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 organization 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.

“This is well beyond what ODNI has the authority or expertise to do,” a former senior US intelligence official who has worked on election security told CNN Wednesday in reaction to the ODNI statement. “This is amateur hour.”