• Home
  • Opinion
  • Quizzes
  • Redistricting
  • Sections
  • About Us
  • Voting
  • Events
  • Civic Ed
  • Campaign Finance
  • Directory
  • Election Dissection
  • Fact Check
  • Glossary
  • Independent Voter News
  • News
  • Analysis
  • Subscriptions
  • Log in
Leveraging Our Differences
  • news & opinion
    • Big Picture
      • Civic Ed
      • Ethics
      • Leadership
      • Leveraging big ideas
      • Media
    • Business & Democracy
      • Corporate Responsibility
      • Impact Investment
      • Innovation & Incubation
      • Small Businesses
      • Stakeholder Capitalism
    • Elections
      • Campaign Finance
      • Independent Voter News
      • Redistricting
      • Voting
    • Government
      • Balance of Power
      • Budgeting
      • Congress
      • Judicial
      • Local
      • State
      • White House
    • Justice
      • Accountability
      • Anti-corruption
      • Budget equity
    • Columns
      • Beyond Right and Left
      • Civic Soul
      • Congress at a Crossroads
      • Cross-Partisan Visions
      • Democracy Pie
      • Our Freedom
  • Pop Culture
      • American Heroes
      • Ask Joe
      • Celebrity News
      • Comedy
      • Dance, Theatre & Film
      • Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging
      • Faithful & Mindful Living
      • Music, Poetry & Arts
      • Sports
      • Technology
      • Your Take
      • American Heroes
      • Ask Joe
      • Celebrity News
      • Comedy
      • Dance, Theatre & Film
      • Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging
      • Faithful & Mindful Living
      • Music, Poetry & Arts
      • Sports
      • Technology
      • Your Take
  • events
  • About
      • Mission
      • Advisory Board
      • Staff
      • Contact Us
Sign Up
  1. Home>
  2. Voting>
  3. election security>

Half of election commission still awaiting security clearances

David Hawkings
April 08, 2019

Security clearances are held by only half the current members of the Election Assistance Commission, which advises states on how to guard against foreign hacking and other security threats.

And none of the four commissioners had clearances at the time of the past two elections, including the period when Russians linked to the Kremlin are suspected of an array of cyberattacks against state election operations, the Democratic Party and Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign.


"The delay in issuing security clearances for commission members is part of a massive backlog of application approvals throughout the entire federal government," Politico wrote in describing the situation. "But it's a particularly acute problem for the EAC, one of the key agencies offering guidance to state and local officials about how to protect themselves from security risks."

"The people entrusted with securing our elections need to know what threats they're supposed to address," Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden said, explaining that an EAC commissioner "without a security clearance is like making a baseball player hit without a bat."

An EAC spokesman says the two commissioners without clearances have completed all the necessary work for getting them. Until the situation changes, they have limited access to classified material, potentially restricting their awareness of specific threats and vulnerabilities. The paucity of clearances has also meant the commission has been hampered in one of its central missions: acting as an intermediary between state election offices and federal agencies including the Department of Homeland Security.

Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter

Many state and local election officials have security clearances, but DHS concedes there's a backlog on that front as well.

Related Articles Around the Web
  • House panel votes to close Election Assistance Commission ›
  • House GOP Moves to Kill Election Assistance Commission - The ... ›
  • US Election Assistance Commission: Home Page ›
election security

Want to write
for The Fulcrum?

If you have something to say about ways to protect or repair our American democracy, we want to hear from you.

Submit
Get some Leverage Sign up for The Fulcrum Newsletter
Follow
Contributors

Reform in 2023: Leadership worth celebrating

Layla Zaidane

Two technology balancing acts

Dave Anderson

Reform in 2023: It’s time for the civil rights community to embrace independent voters

Jeremy Gruber

Congress’ fix to presidential votes lights the way for broader election reform

Kevin Johnson

Democrats and Republicans want the status quo, but we need to move Forward

Christine Todd Whitman

Reform in 2023: Building a beacon of hope in Boston

Henry Santana
Jerren Chang
latest News

Family values and societal results

Debilyn Molineaux
7h

Transpartisanship and transformation

Brenda Marinace
7h

Podcast: Why we misunderstand independent voters

Our Staff
7h

The American experiment

Kevin Frazier
24 January

The Fahey Q&A with Jasmine Hull of Deliberations.US

Katie Fahey
Courtney Fiedler
24 January

Podcast: What does the House Speaker election say about the Republican Party?

Our Staff
24 January
Videos

Video: Meet the citizen activists championing primary reform

Our Staff

Video: Veterans for Political Innovation - Who we are

Our Staff

Video: Want to fight polarization? Take a vacation!

Our Staff

Video: Kevin McCarthy is Speaker, but he's got a tough job ahead

Our Staff

Video: #ListenFirst Friday End of Year

Our Staff

Video: Minnesota Gov. Walz asks fellow Democrats to ‘Think Big’ when it comes to fixing voting issues

Our Staff
Podcasts

Podcast: Why we misunderstand independent voters

Our Staff
7h

Podcast: What does the House Speaker election say about the Republican Party?

Our Staff
24 January

Video: Chaos or calm: Building confidence in Pennsylvania elections

Our Staff
19 January

Podcast: Pushing back against polarization

Our Staff
18 January
Recommended
Family values and societal results

Family values and societal results

Big Picture
Transpartisanship and transformation

Transpartisanship and transformation

Big Picture
Podcast: Why we misunderstand independent voters

Podcast: Why we misunderstand independent voters

Podcasts
image of Statue of Liberty and American flag.

The American experiment

Civic Ed
Jasmine Hull is Chief Operating Officer for Deliberations.US.

The Fahey Q&A with Jasmine Hull of Deliberations.US

Civic Ed
Podcast: What does the House Speaker election say about the Republican Party?

Podcast: What does the House Speaker election say about the Republican Party?

Podcasts