Exclusive: understand how the US prepares a response to threats against elections

When senior national security officials gathered in the White House crisis room in December to prepare for the 2024 elections, they faced two simulated scenarios that tested the limits of any federal response. election-related chaos, four people familiar with the meeting told CNN .

What if Chinese agents created a fake AI-generated video showing a Senate candidate destroying ballots? And how should federal agencies respond if violence breaks out at polling places on Election Day?

For nearly an hour, No. 2 officials from the FBI, CIA and Homeland Security and Justice departments struggled to figure out how to respond to the deepfake video, including whether and how to notify the public about the activity if they weren't sure China was behind this, sources told CNN .

When it comes to a coordinated federal response to things like rampant misinformation, deepfakes and harassment of election workers, “our hands are all tied,” said a U.S. official familiar with the election security exercise.

The previously unpublicized meeting was the first exercise of its kind that the White House under the Biden administration has held in more than three years in office. The meeting highlighted the painful questions facing the administration as it analyzes potential threats to the 2024 elections — and the limits of federal power to respond to them.

U.S. national security officials have to consider whether, by publicly drawing attention to disinformation, they may inadvertently amplify the very message they are trying to suppress. And they may move more quickly to speak out publicly if they know that a foreign actor is behind an information operation targeting the election.

If there is a possibility that a U.S. citizen could be involved, U.S. authorities are more reluctant to publicly combat it, for fear of giving the impression that they are influencing elections or restricting speech.

In both scenarios, federal officials favored a muted public response, largely opting to let state and local governments take the lead.

This points to a deep dilemma they face: How does the federal government protect voters from electoral threats when many of those voters don't trust the federal government in the first place? State and local officials conduct elections and are the most trusted voices in their communities, but how can federal officials act decisively to support them?

Participants opted to have state election officials, not the federal government, lead any public messaging to combat misinformation spread by the fake video in their jurisdictions, two of the sources said. Officials also discussed options for notifying Congress. No one at the table raised their hand offering to be the lead federal agency to tell the public about the deepfake.

Regarding violence at the polls, federal authorities decided not to send federal agents to support local police because they did not have the competence to do so.

“We are in uncharted territory now”

The election security exercise came a month after Chinese leader Xi Jinping assured President Joe Biden in an in-person meeting that China would not interfere in the 2024 U.S. election, signaling that the administration was still preparing for that potential.

The role of deepfakes in election security became even more critical after the recent AI-powered robocall ahead of the New Hampshire primary that mimicked Biden's voice, he told CNN another US official familiar with the meeting.

“We’re in uncharted territory right now,” said the official familiar with the meeting, citing the ease with which someone can use AI to create fake audio and video to target voters and the challenges U.S. agencies face in responding quickly. “It’s the speed and volume with which our adversaries can flood the information environment.”

The Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a statement to CNN last week that China's position is to “always adhere to the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries.”

Officials from several federal agencies last week briefed the Senate Intelligence Committee on their election security preparedness for 2024, including the White House exercise in December, they told CNN three familiar sources.

There have been pointed and unanswered questions about how the federal government will deal with AI-generated falsifications in elections, two sources said. And the senators were left wondering to what extent the federal government really is prepared to respond to this type of threat. A spokesperson for the Senate Intelligence Committee declined to comment on the briefing.

“The election is just around the corner and I will continue to press to ensure we are using all available resources and authorities to deter, detect, disrupt and expose foreign efforts to interfere in our elections,” said Senator Mark Warner, a Virginia Democrat who chairs the committee.

In a note to CNN a senior government official emphasized that election security is a top priority.

“We remain concerned about a range of actors who seek to interfere in the electoral process and undermine confidence in our electoral infrastructure. Generative AI provides these actors with a way to supercharge their malign efforts,” the official said. “That’s why there is a government-wide effort to ensure the integrity and security of the 2024 federal election.”

State-level policies are also still a work in progress. A CNN recently asked election officials in all 50 states about efforts to combat deepfakes.

Of the 33 who responded, most described existing programs in their states to respond to general disinformation or cyber threats. Less than half of these states, however, referenced specific training, policies, or programs designed to respond to election-related deepfakes.

In a recent interview with CNN Francisco Aguilar, Secretary of State in Nevada, the state's top elections official, said he is still figuring out how to deal with the threat of artificial intelligence-generated falsifications in elections and how federal agencies can help.

“You look at our budget in the state of Nevada and see what constraints we have,” Aguilar said. “I don’t think we’ve gone through a full election cycle where that actually existed. So we are in pioneering times now.”

Balancing vigilance with caution

After a relatively quiet half-year in 2022, federal officials in charge of election security are preparing for a range of potential threats and expect hackers from Russia, China and Iran to be active, while viral conspiracy theorists are ready to pounce on any flaws. in voting to falsely claim fraud.

Former President Donald Trump's lies about voter fraud continue to resonate across much of the country, with a majority of Republicans and Republican-leaning voters saying Biden's 2020 victory was not legitimate, according to a poll from CNN in July.

After being blindsided by a Russian hacking and leaking campaign in the 2016 election and the pro-Trump rioters who stormed the Capitol after the 2020 election, U.S. officials focused on securing the election are trying to balance the need to remain watch out carefully about when to talk about these threats without it backfiring.

Several former senior US national security officials involved in protecting the elections told CNN that, in a post-2016 world, the release of intelligence information can be interpreted as political.

“It’s a trick,” said Adam Hickey, who worked on election security issues for the Justice Department’s National Security Division. “Unless the proof that it is false is virtually indisputable, [as autoridades dos EUA] they will be accused of influencing the election itself, and no one wants that.”

But if U.S. officials can expose a foreign government's role in an interference campaign, Hickey said, “voters can evaluate the message in light of its source, without speculating about who the foreign government favors or why.”

Still scared by Russian interference in 2016

Some in the federal government are still alarmed by the national security system's slowness in alerting the public to Russian interference in 2016. This came many months after states discovered that Russian hackers had scanned their computer systems.

But national security officials are also interested in avoiding announcing a major new development on the eve of an election without providing the public with adequate information to act on it.

During the White House exercise, senior federal officials were testing a policy that was established after 2016 to notify the public and Congress about foreign election interference.

The policy stipulates that “partisan politics shall not play” a role in the decision to inform the public about foreign interference activities. It also asks authorities to consider whether opening up to the public will make foreign interference less effective, rather than inadvertently amplifying it.

The Justice Department, FBI and CIA declined to comment on the election security exercise. The Department of Homeland Security referred questions to the National Security Council.

Cait Conley, a U.S. Army combat veteran who joined the Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency last year to bolster election security work, declined to discuss the White House meeting but said that his agency conducted more than two dozen security exercises with state and local authorities last year.

“We prioritize tabletop exercises that integrate the range of cyber, physical and operational threats that election officials may encounter,” Conley said in a note to CNN . “Many of these threats stem from the tactics and techniques of our foreign adversaries – from Chinese network penetration operations to Russian and Iranian foreign influence operations.”

*With information from CNN's Evan Perez, Natasha Bertrand, Donie O'Sullivan and Katie Bo Lillis.