Election guards ramped up ahead of midterms
WASHINGTON – With just three months until the midterms, states are spending an infusion of federal money to hire experts, add layers of security and adopt paper trails to thwart cyberthreats to their election systems.
“There is no going back to the way things were,” said Rhode Island Secretary of State Nellie Gorbea, co-chairwoman of the Elections Committee at the National Association of Secretaries of States. “We have to constantly be wary and face the facts that our elections are under threat at an international level. We have to safeguard our democracy.”
The federal Election Assistance Commission released a report Tuesday highlighting what states and territories plan to do with the $380 million Congress approved earlier this year to help them protect against cyberthreats. USA TODAY got an advance copy of the report.
Nearly all the states and territories have received their share of the federal funds, ranging from $6 million for Alabama to $19 million for Florida.
States plan to use nearly 37 percent of the funds to improve cybersecurity and 28 percent to buy new voting equipment, according to the report.
“By and large you see very robust, very earnest plans around security and infrastructure improvement across the board,” said Mark Abbott, director of grants at the EAC.
Here are what some battleground states plan to do:
❚ Florida, which recently hired five cybersecurity experts, plans to use some of its $19 million to train local election officials on cybersecurity.
❚ Pennsylvania plans to use a chunk of its $13 million to upgrade its aging voting machines and add a paper record.
❚ Indiana wants to use some of its $7.5 million to test its voting equipment, including poll books, for vulnerabilities.
Abbott noted that Indiana proposed nine steps to harden its security, including voter registration security scans, email encryption and digital signatures.
“They already had some robust stuff going on around cyber, but with this plan and with input from their stakeholders, they really amped it up,” he said. “I think it’s a good example of how serious states are taking the security posture of their systems.”
With the midterms looming, many states are using the funds to make changes quickly, including training staff, hiring cybersecurity experts and adding verification steps. They also plan to pay for post-election audits. Several states are upgrading or replacing voter registration systems.
Others plan to use the funds for longterm projects, including buying new voting machines.
Still, many state election officials say they need more money, said Thomas Hicks, the commission chairman.
“Wherever we go I hear from folks saying, ‘Thank you for this money. This is a great down payment, but we need additional resources,’ ” said Hicks, who recently met with election officials in Mississippi and plans to go to Louisiana next week. “They were always preparing for 2018, but the additional funding helps them even more for 2018 and 2020 and beyond.”