Investigated
Did Trump political appointees ask CISA to secretly buy and hack a voting machine to influence elections?Source
Trump appointees asked a federal cybersecurity agency to secretly hack a voting machine.
Oct 19, 2026
Image: reuters.com
The Story
The voting-machine operation was requested but stalled; no source here shows that it changed an election.
The reported episode is a serious dispute over how election-security authority was meant to be used. The documented request was to acquire and test a machine covertly, but the available accounts do not establish that CISA successfully hacked one or that anyone used the results to alter an election.
- Two former administration officials told ProPublica that DHS appointees wanted CISA to secretly acquire and hack a voting machine for a report to the White House.
- The request conflicted with CISA’s normal role and with its practice of notifying manufacturers about vulnerabilities.
- The reported effort stalled because CISA staff said the operation could not be carried out, including because relevant specialists had been dismissed.
Source mix
5 sources
- 4 News reporting
- 1 Other / unclassified
Deeper Insight
A hidden voting-machine test would turn election security into a private weapon for deciding which results deserve trust.
The deeper significance lies in the proposed chain of custody: a federal agency would secretly possess a voting system, withhold flaws from its maker, and deliver findings directly to the White House. If the former officials’ account is accurate, that would shift election security from transparent defense toward politically controlled evidence-gathering, even though the operation itself did not proceed.
- The requested secrecy and direct White House reporting created concern among career staff that technical findings could be preserved for use against election results officials disliked.
- The proposed approach departed from CISA’s stated defensive function: identifying vulnerabilities, coordinating with vendors, and reducing risks rather than withholding flaws.
- The operation’s reported failure highlights a structural vulnerability: reducing the agency’s technical capacity could make extraordinary political requests harder to scrutinize or execute safely.
Sources · 5
- 4 News reporting
- 1 Other / unclassified
What do these mean?
- News reporting. Journalism: newspapers, magazines and news sites.
- Other / unclassified. A site we have not classified yet. This says nothing good or bad about it.
Featured · Analysis · propublica.org
Trump Appointees Asked a Federal Cybersecurity Agency to Secretly Acquire a Voting Machine — and Hack It
News reporting
Photo illustration by Shoshana Gordon/ProPublica. Source images: Christopher Mark Juhn/Anadolu via Getty Images, Erlon Silva - TRI Digital via Getty Images, Mironov Konstantin via Getty Images. A few months into President Donald Trump’s second term, political appointees at the Department of Homeland Security made an unusual request of its agency focused on cybersecurity: Secretly acquire a voting
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Trump appointees asked CISA to secretly hack a voting machine and not reveal the results, report
Other
Trump appointees asked CISA to secretly hack a voting machine and not reveal the results, report # Trump appointees asked CISA to secretly hack a voting machine and not reveal the results, report The effort stalled, but election officials say the administration’s cuts have left CISA less equipped to
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DHS officials urged secret purchase of voting machine for hacking test after Trump took office: Report
News reporting
# DHS officials urged secret purchase of voting machine for hacking test after Trump took office: Report Author: Merve Gül Aydoğan Ağlarcı Published: 2026-10-19T21:37:57+00:00 Source: aa.com.tr (aa.com.tr) Language: en ## Story # DHS officials urged secret purchase of voting machine for hacking test
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