Taiwan’s national security establishment has gone public with a stark and unsettling warning: China is waging a broad digital war against the island as it prepares for local elections next month. In a report submitted to parliament on Tuesday, the National Security Bureau described a relentless campaign of cyberattacks and disinformation aimed at Taiwan’s democratic institutions, military readiness, and public trust. The warning lands at a delicate moment. Taiwanese voters are scheduled to go to the polls on November 28 to choose city and county government officials, a vote that will shape local governance and carry outsized political symbolism. According…

In the quiet hum of the Cape Girardeau County election office, something unusual is happening. It isn’t the steady stream of voters, though there have been plenty of those since early voting opened. It isn’t the clicking of the doors or the low murmur of poll workers checking IDs. It’s a rumor, spreading through social media, that a ballot could be thrown out if an election worker so much as touches it with a pen. For anyone who has ever stood in a voting booth, that thought is enough to make your stomach drop. You’ve done everything right. You registered,…