Media Release: Toolkit Advises Advocates and Election Officials on How to Secure the Nation’s Voting Machines

A joint project from Verified Voting, the Brennan Center, Common Cause and the National Election Defense Coalition suggests ways states can use Congressional election security funds.

Download the toolkit as a PDF. For additional media inquires, please contact aurora@newheightscommunications.com.

A new toolkit designed for advocates and election officials offers suggestions for best practices for conducting post-election audits as well as tips for local jurisdictions considering purchasing new voting machines. The toolkit, “Securing the Nation’s Voting Machines,” is a joint project between Verified Voting, the Brennan Center for Justice, Common Cause and the National Election Defense Coalition.

“Cyber security experts agree that our voting systems need to be resilient and allow jurisdictions to monitor, detect, respond and recover from an event that interferes with the software. Resilient systems incorporate a paper ballot that is retained for recounts and post-election audits,” said Marian K. Schneider, president of Verified Voting. “This toolkit provides a roadmap for election officials nationwide who are looking to implement these resilient systems.”

National: Here’s the Email Russian Hackers Used to Try to Break Into State Voting Systems | The Intercept

Just days the 2016 presidential election, hackers identified by the National Security Agency as working for Russia attempted to breach American voting systems. Among their specific targets were the computers of state voting officials, which they had hoped to compromise with malware-laden emails, according to an intelligence report published previously by The Intercept. Now we know what those emails looked like. An image of the malicious email, provided to The Intercept in response to a public records request in North Carolina, reveals precisely how hackers, who the NSA believed were working for Russian military intelligence, impersonated a Florida-based e-voting vendor and attempted to trick its customers into opening malware-packed Microsoft Word files.

National: New website is Russian op designed to sway U.S. voters, experts say | McClatchy

A new Russian influence operation has surfaced that mirrors some of the activity of an internet firm that the FBI says was deeply involved in efforts to sway the 2016 U.S. elections, a cybersecurity firm says. A website called usareally.com appeared on the internet May 17 and called on Americans to rally in front of the White House June 14 to celebrate President Donald Trump’s birthday, which is also Flag Day. FireEye, a Milpitas, Calif., cybersecurity company, said Thursday that USA Really is a Russian-operated website that carries content designed to foment racial division, harden feelings over immigration, gun control and police brutality, and undermine social cohesion. The website’s operators once worked out of the same office building in St. Petersburg, Russia, where the Kremlin-linked Internet Research Agency had its headquarters, said Lee Foster, manager of information operations analysis for FireEye iSIGHT Intelligence.

National: FBI’s Aristedes Mahairas: These nations pose biggest cyber risk to US | Business Insider

An FBI agent has mapped out the nation states that pose the biggest cyber threat to the US. Business Insider spoke to Aristedes Mahairas, a special agent in charge of the New York FBI’s Special Operations/Cyber Division, about the cybersecurity landscape in America. He said the US is always alive to threats from cyber criminals, cyber terrorists, and renegade hacktivists, but nation states are at the "very top" of the threat list. Mahairas said there has been a "significant increase in state-sponsored computer intrusions" over the past 12 years as it has become a potent way of unsettling an adversary alongside traditional espionage.

Arkansas: State, counties working to upgrade election gear | Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

The secretary of state's office believes that just over two-thirds of the state's counties will have new voting equipment by the time of the November general election. In one of the latest developments, the office has signed contracts with 10 counties to provide new voting equipment to them with the counties and the state splitting the tab, the chief deputy in the secretary of state's office said Friday. Chief Deputy Kelly Boyd said he expects similar contracts to be signed with 11 other counties soon, and on top of that, 10 other counties are working with the office to finalize voting equipment requirements to clear the way for signing contracts. Twenty-one of the state's 75 counties used the new voting equipment provided by Nebraska's Election Systems & Software during the May 22 primaries, he said.

Editorials: California’s open primaries are a cautionary tale about political reform | Dan Balz/The Washington Post

At a time of broken politics and polarization, the impulse to seek out reforms to the political process is understandable. California, which will hold important primary elections on Tuesday, offers a cautionary tale about how good intentions alone are not enough. Eight years ago, California voters approved a ballot initiative establishing a new open primary system. The new system called for primary contests in which all candidates from all parties would be listed on the same ballot. The top two finishers, regardless of party, would advance to the November election. Then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) hailed the initiative’s passage as a vehicle that would change the political complexion of the state legislature and the congressional delegation. He and other proponents claimed that it would lead to the nomination and ultimately the election of candidates who were more moderate — center-left and center-right, rather than far left and far right.

Colorado: State’s 1 million-plus unaffiliated voters can participate for the first time in a primary election | The Denver Post

Colorado’s county clerks are gearing up to send out a record number of primary election ballots this week as the state’s unaffiliated voters — the largest voting bloc — get their first-ever chance to vote in a primary contest. But with that new opportunity for the more than 1.1 million active voters not tied to a political party — thanks to the 2016 passage of Proposition 108 — comes some new processes. And if they’re not careful, unaffiliated voters’ newfound ability to vote in a primary might not count.

Georgia: Lawsuit seeks to stop electronic voting | Atlanta Journal Constitution

Before this November’s election, a federal judge will have to decide whether Georgia’s electronic voting machines are too hackable to be used any longer. A lawsuit pending in federal court is trying to force the state government to immediately abandon its 16-year-old touchscreen machines and instead rely on paper ballots. The plaintiffs, a group of election integrity activists and voters, say the courts need to step in to safeguard democracy in Georgia. Legislation to replace the state’s electronic voting machines failed to pass at the Georgia Capitol this year, and tech experts have repeatedly shown how malware could change election results. But Georgia election officials say the state’s digital voting system is safe and accurate. Secretary of State Brian Kemp recently recertified the machines after tests showed they correctly reported election results.

Editorials: The Russians are coming for our elections, and Florida is still not ready to fight back | Miami Herald

The Russians are ready for the midterm elections. Are we? The August primaries loom, with the general election in November soon after. But the state is getting a late start in protecting its voting system from tampering. Though county elections supervisors across the state have been persistent in their pleas for state help, too many state leaders, from lawmakers to the secretary of state, either dragged their feet in, or rejected outright, taking steps to assure Floridians that they can vote with confidence and that the integrity of the election process is paramount. To his credit, Gov. Rick Scott has stepped up, demanding that the state request the $19.2 million in federal funds available to harden the state’s voting system. Congress included $380 million in its 2018 budget bill for the U.S. Election Assistance Commission to distribute to the states. President Trump signed the budget bill in March. Scott rightly overruled Secretary of State Ken Detzner and his oblivious announcement last month that Florida would not seek those much-needed funds.

Maine: Voters to field-test ranked-choice voting in June primaries | Portland Press Herald

Maine voters will finally get their chance to try out the hotly debated ranked-choice voting system when they head to the polls to select party nominees for governor, Congress and the Legislature on June 12. While they’re in the voting booth, Mainers will also face Question 1 on their ballots, asking them if they want to keep the first-in-the-nation ranked-choice system in place by rejecting a bill the Legislature passed to repeal it. The road to ranked-choice voting has been a twisting one ever since 52 percent of voters approved the system at the ballot box in November 2016. A series of legal challenges by opponents has been steadily beaten back by ranked-choice advocates, who say the new system will temper the partisan divide and foster the election of candidates from the political center.

Maryland: Ervin gets party’s backing on ballot | The Baltimore Sun

Maryland Democratic gubernatorial candidate Valerie Ervin received a boost Thursday in her attempt to get her name onto the June primary ballot when the state Democratic Party publicly supported the effort. “The Democratic Party believes that Maryland law requires the Maryland Board of Elections to do everything in its power to list all eligible gubernatorial candidates and to conduct a smooth election process for all voters,” party Chairwoman Kathleen Matthews said in a statement Thursday. “Voters deserve nothing less.” And an attorney for Ervin and her running mate, Marisol Johnson, appeared before the Maryland State Board of Elections in Annapolis to press the campaign’s case for new ballots.

New Jersey: State should adopt paper-based voting machines, experts say | NorthJersey.com

It was a discomforting moment last week when a Princeton University computer science professor, in a series of PowerPoint slides, showed lawmakers how he had hacked the type of electronic voting machine most New Jersey counties use to conduct their elections. More jarring still, the professor, Andrew W. Appel, explained that if he manipulated a machine actually in use, election officials would be hard-pressed to detect it because the devices don’t leave a paper trail that can be checked against the electronic tally. “They’re a fatally flawed technology,” said Appel, who was previously involved in a lawsuit that sought to end the use of the machines. “Pretty much everyone knows this now.”

Virginia: Fairfax County registrar fired days before midterm primary | WTOP

Less than two weeks before Virginia’s midterm primaries, the electoral board in the state’s most populous jurisdiction has fired its general registrar. The Fairfax County Electoral Board formally fired Cameron Sasnett Friday evening. He had been appointed in October 2015 and had 13 months remaining in his statutory four-year term. “Enough things came to our attention and kind of came to a head to the point where we felt we needed to let him go, and you can imagine, especially less than two weeks from an election, this is not a good time to do something like this. But we felt like we needed to do this,” Electoral Board Chairman Steve Hunt said.

International: Election Systems Worldwide Targeted as Threats, FireEye Study Finds | CBR

Election systems across the world are vulnerable to attack by malicious cyber actors, cyber intelligence company FireEye warned in a new report released today. The report comes weeks after the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) warned that some areas of the British electoral system were also vulnerable to cyber attack, despite the country’s heavily paper-based ballot system. “There are central vote tabulating machines that may be connected to an Intranet or the public Internet. It may be possible for remote adversaries to attack those machines”, FireEye said. It admitted, however, that it has not observed attacks against elections infrastructure, and that the US’s decentralised and unstandardised voting system, “a nation-wide coordinated attack on voting machines would require high technical sophistication, lengthy planning, and extensive resources.”

Botswana: Voting machines imported from India cause furore in Botswana | The Economic Times

You may have thought that the EVM (Electronic Voting Machine) saga was behind us — not yet. Heated political debates have erupted in the southern African country of Botswana over using EVMs imported from India. The ruling party, Botswana Democratic Party (BDP), passed some amendments to the electoral laws which allowed the use of EVMs. The opposition party, Botswana Congress Party (BCP), has moved court against BDP claiming that the EVMs were imported to get a favourable result for BDP. The BDP has asked for a deposition from the Election Commission of India (ECI) even though the Botswana Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) agreed that the EVMs would speed up the electoral process.

Canada: Progressive Conservatives flag concerns about Ontario’s new voting machines | CBC

The Progressive Conservative party is raising concerns about new voting technology that will be used to cast and count ballots in Ontario's provincial election, CBC News has learned. The June 7 vote will be the first general election in Ontario to use the electronic voting machines. The technology includes devices than scan voter cards and tabulate marked ballots. The provincial agency overseeing the vote worked frequently with all the major parties over the past three years to test and demonstrate the reliability and security of the new technology. However, since Doug Ford won the PC leadership in March, the party has contacted Elections Ontario multiple times with questions and concerns. The PC party lawyer, Arthur Hamilton, wrote to Elections Ontario this week to flag several issues, including concerns about protection from hacking and the certification of the vote-counting machines.

Slovenia: Preliminary results put right-wing party ahead in Slovenia | Associated Press

A right-wing opposition party led by a former Slovenian prime minister won the most votes in Slovenia's parliamentary election Sunday, but not enough to form a government on its own, according to preliminary results. The State Election Commission said after counting some 90 percent of the ballots that Janez Jansa's Slovenian Democratic Party received around 25 percent of the vote. The anti-establishment List of Marjan Sarec trailed in second place with over 12 percent. The Social Democrats, the Modern Center Party of the outgoing prime minister, Miro Cerar, and the Left all received around 9 percent. The preliminary tally means no party secured a majority in Slovenia's 90-member parliament, and the likely next step is negotiations to form a coalition government.

United Kingdom: Online voter registration to be introduced in Northern Ireland | Belfast Telegraph

From the 18th June people in Northern Ireland will be able to register to vote online. The new service is being introduced by the Electoral Office to make the registration process easier for the public. … Sinn Fein deputy leader Michelle O’Neill welcomed the news. “Online registration was introduced in Britain a number of years ago and it is Sinn Féin’s view there was an unjustifiable delay in extending it to the north. I want to commend the efforts of Francie Molloy MP and Colm Gildernew MLA in lobbying to end the delay in rolling out the scheme in the north."