How Jurisdictions Can Secure Their Elections
Former Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency advisor Matt Masterson speaks about election security with CNA experts on CNA Talks.
Preparing for secure elections in 2024 begins with identifying gaps, weaknesses and risks. Exercises, such as workshops, tabletop exercises and operational exercises are all effective tools to identify risks so jurisdictions can take concrete, achievable actions in the coming months to make elections more secure. But for maximum impact, public safety stakeholders need to use the right tool for the right purpose.
Government leaders have emphasized the urgency of preparing for secure elections in 2024. In fact, the Department of Homeland Security and FEMA are requiring that at least 3% of grant funding from two major programs — the State Homeland Security Program (SHSP) and the Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI) — be spent on election security.
Discussion-based workshops and tabletop exercises, as well as operational drills, functional exercises and full-scale exercises, each fulfill a unique purpose in preparing for secure elections. Here’s a quick guide to what to use when:
We start with the question, “What do you want to learn?” rather than, “What do you want to do?” In conjunction with state or local leaders, we design the solution to produce that learning and stay with the process to provide an after-action report within two weeks or less. Using the election security after-action report, the jurisdiction can integrate results into updated operational plans and a specific continuity of operations plan (COOP) for the election cycle.
Since 1999, CNA has designed, executed and evaluated more than 350 homeland security workshops, TTXs, drills and exercises. Participants have ranged from local first responders to the President of the United States, and scenarios have been as diverse as cybersecurity, hurricanes and disease outbreaks.
If you would like more information about conducting a workshop, TTX or operational exercise that includes election security, please contact the co-director of CNA’s Center for Emergency Management Operations, Dawn Thomas, at thomasd@cna.org.