Election Security: Keeping Our Disagreements Our Own

About one month before Election Day, Americans deserve to know how their government is protecting elections from foreign threats. The Pentagon’s recent directive assigns military intelligence and cyber capabilities to that mission. I welcome that commitment. Americans also need to understand how it fits into the national effort and how federal agencies are supporting the state and local officials who administer elections.As a former Election Threats Executive at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, I would have preferred an ODNI-led announcement explaining the foreign threat and the coordinated response, with the FBI, Defense Department, and Department of Homeland Security alongside it. Most of my career was spent at the intersection of combat support and intelligence. My preference comes from ODNI’s role in integrating intelligence across agencies and explaining what it tells us about foreign threats.Election security depends on accurate ballot counts and public confidence grounded in credible information. An announcement centered on Defense risks giving a military cast to the mission and leaving the public with an incomplete picture. Americans need to understand h...