County to get assessment of voting security

With high voter turnout and numerous hotly contested races on the ballot, election security is on many voters’ minds. Last week, the Hays County Commissioners Court approved a measure meant to bolster both security and confidence ahead of the 2020 election. 

The court approved an interlocal agreement with the Department of Information Resources for a cybersecurity assessment of the county’s election equipment and processes before the 2020 election. 

Anthony Bomba with AT&T and Kevin Coffey with CyberDefenses joined Hays County Elections Administrator Jennifer Anderson to give a presentation to the commissioners about the assessment, which will look for vulnerabilities and offer suggestions for remediation.

“The assessment itself is actually geared toward the 2020 elections, and it’s actually an assessment of your current security policies and practices … as well as your voting systems,” Bomba said.

The assessment will look at any written processes and policies, risk severities and the maturity of the county’s security levels.

“There will be no charge for Hays County for this assessment,” Coffey added. “The steps you want to take afterwards can be under consideration, but there is no charge for this assessment to take place.”

In a telephone interview after the commissioners’ meeting, Anderson explained that the contract for the assessment is between the Department of Information Resources and the Texas Secretary of State’s Office, so the state will foot the bill for the assessment. Other counties throughout the state are having similar assessments. The security assessment will cover “everything,” Anderson said, including equipment, networks, policies and processes.

“Their principal focus is for the presidential election,” Anderson said.

Security has been more of a concern in Hays County since the November 2016 election, where more than 1,800 votes went missing. When Anderson became elections administrator in January 2017, she investigated the missing votes and made changes in procedures to prevent a similar incident from occurring again.

“We’ve tightened up our chain of custody,” she said, noting that the mobile ballot boxes are secured in one place.

Bomba and Coffey said that for the security assessment, there is a blackout period from Oct. 22 until after the Nov. 6 election. Hays County’s assessment is likely to start in January and will take six to eight weeks.

“We’re all very excited about this,” Anderson told the commissioners. “We know that there are citizens out there that are going to feel better that we have done this.”

Also last week, the Hays County commissioners authorized a renewal warranty, support and license agreement for $54,659 with hart Intercivic for software support and maintenance for the county’s election equipment. Funds were budgeted during the county’s budget process for this maintenance agreement.