Safety at the polls

Election security must be ensured at all levels

With the recent confirmation that election records from two Florida counties were hacked by the Russians in 2016, the Trump administration and all 50 secretaries of state need to ensure election security for the 2020 general elections.

Free, safe and secure elections are the basis of American democracy. Several efforts have been implemented in recent years to ramp up security, and voters need to know these efforts have worked.

The Mueller report and the FBI this month confirmed that election records in Florida were hacked in the last presidential election, although experts say the voting results were not affected.

After the 2016 election, the Department of Homeland Security and other agencies worked to improve communications and intelligence sharing with state and local election officials, providing reviews of technology and systems to assess vulnerability. By last November’s midterm elections, at least 13 states hadn’t taken advantage of those reviews. Plus, fewer than 1% of counties had installed federally recommended sensors to detect attempted hacks into their networks.

That’s not good enough. Microsoft this month offered an ElectionGuard software to provide for reliable post-election audits. The software is being reviewed for use by the three U.S. companies that sell nearly all of the election equipment used nationwide.

The Ohio General Assembly is considering a bill that would create a civilian cybersecurity reserve force to be activated to prevent an attack or crisis or to deal with one that occurs involving an election or other government function. The state Senate has passed it and the House needs to do so, too.

All states and counties should get behind an election security campaign. One idea is to have Homeland Security issue certificates to states and counties that have undergone reviews for cybersecurity. Those that haven’t gotten it done should be forced to do so, and then make the necessary changes to have a cybersecure election.

It will be unacceptable to learn after the 2020 election that foreign or domestic hackers were successful at meddling with the records and equipment that voters rely on.