‘Trust us’: Secrecy is no way to improve trust in elections
TALLAHASSEE – In the annals of Florida politics, 2019 will go down as the year of the nondisclosure agreement. It’s not a good sign.
When the Mueller Report came out in April and said what we long suspected — that at least one Florida county’s voting system was a target of attempted Russian intrusion in 2016 — Gov. Ron DeSantis demanded to find out more.
So he met with the FBI and Homeland Security officials in May, but the feds made him sign a nondisclosure agreement swearing him to keep his mouth shut about which counties were targeted. DeSantis, and news reports, said there were two, and the consensus is that they were Sumter and Washington. But that’s based at least partly on cryptic, similarlyworded non-denials provided by both counties’ tight-lipped election supervisors.
Here we are three years later, and the answer is still cloaked in mystery. Neither the counties nor the state nor the feds have identified the counties, even though officials at every level have repeatedly assured the public that no harm was done to any systems.
Our voting apparatus is a cornerstone of democracy, paid for by us. Why aren’t we entitled to answers?
Trust us, they’re saying. Trust is earned. Secrecy stokes suspicion. So we’re still wondering what election officials learned from what happened in 2016.
At DeSantis’ direction, Florida’s top elections official, Secretary of State Laurel Lee, has met with federal law enforcement officials and county election supervisors. The state forged new partnerships with all 67 counties to share cybersecurity intelligence and to reinforce a shared objective of accurate and secure elections.
It’s called JESI, or Joint Elections Security Initiative. As part of the partnership, supervisors of elections were required to sign nondisclosure agreements to share confidential information exempt from disclosure under either state or federal law, including “any other information or records that should reasonably be recognized as confidential or exempt by either party.”
It sounds like a loophole big enough to drive a Russian tank through.
Polk County Supervisor of Elections Lori Edwards, a former Democratic state legislator, signed the nondisclosure agreement and felt pressured to do it.
“It does not feel right to try to shield something from disclosure, and it was somewhat coerced,” Edwards told the Sun
Sentinel. She said signing the agreement was a condition of counties receiving future state money.
Over the summer, counties also signed separate memorandums of understanding with the state, “to ensure the ongoing confidentiality, integrity and security of election systems.” Among other things, the MOUs require background checks on election workers.
The state and counties have taken some sensible actions. For example, Florida was the first state in which every county elections office was equipped with an Albert sensor to detect malicious activity on their systems. The state will ask the Legislature for more money for a permanent cybersecurity bureau and grants to small counties.
Former Leon County Supervisor of Elections Ion Sancho detects a disturbing trend that reflects this era of cyberthreats, as law enforcement exerts much more control over the running of elections.
“I do not believe that the traditional law enforcement mentality of confidentiality and secrecy is the best approach to use,” Sancho told the Sun Sentinel.
Most county election supervisors in Florida work diligently to receive the public’s trust and confidence in elections and most are transparent and responsive to public records requests. Nondisclosure agreements will complicate things.
Speaking at a recent Associated Presssponsored gathering of reporters and editors, Lee made it sound as if her office has already found risks and vulnerabilities, but she was not specific.
“The Department of State is committed to transparency with the press and the public to the maximum extent possible,” Lee said. “However, we must be ever mindful that specific information about our critical infrastructure and vulnerabilities that may exist there could jeopardize the security of our elections.”
Recent history suggests that hostile actors already know a lot more about the weaknesses in our voting systems than Floridians do. The advent of secrecy agreements in every county, in a contentious election year amid such intense attention to restoring voting rights to felons, has the potential to wreak more havoc.
A more encouraging sentiment was expressed recently by U.S. Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, a Pennsylvania Democrat, who chaired an Oct. 22 House Judiciary Committee hearing in Washington on election security measures.
“One way to strengthen trust is through enhanced transparency,” Scanlon said. “In 2016, the specific intent of the Russians was not initially made public. Today, we can do better. We can educate state and local officials and the public about influence operations.”
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