As the US presidential election approached, there were many fears that foreign interference would significantly impact the results. Whether or not those fears were justified by the actual election, it is clear that the threat to democracy is real and that we must work harder to safeguard our electoral ecosystem. The challenge is complicated by the fact that interference can take many forms and involve both state actors and non-state actors. Interference often takes the form of disinformation. This can be designed to support a particular candidate or outcome, but it can also be used to sow doubt about the validity of an election, drive polarization in a society, or undermine trust and faith in a democracy as a system of government or elections as its core process.
Democracies must learn from the experience of the US and develop an agenda to protect their elections from foreign interference. Several policy options look promising, including pursuing target hardening policies that reduce the likelihood that a meddling foreign power will succeed in its immediate goal of placing or keeping a particular candidate or party in office.
Another approach is to bolster democratic institutions and build resilience to foreign interference. This can include requiring paper ballots and manual vote counting and preventing the use of digital scanners, which can be vulnerable to manipulation by adversaries. This may slow down vote counting and might add to the cost of holding an election, but it will greatly increase the chances that a foreign interference campaign will be exposed.
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