[Image via flickr]

Today at 1pm Central time, the Certificate in Election Administration program will present a webinar entitled “Preparing for 2020: Election and Cybersecurity ” co-hosted by Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon and Colorado state election director Judd Choate. Here’s the description from the Humphrey website:

As the 2020 election approaches, election security continues to be a critical area of focus for policymakers and voters alike. Join two of the country’s leading election security experts Minnesota’s Secretary of State Steve Simon and Colorado’s Election Director Judd Choate for a discussion of election and cybersecurity best practices that local elections officials can implement to prepare for this fall. Both work closely with the US Department of Homeland Security and with states on election and cybersecurity.

Steve Simon is Minnesota’s 22nd Secretary of State. He was first elected in 2014 and reelected in 2018. As Minnesota’s chief elections administrator, Simon partners with township, city, and county officials to organize elections on behalf of Minnesota’s nearly four million eligible voters, and to ensure that the election system is fair. He also oversees a wide range of services for Minnesota businesses. Simon previously served in the Minnesota House of Representatives for ten years.

Judd Choate is the director of elections for the Colorado Department of State. He was the president of the National Association of State Election Directors (NASED) in 2017. He has a J.D. from the University of Colorado Law School and a Ph.D. in political science from Purdue University. Judd is also a faculty and steering committee member for the Certificate in Election Administration program here at the Humphrey School.

This should be a great session; both Secretary Simon and Judd are incredibly knowledgeable about how cybersecurity affects elections and have great insights about the opportunities and challenges involved in hardening the voting process against outside threats. [In fact, Judd is developing a new course for the program centered around these very topics!] The session is especially timely with both Minnesota and Colorado having just participated in Super Tuesday, with Minnesota hosting its first presidential primary since 1992. You can register for today’s webinar at this link – hope you’ll join us! Stay tuned …

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