US cybersecurity agency releases election infrastructure plan 40 days before midterms

The nation’s cybersecurity agency on Thursday released an election infrastructure security plan 40 days before November’s midterms, laying out potential threats to election systems and listing services it would offer to election officials to protect the vote.

The plan, which Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin had originally promised to release by mid-August, comes as the Trump administration has been trying to kickstart efforts to help states protect voting systems. Election officials have argued that such efforts are too little, too late after the administration gutted the agency’s election security work last year, prompting the officials to pay for private services to ensure they were prepared for the upcoming elections.

“Election security is national security,” Mullin said in a statement on Thursday. “This plan, which will be implemented in full, is crucial to the security, freeness and fairness of choosing the leaders of our country.”

The document warns of various threats to election security, including software vulnerabilities, hacks of voter registration databases, insider threats and physical security incidents, such as bomb threats that targeted several polling locations in the 2024 elections.