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US Confident in Integrity of Midterm Elections

A day after the polls closed for the United States’ midterm elections, the government agency charged with leading election security efforts expressed confidence that every vote cast was being counted accurately.

“We have seen no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was any way compromised in any race in the country,” said Jen Easterly, director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), in a statement Wednesday.

“We can all have confidence in the safety, security, and integrity of our elections,” she added.

The assessment confirmed a sentiment expressed by multiple CISA officials while briefing reporters on Election Day: that they were seeing “no specific or credible threats to disrupt election infrastructure.”

The CISA confirmed that some states had been subjected to distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, in which servers are bombarded with multiple requests, causing the targeted websites to shut down.

But a second senior CISA official, who briefed reporters late Tuesday on the condition of anonymity, downplayed the attacks, noting that they did not affect any systems used by voters to cast ballots or have their ballots counted.

“Those websites that have been affected were restored relatively quickly,” the official said, adding, “We’ve not seen any evidence to suggest that these are part of a widespread coordinated campaign.”

One such attack, on public-facing websites for the state of Mississippi, including those with information about the election, was quickly claimed by a Russian hacking group, though state officials and the CISA said it was too early to determine attribution.

Learning from past elections

Ahead of Tuesday’s vote, there had been concerns that key U.S. adversaries might try to disrupt the election with a combination of cyber hacks and ransomware, mimicking tactics like those used by Russia and Iran ahead of the 2020 U.S. presidential election.

But U.S. officials expressed confidence that years of preparation and coordination with federal, state and local officials would pay off and prevent any attacks from interfering with the vote.

“We took what we learned in the 2018 and 2020 elections to apply to the 2022 midterm elections,” a spokesperson for the National Security Agency’s Election Security Group told VOA on the condition of anonymity to discuss foreign threats to the elections.

“Our partners have unclassified chatrooms with state and local entities,” the spokesperson said. “If they receive information that might be valuable for the whole-of-government defense, we are able to pivot on those tips in foreign space so we can provide information back to bolster resiliency and help them mitigate issues.”

And in the days before the election, cybersecurity companies such as Trellix told VOA that malicious cyber actors seemed to be more focused on technology and health care companies than on election infrastructure.

According to an initial count by the United States Election Project, approximately 115 million Americans cast ballots in Tuesday’s nationwide election, with some states accepting mail-in ballots for another week.

Equipment malfunctions

Some malfunctions with voting equipment Tuesday in Arizona and New Jersey also sparked rumors and allegations of efforts to rig or fix the election, but state officials and CISA rejected such talk as “just flat-out incorrect.”

“To be very clear, we have no indication of malfeasance or malicious activity,” the second senior CISA official said. “It is a technical issue … and they have resolved it.”

However, the fallout from the voting machine problems, which did not ultimately prevent voters from casting ballots, highlights the challenge facing election officials. With the battle to defend election systems from intrusion and meddling coming to an end, they now must win the fight against disinformation.

“We tend to think of election day as the peak event for disinformation. But for the past two election cycles, the most problematic narratives tend to take hold in the days after the election — especially if the vote counting stretches over a period of days/weeks,” Bret Schafer, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Alliance for Securing Democracy, told VOA via email.

Already, state election officials are trying to get word out that patience will be key.

“Do not fall victim to false information,” the National Association of State Election Directors said in a statement issued early Tuesday, emphasizing that it would take “days and weeks” to finish counting all the votes.

“While the media has called many winners and losers already, these results are not official,” the statement said. “The numbers and margins will change as election officials follow their state laws.”

While officials and experts say much of the election-related disinformation, to this point, has been generated by Americans, the CISA and the FBI warn it is likely that such narratives will be picked up and amplified by key adversaries such as Russia, China and Iran.

All three “will take advantage of sort of election integrity narratives that come up in the U.S. ecosystem,” a senior FBI official, briefing on the condition of anonymity, told reporters last month. “We’ve seen that already, specifically from Russia.”

Only it seems Russia and China have not been as active as anticipated.

“Our analysts are mostly surprised by how quiet things have been on the foreign adversary front — at least with what we can track in the overt space,” Schafer said. “But again, it’s early. If there are things that go sideways, we may see more from them.”

Other analysts caution that foreign adversaries may simply be biding their time.

“Foreign malign influence actors are likely evaluating the success of their influence attempts, measuring which narratives were more successful, and what (if any) impact their influence efforts had on the outcome of the election,” Brian Liston, a senior threat intelligence analyst at Recorded Future’s Insikt Group, told VOA via email.

“This evaluation can then be used to support future influence operations,” he added.
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Tight California Races May Determine US House Control

A string of too-early-to-call California races remains in play and might end up determining whether Republicans seize control of the U.S. House or Democrats hang on to power.

With millions of votes still uncounted Wednesday across the nation’s most populous state, uncertainty remained for about a dozen of the state’s 52 House contests. The most competitive of those races were in the Los Angeles region and the Central Valley farm belt.

In Southern California, Democratic Representatives Katie Porter and Mike Levin were locked in close races, despite President Joe Biden’s late-hour campaign swing on their behalf. East of Los Angeles, Republican Representative Ken Calvert was trailing Democrat Will Rollins by 12 points, but less than one-third of the anticipated votes had been tallied.

In the Central Valley, GOP Representative David Valadao, who voted to impeach then-President Donald Trump, had 54% of the votes counted so far in his race against Democrat Rudy Salas, but most ballots had yet to be tabulated. Four years ago, Valadao lost a reelection bid after seeing a sizable lead on Election Day evaporate as late-arriving mail-in ballots were counted. He won back the seat in 2020.

Should Democrats defeat Calvert and prevail in other contests where they were leading or only slightly behind, the year would have echoes of 2018, when the party seized seven Republican-held California seats on the way to retaking the House.

But if Calvert hangs on and Republicans oust Porter and Levin and win an open seat in Central California, the scenario would look similar to 2020, when GOP House candidates flipped four seats in a state where registered Democrats outnumber Republicans by nearly 2-to-1.

‘Political bellwether’ or ‘island’

With votes still being counted in key races “we don’t know whether California is a political bellwether or an island,” said Thad Kousser, a political science professor at the University of California-San Diego.

If Democrats can hold the Porter and Levin seats and oust Calvert, “this red ripple that went across the country becomes a blue counter-ripple,” he said.

More broadly, California hewed largely to its liberal leanings on Election Day. Governor Gavin Newsom and U.S. Senator Alex Padilla, both Democrats, were easily reelected, voters overwhelmingly endorsed enshrining abortion rights in the state constitution, and the Legislature remained firmly in Democratic hands.

Democrats also appeared in position to retain their grip on all statewide offices. A Republican hasn’t won one of those races in California since 2006 when Arnold Schwarzenegger was re-elected governor.

The potential for slight shifts mirrored the national political landscape, in which predictions for a Republican wave sweeping Congress into solid GOP control failed to materialize. Republicans were closing in on a slim House majority while Senate control will be decided by close races in Arizona, Nevada and Georgia.

A loss by Porter would be stunning, after she spent more than $24 million to win a third term. She is a star of the party’s progressive wing, a prolific fundraiser with a national following and is frequently mentioned as a future U.S. Senate candidate.

With about half the vote counted, she was virtually tied with Republican Scott Baugh, who had relentlessly criticized her over soaring gas and grocery prices in a closely divided coastal district with a conservative streak. Porter focused strongly on protecting reproductive rights, after the Supreme Court overturned the Roe v. Wade decision.

Calvert — the longest-serving Republican in the California congressional delegation — was first elected in 1992.

His support from Trump posed a challenge in a new, reshaped district about equally split between Democrats and Republicans, which included many transplanted Los Angeles residents and liberal Palm Springs, which has a large concentration of LGBTQ voters.

‘Pocketbook issues’ were top concern

In a district anchored in San Diego County, Levin was in a tight contest with Republican Brian Maryott, who also targeted pocketbook issues that were the top concern for voters nationally. Biden campaigned for him just days before Election Day.

California Republicans believed as many as five House districts in the state could swing their way — enough to very likely give the GOP the House gavel in a midterm-election year when voters typically punish the party that holds the White House. Republican Representative Kevin McCarthy of Bakersfield would be in line to replace Speaker Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco.

Democrats hoped to claw back the four seats they surrendered in 2020 and pad their dominance in the state congressional delegation. Republicans hold only 11 of the state’s 53 seats, which drops to 52 seats next year because California’s once-soaring population growth has stalled.

One of the closest contests was for an open seat, the Central Valley’s 13th District, which has a prominent Democratic tilt and a large Latino population. But the most likely voters tend to be white, older, more affluent homeowners, while working-class voters, including many Latinos, are less consistent getting to the polls. Republican John Duarte and Democrat Adam Gray were nearly tied.

In a Democratic-leaning district north of Los Angeles, Republican Representative Mike Garcia was holding a 15-point edge over Democrat Christy Smith in their third consecutive race. Garcia won the previous two.
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African Nations Closely Watch US Midterm Results

With control of Congress still undecided a day after the U.S. midterm elections, African leaders and political analysts are closely watching for signs of what impact the outcome could have on the continent.

African analysts say their biggest concern is how this contentious poll could affect U.S. standing around the world — especially in African nations that have seen democratic backsliding.

There are also economic concerns over how the U.S. responds to rising inflation around the world. Wednesday trading showed that African markets were closely watching the impact on the most popular U.S. export: the dollar.

On a more personal level, communities in the U.S. and in Africa celebrated wins by American candidates of African origin, and bid goodbye to two retiring senators who took a deep interest in the continent.

U.S. democracy matters abroad

African political analyst Ebenezer Obadare told VOA that policymakers on the continent were most focused on possible fallout that could affect Washington’s global standing.

“Political polarization in the U.S. — and the subsequent ripples — has deepened anxiety about the prospects of democracy globally,” said Obadare, an analyst from the Council on Foreign Relations. “For one thing, many African policymakers are worried that, depending on the outcome, the U.S. may not be in a situation to pursue the goals outlined in the recently launched U.S. strategy towards sub-Saharan Africa.”

In August, the Biden administration launched that strategy saying it “welcomes and affirms African agency and seeks to include and elevate African voices in the most consequential global conversations.”

Obadare says he’s more worried about the U.S. losing its own voice amid divisive political rhetoric or politically motivated unrest.

“Right now, much more than material support for transitioning countries, Africa needs the U.S. itself to remain democratic,” Obadare said. “There is genuine worry that if the elections get messy or are inconclusive, the U.S. might lose its gravitas and the moral authority to intervene in the political process in Africa and other developing regions.”

African wins

The midterms saw wins by multiple candidates of African origin, which were welcomed in both the diaspora community and on the continent.

Those include at least eight female Somali-American candidates who, along with one Somali-American man, won national and local-level races in Minnesota, North Dakota, Ohio and Maine; at least eight Nigerian-American candidates who won in Georgia and the District of Columbia; and others with close ties to the continent, such as Democratic Rep. Joe Neguse of Colorado, who is the son of Eritrean immigrants.

The most prominent of those victors is Somalia-born Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar, who was handily re-elected to her seat in Minnesota’s 5th district.

Her success abroad stands in stark contrast to her counterparts in Somalia, such as Fawzia Yusuf Haji Adam, the only female presidential candidate who contested the nation’s May 15 election. She got only one vote — her own.

“This is a victory for Somali women in the diaspora,” Adam said. “I congratulate them, I encourage them, and we are proud of them.”

Goodbye to some Africa hands

The midterms also saw the departure of two retiring Republican senators who have taken an interest in Africa: Senators Jim Inhofe, of Oklahoma, and Rob Portman of Ohio.

Inhofe recently concluded his final congressional trip to the continent, in which he visited Ethiopia, Kenya and Rwanda. He said he was confident that the continent would continue to receive attention from U.S. lawmakers.

“It is bittersweet to visit Africa one last time before my departure from the U.S. Senate,”Inhofe said, urging continued U.S. military presence in East Africa.

“The presence of U.S. military across Africa, while small, means a great deal to our friends and is a worthwhile investment for the United States. In each country, it was clear that a strong and robust relationship with the United States has helped spur economic growth and regional stability across the continent. I have faith that my colleagues in the House and Senate will continue the U.S.-Africa friendship long after I have retired from the Senate.”

Overall, said Mvemba Phezo Dizolele, director of the Africa Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, this election won’t negatively affect U.S. engagement. He cited what he described as “strong supporters of Africa” in the committees on Foreign Relations and Appropriations, such as Sens. Chris Coons, James Risch and Lindsey Graham.

“Overall, the midterms will not change much with regard to U.S. engagement with Africa,” he said. “Africa will continue to command a bipartisan engagement in the foreseeable future both in the lower chamber and the Senate.”

Harun Maruf contributed to this report.
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As Votes are Counted, Trump-backed Candidates See Mixed Results

How did candidates endorsed by former President Donald Trump fare in the U.S. midterm elections?  Mike O’Sullivan reports, the results were mixed as the votes were counted early Wednesday morning.
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Control of House, Senate Too Close to Call

The fate of U.S. President Joe Biden’s policy aspirations for the remainder of his first term hangs in the balance as the country awaits midterm election results that will determine which political party controls Congress for the next two years.

Several key Senate races were too close to call early Wednesday while incumbents are faring well in others. Election officials across the country have cautioned it could take days before the results of some contests are definitive.

Overall, an anticipated Republican red wave appears to be a trickle with the opposition party picking up fewer than expected seats in the House of Representatives although it could win enough to take control of the lower chamber.

All 435 seats in the House are at stake and 35 of the 100 seats in the Senate are being contested. The Senate is currently evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans, with Vice President Kamala Harris able to cast tie-breaking votes for the Democrats, so Republicans need to pick up only one seat to take the majority.

Typically, parties that control both the executive and legislative branches of government lose seats during midterm elections. Many Congressional district have boundaries that have been drawn to give an undue advantage to either Republicans or Democrats, making it difficult for opposition party challengers to unseat incumbents.

More than 45 million people cast their ballots in early, in-person or mail-in voting before Tuesday’s official Election Day. Some analysts suggest the total vote in contests across the country could top the record 115 million tally set in the 2018 midterm elections.

Voters in many states also had questions on their ballots, including the legal status of abortion, sports betting and marijuana. Voters in California, Michigan and Vermont approved initiatives enshrining abortion rights in the states’ constitutions. Maryland voters decided to make cannabis legal, but in several other states similar proposals appear headed for defeat.

History was made in two states. Maryland elected its first Black governor, Wes Moore, a Democrat. Massachusetts will have its first female governor and the country’s first openly lesbian chief executive of a state, Maura Healey, also a Democrat.

In Arkansas, former Trump White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, a Republican, was elected governor as expected. Her father, Mike Huckabee, served as governor of the state for a decade.

In one key state contest for governor, Florida’s Ron DeSantis easily won reelection. Some Republicans are pushing DeSantis to oppose former President Donald Trump for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, and he has not ruled out a possible run for the White House.

Trump, a Florida resident, said he voted for DeSantis on Tuesday in the state’s gubernatorial contest but has publicly been disparaging a possible DeSantis run for the White House. On the eve of the election, at a rally in Ohio, Trump said he would make a big announcement on November 15, which political analysts expect will be the launch of his 2024 presidential bid.

Officials in two Republican-controlled states, Missouri and Florida, refused to let federal Justice Department officials inside polling locations to monitor voting for possible voting rights violations. Top election officials for the two states questioned the Justice Department’s authority to have observers inside precincts.

Both Republican and Democratic parties monitored polls in many places across the United States to watch for any perceived irregularities, although actual fraud in U.S. elections is minuscule. The Justice Department is also monitoring compliance with federal voting rights laws in 24 states other than Missouri and Florida.

Economy, abortion on voters’ minds

In a recent Pew Research Center poll, more than three-quarters of U.S. voters said the economy was their top concern this election.

“The interest rates, the housing market, the price of gas, you know, you’re noticing in the grocery stores food is very, very expensive, and there’s items that you can’t even find anymore. It’s a huge, huge concern,” Amanda Douglas, a voter in the southeastern state of Georgia, told VOA.

After the U.S. Supreme Court decision in June ending the federal right to abortion, social issues have also motivated some voters.

“I think everybody should have access to health care [regardless of] what your personal views are on Roe v. Wade or abortion,” Georgia voter Theresa Allmend told VOA.

In Georgia, a very tight race between incumbent Democrat Senator Raphael Warnock and Republican challenger Herschel Walker could be headed for a runoff if neither candidate captures 50 percent of the votes. Senate races early Wednesday also remain too close to call in Arizona and Nevada.

‘Inflection point’

Predicting a Republican victory in the House, Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, the odds-on favorite to become House speaker if Republicans hold a majority, has promised to look for spending cuts in government programs favored by Biden.

He told CNN that Republican lawmakers would also more closely scrutinize continued U.S. arms and financial aid for Ukraine to combat Russia’s invasion, now in its ninth month.

Since the war started, Biden, with little congressional debate, has sent more than $27 billion in munitions and humanitarian assistance to the Kyiv government. But McCarthy said Republicans are unwilling to fund a continuing “blank check” without more analysis of what Ukraine specifically needs most.

Other Republican lawmakers have promised to launch investigations of the Biden administration’s performance during the first two years of his term, especially the ongoing influx of thousands of undocumented migrants across the southern border with Mexico that Biden, like former President Donald Trump, has been unable to halt.

Some Republican legislators are calling for hearings on business activities conducted by the president’s son, Hunter Biden, in Ukraine and China. U.S. prosecutors have already been conducting an investigation of the younger Biden’s business operations but have not brought any charges.

Meanwhile, Democrats have accused Republicans of planning to cut popular health care and pension benefits for older Americans if they take control of Congress, or subject them to regular five-year funding reviews.

Both Biden and Trump campaigned respectively in recent weeks for Democratic and Republican candidates. Trump, who was ousted from office in 2020, still falsely claims he was cheated out of reelection by vote count irregularities.

The U.S. Department of Justice and a Georgia state prosecutor are conducting wide-ranging criminal investigations of his election-related actions before leaving office and during the aftermath of his presidency.

Biden, who termed Tuesday’s election an “inflection point” in U.S. democracy, also has said he plans to run for reelection in two years but has yet to make a formal declaration.

The president has attacked Republican “election denier” candidates who, adopting Trump’s refrain, have refused to accept the legitimacy of Biden’s victory two years ago.

The president has also contended that the economy remains strong, adding that hundreds of thousands of jobs have been added over the past year even as consumer prices have risen at the fastest pace in four decades. He has touted congressional passage of a massive infrastructure construction measure he proposed, although it has not proved to be an issue that voters have cared much about.

Katherine Gypson, Masood Farivar, and Ken Bredemeier contributed to this report. Some information in this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters.
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Inflation, Abortion Top Issues for US Midterm Voters, Exit Poll Finds

Inflation and abortion topped the list of issues motivating U.S. voters in Tuesday’s midterm elections, followed by crime, immigration and gun policy, an exit poll conducted by Edison Research showed.

Turnout for the midterms, which will determine control of Congress and a number of state governorships, was about evenly divided between men and women, according to the poll.

The following is a summary of some of the survey’s latest findings:

About 6 out of 10 voters said they were "dissatisfied or angry" about the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe v Wade, and about the same percentage said abortion should be legal.
About 3 out of 10 voters said inflation was their top concern in deciding how to vote.
About 3 out of 10 voters said abortion was their top concern in deciding how to vote.
About 1 out of 10 voters said crime was their top concern in deciding how to vote.
About 1 out of 10 voters said immigration was their top concern in deciding how to vote.
About 1 out of 10 voters said gun policy was their top concern in deciding how to vote.
About 8 out of 10 voters said the economy was "not so good or poor" versus about 2 of 10 who said it was "excellent or good."
About 6 out of 10 voters said gasoline prices had caused them a financial hardship recently.
About 6 out of 10 voters said abortion should be legal vs. 4 of 10 who said it should be illegal.
About 5 out of 10 voters said their family's financial situation was worse than it was two years ago, while 3 of 10 said it was unchanged and 2 of 10 said it was better.
About 7 out of 10 voters said U.S. democracy was threatened.
About 7 out of 10 voters said they would not like to see President Joe Biden run for a second term.
About 6 out of 10 voters held an unfavorable opinion of Trump and 4 out 10 held a favorable opinion.
About half of voters approved of Biden's student loan forgiveness plan, roughly the same as those who disapproved.

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In Photos: 2022 US Midterm Elections

Millions of Americans cast their ballots in congressional elections that will determine the philosophical shape of Congress and set the tone for the Washington political debate during the second half of Democratic President Joe Biden’s four-year term.
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