14 ‘Ways to Steal’ an Election? DHS Insider Threat Raises 2026 Cyber Risk

When the agency responsible for protecting critical election infrastructure is led by someone who endorses unsubstantiated theories of 14 technical election theft methods, threat models must be urgently recalibrated. For CISOs and SOC teams supporting election offices, the prospect that DHS personnel—many still loyal to CISA’s cooperative mission—could face pressure to surveil systems or leak data under the pretext of national security is a novel insider threat scenario. The trust collapse means state officials may sever information-sharing links, leaving their networks more exposed to genuine adversaries.

State and local election officials are increasingly convinced that the Department of Homeland Security, under Secretary Markwayne Mullin, may not be a partner in safeguarding elections but rather a direct threat to the integrity of the 2026 midterms and beyond. This fear stems from Mullin’s long history of endorsing and amplifying debunked election fraud conspiracy theories—most notably, his role in brokering a Mar-a-Lago briefing for ex-CIA operative Gary Berntsen, who insists Venezuela stole the 2020 election. Berntsen’s claims, which include a laundry list of 14 technical ways to steal an election, were thoroughly discredited by courts, election audits, and the 2023 $787 million defamation settlement between Fox News and Dominion Voting Systems. Yet, with Mullin now at the helm of the agency responsible for designating election infrastructure as critical national security assets, voting administrators see the potential for a hostile federal entity to seize voting machines, subpoena sensitive data, or publicly undermine results under the guise of national security.

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Berntsen’s claims, which include a laundry list of 14 technical ways to steal an election, were thoroughly discredited by courts, election audits, and the 2023 $787 million defamation settlement between Fox News and Dominion Voting Systems.

Mullin’s record is unambiguous. On January 2, 2021, he wrote that fraud in the 2020 election made it impossible for him to certify the Electoral College. Four days later, even after a violent mob stormed the Capitol to halt certification, he was among 147 congressional Republicans who voted against the count—a move widely condemned as a direct assault on democratic norms. Now that he leads DHS, his prior roles in promoting the Venezuela conspiracy and facilitating Berntsen’s access to Trump’s inner circle have turned what was once a fringe political stance into an active institutional risk. Election officials have spent years building trust with CISA (the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, housed within DHS) for threat sharing, penetration testing, and incident response. That relationship is now poisoned; many officials say they would hesitate to report a cyber incident if it could lead to DHS interference rather than assistance.