With the 2018 mid-term general election just a week away, the pressing topic of the day for local, state and federal officials is election security and, specifically, whether or not we have the resources and protocols in place to ensure the accuracy of vote collecting and prevent calculated attacks against the democratic process from foreign agents.

Rhode Island Secretary of State Nellie Gorbea, alongside Congressional Representatives David Cicilline and Jim Langevin, were adamant at a press conference held in the State Room at the Rhode Island State House on Friday that, while these challenges are evolving and ever-present everywhere in the country, Rhode Island is leading the charge in cyber security and elections security procedures.

“I’m very proud of how we are building on Rhode Island’s legacy of elections innovation and excellence, especially in light of the significant challenges that Rhode Island and almost every other state faces today,” Gorbea said, adding that Rhode Island has invested in secure voting machines and is constantly looking for ways to collaborate with local and federal voting officials to ensure they have the knowledge necessary to protect the integrity of elections.

“Cybersecurity is not a destination,” Gorbea said. “What seems reasonably secure may not be so a year later, and in order to protect our elections, we absolutely need a continuous process of assessment, improvement of our systems and mitigation of risks.”

Beginning in 2002 when signed into law by President George W. Bush, the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) provides financial assistance to states in order to update and reform the voting practices in each state. Rhode Island received $3 million in HAVA funding this year, and the state is to utilize the dollars to increase elections infrastructure.

This will be done in a few ways, including half of the money going towards a revamping of the state’s central voter registration system, which hasn’t been done in over a decade, according to Gorbea. The other half of the funding will allow for additional training of municipal voting officials to look for suspicious activity on Election Day through various hypothetical scenarios, including simulated cyber attacks and tabletop exercises.

In addition to these physical resources and training, officials stressed that a collaborative relationship between states and the federal Department of Homeland Security – and the Election Infrastructure Information Sharing and Analysis Center – is essential to ensuring elections are as secure as possible.

“What you see before you is your government working together for you…to ensure that our democracy is protected from those who would seek to disrupt it,” said Jeanette Manfra, Assistant Secretary of Cyber Security and Communications for DHS. “We have mobilized all resources available to us to ensure that state and local administrators of elections have the resources that they need, have the information that they need and the tools – and I’m happy to say that all 50 states and more than 1,100 jurisdictions across the country are participating with us in some form or fashion in securing your elections.”

Manfra said that DHS employees would be working alongside state voting officials on Election Day to provide assistance and guidance in making sure votes are counted correctly and that no nefarious activity is occurring. However, since elections are designed to be state-run endeavors, it is the responsibility of the state to report suspicious activity to the federal government before they can act and investigate.

Manfra said that DHS has already investigated a small number of attempted elections interferences that were reported, but none of them constituted a serious threat or indicated they were the product of foreign actors. She said that Rhode Island is leading the nation in terms of its preparedness and collaboration with federal authorities.

“Rhode Island is just a leader in the country in terms of both cybersecurity and election security,” Manfra said. “The work that has been done here is being copied elsewhere in the country.”

Manfra emphasized that no local municipality should have to face the challenges provided by possible election interference alone, a point that was mentioned by Langevin.

“After all, pitting a local board of canvassers against a dedicated team of Russian intelligence agents or cyber operators would be clearly an unfair advantage, and that’s why having nation state resources that DHS can offer and other aspects of the federal government is essential to confront the challenges of countering the attempted interference campaigns of a nation state like Russia,” he said.

Since the 2016 presidential election, it has come to light that Russia initiated a multi-faceted interference campaign to destabilize the integrity of the democratic process through both targeted hacking of Democratic candidate officials’ personal email accounts and through widespread dissemination of counterfeit news articles via social media sites – primarily Facebook – to sway public opinion in favor of Donald Trump and against Hillary Clinton.

This interference campaign has since been confirmed by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (which oversees all intelligence agencies in the country) as well as the individual heads of the top three intelligence organizations in the country – the FBI, CIA and NSA.

“We all recognize that elections are the basis of our democracy and it is important that voters feel confident in the security of our election systems,” said Cicilline. “The 2016 election made it clear that we need to make made improvements and set aside additional resources to protect the integrity of our elections. Russia and other foreign adversaries have the intention and are continuing to attempt to influence our elections and to attack our democracy.”

The message from the press conference was clear. Transparency, good communication and collaboration between state and federal authorities is necessary to ensure legitimate elections – however something else remains even more important.

“The most important thing that you can do is vote. Our infrastructure is secure, it’s resilient, and so are our people,” said Manfra. “Don’t let anybody dissuade you. Get out there and vote. We’re doing all that we can to ensure that those votes are being counted and counted correctly.”

SECURITY BRIEFING:

From left to right, DHS Assistant Secretary Jeanette Manfra speaks to press during a briefing on Friday at the Rhode Island State House; Secretary of State Nellie Gorbea; Congressman David Cicilline; and Congressman Jim Langevin. (Warwick Beacon photo)