The Center for Democracy and Technology, a Washington-based non-profit, has accused President Donald Trump of weaponizing fears over election security while simultaneously backing sweeping cuts to the agency responsible for protecting US voting systems.

The criticism follows a bizarre primetime White House address that revived unproven claims about vulnerabilities in America’s voting system and alleged interference by foreign adversaries in the 2020 elections and 2018 midterms.

Several major broadcasters, including NBC, ABC and CNN, declined to air the speech on their main television networks, citing concerns over its political content, although it was carried on streaming platforms and some local networks.

The White House address came after the release of a new poll from Washington Post-Ipsos, which indicated his approval rating had dropped to 37%, with many voters pessimistic about the cost of living and the ongoing war with Iran.

Flaws do not prove interference

Responding to the address, Geoff Hale, a former Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) official who is now with the CDT, said the existence of vulnerabilities should not be confused with evidence of election interference.

"Just because a vulnerability exists doesn’t prove that it’s been exploited, let alone that an exploitation altered something technically during an election."

Geoff Hale, Center for Democracy and Technology

"Voting systems, like all critical infrastructure, have vulnerabilities. But just because a vulnerability exists doesn’t prove that it’s been exploited, let alone that an exploitation altered something technically during an election,” he said.

“To date, across investigations by law enforcement, by the intelligence community, by the CISA and numerous court cases, no evidence has shown that vulnerabilities in voting systems have been exploited to alter election outcomes in the US,” Hale added.

CISA budget slashed

The CDT also questioned what it described as a contraction in the administration’s approach to election security.

While Trump has repeatedly argued that America’s voting infrastructure is vulnerable, his administration has reduced funding for the very agency responsible for helping defend it.

This year, CISA’s budget was cut by around $300m from its previous funding level, reducing resources for the agency that provides cybersecurity support to state and local election officials.

This week, the President also fired the Commissioners of the US Election Assistance Commission, a bipartisan and independent agency that provides federal support for election officials and American voters.

"If the White House truly wanted to help 'fix and patch known technical vulnerabilities before the midterm elections,' they would not have slashed funding and staff at the CISA nor fired the Commissioners of the Election Assistance Commission,” said CDT’s Tim Harper, project lead, Elections and Democracy.

"If the White House truly wanted to help 'fix and patch known technical vulnerabilities before the midterm elections,' they would not have slashed funding and staff at the CISA."

Tim Harper, project lead, Center for Democracy and Technology

“Instead, the administration is using known vulnerabilities, without proof of them being exploited, to advance partisan legislation at the expense of election and national security four months before the midterms,” he added.

In January, the Trump administration formally withdrew its support for 15 organizations that have mandates that touch directly on cybersecurity, counterterrorism, or hybrid threats, branding them “wasteful, ineffective, or harmful.”

Document dump

During Trump’s 25-minute broadcast, he announced the declassification of documents he claims reveal vulnerabilities in US election systems.

These included a heavily redacted document claiming to show how a Chinese hacking group downloaded publicly available voter registration data from six states via a commercial website.

There were also claims about “noncitizens” on voter rolls, with DHS reportedly identifying around 278,000 noncitizens registered across state rolls.

Neither of the claims in this material, also released on Thursday, appears to support Trump's core claim that the 2020 election was stolen or that vote totals were manipulated.

Elsewhere, Trump used his speech to promote his Save America Act, legislation requiring strict voter ID, which is currently stuck in Congress.

“The Administration’s document dump seems to be the latest gambit to stoke partisan fears and advance the controversial SAVE Act, which contains such a long list of logistically impossible policy proposals that it has stalled in a Republican-controlled Congress,” said CDT President and CEO Alexandra Reeve Givens.