Long Island officials seek to counter doubts about election security

WASHINGTON — As Election Day draws near, officials on all levels of government — county, state and federal — are assuring voters that this year's high-stakes contest will be free, fair and secure.

Election officials have been working aggressively to combat disinformation, as conspiracy theories abound on the internet, including social media videos spreading disproved claims of unregistered voters casting multiple ballots or debunked claims of machines misreading votes.

Former Republican President Donald Trump has continued to spread misleading allegations of fraud occurring during early voting and mail-in voting, most recently taking to social media this past week to accuse Pennsylvania of "cheating." Election officials in the battleground state have pushed back against his claims.

Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris also has pushed back against Trump’s assertions of fraud, with her campaign officials accusing him in a Thursday conference call with reporters of trying to plant doubt in the outcome of the election.

On Long Island, election officials in Nassau and Suffolk have been publicly asserting their confidence in the integrity of their year’s election.

"I think the system is a very, very secure one," said John E. Ryan, an election attorney for Nassau Republican Election Commissioner John Moriarty.

Ryan told Newsday that the county’s election system is "secure on every level — both at the time of casting the ballot and the recording of the ballot." He added that the data sticks from each ballot machine that digitally record all the paper ballots cast "are kept in a secure place and brought back to the Board of Elections."

"There is no issue of tampering that anyone need worry about," Ryan said.

Security scans

James Scheuerman, Nassau’s Democratic election commissioner, told Newsday that Nassau County police and federal cybersecurity officials have done "security scans" of voting sites "to make sure that they're compliant, and everything has checked out."

"We're taking every precaution we can to make sure that the lines are moving steadily and there's no issues on the lines with regards to safety," Scheuerman said. "You don't have to worry about ballot integrity in Nassau County. We've had wins in this county won by three or less votes, and never, at any point, has anyone said, there's fraud in our process. So we do a good job."

Suffolk officials held a news briefing last week to convey confidence in the county’s election system as they unveiled a new $2.8 million early voting center in Yaphank that also serves as a training center for poll workers.

"I can tell you from long experience, I have never questioned the veracity, the efficiency and the effectiveness of the Board of Elections," Suffolk County Executive Edward P. Romaine, a Republican, told reporters. "They have always done a great job ... We give them the tools, and they’ll do the job."

Suffolk Board of Elections commissioners John Alberts, a Democrat, and Betty Manzella, a Republican, said the county has been in regular contact with the FBI, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the New York State Board of Elections and multiple law enforcement agencies, including some of their cybersecurity units.

"We are prepared for anything," Manzella said.

Foreign meddling?

Federal officials have been warning that a trio of foreign actors — Russia, Iran and China — are trying to use social media to sew doubt about the integrity of the election, but officials maintain that the U.S. election system is secure.

"The reality is — election infrastructure has never been more secure," Jen Easterly, head of the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, said at an Oct. 28 news briefing.

On Friday, the agency, known widely as CISA, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation announced an investigation into a viral social media video that shows a man describing himself as a Haitian immigrant who announces plans to vote multiple times in Georgia. The man shows various purported state identifications for different counties, but authorities said the video is the product of "Russian influence actors."

"This Russian activity is part of Moscow’s broader effort to raise unfounded questions about the integrity of the U.S. election and stoke divisions among Americans," the FBI and CISA wrote in a joint statement.

State Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Services Commissioner Jackie Bray, speaking at a news briefing in Brooklyn on Monday, said state, federal and local officials have been working closely to ensure the election occurs "freely and safely."

"Since 2016, New York State, the state board of elections, our federal partners, our local partners have held 23 tabletop exercises in order to test and train our election security," Bray said. "None of our voting machines are tied to the internet ... all of our voting machines are best in class, and so New Yorkers can feel safe and ready."

With Bart Jones

By Laura Figueroa Hernandez

laura.figueroa@newsday.com@Laura_Figueroa

Laura Figueroa Hernandez is the White House correspondent and previously covered New York City politics and government. She joined Newsday in 2012 after covering state and local politics for The Miami Herald.