DHS could be a threat to midterm elections this year : NPR

Key Points:

• Former CIA operative Gary Berntsen continues to promote the debunked claim that Venezuela interfered in the 2020 U.S. election, with support from DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin, who has a history of election fraud denial and helped brief former President Trump's team on these conspiracy theories.
• Mullin, now head of DHS, has raised concerns among election officials who fear the department may undermine election security rather than protect it, especially given his past refusal to certify the 2020 election results and the departure of experienced election security staff from DHS agencies.
• Local election officials report a lack of trust and cooperation with DHS and its Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), citing reduced federal support, communication challenges, and recent federal funding cuts that have weakened election cybersecurity efforts.
• The Elections Infrastructure Information Sharing and Analysis Center (EI-ISAC), a key organization for sharing election cybersecurity information, lost federal funding in 2025 and now operates with significantly reduced membership and resources, forcing it to seek alternative funding and rebuild trust among election jurisdictions.
• Despite ongoing challenges, EI-ISAC plans to provide a virtual situation room for real-time threat sharing during the upcoming elections, but this will exclude DHS participation, reflecting the fractured relationship between federal and local election security stakeholders.