National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) Contains Hidden Election Integrity Gem – Could Have Huge Implications for Voting Machines

In July 2022, The Gateway Pundit reported on testimony given in a federal complaint that was filed by Kari Lake and Mark Finchem in the US District Court in Arizona.  The complaint was a civil rights action for declaratory and injunctive relief to prohibit the use of electronic voting machines in the State of Arizona ahead of the 2022 Midterm Elections.

That complaint included testimony from a former Voting System Testing Labs contractor by the name of Clay Parikh.  Parikh would go on to discover the 19-inch ballot printing error that plagued the Maricopa County 2022 midterm elections, causing massive delays and disenfranchising thousands of voters.

Parikh worked as a security tester and subject matter expert for Wyle Laboratories and Pro V&V from 2008 through 2017, and had tested hundreds of voting systems, including Dominion Voting Systems (now Liberty Vote) and ES&S voting systems.

He testified that it would take him anywhere between “five to ten minutes” to hack into these systems, with a “best time” of two and a half minutes.  All of these hacks were recorded and his reports were given to the voting system test labs.

Perhaps the most concerning moment during his testimony, however, came when he was asked about hacking into the ES&S DS200:

Q.  And were you able to hack into the DS200 when you were in that position?

A (Parikh).  Yes, I was.

Q. Did that take [a long time] to do?

A.  No.  I was stopped from going further.

Q.  So you were going to but you didn’t complete it[?]

A.  Because my approach — I wanted to actually get in and control the software because you can actually manipulate the statistical data on the system.

Q.  And you wanted to show that that could be done[?]

A.  Yes.  Before it even gets to the EMS.  Yes, I did.

Q.  But you were stopped from doing that at that point[?]

A.  Yes.

 

Why would a voting system test lab (VSTL) contractor be restricted from going further into the system to determine if vulnerabilities exist?  The VSTLs are not contracted by the state or any government jurisdiction, but rather by the voting machine vendors themselves.  So perhaps the restriction was a limitation placed because the law did not require any further testing.

That changes now.

With the National Defense Authorization Act signed by President Donald Trump on December 18th, 2025, a little-known section was snuck into the 3000+ page bill:  Section 6805. Requiring Penetration Testing As Part Of The Testing And Certification of Voting Systems.

This section amends the Help America Vote Act of 2002 by adding a “Required Penetration Testing” section that “provides for the conduct of penetration testing as part of the testing, certification, decertification, and recertification of voting system hardware and software” by an accredited laboratory.

The amendment now requires the penetration testing as a condition of certification from the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) and allows consultation with the National Institute of Standards and Technology or any other federal agency on “lab selection criteria” and “other aspects of the program.”

While this is still short of a legitimate attempt at ensuring election integrity, it is an effort toward scrutinizing the voting systems by finally requiring cybersecurity experts to do what Clay Parikh was restricted from doing during his time as a VSTL contractor.

Hand-marked paper ballots hand-counted at the precinct level, is being utilized in Dallas County, TX for the 2026 midterm primaries, and is still the ultimate goal of the election integrity community to ensure free and fair elections in the United States.

 

The post National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) Contains Hidden Election Integrity Gem – Could Have Huge Implications for Voting Machines appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.