Ohio: After unprecedented 24 hours, Ohio is first state to delay voting in presidential cycle | Liz Sklaka/Toledo Blade

Ohio elections officials and poll workers are still reeling from Gov. Mike DeWine’s last-minute order to postpone Ohio’s primary and the eleventh-hour court battle that nearly sent them scrambling to put on a statewide election in a matter of hours amid a global pandemic. Months of behind-the-scenes planning to prepare for the primary were swiftly erased by the rapidly spreading coronavirus, which is disrupting every facet of American life, including the nation’s elections. On Tuesday, Ohio became the first state to actually delay voting in the 2020 presidential cycle after the state’s health director, Dr. Amy Acton, declared a health emergency hours before polls were set to open. Four other states that were supposed to vote later this month and into April have also moved their primaries, while the other states voting Tuesday — Arizona, Florida, and Illinois — held their elections amid poll-worker shortages and concerns about turnout. In Ohio, the drama began less than 24 hours before the primary and lasted well into the early morning on Tuesday, when the Ohio Supreme Court rejected an appeal to the governor’s plan at 4 a.m., two and a half hours before polls would have opened. And it continued into Tuesday with talk of pending legal battles that resulted in the Ohio Democratic Party filing a lawsuit in Ohio Supreme Court, arguing the governor and Secretary of State Frank LaRose don’t have the power to reschedule an election. The party is requesting a primary on April 28 instead of June 2.

Ohio: Governor Mike DeWine’s coronavirus-closing order at primary polls spawns confusion | Timothy Bella/The Washington Post

The late-night decision Monday by Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) to close the polls in his state due to the “unprecedented public health crisis” surrounding the coronavirus pandemic created a wave of confusion and drew criticism from voting advocates. “We have a constitutional crisis now in Ohio,” tweeted state Rep. Jon Cross, a Republican who vowed to keep the polling locations open in his district in northwest Ohio. He added, “…the Ohio Department of Health can not shut down an election.” DeWine tweeted late Monday that conducting the election on Tuesday, another key Democratic contest between former vice president Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), “would force poll workers and voters to place themselves at an unacceptable health risk of contracting coronavirus.” DeWine said Amy Acton, the state’s health director, ordered the polls to be closed on Monday. As of early Tuesday, there have been 50 confirmed cases of coronavirus and no reported deaths in Ohio.

Ohio: Primary vote halted at last minute by health officials amid coronavirus court battle | Daniel Strauss/The Guardian

Heath officials in Ohio have postponed the state’s primary vote just hours before polls were set to open, an 11th-hour decision that came after a judge denied the Governor’s request to postpone the vote because of the coronavirus. Health director Amy Acton declared a health emergency that would prevent the polls from opening out of fear of exposing voters and volunteer poll workers, many of them elderly. Arizona, Florida and Illinois were proceeding with their presidential primaries. Earlier on Monday, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine recommended that his state postpone in-person voting during Tuesday’s primary elections. DeWine said he alone did not have the authority to postpone the election, but lawyers would file a lawsuit to try to move the in-person voting date to 2 June. “We cannot conduct this election tomorrow,” DeWine said, adding that Ohioans should not be forced to make the “choice between their health and their constitutional rights and their duties as [an] American citizen”. Later on Monday, in an interview with CNN, DeWine said without drastic moves tens of thousands of pollworkers, many of them “over the age of 65” would be in places where the virus could spread.

Ohio: Governor Mike DeWine’s coronavirus response has become a national guide to the crisis | Griff Witte and Katie Zezima/The Washington Post

When Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine announced a ban on spectators at the Arnold Classic, a juggernaut of a sports festival that brings tens of millions in revenue, the move seemed radical. It was March 3, and the state, after all, had not even had a single confirmed case of the novel coronavirus. But within days, large-capacity events were being canceled nationwide. A week later, DeWine recommended that his state’s colleges suspend in-person classes. Across the country, they soon did. He then closed Ohio’s public schools. Other states followed. And on Sunday, DeWine ordered all restaurants and bars be shuttered. By Monday, they were turning out the lights in New York, New Jersey and Maryland, too. As a global pandemic each day transforms the unthinkable into America’s new reality, the path is being guided by an unlikely leader: the short and bespectacled 73-year-old Republican governor of America’s seventh-most-populous state. DeWine might have helped set the national agenda for responding to the coronavirus again Monday, announcing a lawsuit against his state to delay in-person voting in the primary that had been slated for Tuesday. Franklin County Court of Common Pleas Judge Richard A. Frye rejected DeWine’s lawsuit Monday night, throwing the primary into chaos. The plaintiffs planned to immediately appeal.

Ohio: Governor Moves to Postpone Primary Over Coronavirus Concerns | Nick Corasaniti and Stephanie Saul/The New York Times

Ohio said Monday that it would move to postpone its presidential primary, becoming the first of four states that had been scheduled to vote on Tuesday to try to push back its election because of worries about the coronavirus. The state’s governor, Mike DeWine, said that he did not have the authority to unilaterally delay the primary and that a lawsuit would be filed to delay the election. The new date that state officials are seeking is June 2, and absentee voting will continue until then, Mr. DeWine said at a news conference. “We don’t know who coming through the line has been infected,” he said. “We should not force people to make this choice, a choice between their health and their constitutional rights and their duties as American citizens.” Ohio’s move raised questions about whether the three other states scheduled to vote on Tuesday — Arizona, Illinois and Florida — would follow suit. On Monday afternoon, Arizona and Illinois were planning to proceed with their elections, according to officials in each state. Early Monday afternoon, elections officials in Florida indicated that the state’s primary would be held Tuesday, but Department of State officials could not immediately be reached after Mr. DeWine’s announcement about Ohio.

Ohio: Judge declines Ohio request to delay primary vote amid coronavirus | Daniel Strauss/The Guardian

A judge has declined to allow Ohio’s primary vote on Tuesday to be postponed over concerns about the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Ohio Governor Mike DeWine recommended on Monday that his state postpone in-person voting during Tuesday’s primary elections. DeWine told a news conference on Monday that he alone did not have the authority to order postponing the election, but lawyers would file a lawsuit to try to move the in-person voting date to 2 June. “We cannot conduct this election tomorrow,” DeWine said, adding that Ohioans should not be forced to make the “choice between their health and their constitutional rights and their duties as [an] American citizen”. Later on Monday, in an interview with CNN, DeWine said without drastic moves tens of thousands of pollworkers, many of them “over the age of 65” would be in places where the virus could spread. “We in Ohio have to take very tough actions and I know people in Ohio today are very upset, I respect that,” DeWine added. But a Franklin county court of common pleas judge declined to order the postponement on Monday evening. According to a NBC news affiliate, Judge Richard Frye said he was reluctant to override the election date set by the Ohio legislature and that coronavirus has been an issue of concern since January.

Ohio: Elections boards frantically seeking poll workers due to coronavirus outbreak | Rick Rouan/The Columbus Dispatch

Ohio elections officials are rushing to recruit additional poll workers ahead of Tuesday primary as concerns about the spread of COVID-19 have led hundreds to drop out before Election Day. Desperate county elections boards are pleading with friends and family members for help. Some are even talking about instantly recruiting voters walking in to cast ballots Tuesday to help work the polls the remainder of the day. “We’re getting into the threshold of scary,” said Brian Sleeth, deputy elections director in Warren County, just north of Cincinnati. “We’re not panicking yet. We’re actively recruiting.” So far, 100 poll workers have canceled, including 50 in the past 24 hours. The county has 800 poll workers still signed up but is now 100 short. “People are concerned and we are losing poll workers at a pretty rapid rate,” said Aaron Ockerman, executive director of the Ohio Association of Election Officials. Ockerman said boards are seeing seasonal workers dropping out who had been hired to help process ballots as they are returned to boards after the polls close Tuesday as well. Franklin County has lost 223 poll workers in the past two days, and it is losing three poll workers for every one it gains, said Aaron Sellers, board spokesman. The board needs 291 more to have a full staff of 3,200.

Ohio: Millions spent to safeguard Ohio elections: What’s really going on | Chris Stewart/Dayton Daily News

Officials say Ohio’s elections are safe despite worries fueled by 2016 foreign meddling, thousands of uncounted Miami County ballots in 2018 and this month’s collapse of a Democratic Party vote-counting app at the Iowa caucuses. Ballot-casting and counting infrastructure — fresh off an exhaustive update of security software, hardware and office procedures to fend off cyber attacks — is sound and secure, say state and local elections officials.“Your vote is safe, and it will be counted as it has always been counted, if it’s countable,” said Jan Kelly, director of the Montgomery County Board of Elections. But as millions of dollars are spent to guard against malicious computer attacks, it’s harder to thwart bad actors resorting to disinformation campaigns to diminish people’s confidence in the vote, said Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, a Republican. “What our foreign adversaries have tried to do instead of actually tampering with elections, is tried to tamper with our own perception of elections,” he said. “They’ve tried to cause Americans to lose faith in elections.” “The really damaging part of that is it would cause the average person to start to wonder or worry that maybe their vote wasn’t going to be counted accurately,” he said.

Ohio: Overseas voters could be blocked by security measures meant to stop hackers | Rick Rouan/The Columbus Dispatch

Cybersecurity measures meant to keep foreign hackers from accessing government websites could make it harder for overseas civilian and military voters in some countries to determine how to cast their ballots. At least one voter eligible to cast a ballot in Franklin County recently could not access the county Board of Elections website because it had blocked all traffic from Brazil. Security filters that block international traffic would affect a relatively small number of Ohioans. Overseas voters from Ohio requested about 9,600 ballots in 2018, and only about 7,500 of them were returned, according to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission. But government agencies increasingly are looking to balance access for those who need it versus protections from hackers in other countries as public officials put a higher premium on cybersecurity, particularly around elections systems. Voting rights groups have raised the issue with Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose’s office. LaRose issued a sweeping security directive last summer for Ohio’s county boards of elections in preparation for the 2020 election.

Ohio: 8 counties fall short on elections cyber security check up | Laura A. Bischoff/Dayton Daily News

Eight Ohio counties failed to fully comply with a directive ordering local elections officials to tighten and check their cyber security protections, according to Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose. LaRose said on Wednesday that he expects seven of the eight to be in full compliance within a week but he is placing Van Wert County Board of Elections under state administrative oversight because county officials there failed to take the directive as seriously as they should.LaRose said all 88 Ohio counties are 100 percent compliant with orders to conduct physical security checks, personnel background checks, transition to .gov email and website domains and training for staff. The compliance rate for required cyber attack detection and network defense steps is 99 percent, he said. “Ohio is the best prepared state of any state in the nation. That was my goal from the beginning. That’s what we expect as buckeyes, that’s what we expect as Ohioans. We know that the eyes of the world are on us each time we conduct a presidential election in Ohio. When the world is watching, Ohio will be ready,” LaRose said.

Ohio: State to ramp up election security with new federal funds | Maggie Miller/The Hill

Ohio is moving to implement a string of election security measures with new funding from Washington as the state races against the clock to guard against foreign hacking and disinformation campaigns. Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose (R), speaking on the sidelines of last week’s National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS) meeting in Washington, said there has been a seismic shift at the state level following the 2016 Russian election interference.  “From what I’ve observed, there is definitely a pre-2016, post-2016 mentality,” said LaRose, who characterized the coordination between the federal government, states and county officials as improving “exponentially.” Congress appropriated $380 million in 2018 to help states boost their election security. That was followed by an additional $425 million in December.  “I don’t think you’re ever going to hear a secretary of State or any state official say, ‘Turn off the tap, we’ve got enough federal funding,’” LaRose said. “I’m a fiscal conservative and I believe that we should be smart with our taxpayers’ dollars, but the demand is huge.”

Ohio: Local counties meet deadline for security rules | Chris Stewart/Dayton Daily News

Area elections officials say they met a Friday deadline to comply with a 34-point security checklist mandated by Ohio’s secretary of state to defend against attacks on election infrastructure. “We’re not going to wash our hands and say we are done with cyber security,” said Jan Kelly, director of the Montgomery County Board of Elections. “This is ongoing. This is what it’s going to be in the future.” The checklist included high priority items that boards of elections hadn’t addressed from one issued in 2018. The new directive included testing systems for the latest vulnerabilities and adding security upgrades, putting elections personnel through background checks, and installing cyber-attack detection and tracking hardware. The changes provide a standard of election security others hope to emulate, said Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose. “There’s a reason other states are looking to Ohio,” he said. “We’ve challenged our counties to make significant and challenging improvements well before voters begin casting their ballots; setting up the security redundancies necessary to achieve a successful election.”

Ohio: Boards of Election face Friday deadline to finish security updates ahead of March primary | John Kosich/News5Cleveland

Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose will tell you that talk of efforts to interfere in our elections isn’t talk, it’s a reality. “There are foreign adversaries who want to undermine the credibility of this thing that is really fundamental to our way of life as Americans and that is the ability to elect our leaders,” LaRose told News 5 from Israel, where he was asked to speak this week at a cyber-security conference in Tel Aviv. “They’ve heard about some of the work we’re doing in Ohio where in many ways we’re leading the nation with a very aggressive cyber-security posture that we’ve put in place to protect the integrity of our elections,” he said. “While I’ve been here I’ve had the chance to meet with my counterparts from Israel’s electoral commission as well, so there’s a great exchange of information between the Israeli experts that work to keep their election’s safe and secure and myself.” The state’s county boards of election this week have been busy completing LaRose’s task of making sure they are all individually protected against attack — a 34-point checklist that they have until January 31 to complete.

Ohio: Delaware County voting machine concerns addressed | D. Anthony Botkin/Delaware Gazette

Delaware County Board of Elections officials addressed Commissioner Gary Merrell’s concerns that he had encountered with the new voting equipment while working the polls during the Nov. 5 general election. “The machines didn’t work at the last election and what is the vendor doing to correct it?” Merrell declared in the commissioners’ Dec. 12 regularly scheduled session. “I realize we may not have all the answers until we actually use them in the spring, but all the more reason we need to have the understanding to hold the vendor responsible if they fail to perform.” Board of Elections Deputy Director Anthony Saadey said the problem the commissioner was talking about specifically was the barcode reader. “The scanners had issues on election day,” he said. “In the field technician logs, we found that 24 total out of the 844 deployed ballot marking devices had the same issue. Two of them happen to be at the commissioner’s location.”

Ohio: Is Ohio ready for 2020 election? League of Women Voters not so sure | Cincinnati Business Courier

Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose says the state’s voting systems are secure and ready for 2020. But Jen Miller of the League of Women Voters is concerned about voter turnout, WVXU reports. LaRose has been touring each of Ohio’s 88 Boards of Elections. He finished up last week in Akron, touting more than $114 million spent this year to equip almost every county with new voting machines. He estimates another $13 million to $15 million in federal “Help America Vote Act” funds is on its way. And he said counties will be completing his 34-point voting security checklist by the end of January to ensure readiness. Jen Miller, executive director of Ohio’s League of Women Voters, is encouraged but said the larger issue is increasing voter turnout – especially with next year’s primary coming on St. Patrick’s Day.

Ohio: Most counties tested new equipment in 2019 for 2020 election | Rick Rouan/The Columbus Dispatch

Most Ohio voters cast ballots on new election equipment in 2019 in preparation for 2020. But voters in seven counties, including Stark, will cast ballots on equipment and systems that date to the Obama years. In an off-year election with low turnout, Franklin County’s longest line on Election Day 2019 likely was at the county Board of Elections shortly after the polls closed. Poll workers from around the county converged on the board’s headquarters not in the staggered arrivals typical of election night, but mostly together just before 8 p.m. — an unexpected effect of new voting equipment that elections officials say is far easier to manage than older machines. Across Ohio, most voters cast their ballots on new machines in 2019, a test year before what Secretary of State Frank LaRose believes could be another record voter turnout election in 2020. But in seven counties, including both Stark and Summit, voters will cast ballots the same way they have for years: on equipment and systems that date to before former President Barack Obama’s first term.

Ohio: Is Ohio Ready for the 2020 Election? Secretary of State, League of Women Voters Weigh-In | Kabir Bhatia/WVXU

Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose says the state’s voting systems are secure and ready for 2020. But Jen Miller of the League of Women Voters is concerned about voter turnout. LaRose has been touring each of Ohio’s 88 Boards of Elections. He finished up last week in Akron, touting more than $114 million spent this year to equip almost every county with new voting machines. He estimates another $13-15 million in federal “Help America Vote Act” funds is on its way. And he says counties will be completing his 34-point voting security checklist by the end of next month to ensure readiness. “We’ve required every board of elections to install an intrusion detector – it’s essentially a burglar alarm for your server and IT infrastructure. What it does is, it allows us to know – whether it’s 4 a.m. on a Saturday or whenever – if there is malicious activity occurring so we can respond to it.”

Ohio: Fairfield County one of 13 counties to meet state deadline on election security procedures | Rick Rouan/The Columbus Dispatch

The vast majority of Ohio’s county boards of elections haven’t installed the digital burglar alarm Secretary of State Frank LaRose says helped his office detect a hack attempt of his office’s website on Election Day. With less than two months to go before the deadline LaRose imposed to install the so-called Albert systems, just 13 out of Ohio’s 88 county boards of elections have operational alarms. The remaining 75 have until Jan. 31. Fairfield County Board of Elections Director Jane Hanley said her county is one of the 13 that are using the Albert systems. She said she was not allowed to talk much about it for security reasons. But Hanley did say the systems scan all email that comes into the county in trying to detect an intrusion or attack. The county has been using it for about six weeks and will use it permanently.  Hanley said the state gave the county a $50,000 grant to install the new security system. She said the county is so far under budget on the grant and that she expects to stay that way. Hanley said the county is also about halfway to installing a Security Information Event Management (SIEM) system to further enhance security and detect intrusion attempts. She said the purpose to so make sure voters get a fair and honest election. But that’s not all Fairfield County has done.

Ohio: Thousands of Ohio absentee applications denied | Julie Carr Smyth/Associated Press

Thousands of Ohio voters were held up or stymied in their efforts to get absentee ballots for last year’s general election because of missing or mismatched signatures on their ballot applications, an Associated Press review has found. The signature requirement on such applications is a largely overlooked and spottily tracked step in Ohio’s voting process, which has shifted increasingly to mail-in ballots since early, no-fault absentee voting was instituted in 2005. To supporters, the requirement is a useful form of protection against voter fraud and provides an extra layer of security necessary for absentee balloting. To detractors, it’s a recipe for disenfranchisement — a cumbersome addition to an already stringent voter identification system. Susan Barnard, of Dayton in Montgomery County, said her 78-year-old husband, Leslie, who has cancer, missed a chance to vote last year because of a delay related to the signature requirement. “We had planned a cruise last fall to give him something to look forward to,” said Barnard, 73. “It fell at the time of the election, and we were going to vote the absentee ballot. We got right down to the wire and we didn’t have one for him, and so he did not vote because of that.”

Ohio: Deadline looming for Ohio’s county elections boards to complete new state security requirements for 2020 | Andrew J. Tobias/Cleveland Plain Dealer

While Ohio’s 88 county boards of elections are at various stages of completing a mandatory pre-election security check-list, Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose said Friday that he’s confident Ohio will have a secure 2020 election. During a security briefing in Columbus on Friday, LaRose, a Republican, urged local elections officials to get working on the security directive his office issued last June. Counties are required, among other things, to install a device that can automatically detect hacking attempts, and to conduct criminal background checks on elections workers who hold sensitive jobs. LaRose’s office, which oversees state elections, set a Jan. 31 deadline to get everything done. LaRose’s office emphasized that 52 of Ohio’s 88 counties are at least half done completing the security check-list. But that means 36 aren’t. And a handful are far behind, LaRose said. Only 13 counties have installed the devices that detect hacking attempts. LaRose drew chuckles and whispering from local elections officials when he said the current period — after last November’s election and before the Dec. 17 filing deadline for the March primary election — could be a slower time where elections board can get caught up.

Ohio: Few county boards of elections have adopted digital alarm used to detect hacks | Rick Rouan/The Columbus Dispatch

The vast majority of Ohio’s county boards of elections haven’t installed the digital burglar alarm that Secretary of State Frank LaRose says helped his office detect a hacking attempt of his office’s website on Election Day. With less than two months to go before the deadline LaRose imposed for installation of the so-called Albert systems, just 13 out of Ohio’s 88 county boards of elections have operational alarms. The remaining 75 have until Jan. 31 to install them. “The most important consequence is not being prepared,” LaRose said Friday after the start of a daylong security conference for county elections officials in Columbus. “This is too important to take lightly.” Franklin County has had an Albert sensor in place since May 2018, with other network sensors in place at the Franklin County data center before that. But even with the threat of digital attacks, LaRose said Ohio’s election procedures are secure. None of the equipment used to cast or tally ballots is connected to the internet. Doing so would violate Ohio law.

Ohio: Russian-owned company caught trying to hack Ohio voting systems on Election Day | Igor Derysh/Salon

A Russian-owned company tried to hack the Ohio office that oversees the state’s voting systems on Election Day, according to Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose. LaRose told the Columbus Dispatch that the state’s internal systems detected an “SQL injection” attack that attempted to insert malicious code onto his office’s website. LaRose said that the attack originated in Panama but was traced back to a Russian-owned company. He downplayed the attempted hack as “relatively unsophisticated.” “Some of these unsophisticated attacks are ways that they probe for vulnerabilities. They are poking around for soft spots,” LaRose explained. He went on to credit the state’s “Albert” alert system that quickly identified the attack. “The good guys won that day and the bad guys lost,” he said. LaRose said that similar attacks are designed to disrupt or undermine the credibility of elections but he is confident that hackers cannot access voting machines because they are not connected to the internet. LaRose’s announcement came several months after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis revealed that Russian hackers had breached the voting systems of two counties in the state in 2016, though he said there was “nothing that affected the vote count.”

Ohio: Official: Russian-Owned Company Attempted Ohio Election Hack | Associated Press

Ohio detected and thwarted an election-related cyber attack earlier this month, the state’s elections chief said. Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose said the “relatively unsophisticated” hacking attempt on Nov. 5, which was Election Day, originated in Panama but was traced to a Russian-owned company. LaRose told The Columbus Dispatch Tuesday that the would-be attackers were looking around for vulnerabilities in his office’s website. “They are poking around for soft spots,” LaRose said. The ultimate goal of such attacks is disrupting and undermining the credibility of elections, but LaRose said Ohio’s election results are safe because neither the election machines nor the ballot counters the state uses are connected to the internet.

Ohio: State Takes Steps to Ensure Cyber Security at the Polls | Andrew Meyer/WKSU

We’re less than a year away from the 2020 presidential election, and concern about Russian interference in the 2016 election persists. Have states, including Ohio, done everything they need to ensure that the vote next time will be safe and secure? We spoke with Jen Miller, executive director of the League of Women Voters of Ohio. She says the state is in pretty good shape, but there’s still work to be done. Miller says in terms of security, Ohio already has a pretty good system that’s “well ahead of other states.” Ohio’s voting machines are not hooked up to the internet, so they can’t be hacked. But Miller advises it’s important to be ready for what comes next. She points to Sec. of State Frank LaRose, who worked with the Ohio Senate to craft Senate Bill 52. Gov. Mike DeWine signed this cybersecurity into law. According to Miller, the law gives the secretary of state a seat on the Homeland Security Council. “Clearly, elections are critical infrastructure,” she said. The law also creates a cyber-information officer seat within the secretary of state’s office, and it would codify postelection audits, Miller said. On that last point, Miller says that’s something the League of Women Voters secured from a lawsuit following the 2004 election.

Ohio: Election Day cyber attack attempt traced to Panama | Rick Rouan/The Columbus Dispatch

Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose said that the “SQL injection” attack was detected by the state’s internal systems. He called the attack “relatively unsophisticated.” The Ohio Secretary of State’s office was the subject of a thwarted foreign cyber attack on Election Day. Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose said Tuesday that the so-called “SQL injection” attack was detected by the state’s internal systems. The attack was attempting to insert malicious code into his office’s website. The attempted hack originated in Panama and was traced to a Russian-owned company, he said, but was “relatively unsophisticated.” “Some of these unsophisticated attacks are ways that they probe for vulnerabilities. They are poking around for soft spots,” LaRose said, noting that the cyber attack was looking for vulnerabilities in his office’s website.

Ohio: Governor signs into law measure to increase cybersecurity of elections | Maggie Miller/The Hill

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) on Friday signed into law legislation that will increase cyber protections for election systems and enhance the overall cybersecurity posture of the state. The legislation, which had bipartisan support, requires post-election audits by county boards of elections to ensure the accuracy of the vote count, while also creating a “civilian cyber security reserve” that can be called into duty to protect state and local government entities against cyberattacks, including those involving elections and those against critical infrastructure  The bill gives the Ohio secretary of state a seat on the Ohio Homeland Security Advisory Council and creates a chief information security officer position within the secretary of state’s office to increase attention on election security issues.  Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose (R), the top election official in the state, said in a statement on Friday that the legislation will give local officials “the support they need” to combat foreign cyber threats. “Imagine looking out the window and seeing foreign paratroopers parachuting into your town,” LaRose said. “We wouldn’t tell a community, ‘you’re on your own – your sheriff department can fight off that threat.’ Well likewise, in the online world, we can now respond with Ohio’s best cyber warriors so these counties and cities have the support they need.”

Ohio: House Lawmakers Approve Civilian Cyber Reserve | Jim Provance/Toledo Blade

The Ohio House on Wednesday voted unanimously to create a civilian cyberforce within the Ohio National Guard to respond to cyberattacks against elections systems, governments, businesses, and critical infrastructure. Senate Bill 52, sponsored by Sen. Theresa Gavarone (R., Bowling Green), now returns to the Senate for consideration of House changes. The bill passed the upper chamber unanimously earlier this year. A city’s mayor could ask the governor to call out the Ohio Cyber Reserve if the city finds itself in over its head in fending off or mitigating a ransomware attack or other cyberintrusion, much as governments can now ask for help after natural disasters. “By their nature, elections are vulnerable to threats both foreign and domestic,” Rep. Doug Green (R., Mt. Orab) said. “Creating the Ohio Cyber Reserve allows for preparedness in mitigating those cyberattacks and ensures Ohio’s voters that their elections are secure and accessible.”

Ohio: Secretary of State to ask for $1.7 million to monitor cyber-security threats | Jim Provance/Toledo Blade

Ohio’s top elections official on Monday will ask a state budgetary panel to allow him to tap just more than $1.7 million in federal funds to monitor county boards of elections for potential cyber-security threats going into the 2020 presidential election. If approved, Ohio would become just the third state, following Nevada and Florida, to have such devices in all of its counties. Secretary of State Frank LaRose has asked the bipartisan Ohio Controlling Board to release the funds made available through the federal Help America Vote Act to contract with the Center for Internet Security. The New York-based nonprofit organization is the sole vendor approved by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and has staff at the National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center in Washington. “The security directive is intended to protect that infrastructure that is connected to the Internet — stations where board staff work, email systems, voter registration databases, the board of election website…,” Mr. LaRose said. Voting machines and tabulating equipment would not be included since they are not connected to the Internet.

Ohio: Background Checks to Supplement Voting Tech in Ohio County | Denise G. Callahan/Journal News

Millions of dollars in new Butler County voting machines that must be operational by November are arriving this week, and the board of elections now also has a six-month deadline to implement comprehensive security measures. Secretary of State Frank LaRose issued an edict last week that includes criminal background checks on all full-time county board of elections employees and any vendors who work with the voting systems, cybersecurity training, changing email domain names and performing various security checks on their systems, among other items. “Although the list of tasks that we’ve given them looks intimidating initially, once you start working through them in many cases they’ll find they’ve already complied,” LaRose told the Journal-News. “We’re confident they’re going to be able to work through this, we’ll be there to support them every step of the way.”

Ohio: Counties Work to Upgrade Security Before Elections | Jennifer Peryam/Lima News

Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose issued a new security directive Tuesday to county board of elections to implement significant security upgrades. Area elections officials are optimistic they’ll stop anything that could disrupt an election. Kathy Meyer, director of the Allen County Board of Elections, said the board wants voters to feel safe and know their votes will count and that the correct information is in the system without someone getting into the system who shouldn’t. Michelle Wilcox, Auglaize County Board of Elections director, said she supports protecting the voting system from any cyber security threats. “Not only did we have mandates put into effect last year, but they are now going into greater depth to be sure everything is in place by Jan. 31, 2020,” Wilcox said. The directive provides Ohio with the opportunity to continue to strengthen the security of the election system and become a best practical leader nationwide in the statewide efforts to make elections safer. It instructs county boards of elections on continuing action and outlines additional requirements that each board must take to enhance its overall elections security and to protect its information technology systems.