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This is Intelligence Matters with former acting director of the CIA, Michael Morrell. Brought to you by

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One of the biggest

concerns I have about the 2020 election is in fact the degree to which our own domestic divisions

have number one made it very challenging for us to respond effectively to any foreign interference if it were to occur and

if it is occurring which I

You know, I think most assessments are that it is at least some level in two, you know that divided society really provides such a ripe

environment for these kinds of manipulative tactics and I guess actually one more point on that is that you know again

This relates to the COVID conversation the sort of polluted information environment that we see in general whether it's around COVID whether it's around

Whole host of other issues again really makes for a little bit of a tender box if you will where it doesn't take that much to

really exacerbate or blow open some of the challenges that we have domestically

So Laura what about

Approaches to election systems. Are we still seeing that and have we seen any different

Kinds of approaches than what we saw in 2016 in 2020 we haven't seen any

Reports so far of the targeting of electoral infrastructure. It is an area where we frankly have a lot more visibility than we did in

2016 what I worry about is

A scenario in which you know a lot of states are

Enabling much greater absentee voting or male voting for the November election rightly so to

help support people's ability to safely vote

But that's going to mean a much slower process to count the ballots and there's a very good chance that we're not going to know the results right away

And you combine that with potentially a bit of disinformation about what's gone on

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