Election Security: Security is Top-of-Mind for 2024 U.S. Elections

The 2020 election and its aftermath provided a vivid demonstration of many of the risks faced by election officials across the country – and new dangers have emerged in 2024. Physical threats to poll workers have proliferated, AI-generated disinformation showed up in one state’s primary contest, and other AI threats, whether from partisan interests, corporate disinterest or hostile nation-states, loom large.

The landscape is so dangerous Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said in a June interview that “We may be less prepared 155 days out in 2024 than we were under President Trump (in 2020).”

The federal government is trying to help; in 2017 the Department of Homeland Security declared election infrastructure part of the nation’s critical infrastructure sectors, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) created a dedicated program providing resources to state and local governments to protect their election assets. The U.S. Election Assistance Program (EAP) also offers a range of election security resources. Even the U.S. intelligence community has a role; the Office of Director of National Intelligence has created the Foreign Malign Influence Center (FMIC) to monitor for nation-state adversaries attempting to corrupt the election process.

But as the CISA program demonstrates, responsibility for protecting election infrastructure and the people who handle them rests with the thousands of officials and volunteers in the states, counties and localities that actually conduct elections.

Learning Objectives:

• Review the current risks of election interference that government agencies at all levels are most concerned about
• Identify the areas where cybersecurity measures and authorized users’ cyber hygiene are essential
• Delineate ways to detect the use of AI to spread mis- and disinformation, including directing voters to the wrong polling places and altering information about the days and times of early voting
• List the best practices recommended by CISA, the EAP, and voting machine companies