U.S. Senator James Lankford joined Senators Gary Peters, Ron Johnson and Amy Klobuchar to introduce legislation which gives the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) a membership to the Election Assistance Commission’s (EAC) committee to design cybersecurity standards. The effort is meant to give the Commission a cybersecurity expert from DHS to help craft standards for voting systems.
“Congress should continue to take steps to ensure our elections are secure,” said Lankford. “Every state is responsible for their elections, but the federal government should provide insight to help states protect against foreign cyber actors. This bill is a straightforward fix to require the Department of Homeland Security to provide cybersecurity expertise in the Election Assistance Commission. We must continue to think about present elections and elections 20 years from now.”
Manufacturers of voting systems can voluntarily follow the guidelines set by the EAC’s committee. The Commission was created in the wake of the 2000 General Election in which several states, most notably Florida, had to recount ballots to determine who won the presidential race.
