County Examines Funding Cuts For Election Security

By Gordon HopkinsAn election security tool has been eliminated by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).DOGE is an initiative of President Donald Trump’s administration intended to eliminate “waste, fraud and abuse.”Brad Eisenhauer, Jefferson County IT (Information Technology) discussed the matter with commissioners at a meeting on Tuesday, March 11, “So, the organizations we get some of our security updates from and such, especially the election stuff, unfortunately, we don’t get any more. They’ve been defunded, and federal money was cut, and they’re gone.”Those election security updates used to come from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).Eisenhauer said, “They’re still there but some of these subgroups under them, which, unfortunately, the election one was one of them, that got the ax. And so, we got an email notification here last week that, due to canceled funding, they have to cease operation.”Eisenhauer explained, “Some days we get multiple emails a day on cybersecurity threats, especially in this instance pertaining to the election. And one of the great things they had this last election day is, for lack of better term, they opened up what they kind of called a war room. And so it was a site you could log in and, all day long, there was people from all across the country, all sorts of tech people and elected officials were in this room and just sharing information.”That has now been eliminated.“That really surprised me with election cyber security,” said Eisenhauer. “That’s a rather important one in my mind.”Commissioner Mark Schoenrock agreed, “I’m going to follow up with Senator (Pete Ricketts) and Senator (Deb) Fisher on that and have them look into that. That seems to me like that’s a pretty important.”Schoenrock added, “I know there’s a lot of fraud, waste and abuse that DOGE is finding, some of that stuff that they’ve detailed on the news is just astounding. But that one there seems like that’s maybe one that should not have happened.” Election SecurityElection security was one of the top concerns among Nebraska voters during the last election cycle.On October 9, 2024, Nebraska Secretary of State Bob Evnan hosted a conference on election integrity and security. Also in attendance were Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate; Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft; South Dakota Secretary of State Monae Johnson; Jen Easterly, Director of the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and Gina Ligon, Director of the National Counterterrorism Innovation, Technology and Education Center at the University of Nebraska at Omaha.“Election security is not static. Election security is not a one-and-done deal. Election security is dynamic,” said Evnen at the news conference. “All of Nebraska’s 93 counties now have their websites scanned weekly for vulnerabilities. All 93 counties now have a managed service provider or internal IT department to handle day to day security protocols. All 93 counties now have .gov email and website addresses that will help prevent bad actors from using their identities. These are important steps we’re taking across Nebraska to ensure that our infrastructure is protected.” CISA CutsLast week, CISA cut approximately $10 million in funding for the Center for Internet Security (CIS), which supported the Elections Infrastructure Information Sharing and Analysis Center (EI-ISAC).Some news outlets have also reported that hundreds of workers have been laid off, although CISA disputed those reports in a statement issued on March 12, “Contrary to inaccurate reporting, CISA has not ‘laid off’ our Red Team. CISA has taken action to terminate contracts where the agency has been able to find efficiencies and eliminate duplication of effort. As good stewards of the taxpayer dollar and in accordance with good fiscal governance practices, CISA regularly reviews contracts across the agency to ensure that we have the capabilities that we need and that we are allocating resources in ways that make the most impact. This was a contract action that did not impact the employment status of CISA personnel.”

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