Massachusetts Secretary of State William Galvin addresses congressional committee on election security
Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin testified before a congressional committee on Wednesday about election security.
Galvin, a Democrat, was scheduled to speak at a 2 p.m. hearing of the Subcommittee on National Security, which is chaired by U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch, D-Boston. The hearing, “Securing U.S. Election Infrastructure and Protecting Political Discourse,” was called to examine the security of the nation’s election systems.
According to a summary of his prepared remarks provided to the committee, Galvin stressed the importance of federal funding and of communication between state, federal and local election officials.
Galvin said the federal government must keep states informed of suspected breaches, alerts and intelligence. Concerns from local officials should be reported back through the state to federal authorities.
The U.S. Election Assistance Commission needs to update its standards for voting machines and take a stronger regulatory role in testing voting equipment before it is sold to states, Galvin said.
“Despite all the controls that we have implemented, the threat against our elections will not cease, and the malicious efforts will become increasingly difficult to identify and mitigate,” Galvin said. “Massachusetts would like to be able to rely on the federal government for assurances and guidelines as we look to replace voting equipment, make new purchases such as electronic poll books and replace or update election software.”
He also urged federal officials to work with social media platforms to “identify and quash the deliberate misinformation campaigns.”
Galvin said there must also be more federal funding to pay for continued training, equipment replacements, software upgrades and implementation of security controls.
Gloss