The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) hosted its seventh annual Tabletop the Vote election security exercise on Aug. 22-23 and Aug. 26-27.
CISA coordinated with the National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS) and the National Association of State Election Directors (NASED) to bring together Federal, state, and local officials as well as private sector partners from across the election community to enhance #Protect2024 efforts.
The Tabletop the Vote election security exercise provided participants with the opportunity to share best practices around cyber and physical incident planning, preparedness, identification, response, and recovery.
“Tabletop the Vote provides an opportunity for the election community as a whole to plan for potential scenarios and improve our response plans within the safety of a training environment,” CISA Director Jen Easterly and the Election Infrastructure Subsector Government Coordinating Council (EIS-GCC) Executive Committee said in a joint statement following the exercise on Aug. 27.
The EIS-GCC Executive Committee consists of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) Chairman Ben Hovland, NASS President and Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon, NASED President and State Elections Director for the New Mexico Secretary of State Mandy Vigil, and Sarah Ball Johnson, city clerk for the City of Colorado Springs, Colo.
“Exercises like this allow us to prepare for incidents that occur before, during, and after an election and better understand response and recovery efforts. They also assist us in identifying how to best tackle today’s increasingly complex threat environment by refining communication and intelligence sharing practices, and identifying potential process improvements,” they said. “Tabletop the Vote is just one example of the ongoing efforts of state and local election officials and the federal government to ensure the security and resilience of America’s most critical democratic process.”
State and local election officials, as well as in-state stakeholders, from across the country participated in Tabletop the Vote virtually.
In addition to CISA, Federal participants in the exercise included the Departments of Homeland Security, Justice, and Defense, the FBI, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the National Security Agency, U.S. Cyber Command, the EAC, the National Guard Bureau, the National Security Council, the U.S. Postal Service Office of the Inspector General, and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.
According to CISA, the full EIS-GCC will also be held this week to further foster efficient communication and collaboration within the election infrastructure community ahead of the November general election.
“Elections are run by the thousands of state and local election officials nationwide who work diligently to administer elections that are secure and resilient,” CISA’s Easterly and the EIS-GCC Executive Committee said. “It is because of their hard work Americans can have confidence in our nation’s elections.”
