Archive for 2019

The State of Wisconsin is considering using some of its federal cybersecurity funds to loan updated computers to municipalities after an expert warned that the state could be vulnerable because many localities are facing issues with outdated Windows boxes.

The Federal Voting Assistance Program (FVAP) recently released its 2018 Report to Congress, and as part of that release has produced a short piece entitled “The State of the Military Voter” using data from the report to demonstrate the gains that have been made for servicemembers and their families in years since the passage of the MOVE Act of 2009.

Michigan’s Secretary of State and several local clerks are seeking new legislation to permit an earlier start on absentee ballot tabulation in in order to have more time to manage what’s expected to be a significant increase in the number of voters casting such ballots.

A regular theme of this blog is that “there is no small stuff in elections” – and the latest example comes from Mississippi’s Gulf Coast, where a missing thumb drive has turned a close state Senate race upside down. It’s the kind of issues election officials can (and should) worry about on Election Night and afterwards.

VoteWA, Washington State’s new statewide voter registration system, which had been the source of concern by local election officials, had a smooth rollout yesterday as the state held its 2019 primary election.

After years of an adversarial relationship between election officials and information security experts, the two sides are seeing the value in working together in the face of outside threats and internal challenges – including a growing number of election officials who are traveling to this week’s DEFCON hacking conference in Las Vegas.

Last Thursday, Democracy Fund senior advisor and “postal whisperer” Tammy Patrick had a crucially important piece in electionlineWeekly about an issue many in the election community may have missed – but should be watching closely: a potential U.S. withdrawal from the Universal Postal Union.

Taking a summer break and heading to the lake … the blog will return Monday, August 5. Stay cool and stay tuned!

The latest electionlineWeekly features a story about an election cybersecurity program in Nebraska that’s breaking new ground – and garnering accolades in the process. Programs like these have come a very long way in a very short time – and just in time for what is likely to be a closely-watched and high-stakes election in 2020.

The Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC) now has 29 members with the recent additions of Vermont and Kentucky, joining 26 states and The District of Columbia in an interstate exchange dedicated to improving voter registration rolls.