Election security aid on the chopping block, rattling local officials
The White House is supposed to decide March 6 whether cuts to election security resources for state and local elections will be permanent.
State and local election officials who have grown to rely on the federal government’s cybersecurity assistance fear that the Trump administration may permanently block that aid by Thursday.
Such funding, which began in President Donald Trump’s first term and is funnelled through the country’s top domestic security body, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), stopped in February. Those programs include free on-site and remote security testing of election machines and the websites that report election results, and ad hoc “situation rooms” where election officials can virtually gather and discuss security tactics in real time.
“Taking away that funding would be a very, very bad idea,” said Howie Knapp, the executive director of South Carolina’s State Election Commission,” told NBC News.
“We all know as taxpayers there is government bloat enough, but this is protecting the core function of democracy,” Knapp said. “If there’s government cuts to be made, I would recommend they don’t start with securing our nation’s elections.”
CISA, which is under the Department of Homeland Security, plans to make a decision on the future of federal election security assistance by Thursday, according to a Feb. 14 agency memo obtained by NBC News. The memo was first reported by Wired.
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