both parties. Local Republicans publicly alleged that Democrats were ignoring the issue and privately accused them 0f try- ing tO suppress the GOP vote. Democrats thought Republicans were makingup an excuse for their losses at the county polls. "That was a big concern,' says Hestrin, an elected Republican. "People should still have faith in our election systems. ltwas only months later that it dawned on investigators in D. C. that undermining voters' faith may have been the point 0f the Riverside County hack all along. ln the months following the California primaries, the feds discovered that Russian hackers had broken intO more than 20 state and local election systems and attempted tO alter voter registration ⅲ several of them. Looking back at the events in Riverside County, cybersecurity offcials at the White House wondered whether it had been a test run by the Russians. "lt 100ked like a cyberattacker testing what kind of chaos they could unleash on Election Day; ” says one former federal cybersecurity offcial who looked intO the case. "There was no forensic evidence, SO we may never know for sure, but the intelligence told us the Russians were bragging about doing just that. ” lt is easy tO forget, in the constant flurry of news, that the abiding goal of the Russian operation against the 2016 presidential election was, in the words Of the U. S. intelligence community, "to undermine public faith in the U. S. demo- cratic process. ” What unfolded from early spring 2016 through the close ofpolls on NOV. 8 in states and counties across Amer- ica was an aggressive attack on the credi- bility ofour elections and a largelyunseen and futile attempt by the federal govern- ment tO counter it. The FBI, the Depart- ment of Homeland Security (DHS) and U. S. intelligence services worked to iden- tify the hackers and determine how wide- spread their malicious influence opera- tionwas. The feds struggled to help states protect their ballOt machines and VOter- registration rolls, only tO become sus- pected of election meddling themselves amid mounting partisanship. ln the end, realizing there was little they could d0 t0 stop what they feared might be a final Rus- sian attack on the vote, the feds worked up an extraordinary plan t0 limit the dam- age on Election Day and in the days after. The previously undisclosed 15-page 24 TIME July 31 , 2017 plan, produced by President Obama's cybersecurity offcials and obtained by TIME, shows just how worried Washington was. lt deferred tO states in most cases Of a cyberincident on Election Day. But in a severe attack "likely t0 result in demonstrable impact tO election infrastructure," it provided for "enhanced procedures ” in response. The plan allowed for the deployment of armed federal law enforcement agents ” to polling places if hackers managed to halt voting. ln a crisis, it also foresaw the deployment 0f "Active and Reserve military forces ” and members 0f the National Guard "upon a request from a federal agency and the direction of the Secretary Of Defense or the President. ” For three days after the election, a special interagency effort would be tasked with addressing "any postelection cyber- incidents; ” including planted stories calling intO question the results. ” On Nov. 1 , the White House went so far as tO war-game an Ele ction D ay at- tack. Over the course Of five hours, the National Security Council ran a fictional- ized sequence Of events tO rehearse hOW federal agencies would communicate and respond in a real attack. Some Ofthe sce- narios dealt with actual VOte meddling, while others focused on disinformation efforts tO undermine the election. As the nightmare scenarios unfolded—from voters turned away tO violence at polling places—the team went over what actions each agencywould take andwhat the legal constraints were on what they could dO. As it happened, Nov. 8 came and went with no final, spectacular attack on the integrity 0fthe election. But the Russian effort may nonetheless be working, helped wittingly or otherwise by Donald Trump. Most Americans believe that their own votes will be correctly counted, but WHILE INSIDE, THE HACKERS ー R に 0 す 0 ALTER AND DELETE INFORMATION ー THE VOTER ROLLS their faith that elections are honest is collapsing. ln 2009 , 59 % 0f Americans had confidence inthe honesty ofelections, while 40 % did not, according to Gallup. By 2015 , those numbers had flipped, andjust before the November vote, amid Trump's repeated talk ofrigged elections and the widespread coverage Of Russian hacking, Gall 叩 found that only 30 % of Americans had confidence in the honesty of our elections, while 69 % did not. The diminished faith may deepen. Recent revelations and testimony have shown that the Russian operation tar- geting state and IOC al voting systems was broader and more intrusive than previ- ously thought. They have also shown that our election systems remain vulnerable to different kinds of attack designed to undermine not the vote count itself but America's faith in the result. Which is why the story ofhow offcials scrambled tO secure the 2016 vote only tO become mired in partisan suspicion iS important. Because the question 0f U. S. vulnerabil- ity t0 election meddling is less about the past VOtes than it is about the next ones. RUSSIA'S DANGEROUS NEW GAME ABOUT THREE WEEKS AFTER THE Riverside County hack, a Russian agent signed on tO the voter-registration web- site Of one oflllinois's 109 election Juris- dictions , each Of which has its own VOt- ing system. But instead Of entering his personal information in one Ofthe fields for names and addresses, the hacker up- loaded a string Of malicious prewritten COde, executing a ClassiC hack known as SQL injection. With that, the hacker opened a back door to all 15 million files on past and current voters in the state since 2006. And for nearly three weeks, no one knew he was there. Such intrusions weren't entirely new. Russia had been probing U. S. state and local electoral systems for years. ln 2008 , Moscow hacked the campaigns of both Obama and John McCain. Then, in 2014 , the Russians became more brazen. "Previously, when you discovered the Russians somewhere, they disappeared like ghosts—poof!" says Michael Daniel, former White House cybersecurity coordinator. "After 2014 , you'd find them in networks, and they'd stay, almost like they were taunting us. Theybecame much

Department Of Defense (DOD) Headquarters and RegionaI-Based EIements The Department Of Defense (DOD) may support civil authorities in response tO cyber incidents based upon a request from a federal agency, and the direction Of the Secretary Of Defense 0 「 the President. Support may be provided based on the needs Of the incident, the capabilities required, and the readiness Of available forces. AvailabIe forces forincident response 所 a federal status 00 d include the Active and Reserve Components, tO include NationaI Guard. Prohibition Of Staging Armed Federal Personnel at P011ing Places Pursuant tO 18 U. S. C. 目 592 , armed federal personnel, including federallaw enforcement agents, are restricted in responding tO an active polling place in an operational capacity,. An armed federal response tO an active polling place may create felony liability for the responsible federal officials or employees. Armed federal personnel, however, may be present at an active polling place in their personal capacity to cast their own votes. は is important tO note that the Department Of Justice has concluded that armed federallaw enforcement agents may, where otherwise appropriate, tO a cyber 0 「 otherincident a X)IIing place that has caused 代 tO cease functioning (). e. when balloting has entirely ceased at that location). INSIDETHE DOCUMENTS The White House plan to mitigate a cyberattack on EIection Day deferred to states and localities in many cases. But in a crisis, it contemplated extraordinary measures including armed personnel and counterpropaganda e 幵 0 rts. U. S. chief technology offlcer. FeIten had famously been the first academic to ob- tain a Dieb01d voting machine and pub- lish a public study showing it could be compromised. With colleagues from the National lnstitute Of Standards and Technology who had written the standards for electronic-voter-machine security, Felten and Daniel concluded that hacking voting machines was technically po s sible. "ln many places in the U. S. , there are touchscreen VOting machines, WhiCh are vulnerable tO manipulation by someone WhO gets access ahead Of time,: ” Felten says. The cyberteam began worrying that Russia might try t0 compromise a poll worker and gain access tO touchscreen machines before the election. But doing that in a way that could alter the outcome of the election was very hard. First, the attackers would have tO know which districts could affect the outcome. Then they'd have t0 changejust enough votes to ensure victory without switching SO many that it would draw attentio n. That didn't me an all was well. The whOle point ofthe election wasn't just to count ballots; it was for the U. S. to reach consensus that the democratic will Of the people had been freely and fairly ex- pressed. Hacking the consensus was much easier. "We concluded that Russia could erode the confidence Of millions Of vot- ers and undermine our ability tO conduct free and fair elections,' says Anthony Fer- rante, former director for cyberincident response at the National Security Coun- 26 TIME July 31 , 2017 cil, whO ran the frontline efforts tO com- bat the Russian operation. Since May, U. S. spy hunters had seen evidence that Russia's military intelli- gence might try t0 damage the expected winner, Hillary Clinton. The intel was incomplete but pointed in the same di- rection: an initial report Of a bragging GRU offcial that month was followed by other intelligence reports indicating a widespread willingness tO interfere. ln the wake of the lllinois intrusion and on the basis of the intelligence it had re- ceived, the White House team by mid- August believed there were three main ways Russian President Vladimir Putin could undermine the integrity Of the vote. The first and most disruptive thing Russia might do: subtly alter the voter rolls. Deleting records would draw too much attention, but running a program against registration files that would, for instance, flip the second letter in every voter's address could go unnoticed. Then, on Election Day, every voter in a swing SOME STATES WERE MORE CONCERNED ABOU す FEDERAL OVERREACH THAN FOREIGN E00 リ NG county would have tO VOte by provisional b allot, giving the impre s sion of chaos and allowing a propagandist wh0 wanted t0 call intO question the vote tO dO SO after the fact. Another possibility involved the pro- paganda value 0f fiddling with a vot- ing machine. Says Daniel: "We worried, Could [a hacker] document an intrusion intO a [ single ] voting machine and then say,'Here's the YouTube video. We did this a hundred thousand times across the United States , ' even though they had never done anything like that?" That would SOW doubt about every machine in the country and would also undermine the final vote's credibility. Lastly, the Russians could interfere with the election rep orting system. The actual vote tally is decentralized and extremely slow: local offlcials count and validate their re sults, and state secretarie s, election boards or Other state Off ℃ ials sign offon the total tabulations, and only then is the offcial vote certified. That decentralization is the system's strength. But on election night, nearly all reporting across television, the lnternet and news wires relied on the Associated press. Altering the data reported by the AP, or just taking down the AP system with a sustained attack, could cause chaos. Knowing all this, Ferrante began working up an emergency plan for what to do on Election Day, and the day after, if the Russians attacked the vote. Drawing on election experts at the Justice Department, the FBI and DHS, Ferrante

more aggresslve. Election 2016 was a step well beyond that. After the lllinois hack and a similar one at about the same time in Arizona, "we realized we were playing a different game; ” Daniel says. The Russians weren't just stealing information for the purposes of collecting intelligence as they had been in previous election cycles. lnstead, Dan- iel's team concluded, they were showing a possible intent tO meddle with the VOte. lllinois discovered the intrusion on July 12 , when the hackers triggered an alarm by trying to download the whole file of 15 million voters. lllinois offcials took the system offline and found that about 90 , 000 files had been stolen, more than 75 , 000 0f which included personal data like driver's-license numbers and the last four digits 0f the voters' Social Security numbers. When lllinois reported the news t0 the FBI ⅲ late July, the bureau dispatched a tactical Cyber Action Team t0 the state capital, Springfield, where the computers are kept. Fortunately for the feds, lllinois offcials had kept a んⅡ backup of all the data on the system from before the SQL attack, so the FBI was able to track what the hackers had done. Bureau agents found that while they were inside, the hackers had attempted to alter and delete information in the VOter rolls. ln particular, they had tried t0 change voters' names and addresses. AS far as they could tell, none of the efforts had been successful. MOSt important, lllinois had recorded the IP addresses of the attackers. Those digital fingerprints and the technique s the hackers had used, combined with the intelligence reporting on Russian plans, convinced the feds that the attackers were a group, known as Fancy Bear, that operates as an arm Of Russian military intelligence (GRU). At first, says a former senior White House offcial, that revelation "was ter- rifying. ” For a week or SO starting in late July, the feds faced the prospect that Rus- sia might be planning t0 physically hack 邑 into the voting machine s and fiddle with TETE-A-TETE President Trump met with putin not once but twice at the G -20 the vote count. The urgent need: tO fig- summit in Hamburg in July. The undisclosed second conversation tOOk ure out if MO scow could actually swing place during a dinner and without any other U. S. offcials present. the election. As it turned out, the White House had on staff one Of the country's leading experts in voting-machine ma- nipulation, professor Ed Felten 0fPrince- ton, whO was serving as deputy tO the 25

STRETCHING THEIR LEGS The ltalian team competes during the women's technical synchronized-swimmingfinal at the world swimming championships on 」 u ツ 18 in Budapest.ltaIy came in fifth, while Russia took the go 旧 . The biennial FINA World Championships brings athletes from across the globe to compete in a range ofaquatic sports. Photograph by Laurence Griffiths—Getty lmages FACTS ALT CLAIM The President's attorney Jay SekuIow asked how the 」 une 2016 meeting between Donald Trump 」 r. andthe Russians could be nefarious if it was "allowed" by the U. S. Secret Service. REALITY The Secret Service says it did not provide protection tO Trump 」 r,. at the time ofthe meeting and did not screen hiS visitors. RED MEAT Hindu nationalist mobs have launched The low-caste farmer's son attacks on Muslim and Dalit communities in recent months over the issue OfCOW worship. Many taking high omce in lndia Hindus view the cow as sacred, but many Dalits eat beef. Although Modi has condemned the attacks, critics say the BJP has not done enough tO rein ln RAM NATH KOVIND, A VETERAN POLITICIAN FRONI Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata its hard-line base. Kovind's election could help the Party (BJP), is set tO become lndia's next President. BJP woo Dalits in upcoming state elections. Results onJuly 20 were expected to confirm his victory, thanks t0 the BJP'S strength in lndia's EYE ON 2019 Kovind's presidency could also Parliame nt and state legislatures, which make up help M0di in his bid for re-election in 2019. the electoral college for thelargely ceremonial post. Announcing Kovind's candidacy, M0di highlighted Here's what tO know about him: the "humble background ” ofthis son of a farmer and said his would be a voice for the CASTE CARD Kovind is a Dalit, from the "downtrodden. ” This fits in with the BJP's lowest rung ofthe Hindu caste hierarchy. efforts tO court poorer voters in rural Historically oppressed by higher-caste lndia as GDP growth slows, young Hindus, Dalits account for more than lndians struggle t0 find employment 16 % ofthe population and are now and Modi's appetite for meaningful viewed as a valuable bank ofvoters economic reforms iS under scrutiny. by the country's leading political —NIKHIL KUMAR/NEW DELHI parties. Kovind's election would make him lndia's second Dalit President, after K. R. Narayanan in the late 1990S. SPOTLIGHT CLAIM PresidentTrump tweeted that the Washington POSt/ ABC News poll wasthe "most inaccurate poll around election time," after itfound his approvalrating had fallen to 36 % in 」 uly. REALITY 仕 wasn'tthe most inaccurate. The same poll, with a margin を Of error 0f 2.5 points, found HiIIary CIinton leadingTrump 47 % to 43 % just before the election. Clinton won the popular vote with 48 % vs. Trump's 46 %. 3 く am Nath Kovind was due to be named the 14 礒 President 可加市 0 0 れ 20 7

got a little bit further and were doing these kinds Of testing. ' What was most frightening was that they knew theywere seeing only Russia's clumsiest efforts. Moscow's state-sponsored hackers are among the most skilled cyberactors in the world. The feds had to assume there were Other intrusions theyweren't seeing. The fact that they didn't see intrusions in some states, says one 0 価℃ ial , just means we didn't find them. ” THE PLAN AND THE ST STAND PARALYZED BY POLITICS AT HOME, Ob ama tried to blunt the threat directly abroad. ln a now famous one-on-one meeting with Putin in early September in Hangzhou, China, Obama told him t0 it out ” or face unspecified conse- quences. The confrontation was memo- rialized in a phOtO Ofthe tWO men staring icily at each other. For a while it looked as ifthe warning mightwork. "The intelligence community basically told us that [they were] not seeing [the Russians] continuing tO go down that road; ” says a former senior White House offcial. And in the U. S. , DHS scanned voting systems remotely across the country and found and patched vulnerabilities. Some states also accepted visits by DHS cybersecurity teams that checked for vulnerabilities in person. But relations between the states and the feds remained chilly. Then, in October, the attacks resumed. The GRU launched an operation against a software company, VR Systems, that provided election software and device s tO at least eight states, according tO a report by the lntercept. The intruders used the information tO craft a convincing-looking email that served a spear-phishing campaign against the electoral offcials across the country. With just weeks to go until the vote, the White House cybersecurity team realized there was little it could do to stop a Russian attempt tO undermine the credibility ofthe vote on EIection Day, so it shifted into damage-control mode. ln late October, the White House distrib- uted its 15-page plan to deal with an EIec- tion Day attack to the top cybersecurity offcials across the federal government. Daniel says he briefed Obama's chief of staff, Denis McDonough, on the plan ; it 28 TIME JuIY31, 2017 is not clear if President Obama himself was informed Of it or any Of its details. lt started by saying that "in almost all po- tential cases Of malicious cyberactivity impacting election infrastructure ” the feds would defer to state and local gov- ernments. But it also authorized robust federal action as well. lfthere were a "sig- nificant cyberincident ” that would result in a "demonstrable impact tO election infrastructure; ” DHS, FBI and the offce of the Director of National lntelligence would "activate enhanced procedures and allocate their resources. The Justice Department's election- crimes unit and CiVil rights divisions were on standby, as were parts 0fDHS and the Secret Service. The FBI could dispatch any 0f its Cyber Task Forces from their 56 field offces to "facilitate joint infor- mation sharing, incident response, law enforcement and intelligence actions. Four FBI Cyber Action Teams were on standby 'fifcyberinvestigative techniques are needed t0 rapidly respond t0 a call for assistance; ” but the plan indicated that they could not "self-deploy ” without FBI higher-ups' approval. Several Obama Ad- ministration offcials said the plan and the powers it enVISioned tapping in a criSiS were similar tO those available in cases Of natural disasters. Heavier forces waited inthe wings. The White House plan included the possibil- ity 0f deploying active and reserve com- ponents 0f the military. 'The Department of Defense may support civil authorities in response tO cyberincidents based upon a request from a federal agency, and the direction Of the Secretary Of Defense or the President; ” the plan said. Two people familiar with it say the idea was tO make the Pentagon's cyberexperts available to mitigate and investigate an attack. At 6 a. m. on Election Day 2016 , Fer- THE FINAL WHITE HOUSE PLAN INCLUDED THE POSSIBILITY 0 ド DEPLOYING THE MILITARY rante opened the door tO the "second Sit- uation Room, ' a carbon copy Ofthe Presi- dent's secure WestWing conference room a stone's throw away in the Eisenhower Executive Offce Building. On a secure video teleconference system, the team dialed into the FBI and DHS command posts that were running the Election Day response. They were jOined by election- crimes coordinators from the Justice De- partment and cyberintelligence age nts in the offce of the D irector of National lntel- ligence. Russia experts at CIA, NSA and Other intelligence-community agencies were standing by on the classified J0int Worldwide lntelligence Communications System (JWICS) email system. Over the course 0f the day, reports came in that made the group think it might be seeing a repeat 0f Riverside County, or worse. ln Colorado, the elec- tion voter database went down for 30 minutes. ln Utah, lines formed in what had become an unlikely battleground thanks to the independent candidacy of Evan McMullin. At one point, sensitive intelligence came in that needed tO be run t0 ground. But ultimately the level ofdis- ruption was Ⅱ 0 greater than in any normal national election, and all ⅲ all, the vote went off smoothly. As the polls closed, and the election was called for Donald Trump, some on the White House cyber- team celebrated the fact that there had been no disruptive attack. FROM BAD 10 WORSE ON NOV. 25 , AMID TALK OF POSSIBLE challenges tO the VOte inWisconsin, penn- sylvania and Michigan, the ObamaWhite House released a statement saylng, 'We stand behind our election results, which accurately reflect the will 0f the Ameri- can people [and] believe our elections were free and fair from a cybersecurity perspective. ” But even as the calls for re- counts faded, doubts about the security Of the election system spread. A senior intelligence offcial tells TIME that while the cybersecurity of- ficials at the FBI, DHS and the white House may have been scrambling t0 se- cure the vote throughout the fall, the counterintelligence operation at the bureau aimed at uncovering whether the Russian operation was trying to aid Trump only really began in earnest once

SPECIAL REPORT THE SECRET HISTORY 0 ド ELECTION 20 ユ 6 THE WHITE HOUSE WAS PREPARED TO CALL OUT THE M 旧 TARYTO GUARD THE VOTE FROM A RUSSIAN HACK BY MASSIMO CALABRESI things looked less innocuous. ln the days RIVERSIDE COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY Michael Hestrin was at his desk onJune 7 , after the vote, more people started com- 2016 , when the calls started coming in. ing forward to say they'd also had prob- lt was the day ofthe CaIifornia presiden- lems with their VOter registration on pri- tial primary, and upset voters wanted mary day. ln at least half a dozen cases, the county's top prosecutor tO know that Hestrin and his investigators concluded, they had been prevented from casting the changes had been made by hack- their ballots. "There were people calling ers WhO had used private information, our offce and filing complaints that they like SOCial Security or driver's-license had tried tO vote and that their registra- numbers, tO access the central VOter- tion had been changed unbeknownst to registration database for the entire state them,: ” says Hestrin. Soon there were more of California. than 20 reports oftrouble, and Hestrin, a There the trail went cold. The Cali- 19-yearveteran 0fthe offce and a gradu- fornia secretary ofstate's Off1ce tOld Hes- ate of Stanford Law SchooI, dispatched trin's investigators that the state's system investigators tO county polling places tO hadn't recorded the lnternet addresses of see What was going on. the computers that had made the changes , At first what they found was reassur- SO there was no way tO learn the identity ing. Everyone who had been blocked from of the hackers. Hestrin could go no fur- voting had been offered a provisional bal- ther, but that wasn't the end ofit. The 1 ⅲ - lOt, and most had cast their votes that gering mystery Of the voter-registration way,. But as the investigators dug deeper, changes bred doubt among members of ILLUSTRATION BY BROBEL DESIGN FOR TIME

The Brief Spotlight Can Tunisia remain a beacon Of democracy for 亡 e Arab world? By lan Bre er IN TUNISIA, CHANGE CAME GRADUALLY AND THEN suddenly. When a police offcer confiscated the goods ofan unlicensed vegetable seller in December 2010 , the merchant drenched himselfin gasoline and set himselfalight. During the 18 days it took M0hammed Bouazizi t0 die, his story spread across the Arab world. Public anger grew, and protests swelled. OnJan. 4 , 2011 , Bouazizi died. Ten days later, the 23-year dictatorship 0fPresident Zine eI-Abidine Ben Ali was brought t0 its knees. The Arab Spring advanced to Egypt and Libya, toppling and threatening autocrats across the region. The aftershocks continue six and a halfyears later. Libya remains divided, Syria is mired in civil war, and the Egyptian and Saudi governments have taken a hard line on political lslam. Tunisia, meanwhile, has become the Arab world's one true free-market democracy. Crucially, its revolution didn't end with a factional war. Many political movements were included in the country's new national unity government. lnternational donors stepped in tO help. Tunisian democracy activists won a Nobel peace prize. NOW, THINGS A GETTING TOUGHER. A series ofhigh- profile terrorist attacks have hurt tourism, an important part ofTunisia's economy, and growth has stalled. Lack of faith in the future has created a grim trend: a number ofTunisians have followed Bouazizi's example and set themselves on fire, a bitter legacy for the Arab Spring's most compelling success story. Given all this, can Tunisia remain an outpost of stability and an ally against lslamist militants? That's the main question I had for Prime Minister Youssef Chahed when we met in Washington on July 10. The former minister oflocal affairs, just 41 , was appointed a year ago after his predecessor, Habib Essid, was ousted partly for his failure t0 manage the economy. Slow growth is still a key part ofTunisia's story. Before the uprising, its economic growth was on track t0 reach 5.4 % ⅲ 2011. T0day, it's around 1 %. "We spent five years trying to build democratic institutions, and we succeeded in that,: ” he said. "Our high level ofunemployment, at about 15 % , is the challenge now. ” Another challenge at least as pressing is the country's security situation. Since a triO Of major attacks in 2015 , Tunisia has been under a state 0f emergency, and Chahed says its unstable ISIS- infected next-door neighbor has made matters worse. "We have 500 km ofborder with Libya. [my government's] principal priority is the war against terrorism and the situation in Libya. Yet it's difflcult to see how Tunisia will tackle NAME Youssef Chahed AG E 41 FAST FACT He is the grandson Of feminist activist Radhia Haddad, Tunisia's first female deputy KEY QUOTE PIedged tO create a government Of youths" with more female ministers either ofthese without continued financial assistance 仕 om the U. S. and Other maJOr powers—and the country got a nasty shock when President Donald Trump's proposed budget slashed bilateral aid to Tunisia by 67 %. Chahed was in Washington tO try tO persuade the White House that his country remains an ally worthy 0fU. S. support. "I tried tO explain tO our friends in the U. S. that Tunisia is really at the front line ofthe fight against terrorism, the fight against ISIS... We have realized concrete gains against those groups, and any discontinuation [ofsupport] at this moment will send the wrong message to terrorists; ” Chahed said. lfthe Trump Administration won't support Tunisia's democracy, he suggests, maybe it will recognize the country's value as a natural regional ally against ISIS and al-Qaeda. THE NEED FOR BACKING has taken on new urgency. Qatar, a crucial financial supporter, finds itselfisolated by Saudi Arab ia, the United Arab Emirate s and Egypt. The IMF has been a patient backer ofTunisia, but unless deficits are brought under control, the Fund may begin t0 fear it's throwing good money after bad. TraditionaI ally France has so far done little to help its former colonial outpost, although maybe Pre sident Emmanuel Macron will Offer more. Tunisia's achievements should not be overlooked by the world, Chahed says. "We had a fair and free election ⅲ 2014 , he says. "P01itical parties, freedom of speech, freedom ofreligion and freedom ofeconomic initiative. OfthiS exiStS in Tunisia now. ln the end, however, it may be the neighbors whO matter most. 'Qatar, Saudi Arabia, we have very good relations with both and all those countries; ” Chahed says. Tunisia's neutrality allows it tO play the role ofpeacemaker and protects it from fallout from the fights ofother governments, he explains. But you wonder just how sorry the autocrats Of the Arab world would be ifthe region S most promising democracy were tO fall on hard times. ロ

Department t0 allege that the true goal ofthe Trump panel is to "lay the ground- work for voter suppression ” by making it more dffcult for typically pro-Democrat mmoritie S tO VOte. ln fact, Trump's commission asks only for voter information that states can le- gally provide. But it is arousing the same kind ofpartisan suspicions that Obama's efforts to work with the states did last 1. ln Arizona, secretary ofstate Reagan says she has declined to hand over the per- sonal information Trump's panel wants. AS a result, she says, her competitor in next year 's Republican primary is attack- ing her for not supporting Trump. "I can remember when all the states were like, 'Heck no, we're not supporting the fed- eral government's election intrusions. The result may be that safeguard- ing future elections is only going tO get harder. MeanwhiIe, House RepubIicans are trying t0 defund the $ 8 million Con- gress provides annually t0 the Election Assistance Commission (EAC), which guides states in running safe and reliable elections. Republicans say that the agency is ineffective and unnecessary and that its work can be done instead by the famously weak Federal Election Commission. Dem- ocrats argue that gutting the tiny agency is reckless, especially right now. Demo- cratic Senator Amy Klobuchar has intro- duced a bill that would refund the EAC and provide $ 325 million t0 the states t0 improve election infrastructure , expand VOting opportunities and strengthen cyberprotections. The bill has no sup- port among Republicans. ln Riverside County, election security remains front and center. Next month the county will hOld votes for water district boards ofdirectors and in November will have general elections on community ser- vices, libraries and schools. The county registrar, Rebecca Spencer, says she has been working with a local state assembly- woman tO get emails and texts sent when a voter changes any part Of online VOter information. DA Hestrin sponsored the bill that will make that happen, but wor- ries about continuingvoter doubts. "Peo- ple's faith ⅲ the system is a fragile thing, he says. "Once people lose faith that the elections are fair and hone St, then our en- tire system ofgovernment is imeopardy. " —With reporting 妙 JACK BREWSTER 0 〃 d ロ EMMA TALKOFF/WASHINGTON the election was over. Given the focus Of FBI cyber and counterintelligence of- ficials on Hillary Clinton's emails, this looks like a spectacular blunder in ret- rospect. The Russia counterintelligence probe "never got any intelligence legs until after the election; ” the senior 0 価 .- cial says, "because I don't think anybody believed Trump would win, so nobody really put a 10t 0f stock int0 the Russian attempts [t0 help him]. ” At the same time, some division re- mained over whO the real threat was tO America's electoral system remained. Georgia was the only state that didn't ac- cept some form Of assistance from the federal assistance, according tO offcials familiar with the matter. But as the Geor- gians looked for intruders themselves, they found a DHS employee scanning their system on NOV. 15. DHS 100ked into the matter and said it was an employee of the federal training facility in Glynco, Ga. , confirming thatjob applicants in fact had licenses to be armed guards, which are on the same system as the voter data. The DHS inspector general, John Roth, looked intO the matter and concluded in June that DHS employees did not conduct any unauthorized scans Of the Georgia election system. If some state offcials remain angry about the perceived threat offederal over- reach, many also appear t0 be in denial about the extent ofthe risk from overseas. The Russians succeeded in compromis- ing more than 20 state systems, accord- ing tO Jeanette Manfra, a senior H01 れ e - land Security offlcial. But calls by TIME tO the Offces ofelection offlcials in every state revealed only two, Arizona's and ll- linois's, that know or are willing tO admit that they were hacked. And when TIME asked lllinois to confirm that the Russian intruder had tried to alter data fields, state offlcials at first denied that had happened, but after checking with their technical team, c onfirmed that it had. Partisan suspicion now runs in bOth directions. On May 11 , President Trump announced the creation Of an election- integrity commission. Nominally it was supposed t0 "study vulnerabilities in voting systems," but it got Off tO a rocky start, requesting vast amounts Of per- sonal information on VOters from every state. That led vanita Gupta, head ofthe civil rights division in the ObamaJustice STATE AND LOCAL ELECTION SYSTEMS INFLUENCED BY RUSSIAN HACKING 39 、 20 FEWER THAN FEWER THAN Showed forensic evidence Of scanning MORE AN Were compromised Showed evidence of attempts tO delete 0 ー alter voter-roll information Showed evidence Of attempts tO download voter ィ 0Ⅱ information SOURCES: CURRENT AND FORMER SENIOR CYBERSECURITY OFFICIALS

the planet. "Aksener is the Hillary CIinton 0fTurkey's presidential election; ” says Turkish political analyst Selim Sazak. "Everyone kinda sorta wants Aksener in power, but she's like prune juice. lt's good for your health, but it's not appetizing. At the same time, there are precious few candidates in Turkey with a legitimate shot at challenging E rdogan. Dissident leaders within Erdogan's party have failed to step forward and challenge the President. Others have paid bitterly for their defiance. S elahattin D emirtas, for example, the popular leader ofthe pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), is now in prison on terrorism charges after he and at least 10 other lawmakers from his partywere arrested in November 2016. ln her interview with TIME, Aksener broke with her nationalist brethren and criticized the arrests Ofthe pro- Kurdish lawmakers. "Erdogan is trying tO threaten Kurdish society. That is why he put them injail right before the referendum; ” She said. Aksener herselfhas not esc 叩 ed the government fury. Pro-government media have assailed her With salacious claims about her personallife. She has received death threats. She regards the smears and threats as an orchestrated traditionalistviews on women. 'He pre- campaign tO scare her, She says. fers us at home,: ” she says. April 2016 , they've been trying t0 get me Aksener served tWO terms 1 Ⅱ to back down, and I haven't. ' parliament with the MHP and became Opposition figures believe the deputy speaker ofthe assembly, where has a long association with some Ofthe government will simply find a way t0 harder edges ofTurkish politics; after colleagues remember her as someone stop Aksener. "Anyb0dy whose name who formed friendships across party she was forced out ofofflce ⅲ the 1997 is mentioned as a possible presidential lines and crackedjokes while chairing coup, Aksener re-entered parliament a candidate, all ofthese goons and trolls the parliament's sessions. But she split decade later as a member ofthe right- and media people, they'll d0 smear with the MHP leadership ⅲ 2016 over wing Nationalist Action Party (MHP), campaigns tO disqualify them; ” a senior Erdogan's bid t0 transform Turkey 's which trace s its origins tO the brutal HDP offlcial said. constitution. lnstead ofjoining her party past ofTurkey's far right. She has been Aksener has yet t0 decide whether in backing the President, Aksener gave compared t0 Marine Le Pen, leader 0f she'll put her head above the parapet and VOice tO a dissident faction and mounted France's National Front. Yet she rejects take Erdogan on. Since the referendum an ultimately unsuccessful challenge t0 any comparison between her style ofpol- campaign, she has bided her time' cook- the party's leadership. She has now le 仕 itics and the racism Ofthe European far ing and going for long walks with her the MHP behind. "I closed that ch 叩 ter; ” right. "We don't d0 politics based on race husband outside her lstanbul home. One she told reporters onJuly 3. or ethnicity; ” she says. "Our definition 0f thing she won't d0, she says, is flee. She the nation iS based on shared memories, has no passport, and ifErdogan's author- NO 、 AKSENER IS CONSIDERING a bid shared ties and sharedjoys. ” She is com- ities show up tO arrest her along with the for leadership ofher country under a mitted tO institutions and procedure, many thousands ofothers perceived tO new banner. She is far from a perfect ⅲ contrast with Erdogan's emotional have crossed him, she will again d0 what political candidate; she counts her populism. "Erdogan's world is black and she is supposed t0 d0. "Be my guest; ” white,: ” she says. "I don't believe in the deep experience in government as an she says. "l'm here. " —With reporting 妙 advantage, at a time when outsiders rule of right and wrong. I believe ⅲ the seem tO be sweeping elections around VILDAN AY/ISTANBUL rule oflaw. ” She also criticizes Erdogan's 0 Aksener 砒 her home ⅲ lstanbul ⅲ May ロ 11

8 Questions Al Gore The Vice President turned climate-change activist talks about his new movie, disappointment with Donald Trump and escaping on his redneck yacht Why release An lnconvenient Sequel lS there a lesser-known innovation tO now? Ten years after the first movie address climate change that you're seemed like an appropriate time tO most excited about? Converting check in on what's changed—and as my farm in Tennessee tO a carbon- it turned out, a 10t has changed. The sequestering farm without any climate-related extreme weather insecticides or pesticides or GMOS. lt's events are unfortunately way more a small farm and a small effort, but I frequent and way more destructive, see a lot 0f my neighbors and a lot 0f but solutions are available now. ln farmers around the world beginning t0 a growing number Of regions, the switch tO these techniques. electricity from SOlar and Wind iS now cheaper than electricity from burning What's the best way for one person fossil fuels. t0 make a difference? The first thing is tO learn about the issue. The second thing tO dO is tO win the conversation YO 収 met with President Trump about climate. The conversations about after his election. Have yo 収 been wh0 we are as a people precede changes disappointed by what you've seen since? l've certainly been disappointed. in laws and policies. Third, when you I really thought there was a chance he go intO stores, when you participate would come tO his senses and keep in the marketplace, make choices in the U. S. ⅲ the Paris Agreement. I was favor of the environment-friendly and wrong. But l've been gratified that the climate-friendly options. And finally, entire rest of the world has redoubled be active in the political process. its commitment, and within this Don't be shy about your role ⅲ country SO many governors and mayors our democracy. and business leaders have stepped up t0 say, "We're still in. ” If President You're hopeful. HOW dO yo 設 Trump refuses tO lead, the American stay that way? Anyb0dy people will. that deals with the climate crisis and the solutions tO the climate crisis lnevitably has ls the Paris Agreement Trump's an internal dialogue between most srgnificant decision on the climate? ln every area ofpolicy that hope and despair. I guess affects the climate, President Trump after 40 years of working on has surrounded himselfwith a rogues this, it has become a little gallery ofclimate deniers. And they bit easier tO put some Of appear tO be intent on dOing almost the events that unfold day everything they can to destroy a to day and year to year ⅲ sensible climate policy. perspective. Trump defeated his opponent while DO YO ever take a step back losing the popular VOte. YO 収 faced a and say, "I need tO take a day, similar circumstance. DO yo 設 think a week, even a month tO not the U. S. should get rid of the ElectoraI think about this one problem ” ? College? Even after the 2000 election I am not sure that I can say in all and the Supreme Court decision that honesty that there has been a day determine d the outco me , I CO ntinue d where it didn't occupy my thoughts t0 support the founders' design that tO some extent, but I like tO get away included an Electoral College. But with with family and friends. I just took changing circumstances, it would now a whole week in Center Hill Lake be much better for our country to adopt near my farm in Tennessee. I have a a popular VOte for determining the houseboat—l call it my redneck yacht. outcome ofpresidential elections. —JUSTIN WORLAND 52 TIME JulY31, 2017 'lt would now be much better for our country tO adopt a popular VOte for determining the outcome Of presidential elections. ' 4 GETTY IMAGES