Roughly one in five adults are reluctant to cast ballots in next month’s midterm races because of concerns related to the integrity of the nation’s election systems, a report revealed Wednesday.
A recent survey of over 1,000 U.S. consumers conducted by Unisys, a global IT firm headquartered in Pennsylvania, found that a total of 22 percent of respondents revealed they were either hesitant or outright opposed to voting in the Nov. 6 races on account of election security concerns, the company said.
“If you are concerned that U.S. election voting systems could be compromised by outside actors, how would this impact your willingness to participate as a voter in the November midterm elections?” respondents were asked.
Thirteen percent replied that they are “highly likely” not to participate in the races due to election security concerns, and 9 percent said they “will definitely not vote,” according to results published in the firm’s annual security report.
“The lack of trust in our voting election systems as exposed by the 2018 Unisys Security Index potentially undermines confidence in America’s democratic system,” said Tom Patterson, chief trust officer of Unisys. “The U.S. needs to build on progress made in preparation for this midterm election cycle, while factoring in that younger voters are the ones expressing the highest levels of concern over the integrity of the process. I am confident that our country will be able to address this dynamic.”
Russian hackers allegedly attacked voting systems in several states during a state-sponsored interference campaign conducted prior to the 2016 U.S. general election, and the Trump administration warned last week that multiple governments may be meddling in next month’s midterms.
“We are concerned about ongoing campaigns by Russia, China and other foreign actors, including Iran, to undermine confidence in democratic institutions and influence public sentiment and government policies,” the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, FBI and Departments of Justice and Homeland Security said in a rare joint statement.
The agencies have not seen “any evidence of a compromise or disruption of infrastructure that would enable adversaries to prevent voting, change vote counts or disrupt our ability to tally votes in the midterm elections,” they said in the statement.
Russian hackers did not alter any vote tallies during the 2016 race, but instead waged a broad interference campaign that relied on leaking stolen Democratic Party material and sowing discord on social media platforms, among other tactics, according to U.S. officials.
Almost 80 percent of U.S. adults surveyed as part of a separate poll released earlier this month said they were concerned that the country’s voting system could be vulnerable to hackers, including 45 percent who said they were extremely or very concerned that the nation’s election infrastructure may be breached.
Nearly 85 percent of cybersecurity professionals surveyed at a major hacking conference this summer said they believed the midterm will be subject to cyberattack, a separate poll previously concluded.
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