Blumenthal, Merrill Announce $5.1 Million in Federal Funds on the Way for Connecticut Election Security

(Hartford, CT) – U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Connecticut Secretary of the State Denise Merrill today announced Connecticut has been awarded $5.1 million in new federal election security funding.

The funding is part of $380 million Blumenthal helped secure for the Election Assistance Commission’s Help America Vote Act grant program as part of the Omnibus Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2018.The grant program began in 2002 as a way to help states secure their voter registration systems.

“These new federal funds will help secure the safety and integrity of critical voting infrastructure—and help to preserve public faith in our most fundamental of democratic institutions. Free and fair elections are the foundation of our democracy, and secure voting systems are their cornerstone. Connecticut’s election infrastructure has been and remains under attack from foreign agents, and such threats are only increasing in sophistication and frequency,” Blumenthal said.

"Although the threat of foreign interference is very real, Connecticut's election cybersecurity infrastructure is strong and has already successfully repelled an attempt by agents of the Russian government. The federal funds from HAVA are welcome reinforcements that will allow us to bolster our election cybersecurity efforts, allowing us to strengthen our defenses on the state and local level, develop and implement best practices, and improve training and interagency communications,” Merrill said.

The grants are designed to strengthen election systems against cyber-attacks.  Since every state has different election systems, the program will allow states to identify and improve their specific vulnerabilities and needs. This flexibility allows state and local election officials to make determinations about what is most needed in their own jurisdictions. Funding can be used to:

·         Replace outdated voting machines that do not provide a voter verified paper record;

·         Implement a post-election audit system that provides a high-level of confidence in the accuracy of final vote tallies;

·         Upgrade election-computer systems to address cyber vulnerabilities;

·         Facilitate cyber security training for the state chief election official's office and local election officials; and

·         Implement established cybersecurity best practices for election systems; and fund other activities that will improve the security of elections for federal office.

Blumenthal led a letter with sixteen of his colleagues requesting additional funding to help state and local election officials address any deficiencies in their voting system. As the senators noted in their funding request, many states have voter registration systems that are at least ten years old, leaving them at significant risk of future attacks. This funding will be made immediately available to states to being implementing security improvements ahead of the 2018 midterm elections.