intervene in state-run elections have also left election administrators across the country skeptical of its political motivations and unsure of what it may attempt.
“The relationship between elections officials and the federal government has broken down,” said Ryan Macias, a longtime election security expert and former consultant to CISA. “In many cases, the elections officials don’t even know who to contact when [a cyber or physical] incident occurs.”
That means information-sharing has dried up, said David Becker, another elections expert who works with officials from both parties.
“I don’t know a single election official — Democrat or Republican — who is actively sharing cybersecurity information with the feds this time around,” added Becker, a former Justice Department attorney who is co-founder of the nonprofit Center for Election Innovation and Research. “That’s in stark contrast to the past four federal elections.”
In past elections, CISA has overseen a robust coordination center to communicate threats to election officials and receive information from them on Election Day. The agency has scrambled in recent weeks to try to stand up a new information-sharing channel with election officials.
But the initiative is unlikely to have the traction or trust it had with election officials in the past, multiple sources familiar with the matter told CNN.
https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2026/10/30/arizona-election-official-trump-briefings-cisa.cnn
A CISA spokesperson told CNN on Friday that the agency had launched an “information-sharing tool” and that “authorized federal, state, and local government partners are granted access daily upon their request.” CISA did not reply to CNN’s questions of how many election officials have accessed the platform.
It all makes for a complicated threat environment for election security officials, who are facing AI-fueled foreign disinformation alongside a federal government that is less predictable and reliable than in elections past, sources told CNN.
“Foreign adversaries haven’t stepped back from our elections,” one former CISA official told CNN. “The federal government has abandoned [election officials]. The election officials I talk to are still worried about foreign interference, but they’re getting no information from the feds, and they are doing their best in filling the gap themselves.”
The feelings of federal neglect aren’t unique to election officials.
The new owner of Dominion Voting Systems, which has election equipment in 26 states, told CNN the lack of cybersecurity support from the Trump administration has been “disappointing.”
Scott Leiendecker, an election industry veteran who bought Dominion last year and rebranded it as Liberty Vote, said the assistance from federal authorities has been lacking compared with past years.
“We haven’t had the same interactions that we’ve had in the past,” Leiendecker said. “I’m hoping that dialogue will be improved in the future.”
After the 2020 election, many of Trump’s allies falsely claimed Dominion’s machines rigged the results. Fox News paid the company more than $787 million in 2023 to settle a defamation case about those conspiracy theories.
“CISA remains fully equipped and prepared to address any national security cyber threats that face our nation,” the CISA spokesperson said in response to questions about election security for this article. “Upon request, CISA provides state and local election officials and election vendors with voluntary, no-cost services, including technical expertise, vulnerability scanning, and resilience-building support,” the spokesperson added.
Foreign threats remain
Among some election security experts, there are questions about whether state and local officials are diverting precious time and resources from preparing for foreign influence threats to account for the potential of interference from the Trump administration, even as US intelligence assessments indicate that America’s adversaries remain active in the final stretch of the campaign.
Election officials across the country have spent months, if not years, preparing for credible threats by the Trump administration to intervene in midterm elections. Those necessary preparations mean working with legal counsel to understand the scope and limits of federal authorities over elections and planning for a range of scenarios, said Jennifer Morrell, co-founder of the nonpartisan Elections Group, which offers training and guidance for election officials around the country.
“Meanwhile, foreign interference and cyber threats haven’t gone away,” she told CNN. “My concern is that this added pressure further wears down the people who are our first line of defense.”
With all the preparations ahead of the midterms, even the best-trained election staff are more vulnerable when they’re tired, according to Morrell, a former election official in Colorado and Utah. “That’s when mistakes can happen and phishing attempts are more likely to succeed.”
Some election officials told CNN their work preparing for foreign threats remains the same.
“Our office has not shifted in its focus or approach to preventing foreign interference in our election process,” Lindsey Bachman, a spokesperson or the New Mexico secretary of state’s office, told CNN.
As in prior election cycles, Russia is trying to use disinformation to denigrate Democratic candidates in the midterms, while China is focused on down-ballot candidates who are seen as anti-China, according to people briefed on US intelligence assessments.
Federal officials are also keeping an eye on Russia-aligned “hacktivists” who used cheap cyberattacks to knock election-related websites offline ahead of the 2022 midterms.
In recent weeks,suspected Russian operatives have posted a wave of AI-altered videos on X attacking Democratic candidates in the final weeks of the midterms, according to private firms that track the activity. One such video includes a fabricated claim of sexual assault against James Talarico, the Democratic Senate nominee in Texas.
“The Russians are kind of throwing everything out there … to generate a sense of chaos and anarchy,” Connecticut Rep. Jim Himes, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, told reporters last month. “The Chinese … have always been extremely targeted in their influence efforts. We have no reason to believe that they’re not continuing that activity.”
US officials are also wary of Iran’s hackers and trolls, who have a reputation for being unpredictable and brazen. It’s the first major US election since the US-Iran war began in February.
In 2020, Tehran sought to undermine Trump’s election prospects through “a multi-pronged covert influence campaign,” according to a US intelligence assessment. That included an aggressive effort to intimidate voters by impersonating the far-right Proud Boys group.
Foreign operatives are sometimes less active during midterm cycles compared with presidential elections, and Tehran has been relatively quiet so far in the midterms.
Nonetheless, Himes said, Iran understands “that they have a massive lever right now to influence the election, and they’re using it. And that of course is the price of oil.”
Crude oil remained over $100 a barrel on Friday, and Americans have faced months of high gas prices amid lingering security concerns in the Middle East.
One question mark hanging over Iran’s approach to the US midterms has been the state of the war, which Trump has threatened to reignite.
Iran’s hackers and trolls are “very opportunistic” but also “reactionary,” said an analyst for New York-based threat intelligence firm Graphika who requested anonymity for security reasons. A real or perceived threat from the US to Iran around the election could trigger Iranian operatives to be more active in the midterms, the analyst said.
There is also a deficit of experts in elections at the federal level, as multiple former election officials who worked at CISA were forced out in 2025.
On top of that, the language used by some Trump political appointees to describe security weaknesses in election infrastructure has betrayed a lack of understanding of how elections work, according to experts. That has not instilled confidence in election officials that the feds are on top of the threats.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin told CISA employees Tuesday that the midterms will be secure while making vague, unsubstantiated claims about vulnerabilities in election systems.
“Our job is to make sure that it’s a legal ballot and it’s counted,” Mullin said, according to a recording of his remarks shared with CNN. “Our job is to make sure there’s not vulnerabilities where bad actors can get into the system and change the vote.”
Election officials at the local level, not federal officials, count votes.
Mullin also cast doubt on past elections,alleging there had been a “tremendous amount of harm” done by unnamed “vulnerabilities” and “voting procedures” in elections. He did not provide any evidence.
Asked about Mullin’s remarks, a DHS spokesperson told CNN: “State and local election officials administer elections, determine ballot validity under state law, and count ballots. CISA helps protect the systems and infrastructure they rely on so they can carry out that work securely and without disruption.”
A White House task force run by conservative journalist John Solomon has over several months released hundreds of declassified documents, some of which Trump has used to cast doubt on election integrity.
Election officials who previously shared cybersecurity information with federal officials in confidence are essentially being “re-victimized” through the White House document releases because the information is being used to question the integrity of elections, argued Michael Moore, the chief information security officer for Arizona’s secretary of state office.
Solomon said in a statement to CNN: “These are matters of significant public importance and well worthy of the transparency they received from the White House.”
“If we politicize threat intelligence sharing, people are going to stop doing it,” Moore told CNN.
CNN’s Marshall Cohen contributed to this report.