Category Archives: secure elections act

Here are the big election security measures in the House Democrats’ massive new bill

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A giant bill House Democrats proposed on Friday includes a number of measures aimed at improving election security and voter confidence. The measures in H.R. 1 draw on provisions from several bills that were proposed but failed since the 2016 election, which experts and officials concluded was targeted by a Russian-led influence operation. Key features include a requirement that federal elections be conducted with paper ballots that can be counted by hand or optical scanners, new grants that states and municipalities can use to improve and upgrade equipment, an incident reporting requirement for election system vendors and a number of other measures meant to keep election systems’ security up-to-date. Election security experts have criticized paperless voting machines because of their vulnerability to tampering with little recourse, since they produce no auditable paper trail of each vote. Such machines were used to some extent in more than a dozen states in […]

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Election security experts wonder what lies beyond 2018

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With just over a month until the midterms, election officials from across the country say they’re more prepared to fend off election security threats thanks to increased partnerships with the federal government and financial assistance from Congress. But without legislation to solidify these newfound intergovernmental relationships, it’s unclear if the developments will hold beyond 2018. At a Wednesday summit on election preparedness hosted by the Election Assistance Commission, election officials from the local, state and federal levels touted the various ways they’ve boosted their security posture. Election offices have been devoting resources toward updating election software and equipment, securing voter registration systems, assessing their vulnerabilities, preparing for ballot audits and other practices. Some of that work has been made possible by a $380 million grant that Congress appropriated earlier this year, under the Help America Vote Act (HAVA). Officials pointed to that as a good start, but some noted the need for […]

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Flagship election security bill gets a companion in the House

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A bipartisan group of House lawmakers introduced a bill Friday that aims to assist state governments in their election security efforts and boost cooperation between the federal and state officials on the issue. The bill shares the name of a companion bill in the Senate, the Secure Elections Act, which senators from both major parties have been pushing along for months. The House version was introduced by four members of the Intelligence Committee: Trey Gowdy, R-S.C.; Tom Rooney, R-Fla.; Jim Himes , D-Conn. and Terri Sewell, D-Ala. Like its Senate counterpart, the House bill would allow state and local election offices to apply for federal grants to replace paperless, electronic voting machines. Security experts and election integrity advocates say these machines are vulnerable targets to hacking because they don’t leave a paper trail that can be used to verify each vote. The bill also would facilitate the process whereby the […]

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Election security bill still needs work in some areas, state officials tell Senate sponsors

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Several secretaries of state are telling the main backers of a Senate election security bill that the legislation might need tweaks to how it addresses information sharing, state-federal communication channels, funding mechanisms and post-election audits, among other things. The secretaries, who are the top election officials in their states, met with bill sponsors James Lankford, R-Okla., and Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., in person and via phone Monday to discuss the Secure Elections Act. The legislation is intended to bolster election security by smoothing out coordination between the state and federal levels and providing states financial support for operations and equipment upgrades. State secretaries from Indiana, Louisiana, Minnesota, Missouri, Colorado and New Mexico participated in the meeting. A spokesperson for Indiana Secretary of State Connie Lawson said that the secretary suggested quicker intelligence reporting to states. Among the ways the Department of Homeland Security is currently coordinating with states is by sponsoring security clearances for state election officials to review information about […]

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Air gapping voting machines isn’t enough, says one election security expert

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The safeguards that election officials say protect voting machines from being hacked are not as effective as advertised, a leading election security expert says. U.S. elections, including national ones, are run by state and local offices. While that decentralization could serve an argument that elections are difficult to hack, University of Michigan Professor J. Alex Halderman says that it’s more like a double-edged sword. Speaking to an audience of students and faculty at the University of Maryland’s engineering school, Halderman said that the U.S. is unique in how elections are localized. States and counties choose the technology used to run federal elections. “Each state state running its own independent election system in many cases does provide a kind of defense. And that defense is that there is no single point nationally that you can try to attack or hack into in order to change the national results,” Halderman said. But […]

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Stalled election security bill is reborn with support from Senate Intelligence Committee

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A bipartisan group of lawmakers from the Senate Intelligence Committee is reintroducing a bill that aims to bolster election cybersecurity. The purpose of the original Secure Elections Act is intact: to facilitate communication between the federal government and the state and local offices that run elections, to expedite security clearances for those officials and to provide financial support for state election infrastructure. Changes include making funding available to local election jurisdictions and create an election security advisory panel, among other things. The new bill retains its five original bipartisan co-sponsors, but notably now includes leaders from the Senate Intelligence Committee — Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., who serves as the chair and Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., who is the vice chair. “Our democracy is under attack by foreign actors who seek to undermine and destabilize our country,” Burr said in a press release. “This bill will help strengthen our cybersecurity heading […]

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