Check set for vote security

Deputy White House press secretary Eric Schultz said the review would include the three most recent presidential elections, and that President Obama had ordered it to be concluded before the end of his term.

Schultz said there were indications of malicious cyber activity in the 2008 and 2016 elections, but not 2012. But given the recent concerns, the president ordered the intelligence community to “go back with what we know now to use every tool possible as a means of due diligence.”

“What the president asked for was a review of malicious cyber activity tied to our election cycle. So it will be broader than just this past election,” he said.

Much of that review will be classified but will be shared with Congress and state elections officials. “We’re going to make public asmuch as we can,” Schultz said.

“I think that this is going to be a deep dive. This will be a review that is broad and deep at the same time. They’re going to look at where the activity leads them to look at.”

“I want to be clear here that this is not an effort to challenge the outcome of the election,” he said. “The president has gone out of his way to provide for the seamless transition of power.”

U. S. intelligence officials have said they believe Russia actively attempted to interfere with the U. S. presidential election, including a hack of the Democratic National Committee’s email system.

An Oct. 7 joint statement from the Department Of Homeland Security and Office of the Director of National Intelligence on Election Security said, “The U. S. Intelligence Community is confident that the Russian Government directed the recent compromises of e- mails from US persons and institutions, including from US political organizations.”

The activities were intended to interfere with the U. S. election process and are “not new to Moscow — the Russians have used similar tactics and techniques across Europe and Eurasia,” the joint statement said.