Intelligence director Tulsi Gabbard's office obtained and tested voting machines in Puerto Rico

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: CNN Politics

Updated Feb 5, 2026, 11:01 AM ET
PUBLISHED Feb 4, 2026, 11:33 PM ET


The Office of the Director of National Intelligence obtained voting machines from Puerto Rico and probed them for security vulnerabilities, the office said in a statement to CNN Wednesday. The extraordinary move comes amid Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard’s broader search for voter fraud at the behest of President Donald Trump, who has falsely claimed that the 2020 election was rigged despite numerous court rulings and audits debunking the claim.

Gabbard was present as FBI agents executed a search warrant in Fulton County, Georgia, last week related to the 2020 election.The ODNI claimed in its statement to have found “extremely concerning” cybersecurity and operational deployment practices with the voting machines in Puerto Rico but did not provide detailed evidence. The US attorney in Puerto Rico, Homeland Security Investigations agents and an FBI supervisory special agent “facilitated the voluntary turnover of electronic voting hardware and software to ODNI for analysis,” an ODNI spokesperson said.

It’s unclear exactly when the agency received and studied the voting machines. In justifying the voting equipment probe, the ODNI cited “publicly reported claims relating to elections in Puerto Rico alleging discrepancies and systemic anomalies in their electronic voting systems.” David Becker, the executive director of a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that works with election officials, told CNN that voting machines are subject to regular testing and a strict chain of custody. The machines count paper ballots that are audited and recounted to confirm the machine counts. Those are all security controls that have proven effective, he said.

The director of national intelligence coordinates intelligence from across the 17 other organizations in the US intelligence community. It is unprecedented for the ODNI to play such a hands-on role in election infrastructure, former intelligence officials and election experts told CNN.

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2026/02/04/politics/gabbard-office-obtained-voting-machines-puerto-rico

[pecosbob]

1. Translated...Democrats keep winning elections in Puerto Rico because the GOP sucks...

so we're going to do our level best to convince you that they're cheating, even when they're not.

[2na fisherman]

2. Conspiracy To Defraud The Electorate

Tulsi will say there are signs of foreign meddling and give Trump an excuse to interfere in the elections.

[moniss]

3. Identifying vulnerabilities so they can be

auctioned off or sent to Putin.

[Marie Marie]

4. Looking for vulnerabilities to cheat FOR Trump.

[Ford_Prefect]

5. This is a bait & switch plan to obscure manipulations during the 2026 vote.

And to confuse the facts surrounding the last minute vote shifts in the 2024 swing states.

Before anyone howls CT! I worked in IT for 18 years. Independant post election analysis has pointed out statistical anomalies not explainable by MAGA voting patterns, voter registration numbers, or actual vote tallies. The only conclusion we can come to is that some friends of DJT adjusted the numbers. Whether that was Putin's trolls, or Elon's, or some un-named tech-bros.
The point is that they're setting a smoke screen for whatever they're planning for this year.

[hay rick]

6. They are fishing for ways to nullify election results.

It’s unclear exactly when the agency received and studied the voting machines. In justifying the voting equipment probe, the ODNI cited “publicly reported claims relating to elections in Puerto Rico alleging discrepancies and systemic anomalies in their electronic voting systems.” David Becker, the executive director of a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that works with election officials, told CNN that voting machines are subject to regular testing and a strict chain of custody. The machines count paper ballots that are audited and recounted to confirm the machine counts. Those are all security controls that have proven effective, he said.

If Donald Trump pulls a fraudulent, self-serving claim of voter fraud out of his ass it becomes a "publicly reported claim."
There is no legitimate difference of opinion on the chain of custody of ballots, only a difference in goals. Breaking the chain of custody of ballots, like in Puerto Rico and Fulton County, creates the opportunity to forge counterfeit claims. Breaking the chain of custody or routing it through a criminal enterprise is the exact opposite of the usual prosecutorial burden of demonstrating a legitimate chain of custody of evidence.

This is not partisan disagreement. This is an attack on American democracy by its enemies.

[Multichromatic]

7. Oh!!!! I have a solution

There this one weird trick the government can to to prevent ALL voter and election fraud.

Use only paper ballots. Remove and ban all electronic voting machines. Count all ballots by hand and institute instant run off voting in all elections nation wide.

Problem solved. That would probably also mean the GOP will never win an election again because they wouldn't be able to cheat anymore.

[ThreeNoSeep]

8. I had no idea that stealing an election only started with electronic voting machines

Oh wait.
BTW, hand counts are a GOP talking point.

[Polybius]

13. I find it insane that your first link didn't mention 2000 or 2004

Yet it mentioned 1960, so clearly it wasn't only stating proven facts.

[Multichromatic]

14. Even a broken clock is right twice a day.

Just because some Republicans want hand counted ballots it doesn't mean it's a crazy right wing conspiracy. I'm also not saying election fraud is completely impossible with paper ballots.

What I am saying is all of the very suspicious and wide spread "Red Shift" in voting patterns that started happening in the late 1990's and early 2000's when electronic voting machines came into wide spread use are probably due to Republicans cheating.

Remember several states including Ohio sent votes to out of state tabultors and then suddenly the results came back dramatically shifting to Bush away from Gore and later Kerry. Exit polls used to match the election outcome. In foreign elections exit polls are used to guage fraud by western election monitors. If exit polls and election results don't even come close to matching it is usually a sign of election fraud.

After the 2004 US election our media started "adjusting" the exit polls to match whatever the election outcome was. Therefore I think many of the elections we have had since 2000 have been rigged to favor Republicans.

This is all very old and I can't find good links for most of this stuff anymore. A lot of it I also heard on Stephanie Miller's, Thom Hartmann's, and Randi Rhodes' shows back when. Randi always had links to all her sources when she was on Air America. I trust the sources she used back then.

Yes, some of this is conspiracy theories but I very much believe Bush and Karl Rove cheated a lot to get into office. Just like most of us believe Trump cheated heavily to "win" the Presidency.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/republican-it-guru-dies-in-plane-crash/

https://www.yahoo.com/news/fact-check-yes-trump-said-130000430.html

[EuterpeThelo]

9. Some of us

are old enough to remember the hanging chads and butterfly ballots that got us into this mess in the first place.

I say we resurrect Athan Gibb's TruVote system...

[LiberalArkie]

11. I remember as a kid in South Arkansas, before machines that the deputies would pick up the ballot boxes from the

precincts. He picked up the ballot box from the black precinct and put it in his front seat. He drove a bit and took it from the front seat and put it in the trunk and pulled out a duplicate one and put that in his front seat.

[pfitz59]

10. The GOP is terrified of PR becoming a state

scary Spanish speakers

[rickyhall]

12. Intelligence director Tulsi Gabbard - oxymoron in the worst way - not intelligent or direct

[Snoopy 7]

15. don't trust gabbard

So is gabbard a russian asset? All investigations show that there is smoke while trump is trying to put out the fire.
https://www.ms.now/opinion/a-whistleblower-complaint-about-tulsi-gabbard-has-been-kept-from-congress