What If: Hacks, Email Leaks Could Sway Election Weeks Away

Brace for a stream of digital leaks and shenanigans by Election Day.

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Whether it’s newly disclosed Democratic Party emails or someone tampering with voting machines, this year’s presidential election could come with hacking intrigue like none before it.

Consider messages stolen from the Democrats by suspected Russian-linked hackers and posted online in the summer by the self-described persona Guccifer 2.0. That trove led to so much outrage from fellow Democrats that the party’s chairwoman, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, was forced to resign.

Beyond partisan embarrassment from those leaks, security risks to electronic voting machines have the potential to do even more damage. Compromised machines, producing faulty vote tallies, would raise questions about the very integrity of the political process.