What is Election Security?

Understanding Election Security

Election Security addresses the complex technical and procedural measures needed to ensure free and fair elections, given the rise of sophisticated cyber threats. It includes protecting voter registration databases (against alteration or denial-of-service), securing electronic voting machines from tampering, implementing end-to-end verifiable paper trails for auditing, and defending election infrastructure (like results reporting websites) from hacks or disinformation campaigns. Stakeholders range from federal and state officials to local precincts, each with varying technology and budgets. Threats include nation-state actors targeting campaigns, criminals seeking ransom or chaos, and insider threats misusing privileged access. Best practices involve risk-limiting audits that statistically verify election outcomes, strong access controls around critical systems, secure software development and patching, multi-factor authentication for election workers, and robust voter education on social engineering or misinformation. Implementation challenges include legacy equipment with limited security patches, decentralized administration (thousands of jurisdictions), short timelines between elections, and reliance on volunteers. As distrust in electoral processes increases, transparency, independent testing, and public trust-building measures become equally vital to the technical defenses.