There was little public awareness about cyber threats and election interference during the 2016 elections until the following year when the extent of Russian interference was revealed. Starting then, federal, state, and local governments began to dedicate resources to improving cybersecurity preparedness. The pandemic has raised new challenges due to delays in primary elections and voting by mail.
After the 2016 election, both the Senate Intelligence Committee and the Department of Justice’s Special Counsel Robert Mueller concluded that Russia had actively engaged in election-interfering activity from 2014-2017, targeting election infrastructure. At the same time, the National Academy of Sciences was looking at expanding voting accessibility through technological means (remote voting). However, as the country heads into the 2020 election, they recommended some different priorities: (1) paper ballots should be used rather than voting machines, and (2) Congress should provide funding for state cybersecurity improvements and mandate post-election audits.
The American Bar Association is advocating for Congress to provide the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) with the authority to “create standards for election software, develop a certification process, and review the private sector role in election systems”. With a new election so close, they are also advising that internet voting and technological integration into the existing election infrastructure should not be implemented now as “there is simply no known technology that can guarantee the secrecy, security, and verifiability of a marked ballot transmitted over the Internet.” The focus should now be on expanding access with voting by mail and absentee ballots.
Maintaining the integrity and security of the U.S voting system is crucial because it is what upholds voter confidence. Now more than ever, in a pandemic and a time of great political upheaval, voter confidence is weakening, and the government needs to rise to the challenge of empowering American voters.
