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A few more thoughts on this: it's important that there is now bipartisan agreement across both chambers of Congress that states need more money to defend our election infrastructure (though to be honest, kind of incredible it's taken this long to get there). /1
The House already passed an appropriations bill for election security. It would do more than the Senate proposal. First, it would provide more money -- $600 million vs. the $250 million proposed by the Senate. /2
How much is actually needed? The Brennan Center has estimated four key security measures will cost about $2.153 billion over the next five years, nationwide /3 brennancenter.org/analysis/what-…
This is important. A lot of the discussion around election security has devolved into simplistic talking points about voting machines, but election security is about much more than this. /4
Certainly, security of voting machines is really important, and it's been a huge focus of our work at the Brennan Center. /5 brennancenter.org/analysis/votin…
But if we look at what was attacked in the US in 2016, and what has been the focus of attack abroad, it's clear that we also need to focus on protecting our voter registration infrastructure ….
that states and counties have sufficient staff and training to address discovered vulnerabilities in all election systems, including county websites that tell people where and when to vote, and election night reporting systems that provide county and statewide votes ...
And that we're conducting meaningful post-election audits of the entire system after the election is over, but before certifying results...
All of this costs money too! Most states and local jurisdictions really want to do all of them well, but the disgraceful fact is few currently have the money to do so as fully as they would like.
brennancenter.org/sites/default/…
brennancenter.org/sites/default/…
This brings me to the final thing about the House Appropriations which would provide $600 million for election security: it spells out the right priorities:
Among them, replacing paperless equipment, implementing meaningful post-election audits, addressing cyber vulnerabilities identified by DHS or other scans, upgrading voter registration systems, cyber security training, and implementing cybersecurity best practices ...
including contingency plans if something goes wrong... so that people can still vote and their votes will be counted even if there is a successful attack.
In conclusion, it's great the Senate is now on board and McConnell agrees to provide more money for election security. There is still a lot of work to do.
