This month, the EAC is highlighting:
- Help America Vote Day on January 30
- EAC Resources to Prepare for the 2024 Election Season
- Nominations for the 2023 Clearinghouse Awards Open January 16
- Election Threat Intel Briefing Recap
- ESTEP is a New Permanent Program for the EAC
- Events:
- LLC Meeting Held on January 8 and 9
- 2024 Elections Summit on January 30
- EAVS Comment Period Ends January 15
Thank You for a Successful 2023!
The Commissioners and EAC staff would like to thank election administrators, their staff, and poll workers for all their hard work this past year. Your relentless efforts to make elections safe, secure, accurate, and transparent are critical to supporting our democracy. We appreciate your efforts and hard work, especially as we start this presidential election year, and look forward to working with you closely.
Mark your Calendars for Help America Vote Day on January 30
To better assist state and local election officials with the recruitment of poll workers throughout 2024, Help America Vote Day is a day of action to raise awareness of the ongoing need for poll workers and opportunity to share information on how to register and cast a ballot.
Have you used the EAC’s toolkits before? These materials have been updated and expanded! A toolkit with a suite of graphics, draft social media content, and other key information is on the EAC site. As many state and local election offices already have their own forms and online information for the recruitment of poll workers, please feel free to use your jurisdiction’s direct links instead of helpamericavote.gov and customize the graphics as you share information on January 30.
If your jurisdiction is not actively recruiting poll workers at this time, please use Help America Vote Day to raise awareness of where residents and voters can find trusted information for registration and voting.
The EAC wants to make sure the lookup tool on HelpAmericaVote.gov includes updated information for local jurisdictions. Please visit this site to make sure the information for your jurisdiction is correct. If you have any updates, please email [email protected].
Resources to Help Prepare for the 2024 Election Season
We know how busy election officials will be throughout this year. The EAC has a range of resources and toolkits to help election offices.
-
2024 Election Readiness Checklist: Prepare for Success - From communicating with the public to preparing for post-election audits, this checklist for election offices will help keep track of the essential tasks.
-
Accessibility Checklist: Accessible Communications - Use this checklist to develop accessible communications, such as electronic documents, in-person communications, videos and virtual meetings, and social media posts. This guide will cover several strategies for ADA compliance, using plain language, and other considerations for people with disabilities.
-
Accessible Elections- Information for Election Officials Training Video Series - This innovative video training series for election officials, poll workers, and other election stakeholders is about making voting more accessible to voters with disabilities.
-
COOP Template - Contingency planning activities can help election officials prepare for unexpected circumstances. This template can help election officials evaluate their current plans or help develop new templates as 2024 kicks into high gear.
-
Poll Worker Quick Tips: Recruitment - This guide is intended to provide election officials with sample suggestions to support poll worker recruitment efforts.
-
Election Management Guidelines - This document was created to assist state and local election officials in effectively managing and administering elections.
Visit the EAC’s website for more helpful resources.
Nominations for the 2023 Clearinghouse Awards Begin on January 16
On January 16, the EAC will open the submission period for the 2023 National Clearinghouse Awards competition, also known as the Clearies. Now in its eighth year, this program celebrates the leadership and hard work of election officials across the U.S.
Throughout the 2023 elections, officials have worked diligently to address the challenges of an ever-evolving elections landscape, while also dealing with ongoing needs related to election security and accessibility. The 2023 Clearies will provide the opportunity to once again recognize the dedication of these outstanding public servants.
Jurisdictions of all sizes are encouraged to submit their work. The entries will be judged based on innovation, sustainability, outreach, cost-effectiveness, replicability, and the generation of positive results. More information on the 2022 Clearies winners can be found here.
Please send any questions you may have to [email protected], and stay tuned to the EAC’s website and social media for details on how to submit your own innovative programs.
Election Threat Intel Briefing Recap
The EAC and Mandiant hosted the first quarterly Election Threat Intel Briefing on December 7 for election officials, IT, and cyber staff.
Cyber-enabled threat actors across a wide spectrum of intrinsic motivations and geographical origin continue to target U.S. elections infrastructure with malicious operations designed to influence, manipulate, monitor, or disrupt elections, or enable intelligence collection efforts.
This quarterly election cyber threat briefing covered:
- An overview of the threat landscape
- Emerging threat: cryptocurrency
- Activity observed during the 2023 Polish elections
- Financial motivations for targeting elections
- RansomEDVC targets DC Board of Elections
- ROYAL ransomware disables Dallas City Functions
- Other timely information operations (IO) topics
The briefing concluded with a strategic outlook and provided recommendations to help harden election operations.
You can view the slides from the presentation here. The next quarterly briefing will be held in spring 2024 and more information will be available closer to this event. For additional information and election security resources like this visit https://www.eac.gov/election-officials/election-security-preparedness.
ESTEP Becomes a Permanent Part of EAC Operations
In December 2023, the EAC voted unanimously to approve the establishment of the EAC’s Election Supporting Technology Evaluation Program or ESTEP as a permanent part of the agency. Under the authority of HAVA, the EAC created ESTEP to establish requirements and guidelines specific to election technologies that are not covered under the Voluntary Voting System Guidelines (VVSG). In February 2023, ESTEP launched an Electronic Poll Book Pilot Program which will serve as a model for other certification programs for technologies like election night reporting databases, voter registration portals and databases, and electronic ballot delivery systems.
ESTEP has already initiated the next steps for testing and certifying e-poll books on the federal level. In addition, ESTEP has developed supporting administrative guidelines in the Election Supporting Technology Evaluation Program Manual, to assist manufacturers and voting system test laboratories with adherence to program expectations.
LLC Annual Meeting on January 8 and 9, 2024
The EAC’s Local Leadership Council (LLC) will host its Annual Meeting on January 8 and 9. During the meeting, the EAC’s LLC members will discuss EAC updates and upcoming programs, such as election technology, preparing for the 2024 elections, communications, continuity of operations planning, and presentations from federal election partners. This meeting is open to the public. Registration is required to attend and this meeting will not be live streamed. Learn more on the LLC meeting event page.
2024 Elections Summit on January 30
The EAC and the University of Maryland will host the 2024 Elections Summit on January 30, which will be held at the University’s campus and live streamed on the EAC’s YouTube Channel. During the meeting, election officials and other key stakeholders will join the EAC’s Commissioners for in-depth panel discussions ahead of the 2024 elections on topics such as confidence in elections, election security, accessible voting, challenges for new election officials, and communicating about elections. Registration is required to attend in person. Learn more on the event page.
Submit Feedback on EAVS by January 15
The 60-day Public Comment period for the 2024 Election Administration and Voting Survey (EAVS) has begun. This is your chance to provide any feedback on questions and improvements to the forthcoming 2024 EAVS and Policy Survey. The deadline to submit a comment is January 15, 2024. You can submit comments at:
https://www.regulations.gov/document/EAC-2023-0008-0001
If you have questions, contact [email protected].