In anticipation of what will no doubt be an intense election, almost certain to prompt some outcry and controversy from somebody, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger held a “comprehensive tabletop exercise” this week to focus on the cyber and physical security of elections.
Along with the Secretary of State’s office, the event was planned by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency (CISA) and state and local partners. The event was meant to demonstrate the collaboration securing the election process, featuring scenario planning and real-time threat detection and mitigation strategies.
Nearly 300 attendees, including county election officials from across Georgia, county IT departments, federal partners from the FBI, CISA, and leading vendors, were on hand to address simulated scenarios meant to test the resilience of the state’s election systems. There were three different scenarios: a ransomware attack, addressing swatting incidents and hardening cybersystems to improve their ability to withstand an attack and improve recovery.
“Today’s exercise was a testament to the commitment of our county election directors to ensuring safe and secure elections,” said Raffensperger. “By working together and preparing for potential threats, we are reinforcing the trust that the public places in our election systems.”
Perhaps the most important part of the exercise was improving collaboration between local, state and federal oversight agencies, improving response times and communications.
The effort is one piece of Raffensperger’s four-part commitment to ensuring election security: testing before the election, testing during the election, voter review and accountability, and testing after the election.
Despite previous controversy, the state has consistently ranked highly in the Heritage Foundation’s Election Integrity Scorecard, earning a second best in the country this year, following up a number one score previously. Only Tennessee ranked higher on the list, with a score of 90, compared to Georgia, Alabama and Florida all tied at number two with a score of 83. The top 10 list is a Who’s Who of SEC football states, with South Carolina, Arkansas, Missouri and Louisiana also appearing. Georgia had a perfect score in most of the – many – categories that comprise the scorecard but lost a few points on accuracy of voter registration lists, absentee ballot management and restriction of automatic registration, several of the issues that have garnered complaints from some Republicans around the state and in the legislature.
It has also been ranked at the top for Voter Accessibility by the Center for Election Innovation and Research and tied for number one by the Bipartisan Policy Center.
To see the full scorecard from the Heritage Foundation and compare to other states:
https://www.heritage.org/electionscorecard/pages/states/ga.html
