The Department of Homeland Security has taken "extraordinary" measures to secure the 2020 elections after the situations that unfolded in 2016, according to Deputy Secretary of DHS Ken Cuccinelli on Newsmax TV.
"So far, while we watch our main opponents here – Russia, China, Iran who want to try to influence the election – they aren't doing it in any ways with respect to the machinery of the election at this point," Cuccinelli told Wednesday's "Spicer & Co." "It's all out in the public opinion sphere where they try to, frankly, inflame passions on both sides.
"And then the Chinese would actually like to see people get in who they can work with."
Host Sean Spicer noted he was invited to Cuccinelli's offices during the controversial 2016 election to be briefed on election security measures, but things are dramatically different after the myriad election-meddling investigations and measures put in place, according to Cuccinelli.
"The difference is extraordinary, Sean, I don't think you'd recognized it," Cuccinelli said. "The level of partnership that we have achieved with every state in terms of election protection – and I'm talking about the infrastructure here, the voting rolls, election day voting, all of those things – is at a level never before seen."
Cuccinelli noted DHS is pushing states to go back to keeping "verifiable paper ballots" on hand for recounts, something that had been taken for granted amid computerized election technology advances.
"We're moving away from that to a much more verifiable system," he said, noting universal mail-in voting measures amid the global coronavirus pandemic does "scale up the potential for problems."
Important: See Newsmax TV now carried in 70 million cable homes, on DirecTV Ch. 349, Dish Network Ch. 216, Xfinity Ch. 1115, Spectrum, U-verse Ch. 1220, FiOS Ch. 615, Optimum Ch. 102, Cox cable, Suddenlink Ch. 102, Mediacom Ch. 277, or Find More Cable Systems – Click Here.
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.