Acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf: No Sign of Foreign Election Interference so Far

Jack Phillips
By Jack Phillips
November 3, 20202020 Election
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Acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf: No Sign of Foreign Election Interference so Far
Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf speaks during a press conference on the actions taken by federal officers and agents in Portland during continued unrest from the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol headquarters in Washington, on July 21, 2020. (Samuel Corum/Getty Images)

Acting Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Chad Wolf announced on Election Day there is no sign of foreign interference involving the altering of vote tallies.

“We have no indications that a foreign actor has succeeded in compromising or manipulating any votes in this election,” Wolf told reporters in a news conference.

The secretary advised Americans to exercise patience as the results come in.

“It is important to recognize this process may require time,” Wolf said.

Another DHS official, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Director Christopher Krebs, said voting machine problems in several counties in the United States likely aren’t cyberattacks.

“When you see tech challenges or failures, it is very, very, very, rarely a cyber issue, based on everything we’ve seen, that’s what’s going on out there,” he said Tuesday.

Krebs also urged people to remain patient.

“We’re not out of the woods yet,” Krebs said. “Today, in some sense, is half-time. There may be other events or activities or efforts to interfere and undermine confidence in the election. So I’d ask all Americans to be patient, to treat all sensational and unverified claims with skepticism, and remember technology sometimes fails and breaks.”

Voters line up
Voters line up outside Vickery Baptist Church waiting to cast their ballots on Election Day in Dallas, Texas on Nov. 3, 2020. (LM Otero/AP Photo)

It came after officials in Spalding County, Georgia, reported that voting machines were down for a period of time before their systems returned. There were voting-related issues reported in Franklin County, Ohio.

Federal officials warned that China, Iran, and Russia might attempt to influence the election. Intelligence agencies determined that Russian-backed actors tried to interfere with the 2016 election.

In October, Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe and FBI Director Christopher Wray said that Iran attempted to target voters via fraudulent messages in emails.

The agents allegedly threatened voters in Alaska and Florida, claiming to be members of the right-wing Proud Boys organization, officials said. The emails alleged they were “in possession of all your information,” officials said.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and Iran are believed to favor Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, said National Counterintelligence and Security Center Director William Evanina.

Evanina warned at the time that was “ongoing and potential activity by China, Russia, and Iran” ahead of Election Day voting. “We assess that China prefers that President Trump—whom Beijing sees as unpredictable—does not win reelection,” Evanina said.

“China has been expanding its influence efforts ahead of November 2020 to shape the policy environment in the United States, pressure political figures it views as opposed to China’s interests, and deflect and counter criticism of China,” he said. “Although China will continue to weigh the risks and benefits of aggressive action, its public rhetoric over the past few months has grown increasingly critical of the current Administration’s COVID-19 response, closure of China’s Houston Consulate, and actions on other issues.”

Evanina added that intelligence officials believe Russia favors President Trump.

“We assess that Russia is using a range of measures to primarily denigrate former Vice President Biden and what it sees as an anti-Russia ‘establishment,’” Evanina wrote at the time.

From The Epoch Times

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