Posts by Doug Chapin

Despite all the recent attention to election cybersecurity, the discussion has been largely focused on how different levels of government can cooperate to share information on possible threats to the voting process. A new article by Sean Gallagher in Ars Technica, however, is a nice primer for individuals on both why and how to create “threat models” to identify potential threats and develop plans to protect against them.

A recent survey by The Pew Research Center illuminates both Americans’ deep commitment to the idea of voting and increasingly divergent views on how it should work in practice. It’s further evidence of the divide on whether voting is a right or a privilege, with splits between parties, races and even age groups – meaning that the current fights aren’t just “inside baseball” but actually represent differences of opinion in the country itself.

June 2017 has been more intense than most “off-year” months in the election world. While most of that is definitely due to the rush of headlines in recent weeks, it’s also due to a series of key departures from the field. electionlineWeekly has its latest “exit interview” with Pam Smith of the Verified Voting Foundation, who stepped down at the end of June after 13 years with the organization including 10 years as President.

The last week or so has seen an explosion of headlines in the elections world as the Presidential Commission on Election Integrity begins its work. The news has come so fast that it can be hard to keep up … so here’s a quick summary of where things stand to date.

There is a lot happening in the election community right now – some of it encouraging, some less so – but last Friday, June 30 definitely included some very good news: the arrival of the Election Administration and Voting Survey (EAVS) collected and compiled by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC).

Happy Independence Day, everyone! I’ll be taking a short break for the long weekend – which may or may not involve one or more of the items in the picture above – and I’ll be back on Wednesday, July 5.

electionlineWeekly’s latest “exit interview” features longtime Michigan election director Chris Thomas, who has been a mainstay in his state – and nationwide! – for decades. As he moves on to well-deserved retirement and a life after elections, I suspect many people in the field have a reaction similar to mine: DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON’T GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO…

The Council on State Governments’ excellent Overseas Voting Initiative (CSG OVI) just released its latest report, which focuses on improving data collection on military and overseas voters through improvements to both the language of, and outreach surrounding, the biennial federal survey sent to election officials nationwide.

NPR’s Pam Fessler has been following the debates (and controversy) over election security following the 2016 election, and her new piece highlights one key fact: fixes will cost money – but no one is stepping up to pay the bill.

A new report by the Inspector General at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security finds that fears of a DHS “hack” into the State of Georgia’s computer networks in the run-up to last year’s election were unfounded and were the result of a routine procedure. While the report doesn’t put the ongoing disputes to rest, it does serve as a reminder that election security is an incredibly complex matter requiring greater cooperation between all levels of government.