An unprecedented number of Americans will vote in the US presidential election this year by mail. As a result, it could take longer for even the unofficial results of the vote to become known. In his campaign of disinformation about electoral security, President Donald Trump continues to insist that any "delays" are the result of fraud. On the other hand, officials with the task of securing the election make it clear that election results that are received later than usual are absolute to be expected.
"There will likely be delays in evaluating the election," said Brandon Wales, executive director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). “Everything that is reported on election day has always been an unofficial result,” he explains. “The election is not final until the election officer of the respective state has certified it, and that is often only the case after several weeks. Even unofficial results are no longer available on the same evening in some locations. This can include major contested states, so we may not have any results on election night. We want to call on citizens not to worry about it. It is normal. It doesn't mean that the process has been compromised, but that the system is working. The local and state officials are professionals. Let them do their job. "
Postal voting takes time
That is what Wales said at the Spotlight On Cybersecurity event of the US edition of Technology Review. His remarks show the difficulties that this year's election brings with it.
In The Election Project can understand the activity early voters; accordingly, more than 2.5 million Americans have sent in their postal voting documents. Their counting can take longer than the votes cast personally because security measures such as checking signatures and handling the outer and inner protective envelopes are added. Also, the post count often doesn't start until later, so everything can take a while. Nonetheless, postal votes are safe and cases of fraud are extremely rare, even if the president repeatedly claims otherwise.
Storm of disinformation
If the US doesn't get any results on election day, a storm of disinformation is likely to break out in attempts to undermine the legitimacy of the election. Government officials like Wales have said in the past that foreign actors like Russia could create additional chaos for American democracy at a troubled time.
"I think our job is first and foremost to correct disinformation about the election," he said now.
In a recent example of possible interference, a Russian site reported that a Michigan voter database had been hacked and the news spread quickly. The CISA and journalists soon corrected that: All allegedly "stolen" information was publicly available beforehand, as was the electoral roll in most states. There was no real intrusion into the system, but nevertheless, the report spread like a small forest fire. On election day itself, things could get a lot trickier.
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