Archive for 2019

The Cybersecurity Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is rolling out an effort to help state and local election officials protect themselves from ransomware attacks, which are increasing across the country and could create huge disruptions for the 2020 election.

A New Jersey law intended to allow voters to sign up permanently for absentee ballots accidentally excluded 172,000 voters after a legislative drafting error – and lawmakers are rushing to fix the problem.

My friend and colleague David Beirne, director of the Federal Voting Assistance Program, has a “perspective” piece in this week’s electionlineWeekly talking about his background, his current work and the road ahead for military and overseas voting.

After a long delay and persistent pressure from local election officials, Florida’s governor announced yesterday that the Sunshine State will finally join the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC) – joining 28 other states and the District of Columbia as the 30th member.

A few weeks ago, I wrote about a close election in Mississippi decided by one vote after a thumb drive with results was discovered and added to the Election Night count. Yesterday, the election official involved issued a statement clarifying what happened.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott has appointed Ruth Ruggero Hughs as Texas’ new Secretary of State, filling the position of chief state election officer after a voter purge controversy resulted in the resignation of the previous Secretary.

Ohio’s Secretary of State is drawing attention for two programs aimed at the registration rolls – one which seeks to use postcards to add eligible but unregistered voters and another that seeks help in reaching inactive voters in danger of being removed.

My friend and colleague Mindy Moretti has been collecting election news stories for electionline.org for a long time – and over the years, she’s noticed one kind of story that seems to pop up almost every Election Day: a car crashing into a polling place.

Today, the U.S. Election Assistance Commission will host a forum on election security focusing on the role of software updates in protecting the nation’s election systems.

Thanks to a law enacted earlier this year, starting in October Montana UOCAVA voters with a federal Common Access Card (CAC) will be able to use it to digitally sign registration and voting transactions.