Two days before the US midterms, federal–state threat sharing is reported at its weakest since 2016, and chatbots are citing an AI-generated fake local-news network

A shrunken CISA and channels that no longer move

According to CNN, a mid-October classified briefing, the first since 2024, was interrupted by technical failures and rescheduled. A last-minute DHS online threat-sharing platform was described as lacking credibility, and David Becker of the Center for Election Innovation and Research said he knows of no election official actively sharing cybersecurity information with federal authorities this cycle. CISA has lost about a third of its staff, and election-security grants moved from 55 million dollars in 2024 to 15 million in 2025 and 45 million in 2026.

A CISA spokesperson countered that an information-sharing tool is available on request and that the agency remains fully equipped. Scott Leiendecker of Liberty Vote, whose machines are used in 26 states, called federal cyber support disappointing, and Arizona CISO Michael Moore warned that politicising threat-intelligence sharing will make people stop sharing. Unsubstantiated remarks by DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin about election-system vulnerabilities have further deepened state-level distrust.

Russia with AI-altered video, China with targeted candidates

Intelligence assessments say Russia is deploying disinformation to denigrate Democratic candidates, and Graphika and others tracked accounts suspected of being Russian operatives posting AI-altered videos on X, including a fabricated sexual-assault allegation against Texas Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico. Rep. Jim Himes of the House Intelligence Committee said Russia is throwing everything out there, that China is extremely targeted at anti-China House candidates, and that Iran has been relatively quiet in the first major election since the US–Iran war began in February.

A 37-site fake local-news network cited by chatbots

In research by the security firm VisionHeight reported by NPR on 30 October, 37 sites posing as local newspapers, blogs and state or national outlets carried content promoting ten mostly Democratic House candidates. Thirty-six of the 37 domains were registered within eight minutes on 15 September, about 100,000 words of templated text were posted on 30 September, and the phrase “the stronger choice” appeared more than 360 times. All sites allowed 17 AI crawlers and carried llms.txt, and OpenAI's chatbot cited the network in 19 of NPR's 37 queries. The campaigns and the DCCC deny involvement, and the operator is unidentified.

In a separate Washington Post test asking six chatbots to build voter guides for an address in every county, the bots failed to name the House district 48% of the time and were wrong 22% of the time when they did, and Microsoft's Copilot cited The Ballot Brief, run by a former Rumble executive, in 75% of answers. Right-leaning outlets branded the 37 sites a Democratic scheme, though NPR did not establish the operator. The weakening of official information sharing and the contamination of an AI-mediated information layer are advancing together, which marks this election.