Moira Whelan argues that election infrastructure has long had underlying cybersecurity vulnerabilities that AI capabilities are now making more acute, even as most public attention and funding go toward disinformation rather than technical system fragility. She contends the deeper structural problem is a missing institutional link between election authorities, technology companies, and civil society groups for sharing threat information. Whelan points to Europe’s proposed Democracy Shield initiative, which would designate electoral infrastructure as critical infrastructure and create trusted intermediaries for cyber threat information sharing, as a model worth pursuing.
