By DAVID KLEPPER and CHRISTINA A. CASSIDY

WASHINGTON (AP) — Hacking a local election system in the United States would not be easy and secretly altering votes on a scale massive enough to change the outcome of the presidential race. it would be impossibleelection officials have said, thanks to decentralized systems, paper records of nearly all ballots, extensive reviews, due process of law and decades of work by election officials, volunteers and American citizens.

But foreign actors and domestic extremist groups seeking to meddle in next week’s elections may point to a much weaker link: voters’ perceptions and emotions. Those who try to undermine confidence in American democracy do not have to change any votes if they can convince enough Americans. don’t trust the result.

It’s a possible scenario that’s particularly concerning to intelligence analysts and officials tasked with protecting U.S. elections: An adversary attempts to hack into a state or local election system and then releases a document (perhaps a fake one or even publicly available material). and suggests that it is evidence. of electoral fraud.

Or, a video is made showing someone allegedly hacking into a ballot scanner, voting machine or a state voter registration system. But it hasn’t happened and it wouldn’t be true.

It’s called a perception trick, which may or may not include an actual violation of voting systems, but it appears to have happened. In some cases, minor information may be stolen (enough to make a video appear legitimate), but that doesn’t change the votes. A related threat involves fake images purportedly showing election workers destroying ballots.

In any case, the objective is the same: to generate confusion, distrust and fear.

Governments at all levels have worked to strengthen electoral infrastructure in recent years. However, the human brain remains difficult to defend.

“I think that’s almost certainly going to happen,” said former CIA political analyst Adam Darrah when discussing the risk of perception hacks.

Darrah, now vice president of intelligence at cybersecurity firm ZeroFox, said tricking people into believing election systems are vulnerable is much easier than hacking them. ”It is a way to induce panic. We are very technically resistant. “Our emotional resilience, our hypersensitivity, remains a challenge.”

Narrow margins of victory or delays in counting votes could increase the risk that a change in perception could mislead large numbers of voters, further polarizing the electorate, increasing the risk of political violence and potentially complicating the transfer of power in January.

Intelligence officials warned last week that Russia and Iran can consider encourage violent protests in the United States after the elections. The country’s intelligence community and private analysts agree that although the kremlin supports former president Donald TriumphMoscow’s ultimate goal is divide Americans and undermine the US. support for ukraine and the NATO alliance.