‘Absolutely terrifying prospect’: How the midterms could weaken U.S. election security

It’s “an absolutely terrifying prospect,” said J. Alex Halderman, a computer security expert and professor at the University of Michigan who has repeatedly exposed flaws in voting systems but has also debunked Trump’s claims about 2020 fraud.

For years, physical safeguards such as padlocks and cameras have prevented intruders from exploiting the digital flaws that security experts routinely find in election equipment. But this year’s elections could sweep away these safeguards in key battleground states, in yet another example of fallout from Trump’s baseless allegations of vote-rigging.

Larry Norden, senior director of the Brennan Center for Justice’s Elections and Government Program at New York University, said ongoing efforts “to get people in office to provide unauthorized access to election equipment to untrustworthy parties” are putting elections at risk.

Republican candidates promoting Trump’s election conspiracy theories include Pennsylvania gubernatorial nominee Doug Mastriano — who would get to appoint the secretary of state and has said he could order his pick to “decertify every machine in the state with the stroke of a pen” — and Kristina Karamo, Mark Finchem, Jim Marchant and Diego Morales, who are running for secretary of state in Michigan, Arizona, Nevada and Indiana, respectively.

POLITICO requested interviews with all of these candidates. A Karamo spokesperson initially suggested that an interview might be possible but did not arrange one. Efforts to reach Morales’ campaign were unsuccessful. Spokespeople for the other candidates did not respond to emails.

Authorities in several states, including Pennsylvania, Arizona and Michigan, have scrambled to replace election equipment after pro-Trump officials compromised their security. In Colorado, a grand jury this year indicted a county clerk on charges that she had conspired to breach the security of her office’s voting systems. (The clerk, Tina Peters, later lost the GOP primary for Colorado secretary of state.)

Election offices routinely conduct official audits by scrutinizing paper records and electronic data to ensure that the vote tallies are correct, and these offices…