CISA Admitted ‘Risks’ Of Vote-By-Mail In Internal Docs From 2020 – The Federalist
The nerve center of the federal governments censorship operations admitted ahead of the 2020 election that mass mail-in voting comes with risks but flagged online posts highlighting such insecurities to Big Tech companies for censorship anyway.
A series of internal documents obtained via open records request by America First Legal (AFL) show that the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), which falls under the Department of Homeland Security, was aware of the risks associated with unsupervised mail-in voting in the months leading up to the 2020 election. It was during this same time that the agency was classifying social media posts highlighting these risks as disinformation and flagging them for censorship.
The communications unearthed by AFL reveal that by September 2020, CISA officials knew there was no evidence to support the claim that in-person voting increase[d] the spread of COVID-19 and were aware that mass vote-by-mail schemes presented difficulties to election officials. Among the major challenges highlighted by the agency were the process of mailing and returning ballots, high numbers of improperly completed ballots, and the shortage of personnel to process ballots in a prompt manner.
By October 2020, CISA had crafted a six-point list titled, Mail-In Voting Risk: Infrastructure and Process, which detailed insecurities present in mass mail-in voting operations and offered compensating controls election officials could use to manage them.
One of these risks is that Inbound mail-in ballot processes and tabulation take longer than in-person processing, causing tabulation of results to occur more slowly and resulting in more ballots to tabulate following election night. Under the compensating controls section accompanying that specific issue, CISA noted that Election officials, media, candidates, and NGOs are educating voters and setting the expectation that it will take days, if not weeks, to determine the outcome of many races.
Recall that it took several days after the Nov. 3, 2020, contest before Joe Biden was declared the winner. This was in large part due to states such as Pennsylvania and Nevada still counting ballots days after Election Day.
But it wasnt just CISA officials who were informed of such risks. An Oct. 30, 2020, email indicates the agency shared the aforementioned concerns regarding mail-in voting with members of the corporate press during an unclassified media tour that same day.
Rather than report this information to the American public, self-professed news organizations such as The Washington Post which had staff attend the tour published articles in the days following the Oct. 30 briefing dismissing mail-in ballotings many liabilities and praising CISA for its independence from [President Donald] Trump.
Officials including Krebs have also scrupulously avoided criticizing or even explicitly correcting Trumps unfounded attacks on the elections legitimacy even as their own assessments oftendirectly contradicthis statements about the security of mail ballots and other topics, the Posts Joseph Marks wrote.
Despite its own admission that mail-in voting presented challenges and potential hazards to effective election administration, CISA worked extensively to compel Big Tech platforms to censor posts underscoring such points leading up to the 2020 election. According to AFL, the agency contracted consulting firm Deloitte to report on Daily Social Media Trends relating to the U.S. Election including narratives relating to Vote-By-Mail and to flag specific social media posts for CISAs awareness and attention.
Included in the posts Deloitte sent to CISA was an Oct. 30, 2020, tweet issued by Trump, in which the then-president claimed there were Big problems and discrepancies with Mail In Ballots all over the USA. Deloitte also flagged a post from an unnamed conservative pundit who, as the consulting firm described, accused Twitter of SUPPRESSING a story about the Democratic presidential nominees son to help the nominee win the election.
That post was in reference to Big Techs censorship of the New York Posts Hunter Biden laptop story. OnTwitter (now known as X), users were not permitted to share the story, even via direct message. The platform further removed links and issued alerts that it may be unsafe. Meanwhile, Facebookannouncedshortly after the story broke that it would be reducing [the storys] distribution pending verification by third-party fact-checkers.
Despite having authenticated the laptop in late 2019, the FBI was also heavily involved in these platforms suppression of the story.
CISAs use of Deloitte to flag so-called disinformation online further confirms the findings unearthed in aninterim reportreleased by House Republicans in November. According to that analysis, CISA along with the State DepartmentsGlobal Engagement Center (GEC) colluded with Stanford University to pressure Big Tech companies into censoring what they claimed was disinformation during the 2020 election. At the heart of this operation was theElection Integrity Partnership (EIP), a consortium of disinformation academics spearheaded by the Stanford Internet Observatory that coordinated with DHS and GEC to monitor and censor Americans online speech ahead of the 2020 contest.
[RELATED:State Of Texas Joins The Federalist, Daily Wire In Suing The Federal Censorship-Industrial Complex]
Created at the request of CISA, EIP allowed federal officials to launder [their] censorship activities in hopes of bypassing both the First Amendment and public scrutiny. As documented in the interim report, this operationaimedto censor true information, jokes and satire, and political opinions and submitted flagged posts from prominent conservative figures to Big Tech companies for censorship. Among those targeted were The Federalists Mollie Hemingway and Sean Davis.
Shawn Fleetwood is a staff writer for The Federalist and a graduate of the University of Mary Washington. He previously served as a state content writer for Convention of States Action and his work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics, RealClearHealth, and Conservative Review. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood
Continued here:
CISA Admitted 'Risks' Of Vote-By-Mail In Internal Docs From 2020 - The Federalist
- China Censors Trump's Bomb Threat on Beijing - Newsweek - July 10th, 2025 [July 10th, 2025]
- Review | How censors tried and failed to keep LGBT voices out of the movies - The Washington Post - July 10th, 2025 [July 10th, 2025]
- UN AI summit accused of censoring criticism of Israel and big tech over Gaza war - Geneva Solutions - July 10th, 2025 [July 10th, 2025]
- From gr*pists to nip nops, how self-censorship shapes the language of TikTok : Code Switch - NPR - July 10th, 2025 [July 10th, 2025]
- Corrido Censorship: The paradox of funding and criminalizing cartel stories - The Oakland Post - July 10th, 2025 [July 10th, 2025]
- 'Ready or Not' Devs Unveil a Mod to Remove Censorship In-Game For a More Brutal Experience - player.one - July 10th, 2025 [July 10th, 2025]
- Centre flays X over 'censorship' claim, says platform delayed unblocking accounts - Times of India - July 10th, 2025 [July 10th, 2025]
- Turkey blocks Grok content, becoming first country to 'censor' the AI chatbot - Middle East Eye - July 10th, 2025 [July 10th, 2025]
- X blasts India censorship order on thousands of accounts - New Age BD - July 10th, 2025 [July 10th, 2025]
- 'JSK' Producer Suresh Kumar On Its Censorship: All Issues Began With 'L2: Empuraan' - The Hollywood Reporter India - July 8th, 2025 [July 8th, 2025]
- Some patriotic reflections on Independence Day - The Verge - July 8th, 2025 [July 8th, 2025]
- AI, Fair Use, and the Arsenal of Democracy - RealClearDefense - July 8th, 2025 [July 8th, 2025]
- Democratic nomination for Ithaca Common Council seat decided by just 11 votes - WSKG - July 8th, 2025 [July 8th, 2025]
- A Summer Reading List for Americas 250th Anniversary - Ash Center - July 8th, 2025 [July 8th, 2025]
- DEEP DIVE: $500 MILLION IN MEDIA FUNDING. BUT WHO'S CALLING THE SHOTS BEHIND THE HEADLINES? Its not just censorship its coordination. In Episode 2 of... - July 8th, 2025 [July 8th, 2025]
- Emergency: The Indian cartoonist who fought the censors with a smile - BBC - July 8th, 2025 [July 8th, 2025]
- Media in the Balkans: the rise of oligarchs - Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso Transeuropa - July 8th, 2025 [July 8th, 2025]
- From Censorship to Fascism to Extermination: PW Talks with Will Potter - Publishers Weekly - July 8th, 2025 [July 8th, 2025]
- 'There is real fear': How Israel's attack on Iran enabled an assault on press freedoms - Middle East Eye - July 6th, 2025 [July 6th, 2025]
- Vilifying the Vylans or: How I learned to stop censoring and call for death to the BBC - Freedom News - - July 6th, 2025 [July 6th, 2025]
- Ready Or Not Studio Reveals What Exactly Has Been Censored And It's Not A Lot - TheGamer - July 6th, 2025 [July 6th, 2025]
- The EUs Internet Law, a Blueprint for Global CensorshipIncluding on American Platforms? - The Daily Signal - July 4th, 2025 [July 4th, 2025]
- Blasphemy, Censorship, and the Future of Free Expression in Britain - Quillette - July 4th, 2025 [July 4th, 2025]
- Ready or Not Dev Releases Before-and-After Screenshots as It Battles Against Censorship Backlash and Steam Review-Bomb Campaign - IGN - July 4th, 2025 [July 4th, 2025]
- The humanities must have a role in overseeing AI censorship - Times Higher Education - July 4th, 2025 [July 4th, 2025]
- YouTube, Trump Having Productive Discussions Over Censorship Case - The Information - July 4th, 2025 [July 4th, 2025]
- 'Warned Not to Talk About It': Overseas Boys' Love Censorship Is Sending Young Women to Jail - Comic Book Resources - July 4th, 2025 [July 4th, 2025]
- China is rushing to develop its AI-powered censorship system - Global Voices - July 4th, 2025 [July 4th, 2025]
- Gov. McKee signs Freedom to Read Act into law - Rhode Island Current - July 4th, 2025 [July 4th, 2025]
- 'Ill-conceived from the beginning': Judge ridicules Trump admin for 'slapdash' censorship of public health websites - Law and Crime News - July 4th, 2025 [July 4th, 2025]
- How censorship affects the artistic expression in film - Times of India - July 4th, 2025 [July 4th, 2025]
- What is The Ready or Not Censorship Controversy? Review Bombing Explained - Insider Gaming - July 4th, 2025 [July 4th, 2025]
- Self-censorship and the spiral of silence - Insight News - July 4th, 2025 [July 4th, 2025]
- Louisiana wants to censor citizen science, but residents are fighting back - News From The States - July 4th, 2025 [July 4th, 2025]
- The many complex truths within the censoring of youth parliament - The Spinoff - July 4th, 2025 [July 4th, 2025]
- Free Speech Victory in Australia for Billboard Chris as X post censorship overturned - Alliance Defending Freedom International - July 2nd, 2025 [July 2nd, 2025]
- Read this: Pixar's self-censorship of Elio's queer themes may have doomed it - Yahoo - July 2nd, 2025 [July 2nd, 2025]
- China is rushing to develop its AI-powered censorship system - Global Voices Advox - July 2nd, 2025 [July 2nd, 2025]
- 'The censorship is a step too far': Ready or Not is getting review bombed after developers sanitise the game to adhere to stricter console standards -... - July 2nd, 2025 [July 2nd, 2025]
- Keep Them On The Shelf - The Progressive - July 2nd, 2025 [July 2nd, 2025]
- SCOTUS Ruling Condoning Book Censorship Is a Grave Misjudgment. - GLAAD - July 2nd, 2025 [July 2nd, 2025]
- Read this: Pixar's self-censorship of Elio's queer themes may have doomed it - AV Club - July 2nd, 2025 [July 2nd, 2025]
- How the Internet Works, and How China Censors It - ChinaFile - July 2nd, 2025 [July 2nd, 2025]
- New Study from ChinaFile | The Locknet: How China Controls Its Internet and Why It Matters - Asia Society - July 2nd, 2025 [July 2nd, 2025]
- The Witcher, The Bad Batch, and Cosmic Censorship - GamingTrend - July 2nd, 2025 [July 2nd, 2025]
- The Censor Board Is A Back-Door For Govt To Control The Film World: Director Of Stalled Movie On Slain Punjabi Activist - article-14.com - July 2nd, 2025 [July 2nd, 2025]
- Censorship? Ready or Not eliminates nudity and reduces violence to hit consoles - Toy News Online - July 2nd, 2025 [July 2nd, 2025]
- Ready Or Not Will Be Censored Before Launching On Consoles, And It Could Even Affect The PC Version - TheGamer - June 29th, 2025 [June 29th, 2025]
- Nonviolence and the Battle Against Self-Censorship - Pressenza - International Press Agency - June 29th, 2025 [June 29th, 2025]
- Kneecap Defy Censorship Threats with Provocative Glastonbury Set - Consequence of Sound - June 29th, 2025 [June 29th, 2025]
- WATCH | Joseph Maximilliam Dunnigan On How Censorship Of Books Exists Across The World, From The US To China - Outlook India - June 29th, 2025 [June 29th, 2025]
- Artist Ai Weiwei: Democracy and freedom do not necessarily enable the creation of great art - - June 29th, 2025 [June 29th, 2025]
- Baihe and Danmei: Chinese GL and BL in an Age of Censorship - Daily Kos - June 28th, 2025 [June 28th, 2025]
- Death by a thousand cuts in Hong Kong - Index on Censorship - June 28th, 2025 [June 28th, 2025]
- In an act of political censorship, Deutsche Bank terminates publisher Mehring Verlags account - World Socialist Web Site - June 26th, 2025 [June 26th, 2025]
- The photographer using AI to reconstruct stories lost to censorship - The Verge - June 26th, 2025 [June 26th, 2025]
- Bernie Sanders Roasts Joe Rogan for Siding With Government Censorship - Cracked.com - June 26th, 2025 [June 26th, 2025]
- JCDecaux and Global accused of 'censorship' of anti-HFSS campaign - Campaign - June 26th, 2025 [June 26th, 2025]
- Emergency Films: 6 Movies That Faced Bans and Censorship in 1975 - Deccan Herald - June 26th, 2025 [June 26th, 2025]
- Hotbed of digital censorship: MAGAs war with Ireland over freedom of speech - Newstalk - June 26th, 2025 [June 26th, 2025]
- Iran-Israel war: What tools are used to censor reporting? - DW - June 24th, 2025 [June 24th, 2025]
- FTC Comments Accuse Big Tech of Widespread Censorship - The Daily Signal - June 24th, 2025 [June 24th, 2025]
- How we are ending Irans and all other governments power to censor online - The Hill - June 24th, 2025 [June 24th, 2025]
- Amid Silence and Censorship, Alabama Students and Professors Reflect on a Year Under SB129 - ACLU of Alabama - June 24th, 2025 [June 24th, 2025]
- Iran-Israel war: What tools are used to censor reporting? - Yahoo - June 24th, 2025 [June 24th, 2025]
- Western Tech Companies Are Capitulating to Russian Censors. Here's How Russians Can Fight Back. - The Moscow Times - June 24th, 2025 [June 24th, 2025]
- Book censors and the Trojan horse of decency - Fairbanks Daily News-Miner - June 24th, 2025 [June 24th, 2025]
- Censorship, arrests and merger of news agencies tools to control media during 1975 Emergency - The New Indian Express - June 24th, 2025 [June 24th, 2025]
- Tunnel Vision: Anti-censorship Tools, End-to-End Encryption and the Fight for a Free and Open Internet - Freedom House - June 22nd, 2025 [June 22nd, 2025]
- A Banner Year for Censorship: More States Are Restricting Classroom Discussions on Race and Gender - The Chronicle of Higher Education - June 22nd, 2025 [June 22nd, 2025]
- Advocates, Authors Call for Investigation Into Florida Book Removals Without Review | Censorship News - School Library Journal - June 22nd, 2025 [June 22nd, 2025]
- From LA to Letcher County, Anna Gomez takes her anti-censorship crusade on the road - Daily Independent - June 22nd, 2025 [June 22nd, 2025]
- Censorship into art: why Iranian director Jafar Panahis subversive stories are getting the worlds attention - Pancouver - June 22nd, 2025 [June 22nd, 2025]
- How does Israel restrict its media from reporting on the Iran conflict? - Al Jazeera - June 20th, 2025 [June 20th, 2025]
- Censorship: See the National Park visitor responses after Trump requested help deleting negative signage - Government Executive - June 20th, 2025 [June 20th, 2025]
- Why defunding research on misinformation and disinformation isnt what Americans want - Fast Company - June 20th, 2025 [June 20th, 2025]
- Oscar entry, but banned at home: This Sunita Rajwars acclaimed film faces censorship in India - Times of India - June 20th, 2025 [June 20th, 2025]
- Why Is The EU Really So Scared of Hate Speech? - The European Conservative - June 20th, 2025 [June 20th, 2025]
- PRESS RELEASE: In win for academic Speech, OK Supreme Court says higher ed is off-limits from censorship law - Oklahoma City Free Press - June 20th, 2025 [June 20th, 2025]
- What are the 20 most controversial album covers of all time? - Euronews.com - June 20th, 2025 [June 20th, 2025]