Much attention has been paid to voting system vulnerabilities (real and imagined), but we continue to severely underestimate the potential for malicious actors to manipulate and create chaos with one very common tool for conducting elections: electronic pollbooks (“e-pollbooks”).
E-pollbooks can improve the voting experience by making it easier to verify voting eligibility—and they are popular. 75% of Americans live in localities that use e-pollbooks and the devices are increasingly being adopted by democracies worldwide. However, e-pollbooks are also prime targets for cyberattacks and disinformation campaigns from malign actors who want to disrupt or delegitimize elections.
The Alliance for Securing Democracy’s Elections Integrity Fellow David Levine and OSET Institute’s Global Director of Technology Development and Open Standards Eddie Perez explore ways to address the risks associated with e-pollbooks in a new report, Enhancing the Security of Electronic Pollbooks Is Essential for Election Integrity.
The report provides recommendations to mitigate risks through technical measures, operational practices, and best practices for training and polling place operations, including:
- Limit or eliminate e-pollbook connectivity to wireless networks when possible.
- Maintain strict chain-of-custody with appropriate controls and documentation to track, control, and secure individual devices, and to document who accesses them.
- Hold vendors accountable during e-pollbook procurement and implementation.
- Provide training to poll workers for addressing e-pollbook failures.
Read the report here: https://securingdemocracy.gmfus.org/enhancing-the-security-of-electronic-pollbooks-is-essential-for-election-integrity/
Please reach out to press@securingdemocracy.org if you have questions or are interested in speaking to the authors.
