2022 federal elections in the U.S. not tainted by foreign interference, officials say

A declassified U.S. government report concluded that foreign hackers did not change vote totals or otherwise compromise the integrity of federal elections in 2022, according to U.S. News & World Report's December 18, 2023 account. The report states: "We have no evidence that any detected activity prevented voting, changed votes, or disrupted the ability to tally votes or to transmit election results in a timely manner; altered any technical aspect of the voting process; or otherwise compromised the integrity of voter registration information or any ballots cast during 2022 federal elections."

The document was a joint product of the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security, per U.S. News. Despite the clean bill on vote-tallying integrity, the report did identify multiple instances of foreign-linked hackers connecting to election infrastructure, scanning state government websites and copying voter information.

The report identified activity linked to Iran, China and Russia, U.S. News reported, though the retrieved coverage does not break down which specific incidents were attributed to which country, nor does it specify how many separate intrusion or scanning events were recorded in total.

What the assessment did not cover

U.S. News' report notes an important scope limitation: the assessment evaluated the impact of foreign government activity on election infrastructure itself, but it did not examine separate efforts by foreign governments to shape public perception or sway voters' opinions through influence operations. That distinction means the report's findings speak only to the technical security of voting systems and vote counts, not to the broader question of foreign disinformation or influence campaigns around the 2022 midterms.

The framing

The joint DOJ-DHS report's language draws a sharp line between infrastructure that was probed or scanned and infrastructure that was actually manipulated, stating no detected activity altered technical aspects of voting or compromised registration data or cast ballots. The retrieved coverage does not name the specific officials who signed off on the report or provide direct quotes from named individuals beyond the report's own text.

US In News compiled this archived account from contemporaneous coverage by U.S. News & World Report. It restores a story originally published on this site in December 2023; figures are as reported at the time.