I will recognize myself for an Opening Statement and then the Ranking Member. We are here to look at election security. Its hard to imagine a bipartisan issue. Its what president Abraham Lincoln meant when he said a government by the people. When our citizens vote, they not only elect their leaders, they choose a direction and set priorities for the nation. Elections with integrity strengthen democracy and confer legitimacy and public trust in government. Concerns with earlier systems have the passage of the 2002 help america vote act. This requires the National Institute of standards and technology for which we have jurisdiction to work with the Assistance Commission to work on the technical and voluntary guidelines for voting. We will discuss the current guidelines that are in place for the states to protect their voting and elections systems. Though they were voluntary, i hope to hear whether they were sufficient to safeguard and whether the state effectively use them. This discussion is timely as many have been raised in recent months about the vulnerabilities of electronic machines and online Voter Registration. The discussion today will review the security of the system and its entirety. We will examine what guidelines are in place, how we currently protect systems from potential technical vulnerabilities and what kind of work including research and development in my home state of texas is under way to protect future voting and election systems. Last year hackers from china to trade at the office of Personnel Management database and stole confidential records and personal information on more than 22 million current and former federal employees including those involved in the National Security efforts with the highest security clearance. The attack on Voter Registration databases in illinois and arizona where the latest incident is of such attacks this time with alleged ties to russia. We have yet to take decisive steps to defend ourselves and detour attackers. The president says we are more technically advanced with authentically and defense of the on cyber warfare than our adversaries so why wont he take the necessary steps to prevent Cyber Attacks on our systems by Foreign Governments. If we are attacked repeatedly and do nothing we will have surrendered unilaterally and put at risk our National Security and very freedoms. This committee has held more than half a dozen hearings on Cyber Security issues. We know it isnt enough to respond to Cyber Attacks with diplomatic protest. We are going to hear from Witnesses Today about how the federal government can help states keep the systems secure the single most important way to protect our systems, to protect each americans right to vote and be heard is that this administration and for the next to take decisive steps to deter and if necessary sanction the Foreign Government that attacked us in cyberspace. That concludes my Opening Statement and the Ranking Member of from texas is recognized. Thank you mr. Chairman and good morning. Ensuring that the elections are fair, accurate and accessible to all american citizens is fundamental to our democracy. Every instance of malfunctioning Voting Technology and without question every cyber attack on our system is significant. All efforts to improve the security, privacy and access are welcome and important. I am confident by the testimony of todays experts and many others that we are in a much better place today than we were ten or 15 years ago. I am deeply concerned however about some of the rhetoric in the recent weeks that seems to have enrolled Public Confidence in the system. The system is riddled with fraud and those conspiratorial allegations like many others that have been floated in the public sphere this election cycle are not supported by actual facts and they threaten the process we have relied upon for more than two centuries. Im eager to hear from the panel today about the challenges of securing the system in the digital age and what actions have been taken at the federal, state and local level to strengthen cybersecurity. However given the rhetoric and other threats the system is facing i want to take this opportunity to put the Cyber Security challenges in context. The u. S. Election system is complex and highly decentralized encompassing approximately 10,000 local county and state election offices. Further, there are few connections between individual Voting Systems and the internet, and at least 75 will be able to verify their vote with a paper ballot this fall. This con Party Mobilization and paper trail provides a firewall against any threats. The recently publicized attacks against the rules in arizona and illinois are in various but havent resulted in any changes to the voter data. In arizona they worked to contain the threat. What i find most concerning is they may be linked to the russian intelligence operation so we must be vigilant and hope they will lead to improve Cyber Security protocols and practices while security of the system is important, voter access is fundamental to our democracy. Baseless allegation of the fraud have been used as an excuse to disenfranchise large numbers of the minority to the discriminatory voter id restrictions. News 21, a Journalism Program established by the corporation in new york found voter impersonation fraud to be extraordinarily rare and the analysis of the 2016 fraud cases in all 50 states from 2000 to 2012 out of th2012 of the regiss identified only ten cases of voter impersonation fraud. You dont enact laws because the cases unless you have an ulterior motive. The courts have been right in the most discriminatory state laws and in addition to the sanctioned voter id law, the Brennan Center have continued to document cases of intimidation, spreading of the information to keep minorities and students from voting and other attempts to target and disenfranchise minority and young voters. These threats to tens of hundreds of thousands of elderly voters were orchestrated by Public Officials should be taken as seriously as they cyber threat. I know my remarks moved beyond the intended scope of the hearing but you know how passionate i am about this issue. It is my hope with this hearing that we can have a thoughtful discussion of the challenges and actions that have been taken related to Cyber Security and other issues while avoiding adding to the noise and confusion sounding piece issues just ate we from the crucial elections and with that i would like to welcome the witnesses for being here today. I look forward to hearing. Thank you and i yield back. I will introduce the witnesses. The first witness today is doctor charles from the Information Technology at the National Institute of standards and technology. In this capacity, he oversees a Research Program that develops measurement and testing for interoperability usability and reliability of Information Systems which include cybersecurity standards and guidelines for federal agencies and u. S. Industry. Doctor rowe mine serves as an analyst at the White House Office of science and Technology Policy and is a progra as a pror at the department of energys advanced Scientific Computing research office. Doctor romine received his bachelors in mathematics and phd in applied mathematics from the university of virginia. I will now recognize the gentleman from louisiana, mr. Abraham, to introduce the next witness who happens to also be from louisiana. It is my pleasure to recognize the honorable Tom Schneider from louisiana to serve a fouryear term hes past president of the National Association of secretaries of state which has turned this past july and he served as the cochairman for the association of secretaries of state task force on Emergency Preparedness for elections. The secretary of state of louisiana he is committed to protecting the integrity of every election and th in the std worked diligently to streamline the process. Its been a costeffective system becoming one of the first states to implement and the first in the country to launch a Smartphone Application to get timely information. Thank you mr. Abraham. The third witness today is the executive director and cofounder of the center for election innovation and research. To increase voter turnout and give officials the tools they need to ensurneeded to ensure ah balls can vote conveniently in a system with maximum integrity. Prior, he was the director of the Elections Program at the Charitable Trust where he worked on reforms and Election Administration that included using technology to provide voters with information they need to cast the ballot. He received his undergraduate and law degree from the university at california berkeley. The final witness today from my home state of texas is a professor in the department of Computer Science and a scholar at the Baker Institute for public policy. The Research Covers a variety of topics in Computer Security that includes electronic Voting System security where he served as the director of a multiinstitution Research Center for correct reliable and transparent elections. He also served as a member of the air force Science Advisory Board from 2011 to 2015. He earned his bachelors degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at uc berkeley and masters and phd from princeton university. We welcome you all and appreciate your expert advice. Doctor romine if you would begin. Chairman smith, Ranking Member johnson and members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to discuss the role in the Voting Systems. Improving Voting Systems requires an interdisciplinary approach that must be reliable and costeffective, secure and usable and accessible to all. The design and standards must consider the diversity of the processes across the state and none of these can be considered in a vacuum. The expertise and testing, information security, trusted networks, quality and accessibility provides the foundation for the Voting Systems work but our experience working in a multistakeholder process is critical. We must bring together Election Officials, industry, technical experts and advocacy groups to address this challenge. The role is limited to the research to develop standards, tests, guidelines, best practices and assistance with Laboratory Accreditation that the commission for the eac and state and local jurisdictions may use at their discretion. Since the signing of the help america vote act, weve partnered to develop a science, tools and standards necessary to improve the accuracy, reliability, accessibility and security of the Voting Systems. Our joint accomplishments include new Voting System guidelines, guidelines in support of military and overseas voters empowerment act and the uniformed and overseas citizens absentee voting act. The establishment of the Testing Laboratories for testing a committeitwould begin Testing Certification program upon which many states depend the Technical Guidelines Committee a federal Advisory Committee assists in the development of the voluntary Voting System guidelines. In 2015, the approved the latest recommendations guidance with new requirements for the fact verse and new security requirements on access control, physical security, auditing and Software Quality and software integrity. To support overseas and military voters including the use of the internet to cast absentee ballots the research concluded widely deployed technologies and procedures could mitigate many of the risks associated with electronic blank deliveries but the risks associated were more serious and challenging to overcome. Based on that research, documented security practices and considerations for officials on the use of electronic mail or the web to expedite the transmission of the registration materials. In early 2011 the analyzed the technologies that may mitigate the risk to the internet voting. We also identified several areas where research and technological improvements are needed to ensure the security, usability and accessibility of the voting. Many of these challenges are not unique to the voting such as strong Identity Management, protection against malware and the resiliency of the systems. The challenges of the voting are the requirements and expectations to ensure the integrity of the voting process while protecting privacy. Theyve recently organized public working groups to provide an open and Transparent Development process to give the state officials the opportunity to work directly with academic and industry and federal government experts. The groups help inform in updating. There are three working groups, pre election and post that are providing insight on the process. The groups are supported by the technical groups, cybersecurity, human factors, interoperability and testing. The working groups take input from the technical groups to inform requirement for consideration. To ensure the systems are secure is critical to provide trust and confidence in the voting process. The Technical Working Group is developing guidelines and best practices to secure the systems. The group is focused on the Security Best practices including physical security, auditing and Contingency Planning to provide a Firm Foundation for the security guidelines they are researching threats and vulnerabilities and the best practices and technologies that can mitigate the risks. As part of the research theyve catalogued the vulnerabilities and weaknesses in the Voting System software. The goal is to understand the vulnerabilities in the systems by looking at the historical evidence and creating a voting specific list and mapping the weaknesses to the requirements. This has identified issues that should be addressed in the requirements and test methods and by Voting System manufacturers. We continue collaborating with others to fulfill the role and we leverage our research which is applicable to a wide variety of organizations used by industry and governments throughout the world. Collaboration in the public and private sector is the only way to meet this challenge leveraging each role and responsibility. Thank you for the opportunity to testify today and i would be happy to answer any questions you may have. I want to thank the committee and Ranking Member johnson for the invitation to address you today. I think its important for you to hear from actual officials our job in my opinion is to make voting easier and more accessible and tough to cheat but in recent weeks reports on Cyber Attacks have voters questioning whether their votes would actually count and in my opinion that is more damaging. We are all on high alert. This has put all of the states working on National Security issues with all National Agencies in the effort to try to improve the system or to recheck the system we have put the states are always evaluating security measures and plans. As i speak in louisiana im dealing with 30 precincts from the record flooding we had in the baton rouge area on contingency plans of what i want to do to notify voters and the like. So yes. Are we concerned about potential interference in the process . Absolutely about voter fraud iss harder to accomplish than you may think. Angie wa was pointed out by the Ranking Member johnson we have some 10,000 jurisdictions voting in the country. Hundreds and tho