Trump -Backed Auditors Make Election ‘Wide Open’ on Future Fraud, Experts Warn

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Some election security experts warn that efforts to audit 2020 election results supported by former President Donald Trump could make future elections “wide open” to voter fraud.

The former president’s allies have pushed for audits of election results because of Trump’s claim that the 2020 election was “cheated” in favor of President Joe Biden. The allegation has been thoroughly litigated and discussed. Meanwhile, MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell – a close ally of Trump and a leading proponent of fraud claims – provided copies of voting software used in U.S. elections at a recent event in South Dakota.

Harri Hursti, an election security leader who attended Lindell’s event, told The Guardian that copies of the software could give would -be election hackers a “training environment” to look for vulnerabilities. However, hackers will still need physical access to the systems because the voting machines are not connected to the internet.

“The door is wide open,” Hursti told The Guardian. “The only question is, how did you get through the door?”

Election audits pushed by former President Donald Trump and MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell could make future security breaches more likely, election experts warn. In this photo, Lindell and Trump shake hands at the White House in Washington, DC on July 19, 2017. SAUL LOEB / AFP via Getty Images

Kevin Skoglund, an expert on election technology, told the publication that the software disclosure could allow hackers to tweak the results and sabotage the system, or inspire changes to ballot design to make it more that’s easy. “This disclosure increases both the likelihood that something will happen and the impact of what will happen if it happens,” Skoglund warned.

Matt Masterson, a former top election security official in the Trump administration, told The Guardian that they have already warned election officials that voting software could be released to the public.

“We told election officials, essentially, that you should assume this information is already out. Now we know this, and we don’t know what [hackers] to do with it, ”Masterson said.

Trump has forced Republicans in states across the country to request audits of the results by 2020. One such audit has moved forward in Arizona, with Republicans in the state Senate contracting Cyber Ninjas based in Florida to conduct a recount. That audit was widely criticized, with election experts warning about the future security of election systems because of the unprofessional procedure with which it was conducted.

In April, when the audit began in Arizona, concerns about the security of Maricopa County’s election systems and ballots after they were transferred into the custody of Senate Republicans and Cyber ​​Ninjas. The Arizona Family Investigates video showed security lapses that suggested election systems and ballots could be easily compromised.

“I don’t know how people walk comfortable with what’s happening. We’ve been asked over and over, ‘What’s the plan? What’s the plan for security?'” Arizona state Senator Rebecca Rios, a Democrat, said told the Arizona Family Investigating at the time.

A contractor working for Cyber ​​Ninjas, hired by the Arizona state Senate Republican, is working to recount ballots from the 2020 general election at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum on May 1 in Phoenix. Courtney Pedroza / Getty Images

“It’s a concern that people, in pursuit of trying to show the system is insecure, are making it more insecure,” security researcher Jack Cable told The Guardian.

Newsweek reached out to Trump’s press office for comment about the concerns of security experts, but did not immediately receive a response.

While Trump continues to claim that the 2020 election was “rigged” or “stolen,” dozens of election challenge lawsuits filed by the former president and his allies have failed in state and federal courts. Even judges appointed by Trump and other Republicans have denied the allegations. Official nonpartisan audits and reporting on major battlefield states, including areas where the election was guarded by pro-Trump Republicans, reaffirmed Biden’s victory.

Former Attorney General William Barr, widely viewed as one of Trump’s most outspoken Cabinet officials, said in December that there was no “evidence” to support the widespread fraud claims. After the November election, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency in the Department of Homeland Security, led by a Trump nominee at the time, insisted there was no “evidence that any voting system had removed or lost votes, altered the votes, or in any way compromised. “

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