A team working for DNI chief Tulsi Gabbard led an investigation into Puerto Rico’s voting machines looking for election fraud, according to Gabbard’s office and three other sources.
The goal was to work with the FBI looking for evidence that Venezuela had hacked Puerto Rico’s voting machines, but no clear evidence was found connected to the the U.S. territory’s elections, according to sources.
Gabbard’s office confirmed the investigation, but stopped short of confirming it was linked to Venezuela.
Gabbard’s team took took some machines and additional copies of data from the machines, calling it “standard practice in forensics analysis.”
The Puerto Rico operation appeared to be part of an effort by Trump administration officials to pursue unproven allegations of voting fraud, according to the sources.
“This is well beyond what ODNI has the authority or expertise to do,” a former senior US intelligence official who has worked on election security told CNN Wednesday in reaction to the ODNI statement. “This is amateur hour.”
Election Fraud!!
“ODNI found extremely concerning cyber security and operational deployment practices that pose a significant risk to U.S. elections.”
ODNI said that among the cybersecurity concerns it found was “the configuration of extensive use of cellular modems throughout the voting system architecture that actively connected to cellular networks outside of the United States.” However, ODNI has not provided any details that support the claims.
Puerto Rico also uses hand-marked paper ballots and prints vote totals in each precinct, which “make it difficult to change results without anyone noticing,” one expert noted.