Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) said on Friday that the we are by no means certain that Russia didn't alter vote counts in the 2016 election and that "no systemic analysis" has been done of the votes, nor any "forensic evaluations of voting machines."
Mother Jones' David Corn spoke with Wyden, who was responding to Wednesday's press conference with Republican Sen. Richard Burr (NC) and Democratic Sen. Mark Warner (VA), the top members of the Senate Intelligence Committee.
“We can certifiably say that no vote totals were affected,” said Burr on Wednesday, “that the tallies are accurate.”
Wyden said this is patently untrue.
“The chairman said that he can say ‘certifiably’ that there was no vote tampering,” Wyden told Mother Jones. “I do not agree with this judgment. I don’t think it is possible to know that. There was no systematic analysis of the voting or forensic evaluations of the voting machines.”
He said that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) expressed only "moderate confidence" that vote totals weren't altered in the Russian hack attack on the U.S. electoral infrastructure.
"For Wyden, that’s not good enough for such a sensitive and significant matter -- and it sends the misguided signal that the voting system is doing just fine," said Corn. "Wyden believes that’s the wrong message. This week he sent a letter to the major manufacturers of voting machines demanding information about how they protect themselves from cyberattacks."
Election watchers and some federal officials have urgently warned that Russian "active measures" are still in effect in the lead up to the 2018 midterm elections, but President Donald Trump and his administration have been blasé at best regarding the threat.
The DHS revealed last month that Russian cyber operatives hacked into the voting systems of 21 states, but many public officials insist that no evidence exists that vote totals were altered.
Wyden says that's because no serious effort has been made to obtain any evidence. He further noted that Pres. Trump has yet to appoint a director of Homeland Security, which would be the primary agency engaged in blocking future attempts at election meddling.
