Members of the Election Assistance Commission about the security concerns head of the 2024 president ial election cycle. They talk about cyber threats, whose Artificial Intelligence, incontinence information. I called to order this hearing on oversight u. S. Election Assistance Commission, thank you all for being here. I want to thank you and ill give witness introduction in a moment. N first of all, senator klobuchar, she would like to be here but cant express her views as reflected in his Opening Statement i want to say under her behalf she appreciates your o work and your being here. Want to thank you that he was established with broad bipartisan support, good news that was about 20 years ago hearing importance responsibility of improving Election Administration security establishing cybersecurity guidelines for systems and promoting accessibility. What everyone to have the opportunity who can for that to be counted. Ec an election in all 50 states as well as the district of columbia. 2024 election of the eac Mission Remains important even more as officials are doing dedicated planning it takes to administer elections effectively while confronting the array of new challenges andnd threats to tart election workers to spread disinformation in the use of Artificial Intelligence. Weve got to continue to support the Election Officials on the front lines of our democracy and tbe able to rely on regular federal funding to do their jobs. These vital resources including 931 million in security grants since 2018 enable state and local officials to do everything from securing our elections against foreign interference and keeping pace with the evolvingi technology to recruit andd tran poll workers. When urgent issue the commission can helpte address the barrage f harassment targeting election workers. These are potential of the free and Fair Election and a number of colleagues in this committee and the comprehensive legislation to take the issue head on. We do need Bipartisan Solutions and last year the eac wrote unanimously to allow Election Officials to use federal funding workers fromection threats and harassment. Since then, states Like Washington and georgia used funds to improve the physical security of voting and ballot processing centers. I look forward to hearing more on this. In addition, eac helped enhance security of elections infrastructure essential for Public Confidence in the election including issuing new guidance to improve security in these Voting Machines. These have significant investments and Election Security to ensure the 2020 and 2022 elections were secure in the department of home and security has repeatedly made there. This commission serves as an Important Role in combating disinformation. My home state of vermont is experiencing the same challenges disinformation as others across the country. Secretary of state is on everythingen, his power and her power to combat the spread of fools claims about elections and im proud to report independent 22 election found no major discrepancy despite having record turnout. Unfortunately thats not stopped everyone for making pulse claims for state and federal elections. Im hopeful the eac can you playing a role seventh of spread of elections and ensuring every state is ready to face this growing challenge in 2024. Investing in our elections, it makes it harder to vote. Its like i and others support the freedom to vote act why i support the bill to restore the Voting Rights act. Our country has a history of passing laws to strengthen our democracy. A few weeks ago recognize the 20th anniversary of the National Voter registration act, voter law enacted with bipartisan support and last october 20 yearsrs since we past the help america vote act and thats where this organization started and i look forward to hearing about the effort to support local and state Election Officials. I want to think our witnesses and ill turn it over to our Ranking Member senator fisher, thank you. Good afternoon and thank you, senator for holding this hearing today. It is a pleasure to sit with you. I told senator to keep him under control. I want to extend gratitude to our witnesses for eac commissioners to join us today. We look forward to hearing your perspective, insight and experiences guiding the eac work as we set our sights on the 2024 election and beyond. Todays hearing provides an opportunity for the committee to obtain a comprehensive understanding of the commissions operation, noted areas for identify improvement and address existing and emerging challenges but the eac plays an Important Role, the only federal agency with the soul responsibly of helping the state improve their administration of federal elections. Which in turn, helps to ensure the security and legitimacy of the voting franchise. It collaborates with dates and local officials, shares best practices, credit testing laboratories, certifies Voting Systems and promote vital resources to help in short elections are conducted with integrity. It is in my view, the best most appropriate entity to play this role. In recent years, Election Officials have confronted and increased threat to Election Integrity and cybersecurity. The eac stands wellpositioned to help Election Officials respond to emerging challenges and in an ever evolving landscape. I look forward to hearing about the missions recent overhaul of the Voting System guidelines, technical standards Voting System certified by the the federal government. I understand these standards include significant improvements in preventing attacks on our election infrastructure. As you know, states are tasked with important work of recruiting, training and retaining Election Officials and poll workers. It is concerning we continue to hear about difficulty of recruitment and retainment. Dealing withti emerging issues have become all the more difficult as those with the most experience retirement. The eac has done its part raisingcu awareness through the value role of poll workers and inspiring creative civil engagement to the establishment of national coworker recruitment they grade i was pleased to hear on this day that was so successful, i was pleased to hear this day was so successful that the eac designated august 16, 2022 as help america vote day to further encourage more americans to sign up poll workers. While we recognize the accomplishments of the eac, we must remain diligent in our pursuit of continued recruitment. Public demands and electoral system that is transparent but secure. Our duty to ensure eac is equipped with necessary tools, resources and guidance to fulfill its mission effectively. Once again, i extend appreciation to witnesses for the presence and commitment helping preserve the public trust. Thank you, senator fisher. First witness, Kristi Mccormick confirmed in 2014, previously served as an attorney in the voting section of the department of justice and u. S. Embassy in baghdad where she oversaw iraqs national election. Thank you for that. She received her bachelors from the university of buffalo and law degree. Our next witness will be vice chair who was confirmed in 2019. Thank you for joining the commission. Hes spent several years working with the rules committee will think of it. First Peter Schumer and senator klobuchar to serve as deputy general for the mercenary bigotry and received his bachelors from the university of arkansas law degree from the university of oregon. Mr. Tom hicks joined the commission in december of 2014 and prior to his current role, he served as counsel for the committee on Health Administration and work for common causes of personal management in the Clinton Administration and received his bachelors from Court University and law degree from the university of america. While witness is Donald Palmer confirmed his commission in january 2019. Mr. Palmer previously served as secretary of Virginia State board of elections and the attorney with the section of the department of justice and he served for more than two decades in Intelligence Officer in general and the navy and received his bachelors from jacksonville university, masters from george washington. Five minute statement and then start with chairwoman mckormick. Ranking member fisher andr members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to appearwi before you to discuss e work of the u. S. Election Assistance Commission as we prepare for the 2024 elections. We appreciate the committees crucial oversight efforts and close attention to eac. Ourel nationelections faced increased scrutiny over the years and this committee demonstrated byy showing leadership and important administrators. Whether listen together needs of Election Officials, furthering work under the help america vote act or providing grants for Election Security, Congress Worked closely with states to reinforce this Critical Infrastructure. Independent bipartisan agency, the eac stands in a unique position to work with congress and further states and localities in the efficient and accurate administration of elections. The field faced ever growing challenges and the need for election assistance and many of the challenges including Adequate Funding and security for Voting Systems are not new. Othersgr however have increase suddenly in recent years. Making Voter Education more challenging and in addition to administering elections and officials must must be have cybersecurity threats and many Election Officials have left the field citing safety, increased requirements and expectations and lack of resources now more than ever, Election Officials need our support. With the help of the committee, eac determined to do all it can to meet the challenges. Over theec past year, commissioners redoubled outreach and travel across the country and underscored the work of Election Administrators in the 2022 midterms but also the Significant Impact of efforts by the federal government to provide guidance, monetary resources andsc best practice materials. Election officials expressed sincere gratitude for resources dedicated to safety and security. This includes millions in security grants and congress and eac. The elections is a diversity of practices, laws and regulations and more than 3 millions and thousands of localities, it takes nearly 1 million poll workers to operate election polling sites. Supporting election decisions and developing election guidance, acs newly expanded clearinghouse division made more than 60 products o since 20201 o assist Election Administrators and they reflect the need for unbias source guidance and Election Administration. Earlier this year, we hired an experienced government leader, steven fridge, to serve as new executive director. One person is not an agency make and eac hired needed support soft to assist in the election process and role it plays as Critical Infrastructure and marked 20th anniversary in 2022 and chemorating the historic milestone with launch help america vote dayle and Second National poll worker recruitment day. This permanent outreach platform offers a custom look up tools and details and official contacts and required training and polling place powers. In 2022, the eac polling web page had 306,000 page views and receiving modification through election offices and responses and information legally updated on the site. Well continue to offer resources relating to poll worker recruitment, retention and leagued up to 2024 including National Poll worker recruitment day and poll worker day. Members of this Committee Welcome this efforts and welcome your input moving forward and on going support from congress, theyll provide necessary assistance and protect the integrity of the u. S. Elections. I wowed like to again thank the committee for the oversight in support of eac as well as opportunityy to speak here. I will now turn the discussion over to commissioner to discuss cuss the commissions financial oversight and grants management. Thank you. Good afternoon. Y welcome chairman and chairwoman klobuchar and the members of the committee for inviting us to testify about the work of the u. S. Ch election assistance. My name is ben huwland and im the current vice chair of eac and look forward to sharing updates october the commissions grants management and internal control and budget. The funds enclouding 950 million provided since 2018 are a key resource for Election Administrators responding to increased technology and changing demands of the field to elmore fade pattern sighs the importance and01 impact of this funding, i would note the election Infrastructure Sector specific plan states it is impossible to make an honest acespedesment of the election assessment of the infrastructure rub section risk and mitigate that without understanding of chronic resource the subsector face at all level, the government. As we look forward 2024, i believe it has never been more challenging to administer elections or more expensive. Thats why Grant Funding in partnership with the states is so crucial. We value your efforts to address the needs of state and local governments through congressional through the congressional aprop rations appropriations process. As of march 31st, 95 of fy 2018 security funds have been expended. Including additional elections and fy2022 and 23 states have been a total of 529 million in funds awarded between 2018 and 2023, which is approximately 56 of available Grant Funding. The local governments and form of subgrants and others rely on the funds for staff and materials at the state level. The security needs and differing timetables for significant purchases such as Voting System replacement or new statewide Voter Registration data bases usage rates varied across the country and expenditure reports due on july 30 and well update you on continued impact possible by these much appreciated funds. As set forth under h aba, audits of Election Security grants are conducted after security states begin to expend the funds alongside distribution and administration efforts, the eacs office of Inspector General recently added resources and staff to better monitor state spending for Election Security grants. New staff leadership in place, the agency has invested in building up staff capacity strategically across the eac. However the eac still faces significant attrition challenges and its essential we maintain adequate Staffing Levels for the functions to ensure the statutory mandated requirements are met and eac Inspector General raised structural issues related to laba discussed in her management challenges in the u. S. Ec election in fiscal year u. S. 2023. My colleagues and i conquer with those observations and its in the recommended legislative notes and the ability to pay competitive wages compared to congress or other federal agencies hampers the ability to restrict and obtain talent. Were however committed to doing everything we can with the resources we v. Eac grateful for increased funding provided by congress in recent years after facing over a decade of 2010 rebudget levels since 2023 and 2021 and successfully departmented and executing the budget by congresst ending each year with an obligation rate of over 99 . Thank you for the opportunity to testify before you today, and i look forward to answering any questions you may have. I want the senator from tennessee to join us and senator britt was here briefly, thank you. Commissioner palmer. Thank you, chairman. Ranking member fisher and members of the committee and my fellow commissioners and appreciatuation for the investment youve made in the nations elections through continued support of eac. The chair hoglang and advancing ttesting and certification in several areas and Voting System certification and does not end with a successful test in an accredited laboratory and reviewing the life span of the voting equipment. As a result of the agency and preparing to launch of innovative Field Program and strengthening the overall posture anden eac certified and tested systems and on site collaboration for important will bees and the implementation of system reviews in the field to ensure the equipment delivered is equivalent to what was purchasedded. Analyzing system hardwares and softwares and verify equivalent to the eac certification. Reigns leading cently on board the Field ServicesProgram Manager and look forward to building out this initiative. The guidelines or bbsg. New guidelines incorporate Technological Advancements in cybersecurity, accuracy, accessibility, use and the audibility of the subpoenas. Adoptions of the bbsg life cycle policy along with the accreditation of two Voting System laboratories or visuals are necessary steps towards the realization of Voting Systems that are become bs dis b 2. 0 tested and certified. Woe likend this to elmore fade patterntize and 2. 0 and 1. 1 certified Voting Systems and not certified by the eac and the migration to the new guidelines. Theyre diploid and recertified the vvsg 2. 0. In addition theyll continue to be tested and updated with security patches and itll take time and significant monetary expenditures for jury to implement under the new rig rigs of the process and System Certified to 2. 0 used in the 2024 elections. Communicating westbound traffic bbsg standards and you happenea dates on Election Security and helping boost confidence in the Critical Infrastructure of the electionia systems. As part of Election Technology efforts this is electronic poll books and valid diversity reigns leading and Voter Registration portals and crucial tools for the Election Officials and voters. Hnlook for voluntary standards d guidance and similar to what was provided with the vvsg. Currently Election Administrators rely on patch work of state laws, regulations, and Certification Programs of varying degrees of review. An established esg program nprovides for the development of robust voluntary standards, testing guidance and training materials covering election supporting technologies. Attached from nation state actors against the election infrastructures and targeted election assistance in the past. These are only going to escalate. Stream Library Check in process and automated ballot issue and we currently have five epb manufacturers participating in the initiative joining later this month. Pbthe cyber landscape across the community and voluntary and Disclosure Program and leading them to identify and respond to vulnerabilities and Voting Systems along with our federal partners at cisa and National Institute of technology. Ill turn it over to commissioner tom hicks and further expand upon the commissioners wealth of clearing out the products. Thank you. Thank you for having us here today and in addition to the development of the fellow commissioners of share and agency invested in increasing our clearinghouse capabilities and ac clearinghouse division had former Election Officials and subject Matter Experts and helps the agency share and develop resources for the public and private administration and best practices for Administration Voters and other resources and in this role the eac is a trusted service of nonpartisan information especially as the field of Election Administration continues to see high levels of turnover. So far leading up to the 242024 elections and the division over 60 products over the past two years to assist Election Administrators and range on resources from security threats against elected officials and ease status in the election. Offering overall guidance to new Election Officialses and improving chain officials and better serving individuals and updated with increased focus on relevant technologies that would change since the last iteration 15 years ago. All products developed by the clearinghouse division are guided by the parameters in the project and the coming weeks eac publishing 22 eves report and this will be the tenth survey since the first eves in 2004. This is the initiative and collects data on Election Administration from nearly 6500 local administrations across the 50 states district of columbia and territories. Eves data utilized by accomplished stake holders in the Election Community members of congress, legislative staff and officials and journalists, academics, advocates and Election Officials. The eves consist of two surveys collecting quantitative information on state election laws, policies and practices. Drop box usage, mail in ballot curing and more. They fulfill requirements of americans disability act. Weve hired a fulltime subject Matter Expert for accessibility, established by internal established internal working group and continued eves working with eac with disability related issues and expanded accessibility resources and programs. The 2022 mid terms and survey results will be finalized this summer and will include Key Information on voter access. They intend to use these on actionable items and numerous resources and other accessibility and eac received a checklist for Election Officials on accessibility for inperson voting and registration vote by mail and assisted for voters with Language Access needs. The Language Access resources were updated following the most recent reless of section 20 a 3 of the Voting Rights requirement and requires 330 jurisdictions to produce language, accessibility, resources for voters. This inclusion vision of hava calls on eac to insist Election Officials assist election voters and workers to move forward whole hearted limit the nonpartisan approach oturu the administration has continued to promote confidence in elections and voting while advocating stability throughout americans electoral process. With the 24 election cycle already here ever growing list of responsibilities and challenges and threats to Election Officials and poll workers. The eac is working diligently to help them prepare for the expected andel unexpected like y reading, and other in order to provide the best voting experiences for every voter. We look forward to working closely with you on these and other important matters and appreciate the chance to testify today and welcome any questions or feedback you may have. Thanks very much. I wanted to acknowledge they clearly sort of spread out the information so that we were getting a comprehensive view of what is what theyve been doing and what the challenges are and on your behalf of the committee, we want to thank all the commissioners here. Good work. Now, senator klobuchar, id like to defer to you. Thank you, one of the areas of real concern for all of us is this disinformation and how thats all escalated. We saw evidence of it in past elections but now everyones concerned about ai. The mediums by which the Bad Information spells good information on this transmitted through some of the platforms and the Large Tech Companies and its started to layoff, theyre getting layoffs and i dont have the information but i have the apprehension that many of these layoffs are targeted to functions that had to do with monitoring these situations and just an example of this special case. It effectively disbanded its Ethical Ai Team in january, meta reported that it ended the contracts of about 200 content moderators and laid off at least 60 members of instagrams well being group and in february google laid off about a third of the staff withn protecting society from misinformation, radicalization and censorship. In twitch, theres about 50 employees who came out of that division. That could be an issue since so Many Americans rely on social media if our information. Ill start with you, Council Woman mckormick, what have they seen with the spread of information and the situation where eac can provide supportive guidance to Tech Companies to combat misinformation and if not, does it have a plan to do that . Thank you for the question, senator. Yeah, eac heard from instances where Bad Information or misinformation, disinformation has been provide on social media platforms. We copt to urge people to go to a trusted source, such as a local or state elections administrator toid get their information. We also have started an internal aisu working group. This is obviously a very new issue thats coming up of great concern. Were weve been having questions with cisa and ai and its going to be quite complicated and challenging and we provide tool kits for Election Officials and communicating election process tool kit, that includes poster and sample social media in communicating with the voters and the actual true information. The eac stands by with our facts with our eac eves report and were happy to provide that to anybody who asks, including social media platforms. Thank you. You know, one other question and from us, the secretary of States Office did launch a site myth versus fact. Suicide this was a web page to combat disinformation and whether it can be effective or recommend other states adopt them and thats knowing that its got to be rigidly nonpartisan in order to have credibility but voters whether youre going to vote for a conservative or liberal, all of us want to know that the information were acting on is accurate and is that accepted fromib us take and eight hours anything you have thoughts on and can be taken elsewhere. This goes back decades and Election Officials and all types of rumors out there and correct have ation and if you myth buster or rumor buster, its important that the election official provide the true information in a very knot nonpartisan down the middle road and thats exactly what we did when i was in florida and in virginia. Is same thing with the ac and frequently asked question and chairwoman mckormick brought and you happen were very much involved in the testing and Standard Development of the system and how those machines work and we provide the facts on our website, and we also answer questions fromn reporters and al types of groups with questions about that process including the public and dot best we can to propagate thatls message, sir. Thank you very much. Id a like to now yield to senar fisher. Thank you, senator welch. Chairman mckormick, i wanted to ask questions about grant funds and specifically the hobbit grants. How do you oversee the reporting skon the use of the funds . What reports financial documents and eac and types of issues does the eac look forward in it is review going through the reports andme documents . Thank you, senator fisher and requires completion of the federal Financial Reports and also progress reports. No less than twice a year. This recent ton much of tran much of money receiving grants to fill out those reports to us. They look for possible increases or decreases in funding that seem odd. We also look for whether there are any uses of the money that are disallowed under hava and we look for insufficient information about what theyre doing and theres a number of issues that a checklist of issues that we look at. We communicate those concern tots jurisdiction and give them a chance to update and correct their Financial Reports, but we do follow up with them to make sure the funds are being used appropriately. Y. When you find an issue there and you went through a number of read flags that come up, and you contact them how much follow up does itth take before you get animals . Times you know to try and rectify the problem. Whats the kind of process . We start we mail and we email the officials on the findings that were concerned about and we give them a chance respond that we need to and in person if possible and weve had issues c where thats not possible but that is, we continue to follow up as much as we need to through writing or telephone calls. Our grante staff is on basically are there to help people work through the issues and fix any issues that may have come up. You know, if there was a report out from the ag and issues of the commonwealth on the islands with their accounting and reporting on the grants and something that could have prevented that situation . Jot marianna islands had not been traditional recipients of the t hava grants and not throuh the training and sort of the work that the other states have been through. It would have been helpful to have an inperson training with them and theyre very new to this and new Election Officials themselves. We did follow up with them numerous times in many different ways and obviously the pandemic precluded the retirements were seeing of poll workers and retention issues that we have mow does that affectme your job for oversight . I think this is a great example that youre going to have to do a lot of educating maybe. Yes, this is where we do a lot of educating where all of our clearinghouse products have come into play. Weve updated what we call the election management guidelines, which is basically a textbook for Election Officials on the basic issues that they need to know andv Election Administration. Quick start guides, numerous products to help the new Election Officials as well we are going after as many state conferences as weey can and talking to the new officials and trying to provide them with whatever information we can to help them up to speed. We will have somewhere between third and half of new Election Administrators in 2024. Right. Vice chair, weve seen that the gao you told the gao that the Electronic System used for states to submit cares act progress allowed this state to omit or miscalculate some of their expenditure total. In the financial section of the aprogress report, officials tod gao the system doesnt have the capability to automatically calculate a states total expenditures based on the expenditures listed in different categories have you address that had issue . Were in the process of implementing new system to help streamline the process and grant reporting and any new system, theyre going one way and were previewing all that and grant staff can get back to you with any specifics to you or your staff. Id appreciate that. Seems like a high number that may involve nearly 20 of the thank you, senate sore walsh for filling in. For a new guy doing pretty well. Only in congress are you considered new once youve been here for 18 years then also my friend senator fisher, thank you. I want to briefly say mow werent the work you do is. We know the eac was established with broad bipartisan support. To lets get the mission cheer, fund to help states i hear from secretary of state on both sides of the aisle how important it is the work you co. Youre confronting new challenges ahead with everything from Artificial Intelligence to the challenge yenning love begun experiencing as ive heard from our local officials of harassment of secretaries of state and volunteers in election places and Election Officials. Regard lows of party. Restart request you, vice chair havland since you used to work me. Can you expand on what you see is the more federal funding. Jot Election Administration is for its more challenging to administer elections now than ever and more e pensive and cybersecurity issues and physical threats and harassment anded aing to building ands security ofy building ands incentivizing resuitment of poll workers and Senate Senator welsh one of the things in time theres two sides to the coin and theres the wackamole of falsehoods and Voter Education falls to the back burner and that intracal part of getting people money to have resources to do that is critical. Talk about steading funding and helpful for the state and dealing with different threats and appears at every election. Thank you. Budget for the election cycle and theres going to be a lot of additional costs that are coming down the pike for elected officials that want to replace their voting equipment with 2. 0 voting equipment. That are probably not ready for 2024 and looking forwards the budget and need a significant amount of money for the machines andre election cycles coming up they didnt budget for and didnt look to see what kind of things they need to pay for moving forward and no one saw 2020 with the pandemic and stepped and you happen provided with the predecessor to Ranking Member also and talking about the election equipment and dont be to the election and can we turn to the election threat issues and weve heard from kentucky secretary of state and difficulty of attracting volunteers to work the polls and just where you see this coming up with rural areas and not having funding for as many Law Enforcement to help these many volunteer workers at the polls. Absolutely, senator. Theres an up tick in safety and across the country and consist funding and be able to provide more security election workers and we also want to make sure that the public trust is coming from obviously congress is a trusted source for funding and many reasons for congress to continue to provide for elections. The leadership with a tribute to how important your work is that we have so many senators here and well turn over to senator hagerty. Thank you for getting us started off here today. The commission with respect to the work and important for voter confidence and partisan election here to come back. Yes, senator. Thank you. The federal agencies to submit plans to the white house for using taxpayer resources to mail in ballots and the white house refuses to release the agency plans. For me this raises significant concerns about the biden administrations Voter Mobilization plans and being used to help president bide anne donovan the next election. You know, im not in a position for the Critical Infrastructures. I sent a letter to the committee requesting they release these plans. Its very disturbing and go to a different topic now. I have to change here and talk about the u. S. Alliance for election excellence. Do you agree with that. For the rest of our members and 80 Million Initiative and the web of emails administrators and conduct elections and going with subbinger bucks and its zuckerberg. Its connected with the fund and going with a Massive Network of left wing and 2020 and 2021. Its a massive amount. This network of entities going through tens if not hups of millions of dollar from a northern leftnt wing billionaire named hans ands not a u. S. Citizen and cricketing directly to the elections but hes found a way to be involved in our elections. So its concerning to you, vice chair havland with the email trust worthies are assisting American Local governments with the administration. You know, i testified before the House Appropriations committee in 2021 and asked about. Election funded to be dependent on the charity of billionaires. Dependent on the funding not providing them with sufficient funds and the donations for u. S. Elections and the election interference in your mind. Senator, there were people in 2020, coming to the Hand Sanitizer and they would use that. Absolutely not. Of course not. They provide that funding coming from a foreign billionaire involve involving themselves in our elections. I want to make certain that this commission, no election assistanceg. Dollars are commingled in any way with the foreign funds. You can guarantee theyre not go mingled with the funds. Formula grants prescribed by the help america vote act and Appropriations Bills that are passed and follow the law absolutely i look forward to see ago plan to youro and i would like u to submit to the committee of how you ensure these foreign funds are no way commingled or supporting the election activities at a local level. Sir, we dont as you know, elections are decentralized and their on the funds they can accept and our job to distribute the funds from congress they need regular funding and wed well cop the dollars from congress to support the officials at a certain time certainlyat not from foreign billionaires. Thank you, madame chair. Thank you. Just to clarify, vice chair, the funning during the 2020 elections was used in both red and blue states and it was focused onju adapting to hold an election during a pandemic. That would be very helpful . Absolutely. Thank you. Madame chair, to my questions to clarify the record accurately effects the response to whether or not he supports foreign donations to the Election Administration without me interrupting, can you reiterate youror answer answer for e with the. Id like to well i dont mean you to california in my prior capacity at california secretarl of state. Threats of election misinformation, disinformation topic and weve referenced poll worker safety and the chair has been a leader in that record. The staff at state andde local levels and beyond and nay need to upgrade our vogt systems nationally and not just in setting standards but helping jurisdictions withve those tinfrastructure improvements and speaking of instrategies structure, theres a desire for additional funding and i support that. Not just one time and once in a generation. On going funding that theyre designated by Critical Infrastructure by United States government and has been for several cycles now. I want to focus my questions to the chair. Chair mckormick. Voting fraud is threatening our elections and what data have you seen . Several reports out there, senator. I personally witness it had while i was observing an election in mississippi many years ago. Thats not to say that fraud is not a huge problem. I think it is probably pretty minimal but its important we have accuracy and integrity in the elections. What you witnessed, was that recorded or prosecuted in any way . Yes, it was in the observer reports and i was with the observers from opm that witnessed it andtn part of a cae in montana United States versus ike brown. Okay. Hope folks were held accountable for that. Chair mckormick, do you view vote by mail as a secure method of voting . Being a new resident of california, yes, sir, i voted by last election i voted by mail for the first time. Did you signn up for ballot tracking . I have not signed up for ballot tracking. I highly encourage you to do that. Go to the website and sign up. Ill give registrar logan a call and ask me him to sign me up. Have to do it yourself. I understand, sir. Automatic Voter Registration and increase the registration and turnout . Sir, i think its a good way to do it and we need to give religious groups for overs and i believe automated registration and a good tool to register folks who havent been registered previously and give a opportunity for that. Believing thats the option and the significant difference in opt in versus opt enout and not mandatory. Peoplehe do deserve to have the option and we highly encourage people eligible to register to maintain their registration record current and vote in every single amount of research on the topic and it points in the exact same direction. Voter fraud is seedingly rare. This exceedingly rare, voter impersonation, voter mail in ballots and secure and central for secure elections that are the integrity of elections to administrators and election workers and continues to be under attack and we need to take every opportunity we can to set the record straight. Thank you very much. Jowski thank you, very, very much. Jaire thank you, madame chair and vice chair and i want to touch on something weve seen in georgia over the last few cycles, which is the partisan and malicious and frivolous use of voter challenges to tie up county election boards and these are often filed by groups that are spreading basically conspiracy theories about widespread voter fraud. Just a few numbers for the panel. In 2022 across just eight counties out of 159 in georgia, there were 65,000 challenges to Voter Registration. In Gwinnett County alone, one voter challenged 370 voters. In december of 2020 madame chair and wrap your head around this. One group, and this is during the Senate Runoff and elected one group called true the vote challenged 364,000 Voter Registration and 2 or 3,000 dozen folks move or change residency may have been disqualified and 364,000 challenges to Voter Registration coordinated by one partisan group during a Senate Runoff. I know vase chair, youre not here to comment on policy, georgia, state legislature past a law in their two sessions ago that made it much easier for anyone to bring unlimited challenges of their fellow citizens registration and i want to ask you this, how does it impact a county election board already stretched thin, already and i think we can already agree regrettably in relying upon theing other than from state in many cases. Just to cover the basics and alreadyy perhaps unable to field enough polling places and already having difficulty deal with all of their responsibilities and how does it impact the county election board. When they suddenly get tens of thousands of frivolous challenges to the registration of voters in the county. Thank you, senator and recently returned fromti georgia where i met with the secretarys office and the full ton county and athens clark county unified government. You know, i think when you look at the issues sort of broadly and again, i wont comment on the georgia specific issue there, but what were seeing across the country are, again, based on misand disinformation with offices being inundated with tasks and again, election offices are often very limited with the number of staff they have and the challenges they face with this impact and so many hours in the day and that time is such a valuable commodity and so when something that would normally get triple checked only gets double checked, that creates more opportunity for error and potential to create lyselffulfilling prophesy and t happens in elections and simply because people were overtaxed based on inquiries around false information. They can distract from administering the election and make it more difficult for voters to accesses franchise and administrators are dealing with a torrent and frivolous challenges that is correct. I close madame compare by making the point. Chair. What does it mean by the level of polarization in the society and scorched earth politics agreeing by the means that people are reduced for obviously partisan reasons. To try and disenfranchise their own neighbors on false pretenses or try to tie off already stretched thin Election Administration resources there might be hundreds of thousands of fellow citizens and we want to make it harder for them to vote. With no base for the challenge whatsoever. It is a deeply imporal practice and the facted that georgias state legislature has explicitly sanctioned t i think its repugnant and ill yield. Thank you. Thank you very much, senator ossoff. You want toed a any other questions . Yeah, go ahead, senator fisher. I have questions on cybersecurity and the preparedness were looking at there and they adopted the bbc 2. 0 marking the first major changes to the standards in the years and elaborate, chair mckormick hon outrebounded the bbsg was updated to address any cybersecurity threats that were facing and if you see any risk to the electoral process, if the state decides not to use an eac certified Voting System system of articulation. Thank you for the question, senator fisher. With the new bbsg 2. 0, we have numerous additional requirements over 1. 0 and 1. 1 for security measures including the elimination of transmission by wired or wireless capabilities. We are now going to be requiring Penetration Testing. We have more audibility of the machines, more requirements on auditability and were requiring the use of modern encryption and were also requiring Software Independence so the software cannot change the vote totals. On it is own without being detected by the machineries and most important is we try to get as many states as possible using our and the menstruation testing of all Penetration Testing for all systems and as far as electoral process, most states use some portion of our standards or laboratories and we dont test for all the states, but we do provide documentation and information for the states that do their own certification. Obviously you have scope of Performance Products that we will share. We are very willing to provide as much information as we can to theha states who dont use our systems to be able to evaluate the security after the systems tafanely they are working on. You know, we have seen an increase in those cybersecurity threats over the past several years and in 2020, the eac launched the cyber access and Security Program to help address the issue. Since the inpolicemennation of that program, how have electionw have electionss officials utilid those. Do you see officials having pretty good buy in for this and does the program stay up to date when we have this constantly involving space . Yes, we obviously need to stay on top of all the current threats and i mean its a never ending project to h stay ahead f the bad guys and our task program has been utilized by Election Officials in 49 states. Weve trained over 1100 Election Officials and we are currently working on producing a security component of epol books and the valuation pilot and working towards guidelines for all the electionsupporting technology and cast at eac is part of tha. Tight electronic poll books, you brought those up. Is that going to help further elprotect election infrastructue and is it going to be able to enhance that security . Yes. E poll books are connected to the internet so its important that we have high security measures on them and we isnt one of the things we dont want to be connected to the internet . Theres a reason why theyre connected and thats to make sure voters arent voting in multiple place sos we havet toe able to be assure that had if somebody is checking in, they havent does that put in jeopardy the entire system . No, theyre separate from Voting Systems and they usually are just checking in to registed provide the correctt ballot and we usually do that by e poll books usually use drivers licenses and theyo swipe those but theres usually a connection. It has nothing to do with the Voting Machines . Theyre not connected. That needs to be made clear. Theres deep concern about anything thats connected to the internet. Yes. And the possibility that could be hacked in any way. Yes, and we you know, we asked Election Officials to ensure theres an error gap between any kindc of system thats connected to the internet with the Voting Systems so that the Voting Systems are not affected by, you know, any kind of internet connection. Right. Thank you very much. All right. Well, thank you and im sure well keep the record open of the hearing for a week for if our colleague haves other questions involved in very, very well and i want to thank Ranking Member fisher as well as senator wells and senators of the committee and i want tor thank the commissioners for sharing your testimony on the work that you do and while you may come from other political backgrounds we see the consisted themes and make sure that our state will administer funding for those state administers and that administration of elections and that the Election Officials there are protect sod that they can do their jobs in addition to responding to theis many new challenges that we are all seeing in many aspects of american life. But always elections are the incanary in the coal mine coming to where you have whether its foreign interference or whether it is threats and we want to make sure that the fundamental reason were all here, our democracy and reason i met with 300 interns for democrat and republican members of Congress Today who were also eager. Some of them may be here to be part of this democracy and the reason we all get up every morning and you really i want to thank you for guiding us there. So i look forward to continuing to work with my colleagues on the committee to support this commission, the work that you do, and the hearing is adjourned. Thank you. Thankre you. M to [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]