• Home
  • Opinion
  • Quizzes
  • Redistricting
  • Sections
  • About Us
  • Voting
  • Independent Voter News
  • Campaign Finance
  • Civic Ed
  • Directory
  • Election Dissection
  • Events
  • Fact Check
  • Glossary
  • 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>

Election equipment vendors should face more security oversight, report argues

Bill Theobald
November 13, 2019
Election equipment

Election security efforts should be expanded to cover the vendors who provide the equipment and other systems used to record and count votes, according to a new report by the Brennan Center for Justice. Here a Miami-Dade County election worker checks voting machines for accuracy.

Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Efforts to fend off election hackers in 2020 and beyond have revolved around protecting ballot equipment and the databases of registered voters. Little attention has been focused on the vendors and their employees.

But the nonpartisan Brennan Center for Justice is proposing that the vendors who make election equipment and related systems be subjected to heightened oversight and vetting, much like defense contractors or others involved in national security.

"There is almost no federal regulation of the vendors that design and maintain the systems that allow us to determine who can vote, how they vote, or how their votes are counted and reported," according to a new report from the nonpartisan policy institute.


The "Framework for Election Vendor Oversight" released Tuesday calls for a new federal certification program that would be operated by a reconstituted and expanded Election Assistance Commission.

The commission would establish standards concerning cybersecurity, personnel, disclosure of ownership and foreign control that vendors would have to meet.

One option, the report proposes, would be for these standards to be voluntary.

"A voluntary approach — leaving it to the states and local jurisdictions to decide whether to contract with non-federally certified vendors — could draw states into the voting system certification process," the report states. "It may also be more politically feasible."

Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter

One key element of the framework would be background checks and other security measures — such as ongoing substance abuse screening — that vendors would use to screen prospective employees for security risks.

"Some of the most effective cyberattacks of recent years have involved insiders," the report states. "To mitigate these risks, vendors should demonstrate during certification that they have sound personnel policies and practices in place."

Much of what is being proposed would require congressional action, particularly when it comes to dealing with the Election Assistance Commission.

The report notes that the EAC has a checkered history of "controversy and inaction" and would need an expanded budget and increased expertise in cybersecurity in order to take on the role of monitoring election vendors.

From Your Site Articles
  • Iowa will keep voter registration system that thwarted Russian hackers ›
  • Microsoft is launching election security software - The Fulcrum ›
Related Articles Around the Web
  • The Crisis of Election Security - The New York Times ›
  • Raskin and Colleagues Introduce Election Vendor Security Act ... ›
  • The Cybersecurity 202: Election vendors should be vetted for ... ›
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
Confirm that you are not a bot.
×
Follow

Support Democracy Journalism; Join The Fulcrum

The Fulcrum daily platform is where insiders and outsiders to politics are informed, meet, talk, and act to repair our democracy and make it live and work in our everyday lives. Now more than ever our democracy needs a trustworthy outlet

Contribute
Contributors

Sandra Day O'Connor's legacy has been dismantled

Beau Breslin

America will be just fine without crypto

Tonantzin Carmona

Holiday reads: A handful of books offer to get you in the election year spirit

Rick LaRue

Speaker Mike Johnson is out of step with Americans, and his constituents, on climate change

Eric Fine

Why are Black women becoming the hidden figures in AI?

Nicol Turner Lee

Winning proportional representation: How the U.S. can follow New Zealand’s lead

Cynthia Richie Terrell
Rob Richie
latest News

The danger of technology discrimination

Nakeema Stefflbauer
05 December

Winning proportional representation: Lessons from New Zealand

Cynthia Richie Terrell
Rob Richie
05 December

Johnny’s American future

Debilyn Molineaux
04 December

Are state governments ready for today’s unique challenges?

Kevin Frazier
01 December

2024 caucus-primary and general elections controlled by extremists

Steve Corbin
01 December

A crisis creates clarity for donors

Jack Miller
01 December
Videos
Who is the new House Speaker Rep. Mike Johnson?

Who is the new House Speaker Rep. Mike Johnson?

Our Staff
Video: Jordan bully tactics backfire, provoke threats and harassment of fellow Republicans

Video: Jordan bully tactics backfire, provoke threats and harassment of fellow Republicans

Our Staff
Video Rewind: Reflection on Indigenous Peoples' Day with Rev. F. Willis Johnson

Video Rewind: Reflection on Indigenous Peoples' Day with Rev. F. Willis Johnson

Our Staff
Video: The power of young voices

Video: The power of young voices

Our Staff
Video: Expert baffled by Trump contradicting legal team

Video: Expert baffled by Trump contradicting legal team

Our Staff
Video: Do white leaders hinder black aspirations?

Video: Do white leaders hinder black aspirations?

Our Staff
Podcasts

Podcast: Dr. F Willis Johnson in rich conversation with Steve Lawler

Lennon Wesley III
29 November

Podcast: Dr. F. Willis Johnson in a rich conversation with Patrick McNeal

Our Staff
14 November

Podcast: Better choices, better elections

Our Staff
23 October

Podcast: Are state legislators really accountable to their voters?

Our Staff
06 October
Recommended
Sandra Day O'Connor being sworn in as a Supreme Court justice

Sandra Day O'Connor's legacy has been dismantled

Judicial
digital currency graphic

America will be just fine without crypto

Innovation & Incubation
Three political books: The Politics Industry, A Real Right to Vote, The Primary Solution

Holiday reads: A handful of books offer to get you in the election year spirit

Media
Speaker Mike Johnson

Speaker Mike Johnson is out of step with Americans, and his constituents, on climate change

Congress
Katherine Johnson receives the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama

Why are Black women becoming the hidden figures in AI?

Technology
ranked choice ballot

Winning proportional representation: How the U.S. can follow New Zealand’s lead

Voting