Why GAO Did This Study
In January 2017, the Secretary of Homeland Security designated election infrastructure as a critical infrastructure subsector. The designation allowed DHS to prioritize assistance to state and local election officials to protect key election assets, including voter registration databases and voting equipment.
The Conference Report (H. Rep. No. 116-9) accompanying the 2019 Consolidated Appropriations Act included a provision for GAO to examine how DHS is implementing key responsibilities to help protect the election infrastructure and the reported benefits and challenges of such efforts.
This report addresses (1) DHS's election security efforts and selected election officials' perspectives on them, and (2) DHS's planning for the 2020 elections. GAO reviewed DHS's strategies, plans, and services provided to election officials. GAO also interviewed DHS officials, representatives of the EI-ISAC, a DHS-funded center responsible for sharing threat information nationwide, and election officials from eight states and three local jurisdictions.
GAO selected the states and local jurisdictions to provide geographic diversity and variation in election administration, among other factors. The results from these states and localities are not generalizable, but provide insight into election officials' perspectives on DHS's efforts.
What GAO Recommends
GAO is making three recommendations to the CISA Director to (1) urgently finalize the strategic plan and the supporting operations plan for securing election infrastructure for the upcoming elections, (2) ensure that the operations plan fully addresses all lines of effort in the strategic plan for securing election infrastructure for the upcoming elections, and (3) document how the agency intends to address challenges identified in its prior election assistance efforts and incorporate appropriate remedial actions into the agency's 2020 planning. DHS concurred with all three recommendations and provided estimated dates for implementing each of them.
For more information, contact Vijay D'Souza at (202) 512-6240 or dsouzav@gao.gov.
