White House levels new allegation that China swept up voter data

The Trump administration on Thursday reiterated its view that China’s alleged efforts to collect millions of American voter registration files constituted election interference — an allegation leveled by President Trump in a primetime address two weeks ago.

The White House said the voter files that were swept up by China “included non-publicly available data,” in a fact sheet approved by the CIA, National Security Agency, Department of Homeland Security and Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

The fact sheet did not specify what private information was obtained or which states were impacted. An administration official told reporters the U.S. intelligence community believes China purchased, stole or hacked files, but it cannot confirm what percentage was taken through those methods.

The White House also said Chinese cyber actors “acquired voter registration data stored on commercial websites” in 2022.

The allegation that China collected 220 million U.S. voter registration files first emerged earlier this month, when Mr. Trump declassified a trove of intelligence records that he presented as evidence the U.S. election system falls “catastrophically short.” 

The president has sought for years to challenge the results of the 2020 election, which he lost to former President Joe Biden and has alleged — without evidence — was rigged. Intelligence agencies assessed in 2021 that China and other foreign countries did not try to interfere in technical aspects of the 2020 election, including voter registration processes.

Mr. Trump earlier this month called China’s collection of voter rolls “the largest compromise of election data in history.” That drew pushback from election experts, who noted that voter registration files are public and easily accessible in many states, and obtaining voter rolls would not necessarily allow foreign actors to interfere with the voting process. 

Every state has slightly different rules for what voter data is public. For example, some states freely release the phone numbers and dates of birth of registered voters, while others keep them confidential.

China’s effort lasted several years, the administration official said, with China obtaining tens of millions of files from 18 states in 2020 and 220 million files by 2023. 

The official said the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Administration discussed whether the government should release victim notifications for Americans whose files were accessed.

Exactly how China intended to use the voter data is unclear. A 2020 assessment by the National Intelligence Officer for Cyber Issues (NIO-Cyber) said Chinese intelligence “analyzed multiple US states’ … election voter data” and intended to “conduct public opinion analysis on the 2020 US general election.” The document was declassified four years ago but is heavily redacted.

The White House argued Thursday that foreign powers could also carry out “malign activities” with voter data. Its fact sheet pointed to another newly released 2020 memo by NIO-Cyber that warned adversaries with access to voter registration systems could “alter data” to “prevent individual voters or groups of voters from voting.” That memo said it wasn’t clear whether any countries had “specific plans to manipulate election-related systems.” Election experts have said public voter files cannot be used to modify registration records.

After the 2020 election, the National Intelligence Council assessed that no foreign actors — including China — attempted to alter voter registrations, the casting of ballots, vote counting or any other “technical aspect” of the 2020 election process. 

There was some debate, however, over whether China tried to influence the election to help one side win. Most intelligence agencies believed China stayed on the sidelines, according to the National Intelligence Council’s assessments, but the NIO-Cyber offered a minority view that Beijing tried to undermine the Trump campaign through efforts like social media posts.

China, for its part, has denied attempting to meddle in U.S. elections.

The Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C., told CBS News earlier this month it has “all along adhered to the principle of non-interference in others’ internal affairs.”