A poll worker casts a mail-in ballot for a voter at a drive-thru polling station during the primary election amid the COVID-19 outbreak in Miami, Florida
Photo by Marco Bello/Reuters
Foreign interference in U.S. politics has been a concern since the nation was founded.
Concerns over foreign influence in U.S. politics date back to the founding of this country. Alexander Hamilton warned about "the desire in foreign powers to gain an improper ascendant in our councils." George Washington's farewell speech cautioned that "foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of republican government. During the Cold War, the Soviet Union operated a sophisticated program involving covert and overt information efforts against the United States.
More recently, the U.S. Senate Committee on Intelligence presented evidence that Russia directed activities against state and local election infrastructures and tried to spread disinformation on social media during the 2016 presidential election.
Given these past and likely extant threats to U.S. elections, the California Governor's Office of Emergency Services asked RAND's National Security Research Division to help them analyze, forecast, and mitigate threats by foreign actors targeting local, state, and national elections.
Marek N. Posard discusses findings from the project's first report. He describes several broad risks of foreign interference in American democracy and explains how Russia may use reflexive control theory to cause disruption in the 2020 U.S. Election.
