Several Individuals from both political parties expressed concern about election security and integrity during the 2020 election. 2016 saw the hacking of many state electoral databases by foreign hackers.
Progressives continued to assert that they had the ability to change votes despite the fact that they couldn’t. The government has been pressuring state and local governments to take cybersecurity seriously in response to worries on all sides of the political line, but Republicans are worried about one of the NGOs providing assistance.
According to a Pew Trusts research from February, the federal government promoted cybersecurity before the election. Jen Easterly, director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), recommended municipal and state officials to upgrade their cybersecurity tools. She also instructed them to make advantage of the government tools at their disposal.
As DHS extends reach into county elections offices, Republicans urge continued local control | Just The News https://t.co/yAauU3Djax
— John Solomon (@jsolomonReports) March 16, 2023
The non-profit Center for Internet Security is being offered funding by the government to provide cybersecurity services. The services are paid for by the Department of Homeland Security, which said in a statement that it had a cooperation arrangement with the organization and was acting on a directive from Congress.
The State and Local Government Cybersecurity Act of 2021 is a bipartisan piece of legislation that fulfilled the instruction from Congress. The federal government’s attempts to identify false content on social media sites, however, are apparently connected to CIS.
Rep. Bryan Steil (R-WI), a member of the House Administration Committee, said that he thinks Homeland Security shouldn’t be in charge of “state and local election officials,” but that the federal government should help them. Steil asserted that the neutral Electoral Assistance Commission should instead take the initiative.
The chair of the House Subcommittee on Elections, Laurel Lee (R-FL), opposed federal interference in local elections. She argued that the Constitution requires that states, not the federal government, monitor elections.
