Large Language Models (LLMs) are gaining traction as a method to generate
consensus statements and aggregate preferences in digital democracy
experiments. Yet, LLMs may introduce critical vulnerabilities in these systems.
Here, we explore the impact of prompt-injection attacks targeting consensus
generating systems by introducing a four-dimensional taxonomy of attacks. We
test these attacks using LLaMA 3.1 8B and Chat GPT 4.1 Nano finding the LLMs
more vulnerable to criticism attacks -- attacks using disagreeable prompts --
and more effective at tilting ambiguous consensus statements. We also find
evidence of more effective manipulation when using explicit imperatives and
rational-sounding arguments compared to emotional language or fabricated
statistics. To mitigate these vulnerabilities, we apply Direct Preference
Optimization (DPO), an alignment method that fine-tunes LLMs to prefer
unperturbed consensus statements. While DPO significantly improves robustness,
it still offers limited protection against attacks targeting ambiguous
consensus. These results advance our understanding of the vulnerability and
robustness of consensus generating LLMs in digital democracy applications.