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1 1 (March 12, 2020)

handle is hein.crs/govcanr0001 and id is 1 raw text is: FF. ' riE S-' $. h ,. , Updated March 12, 2020 Election Security: Federal Funding for Securing Election Systems Russia targeted state and local systems as part of its effort to interfere with the 2016 elections, according to the U.S. intelligence community. Reports of Russia's activities highlighted the potential for threats to the technologies, facilities, and processes used to administer elections. Congress has responded to such threats, in part, by providing and proposing funding to help secure elections. This In Focus offers an overview of federal funding for securing election systems. It starts with some background on potential threats to state and local election systems and then summarizes the funding Congress has provided and proposed to help secure those systems. Elections-related systems in all 50 states were likely targeted in the 2016 election cycle, according to a July 2019 report from the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. Some attempts to access state and local systems succeeded. Russian actors reportedly extracted data from the statewide voter registration database in one state, for example, and breached county systems in another. Multiple techniques were used to target state and local election systems in the 2016 cycle. Attackers tried to access voter registration databases by entering malicious code in the data fields of state or local websites, for example, and to gain access to county systems by sending election officials emails with malware attached. Election systems may also be vulnerable to other types of attack. Hacked election office websites or social media accounts might be used to disseminate disinformation, for example. Malware might be spread among non-internet- connected voting machines, computer scientist J. Alex Halderman has testified, in the course of programming the machines with ballot designs. Individuals with access to election storage facilities might tamper with ballot boxes. Some threats to election systems may also be compounded by the structure of U.S. election administration. States, territories, and localities-which have primary responsibility for conducting elections in the United States-use different election equipment and processes and have varying levels of access to security resources and expertise. This decentralization may help guard against large-scale, coordinated attacks, but it also offers potential attackers multiple possible points of entry, some of which may be less well defended than others. Limited attacks on less well defended jurisdictions might undermine voters' confidence in the legitimacy of the election process or the winners it produces. In some cases, some have suggested, such small-scale attacks might also be capable of changing election outcomes. States, territories, and localities have primary responsibility for ensuring that election systems are secure, but federal agencies also play a role in helping identify and address election system threats and vulnerabilities. Congress has provided election system security funding both to states, territories, and the District of Columbia (DC) and to federal agencies since the 2016 elections. Thonsoidated Aprritsr 2 The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2018 (P.L. 115-141) and the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2020 (P.L. 116- 93) included $380 million and $425 million, respectively, for payments to states, territories, and DC under the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA; 52 U.S.C. §§20901- 21145). Both sets of payments were available to the 50 states, DC, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands (generally referred to hereinafter as states), and the FY2020 funds were also available to the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI). Funding for the payments was appropriated under provisions of HAVA that authorize programs to provide payments to states for general improvements to the administration of federal elections. Explanatory statements accompanying the appropriations bills listed the following as acceptable uses of the funds: * replacing paperless voting machines, * conducting postelection audits, * addressing cyber vulnerabilities in election systems, * providing election officials with cybersecurity training, * instituting election system cybersecurity best practices, and * making other improvements to the security of federal elections. Each eligible recipient was guaranteed a minimum payment under each appropriations bill, with some recipients eligible for additional funds based on voting-age population (see Table 1 for the total amount available to each eligible recipient for both fiscal years). The 50 states, DC, and Puerto Rico are required to provide 5% and 20% matches, respectively, for the FY2018 and FY2020 funds. All funding recipients are expected to submit plans for use of the payments to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) and report each year on how they spend their funds. According to the EAC, which is charged with administering the payments, all available FY2018 funds were requested gognpo ' -p\qm ggmm g , q 'S a X 11LULANJILiN,

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