The state of Nevada is spending nearly $4.3 million in federal grants to shore up its election systems, with the bulk of the money targeted for safeguarding voter registration rolls and lesser amounts to tighten cybersecurity and improve communication between county and state election officers. The money is included in a report the U.S. Election Assistance Commission released Tuesday showing how states plan to spend $380 million allocated by Congress last spring to strengthen voting systems amid ongoing threats from Russia and others under the Help America Vote Act. The largest chunk nationally — roughly 36 percent — is being spent to improve cybersecurity in 41 states and territories.
Nevada plans to use $220,440 for that purpose, about 5 percent of its grant total, including evaluation of state and local data and system management, according to state election officials.
“In addition to the proactive measures, the Secretary of State will invest in strategic alliance for retroactive review of systems to determine previous penetration activity or attempts and dormant files detection,” according to a summary of the Nevada Secretary of State’s Office’s election security grant budget. It will include $45,000 to establish formal procedures for training local election officials with an emphasis on “cybersecurity awareness.”
Full Article: Nevada targets $4.3M in US grants to safeguard voter rolls – Fairfield Citizen.