DOJ says midterm elections were not impacted by foreign interference

The agency did say it detected activity from hacktivists

The US Department of Justice released a four-page report confirming that officials do not have any evidence to suggest a foreign government agency successfully interfered with the 2022 federal midterm elections.

However, the agency said it detected cyber activity from pro-Russian hacktivists and actors suspected to be from the People’s Republic of China. The actions did not compromise election infrastructure networks, the report stated.

“We identified multiple incidents when Russian, Iranian, and Chinese government-affiliated actors connected to campaign infrastructure during the 2022 federal elections,” the report reads.

In February 2023, the Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security began investigating whether foreign governments had meddled in the elections in order to deliver a joint report to President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen and the Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin.

The report stemmed from claims made by the actors, including an attack which resulted in temporarily restricted access to a US state election office website. Pro-Russian activists took responsibility for the incident.

According to the report, assailants from China also scanned both election-related and non-election state government websites and collected US voter information.

Still, it states that officials do not have evidence that the activity prevented voting, changed votes, disrupted the ability to tally votes or transmit election results in a timely manner, the report states.

It would be difficult for a foreign government to manipulate election results without being noticed by US intelligence agencies or post-election audits.

There is also no evidence that the actions altered any technical aspects of the voting process or compromised the integrity of voter registration information or any ballots cast during the federal elections.

“We do not have any indications of unattributed or cybercriminal activity which materially affected the integrity of voter data, the ability to vote, the tabulation of votes, or the timely transmission of election results,” the report states.

According to a Gallup poll released in November 2022, just 63 per cent of Americans said they were either somewhat or very confident that their votes would be accurately cast and counted.