Voting safe
Top minds are at work on Pa. election security
Pennsylvania’s new commission on election cybersecurity has the potential to put Pennsylvanians’ minds at rest and help other states make sure their voting systems are safe and sound. While Russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign has galvanized interest in election security, foreign hacking is just one of many potential threats. Pennsylvania’s system will benefit from a wide-ranging checkup.
The Blue Ribbon Commission on Pennsylvania’s Election Security intends to look at voting machines, tabulation procedures and security of the voter rolls, among other topics. It’s off to an auspicious start because of the parties involved. The University of Pittsburgh Institute for Cyber Law, Policy and Security recognized the need for a study and set up the commission. Leading the study are David Hickton, the institute director and former U.S. attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania, and Grove City College president Paul McNulty, who wore multiple hats in the U.S. Justice Department.
Mr. Hickton and Mr. McNulty are well poised to lead the coalition. During his tenure from 2010 to 2017, Mr. Hickton won a guilty plea from a Moldovan hacker accused of stealing banking information, indicted Chinese military officials for hacking into local companies, launched the hunt for a Russian hacker accused of holding computer files for ransom and shut down the Darkode hacking forum after a Pittsburgh-based international investigation. As a U.S. attorney in Virginia in 2002, Mr. McNulty sought the extradition of a British man indicted for hacking into U.S. military computers. Britain refused to extradite him.
Serving on the commission are others who can bring important perspectives to the work, such as Susan Carty, president of the League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania. The league’s work on properly administered elections includes a campaign against gerrymandering.
As Mr. Hickton pointed out, Pennsylvania was one of the states targeted by Russian hackers during the presidential race. It’s a battleground state with a mishmash of outmoded electoral equipment, the commission says, and so a “prime target.” But there also were revelations last year that hundreds of immigrants in Philadelphia and Allegheny County were improperly added to the voter rolls in recent years because of a glitch in registration procedures at Pennsylvania Department of Transportation offices. These kinds of mistakes need to be rooted out, too. Pitt’s panel appears to have the expertise and independence to cover all of the bases.