The Department of Homeland Security will require random audits of paper ballots in the upcoming midterm elections, citing long-standing concerns that the nation’s largest voting technology companies rely on Chinese-manufactured components in their machines. In a letter released Thursday, Secretary Markwayne Mullin outlined the risks posed to America’s election infrastructure and detailed new measures the agency is taking to secure the vote ahead of November.

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“Voting machines with components manufactured by foreign adversaries introduce significant security risks,” Mullin wrote. “These vulnerabilities mean that malicious actors could potentially compromise election infrastructure at any stage of the supply chain, even before the machines are assembled or deployed.”

Mullin noted major U.S. voting machine companies have acknowledged that some of their components cannot be sourced from any American manufacturers, requiring them to rely on foreign suppliers. Three of those vendors which make up the vast majority of election systems in the U.S., “more than 80%,” are ES&S, Hart InterCivic, and Dominion.

The agency said that it would require all states to “submit a plan for transitioning away from unsecure electronic voting systems” using bar codes and QR codes to count votes, “conduct a manual audit of at least 5% of all ballots cast,” reconcile the number of voters with the number of ballots cast, and use the department’s SAVE system to verify the citizenship of voters.

Concerns about foreign components in U.S. election machines are not new. Four Democratic lawmakers raised the issue in a December 2019 letter to the private equity firms that own the major voting machine vendors, and Democratic senators sent similar inquiries to the manufacturers back in 2017. In 2020, executives from ES&S, Hart InterCivic, and Dominion all testified before the House Administration Committee and acknowledged that some components were made in China, with Dominion’s then-CEO explaining that “in some cases, there are simply no alternative suppliers.”

The Trump administration has spent the past several months declassifying intelligence tied to election security. Documents released through the White House Transparency Task Force reveal that the U.S. Intelligence Community first detected Venezuela’s plans to manipulate its own electronic voting machines back in 2004, raising early alarm that similar tactics could someday be used to “undermine confidence in, or manipulate the electoral process in, the United States.” Other declassified findings include evidence that China obtained 220 million American voter registration files, assessments that five foreign adversaries (China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, and Venezuela) have the capability to hack voting machines, and confirmation that the FBI investigated a 2020 breach of 633,000 voter files in Arizona’s largest county, a case in which no charges were ever filed.

DHS first announced in July that it would tie Homeland Security Grant Program funding to states’ compliance with new election security measures, including the paper ballot audits detailed in Mullin’s letter.

Scripture repeatedly calls God’s people to seek truth and expose what is done in darkness. Ephesians 5:11 instructs believers to “have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them.” For years, warnings about foreign-made components in America’s voting infrastructure were raised and then quietly shelved, even as the technical capabilities of adversarial nations to interfere with U.S. elections were well documented by our own intelligence agencies. The fact that action is only now being taken to secure this critical piece of our republic should give every believer pause, and it should also give us confidence that truth, even long buried, still has a way of coming to light.

Free and fair elections are foundational to a self-governing nation, and Christians have a responsibility to steward that gift well, including through prayer for those tasked with protecting it.

How are you praying about this issue? Share your prayers and scriptures in the comments below.

(Excerpt from Just the News. Photo Credit: Tony Webster from Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States – Vote Here – Election Polling Place, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=95804795).