To stop cyberattacks on voting, America should follow the state’s lead on paper ballots. There’s no evidence that hacking impacted the 2016 elections. But there’s growing evidence that elections in 2018 and 2020 could be at risk. The threat could come from North Korea, Iran, or any of a host of foreign adversaries. The challenges are getting clearer. In August, Chicago’s Board of Elections reported that sensitive information about the city’s 1.8 million registered voters was left exposed online for an unknown period. Earlier in the summer, the Department of Homeland Security confirmed that foreign agents targeted voting systems in 21 states in the last election. Other news reports found that hackers successfully compromised election technology vendors who program voting systems. In the fight to secure America’s voting systems, Alabama is already employing the most crucial defensive weapon: paper ballots. The transparency and simplicity of the state’s system is tough to hack and relatively easy to verify. To guard against a foreign attack on our nation’s election systems, we need action to ensure others follow Alabama’s example.
… with cyberattacks becoming increasingly sophisticated, our current defenses are plainly inadequate for dealing with the risks that will be present in 2018 and 2020. A survey of 274 election officials in 28 different states found that most need security upgrades to address emerging threats but lack the resources. This can’t be left to chance.
Some in Congress are now finally treating election defense as the national security matter that it is. A new bipartisan amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act from Senators Lindsay Graham (R-SC) and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) would deal with the challenge in a way that is both fiscally-responsible and respectful of states’ prerogatives. It would improve threat assessments and cybersecurity standards while accelerating the move to voter-verified paper ballots.
Full Article: Alabama has the right approach to election security | AL.com.