Election interference refers to illegal intervention with the electoral process to benefit a candidate or cause distrust in democracy. It may take many forms, including hacking, spreading fake news and disinformation, providing bribes to vote officials or poll workers, voter intimidation, and other tactics. A national election on a large scale can be significantly affected by even a small amount of fraud. The revelation of such fraud can also depress voters’ confidence in the fairness and legitimacy of elections.
The US Government has largely succeeded in combating foreign interference in 2024, but the threat remains high and should remain a top priority of the federal government in its role as steward of the nation’s democratic institutions. The success of this effort is largely due to a comprehensive, whole-of-government approach by a wide array of partners in state and local governments, civil society organizations, campaigns, and private businesses.
However, the use of broad election interference tools such as phishing, malware and bots could allow actors to disrupt future elections. And a broad Russian campaign targeting multiple critical infrastructure sectors did compromise the security of networks that managed some election functions, but this did not materially impact the ability to vote, the tabulation of votes or the timely transmission of results. If the Trump administration continues to pursue suits against rogue election officials, it risks encouraging such interference by giving cover for bad-faith actions that disenfranchise voters. The First Amendment protects election officials and pro-voter groups from retaliation based on their speech or association, just as it does for law firms.