Strategy: Trust in Elections

The Center for Internet Security’s (CIS) Election Security Best Practices team will develop security-focused tools and guidance for election officials and election technology providers.

The purpose of the grant is to conduct pre- and post-election survey research about the public’s attitudes toward the American electoral process. The Grantee will do this using the American Trends Panel at the Pew Research Center and will publish a report about the survey results.

The Voting Works Risk Limiting Audit (RLA) tool helps election officials calculate the number of ballots needed to conduct an RLA based on the risk limit they have set for a contest. Post-election auditing is one important way that election officials can prove the accuracy of election outcomes and inspire greater public confidence in the voting process.

The Foreign Policy Research Institute (FPRI) will analyze and distribute research on election mis/disinformation as promulgated by foreign actors. FPRI will provide a standardized review of state-sponsored media outlets, the themes and messages they advance in the U.S., and offer indicators of nefarious influence in social media.

The purpose of the grant is to provide support for a companion guide to A Handbook for Elections Infrastructure Security that state and local elections officials can utilize to ensure cyber security is adequately addressed during IT procurement activities. Additionally, a training program will be developed to help election officials with conducting security self assessments and develop risk mitigation plans. 

The Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT)’s project will identify election cybersecurity issues and best practices in two critical areas: 1) voter registration databases and 2) campaign data and communications.

The Campaign Legal Center is convening and producing a report identifying legal deterrents to foreign influence in U.S. elections. The panel and report will explore questions of how current law addresses foreign influence in the system, vulnerabilities in the current laws, and potential solutions.

To provide project support to the Center for Public Policy and Private Enterprise at the University of Maryland, which will conduct extensive research into the current and future election cybersecurity issues faced in the State of Maryland. 

Project Redesign at the National Conference on Citizenship supports EL-ISAC’s work to increase information security capabilities among local election officials through recommendations, tools, and metrics that can be used to evaluate their messaging’s success.

To provide quick, expansive capacity for the Alliance for Securing Democracy at the German Marshall Fund to identify and support the best methods of pushing back on foreign threats to our US political system, whether they be through elections, misinformation and attempts to intervene in our governance programs.