Cybersecurity agency director emphasizes safeguard measures for upcoming elections

Government officials held a conference Friday to discuss the steps they’re taking to uphold voting integrity in our community.

During the meeting, Director of Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) Jen Easterly said her team has made significant progress in the previous eight years to make sure elections are secure and resilient.

Easterly urges Americans to trust their votes will be counted as cast. She highlighted three reasons she is confident in election security:

The machines used to vote are not connected to the internet.Over 97% of registered voters will cast their ballots in jurisdictions where they will get a paper record that they can verify.Election officials have put in place multiple layers of safeguards to prevent election infrastructure from being compromised. These include pre-election testing of equipment for accuracy and post-election audits.

Easterly said although elections are safer than ever, the threat environment has never been more complex.

“There are physical threats to election officials, swatting, harassment, bullying, threats of violence to election officials and their families, largely stemming from unfounded claims that the 2020 election did not represent the will of the American people. As I’m sure everyone here understands, election officials are not faceless bureaucrats, they’re our friends, they’re our neighbors,” Easterly said.

Easterly said although these threats are disruptive, election officials are prepared to deal with them and will not let it impact the security and integrity of the Americans voting.

CISA also said the misinformation on election security has increased. It emphasized the importance of getting accurate information from state and local election officials.