Transcripts For CSPAN3 Hearing On 2020 Election Security 20240712

Week in revenue. Well be leaving this Washington Journal Program to go live now to a hearing on Election Security. You can watch the remanldinder this program on cspan. Org. This hearing comes after we laid to rest a giant in Voting Rights. You must use it because it is not guaranteed. You can lose it. We must vigorously defend our right to vote, our access to the ballot box and the integrity of our election. In less than 90 days americans across the country will participate in an election unlike any other in our history. The covid19 pandemic is forcing state and local Election Officials to rapidly expand vote by mail, early voting and other crowd reducing election policies so no voter has to choose between their democratic rights and their health. As states scramble to administer safe primary elections seemingly administrative decisions related to the number and location of polling sites had substantive impacts on peoples right to vote. Long lines in predominantly black and brown neighborhoods raised the stress levels in communities disproportionately impacted by covid19 and Police Violence that underscored that existence of systemic racism as an injustice that we must still overcome. And we have a president who has repeatedly tried to manipulate a news cycle going so far as to falsely suggest he can move an election date and more insidiously making baseless claims about the security of vote by mail. This behavior is in service to his own narcissistic political ends, softens the turf for dangerous foreign influence campaigns and puts americans who want to exercise the franchise at risk. For the record, the president does not have the power to move the date of the election from november. Moreover, last friday the Cyber Security Infrastructure Security Agency released a Risk Assessment of vote by mail. While there are risks associated with mailin voting just as with any other method of voting those risks can be mitigated. Further, i am not aware of any intelligence assessment indicating that foreign actors have expressed interest or capability to successfully interfere with vote by mail processes. We must learn the lessons of our recent elections and do better in november. First we must prepare americans for the reality that elections will be administered differently this fall. We must educate voters about vote by mail, its related deadline and how expanded vote by mail might affect the timing of Election Results. We must encourage participation in vote by mail while inoculating the public from disinformation campaigns aimed at undermining confidence in Election Results. Second, we must assure that changes to the usps Standard Service do not affect vote by mail. Third we must ensure Election Officials do not use covid19 as a pretext for making administrative decisions that could disenfranchise voters. Time and time again the impacts of dysfunctional and chaotic Election Administration fallest on black and brown communities. Election officials must be dlibt in their efforts to ensure no community is disenfranchised. Fourth, we must not forget the lessons of 2016. It was around this time in 2016 when russianferr interference campaign targeted election systems in all 50 states. We must continue to improve the security of election infrastructure and Campaign Organizations and improve the public resilience to foreign influence campaigns. Finally, we need to be honest with ourselves about what it will take to administer safe, secure and audible elections this fall. It has been over ten weeks since the house passed the heroes act which would have provided 3. 6 billion in funding to support state and local election issues. Despite urge want requests from state and Election Officials across the country the senate never voted on the heroes act nor did it include any heroes act funding in the legislation it passed last week. I urge my Senate Colleagues to step up and provide state and local electionficials the funding they need to administer safe, secure and auditable elections this november. I look forward to hearing from Witnesses Today the ways to give congress more opportunities to vote this november and to ensure the safety and integrity of the election. I ask unanimous consent ms. Demings of florida and mr. Green of texas be permitted to participate in todays hearing. With that id like to recognize the Ranking Member of the subcommittee for any Opening Statements he may have. I want to echo your sentiments at the outset about john lewis. He truly was a giant in american politics and american leadership, and i considered him a friend. And his legacy will live on long after his passing thats for sure. I want to thank staff for accommodating our schedule today. I have another example how bad 2020 is. Our best friends son is being laid to rest this morning. Its another awful example of this awful year. Election security is something im very concerned about that im working hard to ensure all americans are able to vote securely and have their vote counted. Although we have made significant progress since 2016 Election Security remains a major concern of mine. Secure voting systems and accurate reporting of votes are fundamental to our democracy. Americans should have full confidence in every aspect of our election process. I want to applaud the Cyber Security and Information Agency and its partnerships with state, local, territorial and tribal governments that have resulted in a marked improvement of Election Security over 2016. It provides state and local officials with technical assistance, play books and exercises, shares information on threats and response to cyber incidents. The pandemic has injected new elements of uncertainty that have forced many Election Officials to reinvent the process by which citizens volt. These changes will keep citizens and coworkers safe while main taping citizens faith in the process. In march congress provided 400 million in new help america vote act funds for states to prepare for and conduct the 2020 election during the pandemic. Aided by this infusion of funding state, local Election Officials adjusted to huge increases of voting by mail. A key component of this strategy is countering the opportunity for adversaries to spread disinformation on remote voting procedures and changes in polling locations. It has assisted state and local officials with methods to drive vote toorz reliable sources of information and how to communicate changes to election procedures, polling locations and times. Election security for 20 has also improved as a result of the growing participation in the election act. Its provided thousands of Election Officers with the cyber resources they need to maintain the reliability of their election infrastructure including best practices, tools, training and perhaps most Important Information sharing and analysis. However, many Election Officers dont have the i. T. Knowledge or resources necessary to take advantage of this information. Some of them feel deluged with information they simply cannot sift through. These local Election Offices are not equipped to handle these Cyber Threats to their election infrastructure alone. This is why i introduced my bill. My bill enables a state to hire a security expert familiar with the unique systems. It assures those agents are able to establish assistance. State Election Officials arent forced to compete with other state priorities. Election security has a history of bipartisan cooperation assuring that our election process is uncompromised must remain a top priority for both sides of the aisle. Together i look forward to toipitoi continuing to work toward a goal and i look forward to hearing their ideas how we can further improve the security of our election systems. I yield back. The gentleman from new york yields back. Well all be saying prayers to you as you attend the funeral, and we thank you for your attendance. Say a lot of prayers. Ive got to deliver the youeul and its going to be a tough one. I ask unanimous consent to waive Committee Rule 882 under the covered period designated by the speaker under House Resolution 965. Without objection so ordered. The chair now recognizes the chairman of the full committee, the gentleman from mississippi, mr. Thompson for an opening statement. Maybe we dont. Do we have mr. Thompson here . We will go onto the Ranking Member of the full committee and then well come back to the chairman. So now the chair recognizes the Ranking Member of the full committee, the gentleman from alabama, mr. Rogers, for opening statement. And mr. Rogers is not here. So lets do this. Lets go straight to our amazing witnesses. So i will now welcome our panel of witnesses. First i would like to welcome david levene, an elections integrity fellow. Mr. Levene previously served in a range of positions administering and observing elections and advocating for election reform including as the idaho elections director and as the director of elections for the city of richmond, virginia. Next, the director of voting and elections and common cause. She brings more than a decade of professional experience in Public Interest law and Public Policy campaigns expanding ballot access, reducing barriers to participation and combating voter intimidation among historically disenfranchised communities. Next well hear from the ceo for the National Vote at Home Institute and coalition. She is the former director of elections for denver of colorado and serves on the National Election task force on election crises. I look forward to hearing her unique perspective on that topic. Finally, we have mr. John gilligan, the president and ceo of the center for Internet Security or cis. Together with infrastructure, information sharing and Analysis Center it provides many resources to support the Cyber Security needs of the election community. I appreciate you all joining us today. Without objection the witness full statements will be inserted for the record, and ill ask each witness to summarize his or her statement for five minutes beginning with mr. Levene. Chairman richmond, Ranking Member and members of the subcommittee on Cyber Security, infrastructure protection, innovation, good morning and thank you for the opportunity to testify today on protecting the integrity of the 2020 elections during the covid19 pandemic. Im the Election Integrity fellow, a bipartisan Transatlantic Initiative housed within the marshal fund of the United States. The 2020 primary election season has been unique with a global pandemic, nationwide protests and a global threat of ongoing interference. State a local Election Officials with help from their partners must continually evaluate their infrastructure to ensure its as secure as possible. Testing, auditing existing systems is essential. At a recent meeting of secretaries of state Matt Masterson an advisor with Homeland Security told officials with testing of state and local election systems found a number of concerning vulnerabilities. These included one sharing passwords and other credentials and using default passwords commonly known to outsiders and, two, continuing to fall for phishing attacks that allowed hackers to install malware and ransomware. The bad news is that many local Election Offices are unable to make these fixes quickly because they lack the necessary resources or i. T. Support. The coronavirus has exacerbated the problem. As the election fruinfrastructu is modified to account for the coronavirus or other intervening events security measures must be part of the design and not introduced after the fact. The washington, d. C. Board of elections inundated with complaints from voters who did not receive absentee ballots from the mail decided as a last resort to allow them to submit their ballots by email so their votes could be cast and counted. It put Election Results at risk because theres no way either for those voters to verify that their votes were recorded accurately or to ensure those votes were not altered in transmission by bad actors. And even if theres no actual interference with email ballots allowing them provides fodder to foreign adversaries who could use such actions to sow doubt and confusion about the legitimacy of our elections. We need to ensure our elections are run as smoothly as possible so mis and disinformation is less effective. Regardless of how secure our elections are experts and officials are concerned that some voters could dismiss novembers results as invalid or rig because of mis or disinformation. Voters could argue, for example, the much longer than usual time required to count an anticipated surge in mailin ballots is direct evidence of nefarious conduct. We must seek to flood the Information Space with credible consistent election information so that voters are immunized against falsehoods. This will admittedly be challenging but it is doable particularly if federal authorities can provide state and local Election Officials additional funding to publicize and explain changes to their election processes. It is essential that also partisan politics be kept out of Election Administration to build confidence and integrity in the election process, and this should happen long before election day. For example, kentucky had a relatively smooth election in part due to a bipartisan agreement between a democratic governor and a republican secretary of state. It took a number of joint steps to help the state prepare for its primary including allowing for the unprecedented expansion o of absentee voting. And have sufficient resources to plan for reasonably foreseeable contingencies. Offering robust voting by mail, early voting and election day options to minimize confusion and risk are optimal, but many jurisdictions dont currently have the resources and or personnel to offer all these approaches. Additional resources from federal authorities would help enormously with administering and securing the election, but time is of the essence. The late congressman john lewis once said your vote is precious, almost sacred. It is the most powerful nonviolent tool we have to create a more perfect union. I urge congress to do Everything Possible to ensure every person who wants to exercise the right to vote can do so. Thank you. Thank you, mr. Levene. We now recognize ms. Albert to summarize her statement for five minutes. Good morning. Thank you for inviting me to testify today. Thank you to all members of the subcommittee for holding this critically important hearing. My name is Sylvia Albert and im the director of voting elections, a national nonpartisan Watchdog Organization with 1. 2 million supporters and more than 25 state chapters. For more than 50 years common cause has been living power accountable and grass roots organizing. Common cause fights to get big money out of politics and foster an open, free media to make government more responsive to the people. The covid19 pandemic was an unprecedented challenge for our democracy. We have long known our decentralized voting systems have vastly different voting experiences depending on where they live. While the rules vary there is one thing that is uniform, there is no such thing as a perfect election. Longstanding disparities including long lines, the ballot rejection rates particularly of black and brown communities are now exacerbated by the covid19 pandemic. The chasm of those with access is growing larger. Voters of color are on the losing end. Without proper funding the problems are going to be just the tip of the iceberg. The 2020 primary season is a preview of the problems to come. Theres no single solution to ensure a safe and secure election. However by understanding we can work to eliminate the barriers in the voter spasz i want to highlight some of these issues in nearly every state that voted since the pandemic we saw an increase of mail in ballots. For many states the infrastructure the process, request and produce ballots could not handle the huge increase. Expecting voe expecting voters to vote by mail officials over consolidated the location. Voters were forced to vote in person at a small number of polling locations that were therefore overrun. For example, pennsylvanias two most populous counties shifted for more than 120 polling places to fewer than 500 resulting in confusion and long lines. In addition the polling places chosen in addition voting machine failures led to disenfranchisement. Problems were particularly prevalent in georgia. When machines go down there was not enough paper ballots available to meet the demand. As a result voters had no choice but to wait in line or not vote. To be clear with the correct implementation of resources running an election that gives voters a safe and secure option to vote by mail is possible. Time is running out. Certain Election Officials have long tried to make living more difficult for black and brown communities. However there are sluolutions tt will create systemic change. Its going to take significant more resources in the covid19 environment. To address each of the problems best states need not only to adopt policies buts have the funds necessary to execute those policies. One study estimates this cost to be 4 billion. Second, 70 of Election Officials reported it was difficult to staff polling locations. In addition many traditional polling locations are no longer available. Members of congress can help recruit poll workers and find polling locations to encourage this important sieving engagement. Third hr 1 includes many strong protections for voters including the Voter Empowerment act. We appreciate chairman richmond cosponsoring voting for hr1 when it passed in march 2019, and we continue to strongly urge senator mcconnell to bring it up for a vote in the senate. Finally as we approach the 55 anniversary of the Voting Rights act later this week i cant think of a better way to honor john lewis than have congress pasds t pass the Voting Rights act. We need congress to act now. In order to ensure the 2020 elections are safe, secure, accessible and Fair Congress must invest. Thank you. Thank you, ms. Albert for your testimony. Ill now recognize ms. Mcreynolds to summarize her statement for five minutes. Thank you, mr. Chairman, members and staff. Thank you for inviting me to provide testimony about the resiliency and readiness of our election systems during this crisis. The pandemic has up ended all aspects of our lives and the voting process is no different. Simply put our democracy is essential we and must be everything we can to ensure or election system is ready, resilient and secure. Let me be very clear. Election officials are working each and every day to make this happen. Even in extraordinary and extremely challenging circumstances and often with one hand tied behind their backs due to outdated laws and a lack of funding and resources. Extraordinarily long lines or other challenges circumstances that voters often face even prior for this year are usually the most visible symptoms of a policy or resource problems. Election officials have responded with little support and will attempt to do so again this year, but this year is unprecedented. They need support from elected leaders that have the power to help. Theyre on the front lines delivering democracy to all voters in small towns and in metro areas across the United States, and it is only right that policy makers not only at the federal level but also at the state level respond to their needs. Extraordinary challenges call for extraordinary solutions. What is clear to me during this pandemic and other challenges we have faced as a nation is that americ americans are resilient and we need a voting process that is proven from foreign adversaries, from outdated policies that create challenges. We need a system that can withstand all of those issues. The fact is the pandemic has exposed challenges on historical alliances on in person voting on one single day that requires a large number of people and resources to manage. In two many primary states this year, poll worker shortages, long lines, insufficient training and voters reluctance along with unprecedented surges in absentee ballot requests that went unfilled left many voters unable to safely exercise their fundamental right to vote. It is our elected leaders responsibility to ensure our democracy functions and that all voters have access to participate. Enabling voting at home options is one way to solve the challenge of Election Officials and by extension voters face during this pandemic. Voting by mail is proven, timetested and secure and it dates all the way back to the civil war. The mail ballot model as designed puts voters first and has proven to be resilient during both natural disasters and the current pandemic. Stream line administrative processes, enhance security all while conserving valuable resources, increasing turn out and increasing trust in government. Voters have been voting this way at home safely and securely for decades enma decades in many states from utah to california, oregon, washington, now washington, d. C. , vermont and now nevada after this weekend. Policy makers have acted to ensure voters have a clear range of options to vote safely and securely because no one would the to choose between voting and protecting their health. Now, what does this process look like . In eight states plus d. C. As of august of this year, just recently nevada passed voters will be mailed a ballot in advance of the election and have multiple options to return that ballotch min the rest of the states voters can request a ballot to be mailed to them. A small number of those states still require an excuse to be provided with the ballot request and even fewer still limit options based on the voters age but every single state offers an option to vote at home. Whether you call it absentee, vote by mail, mailin ballots it means a ballot is being sent to the voter by mail, the voter completes the ballot and the ballot is returned. And this method of voting has been proven to be safe and secure, and it includes strong Safety Measures to ensure the i inauthenticity of the ballots and in some states this includes ballot tracking from when they are mailed all the way to when they are processed. As a couple of notable considerations and as you mentioned the cisa report that was released on friday that talked about the importance of securing vote by mail systems noted that disinformation risk to mailin voting infrastructure and processes is similar to that of inperson voting while utilizing different content. Threat actors may leverage limited understanding with mailin voting to mislead and confuse the public. This includes casting doubt without evidence about the mail ballot process. Thus combating disinformation and misinformation is a critical aspect of Elections Officials work to secure the election. Expanding vote at home options is nonpartisan and supported by leaders on both sides of the aisle. A second notable consideration is the recent changes to the usps processes and delivery time lines that will have a Significant Impact on our elections regardless of the voting method. Mail ballots is just one piece ballot issue notices, election information, coworker appointment letters, polling place notification cards, signature cards, address update notifications and other required mailings. All of these legally required mailings are at risk if the post office is not able to process mail effectively or experiences delays. Some stagts have also not updated their laws with regards to processing ensuring adequate time to process these ballots. These states include michigan, wisconsin, new york, maryland, alabama and others. This is exactly why weve seen delays in Election Results because Election Officials dont have adequate time to process ballots in advance of election day. As with every part of our election system we must be able to deter, detect and hold accountable any bad actor that tries to interfere with our election process. While voter fraud is exceedingly rare in elections regarding voting method it is critical for voters to report suspicious activity to the appropriate authorities. Our democracy functions when every eligible voter is able to exercise their right to vote. Voters have already chosen to vote at home in record numbers in the primaries, and they will continue to do so. Our democracy is essential, and we need to be sure that our systems are secure from any interference and any misinformation and disinformation as noted in the report on friday. No election system is perfect, and this is why its critical to continually review and improve systems by enhancing security, access, transparency particularly in this unprecedented time. An example of a necessary improvement is the implementation of ballot tracking systems that states are working on right now. Another example is advanced auditing techniques, and we cannot settle for when this this moment and this unprecedented crisis calls us to do bettermism democracy is a shared dna of our nation, to our people, to our communities. We must do everything we can to ensure the elections are secure. Going into november Election Administration must be about who votes not who wins. You have the opportunity to create a path for the American People and democratic method voters of all stripes can be confident in, and lets do that together. Thank you. Thank you for your testimony. And finally i recognize mr. Gilligan to summarize his statement. Thank you for the invitation to appear before this important committee. My name is john gilligan. Im the chief executive officer at the Nonprofit Center for internets security or cis. Consisting of nearly 10,000 state and local, tribal and territorial government organization. In 2018 cis was asked to establish a parallel organization focused on u. S. Elections organization. The elections infrastructure, information sharing and Analysis Center is now fully operational and has more than 2,600 state and local organizations as members. Today i will share my views about the progress that has been made in protecting our nations infrastructure from Cyber Threats. In the summer of 2016 into 2017 many elections jurisdictions had Immature Technology and capabilities, limited Cyber Security awareness and education and insufficient collaboration among Key Stakeholders at the federal, statement and local levels. In early 2018 dhs, the Elections Assistance Commission or eac, and the state and local Election Officials came together to jointly take on a series of actions to improve our security election infrastructure. In addition to the Cyber Security activities that state and local Election Officials undertake on their own today the protections have significantly improved since 2018. I will highlight three of these technologies comprising a layered Cyber Defense approach each funded at least in part through congressional appropriation. First is the deployment of the Albert Network Monitoring censors at every state levels Election Organization and a total of 270 albert network deployed. Second, an end point detection and Response Program with the deployment of cyber censors with individual systems in the election infrastructure. Thousands are being deployed as we speak. Third prevents Election Offices computers from connecting to gone malicious sites. In the area of Cyber Awareness and education a set of broad initiatives has enhanced Election Officials understanding of Cyber Attacks and what they should do to assess their organizations cyber readiness. Conferences, webinars, tabletop exercises, state sponsored educational events, education materials and situational updates as well as online courses sponsored by the eac and Third Party Organizations have resulted in a dramatic improvement in the Cyber Security awareness of Election Officials. In addition to federally funded activities cis continues to invest our own funds and seeks private grant support to develop best practice guidance and tools for Election Officials. While Elections Officials are not Cyber Security experts they now better understand the nature of Cyber Threats, the available Technical Solutions and what to do in response to a cyber event. Finally, with regard to the critical area of collaboration, the working relationship and partnerships about federal, state and local organizations have shown a remarkable maturation. State elections directors, local Elections Officials, the eac and the Election Center as well as elections vendors and other private and public organizations have been working collaboratively with elections offices in the pasz several years to improve relations and simply put compared to 2016 and 2018 the security of the election infrastructure looks quite different in 2020. While there are no garnties in Cyber Security i can assure you that the Security Defenses we have in place for november 2020 are vastly improved over those in place a short four years ago. Congress, the Election Officials, cisa a host of public and private organizations should be proud of the progress made in this area. I close by Congress Continues to emphasize and urge you to focus on this in elections. Cis has developed a reporting portal. Weve highlighted the system with Election Officials in five states and have engaged with dhs to promote this capability to social media platform. We believe this capability will be a valuable tool in increasing visibility of elections related with and disinformation. This concludes my oral remarks. I look forward to your questions. Thank you and i want to thank all the witnesses for their testimony. I see we have been joined by the chairman of the full committee. I will recognize the gentleman from mississippi mr. Thompson for his opening statement. Thank you very much, mr. Chairman, and i appreciate the opportunity to speak. As you know we are less than 100 days away from the election and House Democrats are working hard to persuade Senate Leadership to provide additional election assistance to help states administer safe, secure and auditable elections during the covid19 pandemic. This hearing could not come at a more appropriate time. Last week we celebrated the life of congressman john lewis. As we mourned our loss we grappled with the tremendous task of how best to honor his legacy. In the following days congressman lewis committed a lifetime of fighting for justice to guide us through this turbulent time. He called each of us to use our talents to build a better country than the one we inherited. And were reminded that democracy is tot a state. Its an act. This november our nation will participate in an election that will look like no other in our history. The covid19 pandemic will demand that we adopt our voting procedures to ensure that no american must choose between exercising their democratic right to vote and protecting their health. At the same time we must defend our democracy against adversaries who would use our differences of opinion to sow irreparable division among us. We must remain vigilant in defending the truth and keep the public informed to deny our adversaries the opportunity to fill the information vacuum with lies. Now more than ever we each have a role to play in defending our democracy. I fought to protect the Voting Rights of all americans and to secure funding to help state and local Election Officials replace outdated, unsecure election equipment. Last march the house passed hr1, which included the Election Security act which would provide funding to states to improve Election Security and direct a whole of government response to counter foreign influence campaigns aimed at undermining confidence in our democratic institutions. On may 15 gts the house passed the heroes act which would provide 3. 6 billion to help states navigate the challenges associated with administering november elections during the covid19 pandemic. That is in addition to the 800 million already made available this year. Both bills are languishing in the senate. The recent covid19 relief package proposed by the Senate Majority provides no rorss. As my Senate Colleagues pose their tributes to congressman lewis i call on them to remember the calls that were so dear to him. Access to the ballot box and fight to include necessary voting reforms and funding to implement them in the next covid19 package. Our state officials must adopt by changing outdated voting rules that prohibit no excuse absentee voting and early voting both of which would reduce lines and voting. The integrity of the november elections depend on a whole of nation commitment to our democracy. I look forward to our conversation today on that effort, and i yield back the balance of my time. Thank you, chairman, for his opening statement. I will remind the subcommittee that we will each have five minutes to question the panel. I will now recognize myself for questions. My first question will be to all witnesses. As you know the president and attorney general have repeatedly tried to cast mailin voting as fraudulent, illegal or tantamount to rigging an election. On friday, however, cisa released a mailin voting and 2020 infrastructure Risk Assessment but ultimately found that, quote, all forms of voting in this case mailin voting brings a variety of cyber and infrastructure risks. Risks to mailipvoting can be managed through various policies, procedures and protocols and controls, end quote. One, what were your takeaways from the Risk Assessment, and two, is there more that cis or other federal agencies can be doing to promote confidence in safe, secure mail in voting this november . Mr. Levene, i see that youre in terms of the takeaway, the sisa showed a blueprint for the kinds of things that folks ought to consider, right, when they are administration an election via vote by mail. It does also walk through some really important pieces that i think are worth mentioning. Number one, sufficient factors to consider are a bit different. It is worth noting that in terms of doing vote by mail. If the Voter Registration database is not as accurate, your ability after the fact to go show up at a polling place and cast a ballot takes on a different kind of things that if in fact youre able to go to a polling place on election day. I think the second thing worth noting, it was pointed out in this report also the notion that if people spread mis and disinformation about the process, that the process is easililied, thats the thing that can be amplified by foreign adversarie adversaries. Authoritarian actors like russia and iran have already done that, but number one, people take a look at this report so that they can understand what things they need to do to make sure they can utilize vote by mail in as successful a manner as possibility. Two, i think they need to make sure that they understand how the process works so they can be disseminating the public about how that needs to be done. In terms of the federal authorities, i think one of the things they can continue to do, which they have already done, is reaching out in an affirmative manner to state and local officials as well as civil and society sfef groups, so that voters can have confidence that its still going to be a safe and secure process. Anyone else want to join in . Sure. Thank you, mr. Chairman. So, as previously stated, i was an Elections Official in colorado, ran elections for 13 years, ran three different president ial elections along with many others, and also transitioned various systems to vote centers to the system in colorado. The fact is, theres not a single state that is all vote by mail or University Vote by mail, even those terms get used by the states that do this mail a ballot and still preserve inperson voting options, so you really have all choices on the table. I was industry in the sisa report that came out, it included many of the best practices that my organization has recommended, backup also that many states have actually adopted in recent years with regards to the vote by mail program. He what struck me in the guidance was also the highlight for disinformation and misinformation as being a risk to our critical systems. Thats true for inperson vote, true for early voting and true for the vote by mail program. Whatever we can do to combat that is critically important. We have to boost and make sure our election or local web sites have and contain the best information so that voters know what to do two other Security Risks up to highlight is postal operations. I think it absolutely is a critical factor here. It is Critical Infrastructure to not only the vote by mail program, but elections overall, especially given the notices required, legal noise not only at the federal level, but also at the state level, in terms of making the election run all of those pieces of mail that go out through the infrastructure that is literally the only entity that serves every single customer and citizen daily along with the federal Election Office. The United States post office is literally the only entity that provides that kind of service to every american and every Election Office daily. We need it to be operating at full impasse. We need it to be doing what it is capable of doing to support our elections. November just mail voting, but every aspect of our election process that relies on the post office to do it. The final piece i would say is after administer elections for as long as i did. I would encourage everyone to rely on experts who have actually run they election processes, know where the vulnerability are, know how to fix the vulnerabilities, know how to address issues, and theres a reason best practices have been developed over time in various states that have done this well. We didnt have that ten years ago. We didnt have many examples of states where this procedures where this many states, colorado, was the safest place to vote by the secretary a few years ago. The one final thing i would say is i sells believe its a Security Risk when people cant access it. When you show up and theres a fivehour line or the mail ballot doesnt come to you, or you face other barriers or challenge, that is also a security problem with the election structure. So we need to be focused on building our processes this year and responding to all of those critical factors that prevent or inhibit the voting process from being fair for everyone. Thank you. I will yield back, now recognize the gentleman from pennsylvania, mr. Joyce for five minutes. Thank you very much, there could not be a more important time mr. Gillian, im going to start with you. Do you feel Election Officials are receiving enough information about the vulnerabilities in their system so they can make sound, pertinent decisions . The i think in years past, the elections venters didnt spent as much energy on looking at the types of cyberthreats that we now know exist. So there has been a significant sea change with this the election vendors. The dilemma, as you well know, many of the components are years old. So there has been increased dialogue between the elections vendors and the elocation offices. There have been independent assessments of the infrastructure components to determine what vulnerabilities exist, and that has resulted in some improvements in the software and the capabilities of the deployed election systems. I think finally the newer elections infrastructure components tend to be ones that have better defenses against cyberthreats. Do you find that individual states actually out and those protective mechanisms, particularly helping the election sims so set up the firedayold walls that are necessary to decrease the vulnerabilities . Yes, the previous question focused on what the relationship between the elections vendors and the Election Offices. What i would say is theres probably been a lot more progress in the area that your current question addresses, which is the elections offices themselves, the contractors supporting them. Many elections offices have gone to a cybernavigator type of concept where they internally or externally have hired individuals to come in and not only do training, but also to do assessments of the electio elections ened othat is an area that i think we have seen in many states that there has been a very concerted he effort to assess and then to fix. Twofactor authentication, which was not something popular in place, in years past, is now increasingly in place. That makes it far more difficult for a cyber threat actor to gain access to a component. Redesign of systems. You mentioned firewalls. Redesigning of systems to strengthen firewalls, to put virtual barriers between, so all of these times of improvements, there has been my assessment a fairly dramatic, you know shift and resulting in, i think, a much more resilient elections infrastructure. I share that enthusiasm. I think there has been a shift. Lets look at it conversely. What is the worstcase scenario in your mind that could occur . Well, i actually think that to some extent we saw the worstcase scenario in 2016. Let me explain what i mean by that. I think the the actual vote capture and vote tally systems, which is where the actual vote is captured, and then is counted, those systems tent to be highly resilient, and theyre not easily accessible. You almost have to be physical access to them, which makes executing the threat fairly difficult. The other elements, many other elements of the elections infrastructure senior accessible through the network, therefore they share the types of vulnerabilities we see in all connected systems, but back to 2016, i recall vividly discussions with Elections Officials in the aftermath of 2016, and their question and comment was, wait a minute, no votes were changed. In their mind, that was their objective, to ensure that the vote was cast, was in fact counted properly, but as we all know, it wasnt just that the vote was cast and counted properly. Its whats the confidence level that the American Public has in the estimate, and therefore an attack again a Voter Registration system, which did not result in anyone not being ability to vote, or any changes to votes became a symbol to our American Public that theres something going on here, and therefore im losing confidence. The challenge is to earn sure that the American Public has clear information about what is being done to protect the systems, and if to very clearly identify what is the impact and there have been lots of procedures put in place so if theres a small glintch, it woud not impact the ability to count the votes. Thank you, chairman, for holding this important hearing. My time has expired. I yield. The gentleman from pennsylvania has yielded back. I now recognize the chairman of the full committee, the gentleman from mississippi, mr. Thompson. Thank you very much, mr. Chairman. This hearing couldnt have come at a better time. All of the witnesses have talks about and instill confidence in the process. So my question, ill go according to the roster, mr. Levine, ms. Albert, ms. Mcreynolds and mr. Gillian, are we capable, based on your knowledge of conducting secure, safe and auditable elections this november . Yes, particularly if we get sufficient funding. I agree with mr. Levine, but more funding will better enable us to do so. Yes, with Additional Resources and if state lawmakers listen to the Election Officials in their states in terms of what they are asking for right now in terms of their needs. Chairman, i would concur with my colleagues. I think it is possible to have a safe and Fair Election in addition to the resources, i think the activities within the individual states need to be focused on accelerating the planning and the preparation for the november election. We have talked in this hearing about mailin ballots. Thats one component. There will be other situations where this wont be mailin ballots. Dhs and sisa produced a nice pamphlet that talked about if youre going to have inperson battle, these are the types of protections you might want to use in order to provide the safe separation that we desire. So i think there are some things we can do, perhaps at a federal level. But the states need to coalesce around those processes and procedures. Im glad to see our witnesses have pretty much put forth a confidence in our Current System. I dont know any system that could be improved upon we have offered additional funding. We have coordinated our comments, and others, because this is how we choose our leaders. Or system of democrat set the state of michigan sent out mail applications for absentee ballots to every registered voter. That was a decision the state of michigan made but as you said its an individual states prerogative to do the process they think is best. Theres no cookie cutter approach. So we recognize the funding. One of the things im concerned about is, all of what we do for november, given the covid19 environment is predicated on our Postal Service being functional. And so ms. Mcreynolds, postal workers and Election Officials have raised concern that changes in the Postal Services exten standards could affect the election. How should state and local Election Officials coordinate with the Postal Service to assure it aligns with Postal Service standards . I am send about the changes that the postal coordinate between Election Officials and the post office is absolutely critical before every single election. As you pointed out, every system can improve. Theres not a sing the perfect government system or Government Entity that exists. So theres opportunities to improve. I have made various suggestions, frankly from being an election official, but also being from a state where we implemented a system of mailin ballots to every elector. So that coordinate with the Postal Office was critical. During that time, as an election official, i not only learned about the post office, but spent time digging into their processes, their procedures, timelines, everything about it that impacted elections. With my understanding of how all of that works, the post office is absolutely critical to the conduct, the running and the successful conduct of elections in this country. As i mentioned, its not just mail ballots, its all of the other legally required notice also. Ballot issue notices, polling place notifies, poll workers appointments noise, candidates, thats how theyre deemed to be on the ballot. One of suggestions, if we look at how the post office as operated, one thing a lot of people miss is that right now, for military and overseas ballots, postages is paid for outbound and inbound ballots in every single state for every single military and overseas voters that engages with the election process. So theres a federal indicia right on those military and overseas ballot that that payment happens through the department of defense to the post office. Ive suggested something similar to domestic. The post office wouldnt have to accept payments from 7 or 8,000 different local Election Offices. It would be more efficient if we have a federal process and indicia for mail ballot postage to be paid on the inbound and outbound process. Thats one xoompl that i think would enhance service, but also streamline service for both sides of things. Mr. Chairman, sit to highlight any tampering with the system puts the process at risk. Theres no question we can improve it. Because were about 90 days from an election, it is absolutely critical that we make the Current System work, any finagling with that system puts the process in jeopardy. I want to keep the confidence factor where it is. With that, i used back. The gentleman from mississippi yields back. I now recognize ms. Sheila jackson lee for five minutes. Well get to ms. Jackson lee when she comes back. I will now recognize the gentleman from rhode island, mr. Jim langdon thank you sheila is there . Shall i yield . Continue. Okay, thank you, mr. Chairman. I want to thank our witnesses for their testimony today. Very helpful insights to your views on Election Security and, you know, to conduct successful. The Commission Also made several strong recommendations regarding Media Literacy and Service Education in ways to build resiliency, to disinformation campaigns. Weve seen some nascent efforts at the federal level, for instance, sisas they call it pineapple pizza campaign, but the commission believes much more needs to be done at some level of dis or misinformation. Do you agree with this assessment . Also its recommended that it needs to be spread out across a lifetime. Cant be a single class. And have People Better understand the changing media landscape. How should we think about it as a broader strategy . For any of the witnesses who want to start. This is john gillian. I would echo the remarks that you made and endorse the recommendations made by the commission. My assessment is when i look at the risk to the voting process, today i think that the potential for mis and disinformation having an impact on the voting is greater in many regards than the potential of cyberthreats. So i think the approach that is recommended by the solarian commission in part to improvement awareness of mis and diss information to help especially our youth to look at social media and how to look at multiple sources of information is particularly important. I believe this issue will be an area that will require some congressional focus in the future, because we dont have the norms and the legislative rules that i think would be helpful Going Forward. Thank you. You know, we have been talking about the november election, but the commissions work was not necessarily specific to this years contest as well, and indeed we should by thinking about now the longerterm challenges in addition to the short term. Can you talk about what concerns should the eac be preparing for now to safeguard elections beyond 2020 . For any of our witnesses . Sure. I can jump in there. I agree with endorsing that commissions report. I think civics and disinformation, security, all of these things are going to be lifelong things that were going to have to adjust and learn to. Im actually a single mom of two. When my ballot comes every election, its a civics lesson for my 7 and 9yearold. They understand clearly how to find good information about elections, and we walk through that every single tame. In terms of the eac, its a continuum of improvements. Were going to have threats we face this year that will be different next year. This has been plaguing the election system for the past few years. We havent come up with a very good solutions. I think civics education, educating voters about how to find good information and trusted sources of information will be absolutely critical, and then continually improving how we identify that, how we create systems that can flag those issues, so that voters can clearly get the information that they need. Mr. Levine, any thoughts sure, congressman. Yeah, to ms. Mcreynolds, i think the solarian commissions remarks with regards to. We can look to who have been dealing with who have more comprehensive approaches to deal with some of the threats that are outlined. I would also underscore that the Elections Commission recently got some additional funding, right . Which paralleled or went in concert nicely with the commissions recommendation. You see the eac ramp up in terms of the hires. They have more people with a cyber background, so i think its a opportunity to continue to provide cyberresources to prepare for the evolving threats. To bring people on who can assist state and local officials who are always strapped, is important. I think looking outward for best practices from other states who are doing this kind of work, as well as other countries is also important as well. Thank you. I know my time has expired. Thank you for everyones testimony. I didnt have enough time to get to what we need to do with protect people with disabilities, but perhaps we can submit those questions for the report. Thank you for your testimony. Mr. Chairman, thank you for holding the hearing. Its very important. Thank you for your leadership, mr. Chairman. I yield back. Thank you. I now recognize the gentle lady from texas, ms. Sheila jackson lee. We know New York Times said that john lewis risked hi life for justice, and he indicated that the vote is precious, but we will lose it if we do not use it. The constitution also acknowledges that local elections and state elections are that of those jurisdictions, but it does not deny congress the right to involve itself by law or reg lace, which i believe is extremely important in the process of what were dealing with at this moment. I pose this question first to our witnesses, please. Over the last couple days, there have been statements about the election should be moved. I believe there is no law and no right to move the november election, no constitutional right to move that election, but that has been in the public atmosphere. I raise the question, in your professional opinions, how does the current president s porzant rhetoric about increased fraudulent ballots and changing the date of the election, and by the way, two federal elections were held during the civil war, how would that impact voter confidence . I would raise that question with ms. Sylvia albert to answer that question. Well, thank you for the question, congresswoman lee. We have seen already the president s rhetoric is oppre oppressing the confidence that voters have, in mail particul particularly. I think Election Officials around the country uniformly have responded to the misinformation that the president has shared with the right information. I think whats important about elections Going Forward is not to be thinking about the procedures, but offensive procedures. We need to engage our communities in the Civic Education and inoculation that would affect them. In 2016 russia was blamed for breaching 26 local, in fact Robert Mueller released 13 indictments regarding interference. Mr. Levine, what should we be focusing on . And what, if any, the Marshall Fund has soon regarding is the international ; . Dinterference, which is predicted to be extensive in 2020 . Congresswoman, thank you for that important question, ill make a couple point to your question that i think are worth noting. I think election need plan a and plan b. For almost are cybercomponent of our election infrastructure, there can be an alog piece that can be available to use so that in the event of any kind of cyberevent, right . We have something to fall back on if theres a Technical Glitch or in fact a nefarious act, we know if people have paper poll books, they can continue that voting process, right . We know that, with regarding to Election Night reporting web sites, we know that if a website is to go down, for example because of an attack. Folks can have redujdant web sites to help ensure theres voter defend, so making sure that folks have things like additional ballots, paper poll books, redundant web sites, making sure, as we look down were probably seeing an increase in folks who are requesting absentee ballots online. If you cant make such a about, maybe i have a fillable form to have that request. I think the second piece i think worth noting is that its really important that the information from the intelligence and Law Enforcement community about the threats, as much as possible, is being shared with state Election Officials and subsequently with the American Public so that as much as possibility the American Public has the opportunity to prepare accordingly. Thank you. Thank you so very much. Mr. Gilligan, if you could quickly one significant action that congress can take regarding Internet Security in the voting process. Mr. Gilligan . Thank you, congresswoman. If i were to think of one thing congress could do, i think what i would suggest is the following. Weve seen indications of it in some of the comments from the members. That is when we address the security of local elections offices, we have to realize that they are underresourced and dont have the talent that the state level and the larger elections jurisdictions do. So what i think is going to be important Going Forward is we cannot assume that local elections offices are ever going to be able to protect themselves. We actually have to do it for them. This is a discussion that were having with the state level oarization. I mentioned in my testimony some capabilities that we are working to deploy, and the Elections Community that in fact is sort of we can do it and we can deploy it without a whole lot of support from the local elections offices and actually protect them. Other is this malicious domain blocking and reporting. So i think what then the recommendations that i would make to congress is, if congress could help in the funding of these initiatives to get off the ground, ultimately what we have seen in other situations, the states will start to kick in funding over time, but to say the ball rolling, federal funding is very helpful, so thank you. Thank you very much, mr. Chairman. I yield back. The gentle lady has useded back. I now recognize the gentle lady from new york, ms. Bryce, for five minutes. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I put this question out to all of the witnesses. I believe mismcreynolds, you talking about how things are done in your state of colorado. What state or lot does mainin ballot voting really well . What system can we emulate . We in new york have done it for a long time, but we historically had a difficult time in our june primary. It took five weeks to certify a congressional primary. So and we think of ourselves in new york as pretty, you know, progressive when it comes to these issues. So who can we look to that we still have 3 1 2 months, you know, before people go three months before people go to the polls. Maybe if you could expound on who you think does it really well. Sure. Thank you for the question, congresswoman. We saw issues in new york. I think that new york actually has lagged behind many states in terms of updating policies around voting access, so theres, you know, there hasnt been early votes. There was no noexcuse absentee ballots. There were long lines prior to that. So i think theres an update i have policies that needs to happen. In terms of my Expert Opinion on sort of the work i did in colorado, and then the work i have now done with various states, i think no state its not necessarily a cookie cutter approach. However, what we have in front of us is a good example of a slew of states that have implemented various policies in the last few years that have improved their processes, improved the system for voters, and also enhanced security. Colorado is one of them. California adopted a model that looks very much like colorado. Utah has expanded their voting athome program to now be for the entire state. They have emulated some good practices from colorado as well as oregon and washington. What are those practices . If you can give us some bullet sure. A couple things we did in colorado i think are good to emulate. One is modernizing registration, so we have automatic registration. We automatically update addresses based on moves we get from the Motor Vehicle locations, or from the United States post office. We literally consume that data monthly, update addresses, so colorado, for instance, in many of the states in the west have the cleanest voters files in the country. We also have created systems like ballot tracking. It started in denver, colorado, thats a notification system just like tracking a package when you get a text oemail when your ballot goes out, and confirmation for when the Election Officials receives it. Theres technology right now, and it doesnt require a lot of change in any state. You can literally adopt it as a service to voters, and it enhances security. Its one of our toplevel recommendati recommendation. The final is expanding dropoff option to voters. At secure 24hour drop boxes. As driveup dropoff, just like a drivethru line at a restaurant. You can drop off your bought through the window of your car, in and out have to get out, not have to interact with anybody. Expanding dropoff boxes. Not every state allows you to drop your ballot off at a polling place. Those are examples. The dropoff option and ballot tracking can be done now, can be adopted now across the country and theres time for that. There will be some people who actually want to go to the polls. I know new york is not unique. Most of our poll watchers are people in that vulnerable age bracket who may not want to be sitting at a poll for 12 hours in november, god forbid we are where we are still with this virus. So what would you suggest to improve obviously it doesnt help that people are closing down polling locations. Other than, you know, keeping as many open as possible, what would you suggest to security people who prefer to vote in person . Inperson voting has to exist, but we have to think of it differently. We need the Business Community to step up and offer locations. One of the things thats happening now, which im sure many of you have seen is theres this concept of arenas, large sports facilities being used as polls places. Kentucky used their state fairgrounds and were able to serve tens of polls places all in one place with social distancing. So these sort of large locations are really important. I have suggested Car Dealerships i believe those could be excellent locations. I think the Business Community could help solve this. An a driveup dropoff could be tremendously helpful. This is an all of Community Type of process. The. Thank you very much. Mr. Chairman, i yield back. The gentle lady from new york has useded back. I recognize the gentle lady from illinois, ms. Underwood for five minutes. Thank you, the integrity secure our election is a major concern for my constituents, where the personal information of 76,000 voters was accessed by russian operatives in 2016. We Must Immediately investment in our election infrastructure to protection or democracy nobody should be forced to choose between protecting their health and exercising their constitutional right. Election security is National Security whether that means preventing foreign interference or conducting safe elections. Ms. Albert, Many Americans are out of work and at risk of losing their homes, whether they rent or own. Suddenly a lot of peoples addresses may soon be out of date. How do we protect the Voting Rights and make sure theyre not subject to unnecessary Voter Registration purges . Hr1 contains many provisions that would be beneficial in moments like this. I think what we have seen in this pandemic, that our system is not as flexible and comprehensive as it could be in order to meet the needs of different communities. For example, communities who are experiencing housing displacement right now the Homeless Community is benefited by sameday registration. To be clear, registration which means you can update your address, and its not you have to go down to the Downtown Office and its only open between noon and 3 00 to update your address. What we are seeing is the vulnerable communities are more vulnerable in these situations, and are really dealing with much more than they ever have before. So, you know, not only do we need to be looking at this now, but we should be modernizing our system for the next disaster, for the next pandemic, for the next hurricane to really immediate the needs of our constituents. Mr. Levine and ms. Mcreynolds, do you believe voting from home could help these displaced voters . And what does the federal government need to do right now . We have a process and tried to create and fill all those gaps, but then we also created the concept of vote centers. That started in colorado as well, an innovation that allows a voter to go any of the locations and update their address. That really reduced provisional ballots by 98 and converted those to normal ballots, because most of the people that would show up at the wrong polls place was because of an address change. We created a new way to deal with inperson voting that has significantly improved the voting experience. So vote centers is also a really great concept. The one thing about vote centers, it does require technology. It is going to be a much bigger lift to set up ahead of november, because theres a short period of time, but there still is a way to handle provisionals and all of those sorts of things should somebody not receive their mail ballot. The other aspect i would say is its critically important that voters check their registration, make sure theyre active, make sure their address is up to date. Then if something does go awry with their mail ballot not arrives, they utilize the processes in space. Im from illinois, so im also familiar with some of the illinois provisions, and make sure that voters are familiar with what they can do to take action should they not receive their ballot. In every single state, you can still vote in person, you still have the provisional ballot as a safeguard should something happen that makes it difficult for you to receive your ballot. Thank you so much for all of our witnesses for being here. We appreciate this information and your testimony before our commit year. Mr. Chairman, i yield back. The gentle lady from illinois has yield back. I want to thank the witnesses for their available testimony and the members for their question questions we may have additional questions, and we ask that you respond to those question. The record will be kept open for ten days. Hearing no further business, the subcommittee stands adjourned. Heres whats coming i have live today. The Senate Armed Services commit year will be hearing recommendation from the similolm commission. It start at 2 30 eastern on cspan3. At 4 30 eastern today, cspan3 will take you live to a news conforms for then spacex drag crew. Or you can listen live with the cramant span radio app. Weeknights this month were featuring programs as a preview of what is available every weekend on cspan3. Tonight, a Police Training film from 1964 on how to handle protests and civil disturbances, including tech a neeks for mob control and the use of tear gas and batons. Federal laboratories, inc. , who funded the film was a manufacturer of a popular riot gun used to fire gas canisters. Watch reel america beginning tonight. Enjoy America History tv this week and every weekend on cspan3