2020 election: US Homeland Security chief says no evidence ‘foreign actor’ has compromised votes

The message came as Americans began the final day of voting in an electoral campaign dogged by worries over foreign interference.

Department of Homeland Security acting Secretary Chad Wolf testifies during his confirmation hearing at the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, USA, 23 September 2020. (EPA-EFE)

The acting US Department of Homeland Security secretary, Chad Wolf, said on Tuesday there was no evidence a "foreign actor" had compromised votes in the 2020 presidential election.

The message came as Americans began the final day of voting in an electoral campaign dogged by worries over foreign interference.

"We have no indications that a foreign actor has succeeded in compromising or manipulating any votes in this election," Mr Wolf told a press conference that was streamed online.

More than 90 million ballots have already been submitted in an unprecedented wave of early voting. Millions more are expected to be cast on Tuesday in what promises to be a bitterly fought contest.

Worries that a foreign power might seek to intervene in the 2020 vote have been circulating ever since the previous election in 2016, when Russian hackers dumped tens of thousands of emails online to sway the vote towards Republican Donald Trump and away from Democratic challenger Hillary Clinton.

Although the US government and private cybersecurity firms have recently flagged attempts by actors in Russia, China, and Iran to spy on people in connection with the U.S. election, nothing on the scale of 2016 has yet to materialise.

There were early technical problems reported on Tuesday, including across Spalding County, Georgia, where voting systems were down, elections supervisor Marcia Ridley told local media.

Ms Ridley did not immediately return Reuters' requests for comment. Local media reports said provisional ballots were being sent to polling stations so people could still vote, and two U.S. officials told Reuters the problems were consistent with a malfunction.

"It appears to be a typical technology challenge," one said.

At the news briefing, senior DHS official Christopher Krebs said he'd seen some indications of disruption but that U.S. election systems were resilient.

He and Mr Wolf advised patience as Americans await the results, which - given the disruptions connected to the COVID-19 pandemic and the flood of mail-in voting - could take days to come into focus.

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

Reuters