Time is running out for state and local officials to secure their voting systems before the mid-term elections, but they may be getting some help from Capitol Hill, the Federal Election Commission and the Department of Homeland Security. FEC Vice Chairwoman Ellen Weintraub said her agency unanimously voted to update the 2006 rules governing political ad disclosure in time for the 2018 elections. “I believe we are going to be able to move this rulemaking forward in this election cycle,” she said at the 2018 State of the Net conference on Jan. 29. “We should be able to move quickly enough to get the new rules in place to at least require the information available about where the … ads are coming from.”
Even though the bipartisan Honest Ads Act hasn’t received a vote in either chamber, social media companies like Twitter and Facebook have publicly stated they’re working to publicly provide more information about paid advertisements that run on their sites.
Katie Harbath, Facebook’s U.S. politics and government outreach manager, said that “regardless of legislation,” the social media company would be taking some “small steps” to make advertising more transparent, including making advertisers verify their identities, as well as labeling political ads and archiving them for four years.
Meanwhile, Candice Hoke, who co-directs the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law’s Center for Cybersecurity and Privacy Protection, said that election systems themselves are at risk of digital interference.
Full Article: States get policy help in securing the 2018 vote — GCN.