Concerns over federal support for election security

Concerns over WA election security amid federal cuts

Washington's Secretary of State is sounding the alarm, saying federal funding cuts are making election security and even greater concern.

OLYMPIA, Wash. - Washington's secretary of state is sounding an alarm, saying federal cuts are creating uncertainty around election security and the state’s multi-billion dollar budget shortfall could further complicate the situation.

What they're saying:

Secretary Steve Hobbs (D) said he and his counterparts on both sides of the aisle from across the country are concerned about cuts to services and programs for elections management and government cybersecurity, provided by the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).

"This is not good for our state, or for any of the states," Hobbs told members of the House State Government and Tribal Relations committee Friday morning.

State elections staff said the federal support is crucial to helping state and local officials track and respond to threats against the voting process.

"In the lead up to the 2024 elections, CISA was a key partner for elections across the country," said Kylee Zabel with the Information Security and Response division of the secretary of state’s office.

"With the Vancouver drop box incident. They also helped elections offices across the country with bomb threats on Election Day. the many white powder incidents that we’ve seen both in Washington state and across the country. And also debunking fabricated videos from Russian influence actors in Georgia and Pennsylvania."

The secretary of state's office said within the past few weeks, there have been firings of federal cybersecurity advisors, defunding of information partnerships between local, federal and private sector groups and cancelled briefings on election security.

Local perspective:

While other federal supports have not been cut, officials argue what is being done is creating uncertainty and confusion about what changes could come next, what exact impacts that would have, and what could be done locally in response.

"No secretary of state’s office is going to be equipped to gather information and intelligence at a national or global scale on the threat vectors that exist that we have to be prepared for and combat against," Zabel told the committee.

The uncertainty of federal support comes at a bad time for the secretary’s office, as Hobbs said he is at risk of losing funding for staff that could fill federal gaps because of the state’s projected multi-billion-dollar deficit over the next four years.

"My hope is that the federal government will restore these services – at least give us clarity on what's going on," Hobbs said. "And that you all, if you are on a fiscal committee, to please fund these programs. So that we can at least defend it on our end, even though we’ll be very squeezed to do so."

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Rep. Jim Walsh, R-Aberdeen, asked if the federal government’s work was more geared toward streamlining processes, rather than cutting them outright. He also questioned if the changes would ultimately have any defined, adverse impacts on Washington’s election security efforts.

Hobbs said it is just too unclear at this point what the government is looking to do with the support programs and what the end result would be. Attacks on government cyber infrastructure happen all the time and will only benefit from opportunities of confusion, he argued.

"These attacks don’t stop," Hobbs said. "Russia and China are not going to pause as this transition is going on and we’re trying to figure out what we’re doing."

The Source: Information in this story is from Albert James, a television reporter covering state government as part of the Murrow News Fellowship program – a collaborative effort between news outlets statewide and Washington State University.