How This Pennsylvania County Protects Election Integrity

Two weeks before the November 5 election, electoral security continues to worry some voters.

Although this is a national issue, its effectiveness may be influenced by protections at the local level. Several election-specific monitoring technologies and procedures play a crucial role in safeguarding the democratic process in Allegheny County. And in addition to years-old safety methods, new ways to help are emerging.

For example, this year in Allegheny County, the federal government is providing additional training to election workers to defuse possible violence and election interference at polling places.

To some, this may seem extreme, but because Pennsylvania is a swing state, increasing threats of violence against election officials have the potential to disrupt voting operations. This, coupled with the possibility of foreign interference or election fraud, can compromise the integrity of elections.

So even though the director of the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency recently said the nation’s election infrastructure is more secure than ever, not all Americans are convinced.

A majority of Americans, 58 percent, say they are concerned about the possibility of voter fraud this year, and about 66 percent say they are concerned about interference from foreign countries in this year’s elections, according to a recent Marist poll conducted in collaboration with NPR and PBS. News.

In Allegheny County, election officials are touting a mix of secure modern software updates and reliance on old-school technology like USB drives to protect against election interference and ease public concerns.

Here’s a look at how Allegheny County officials are using security procedures and election-specific technology to keep votes safe in Pittsburgh and the surrounding region.

The PA’s Mandatory Paper Trail, Combined with an Internet Lockdown

The process begins before Election Day with Pennsylvania’s past decision to regulate the types of voting machines that counties have access to.

Before 2020, Pennsylvania used a variety of voting machines, some of which required paper ballots and others that only recorded votes electronically, called electronic direct-recording machines. After Pennsylvania settled a lawsuit in 2018 claiming the commonwealth’s voting machines were susceptible to hacking, it was forced to update its voting systems across the country to include paper ballots.

Allegheny County residents must fill out a paper ballot, then insert it into a DS 200, a machine that scans ballots and records the data. Paper ballots, unlike electronic ballots, create a transparent physical record that can be audited after the election.

Among the many ballot scanners approved for use in Pennsylvania, the DS 200 is used in 36 of 67 counties, according to the nonprofit Verified Voting. Before elections, scanners are kept in secure facilities accessible only to authorized election personnel, according to the Pennsylvania Department of State website.

Designed by US voting technology company ES&S, the DS 200 does not connect to the Internet and has additional security features, such as audit logs and encryption capabilities, to prevent election interference.

Once the final votes are cast on Election Day, USB drives are used to transfer voting data from the DS 200 scanners to secure computers connected to the official county network, which collects and tabulates the votes.

Computers are locked to perform only essential functions and will not accept unauthorized USB drives, according to the Allegheny County website. This configuration prevents access to the Internet, reducing a computer’s vulnerability to hackers and potential exposure to malware or viruses from unapproved flash drives.

Software designed by ES&S, called ElectionWare, is installed on computers and includes security features such as a recording of all user actions in the voting system’s audit log and a unique encryption key for each election . Election officials can review every action taken in the voting system, and the encryption key makes voting data unreadable to unauthorized users.

At the end of Election Day, the county has a physical record of votes from paper ballots and a digital record of votes compiled by DS 200 scanners. Having both is good for security, because Potential discrepancy between physical and digital voting records may be investigated.

Security primer and following Election Day protocols

Ensuring vote security requires months of pre-election preparation and multiple post-election audits.

This falls under the jurisdiction of the Allegheny County Elections Division and the Department of Information Technology (DIT).

Detailed information on security protocols is not publicly available to protect election security, but the county provides general information about testing and security measures implemented during the election cycle.

Before election day:

• The county Division of Elections conducts logic and accuracy testing of voting system equipment several weeks before in-person voting. The Division of Elections uses test ballots to evaluate the ability of voting systems to produce accurate results.
• About two weeks before the election, DIT conducts regional laptop testing to ensure that computers used during the election can connect to the county network. Test USB drives are also used to submit test data to computers, with DIT staff verifying the accuracy of the transmitted results.
• The county conducts Air Gap testing, a network security measure performed the day before and two days after the election, to ensure the voting system is isolated from insecure networks, like the Internet. These tests are outsourced to a security agency and classified reports are generated to identify potential vulnerabilities in the system.

After election day:

• The DIT conducts post-election verification by comparing voting data transmitted on election night to voting data on the scanners’ backup USB drives. Reports are created from ElectionWare to confirm that precinct vote totals match election night scanner totals.
• The county is conducting two post-election audits, including a 2% statistical recount of all ballots and a statewide Risk Limitation Audit (RLA). RLA uses statistical methods to compare a random sample of paper ballots to reported totals.
• The Division of Elections contracts with a private auditing agency to conduct parallel testing, an independent testing of a random precinct’s voting equipment after the election. The auditor then provides the test documentation to the DIT.

All of these efforts help maintain public trust, not only by preventing bad actors from accessing Allegheny County’s voting system, but also by ensuring that every vote is counted accurately.

Help from PA officials also trickles down to Allegheny County

Despite increased security measures around Pennsylvania’s election system, conspiracy theories around election integrity persist, sparking concerns about possible violence in this election.

For example, at a town hall meeting in Pennsylvania last week, Elon Musk repeated false conspiracy theories that voting machines rig elections. Musk specifically mentioned Dominion Voting Systems, which was accused of voter fraud after the 2020 election. Fox News settled a $787 million defamation lawsuit with the company last year.

Musk also falsely claimed that Dominion machines were used in Philadelphia, but a company statement later clarified that it did not serve the region and audits of paper ballots consistently showed that Dominion machines had produced precise results in the 2020 elections.

So there is an added burden on counties to step up and prove the conspiracies false.

With all eyes on the Commonwealth heading into November, Governor Josh Shapiro created the Pennsylvania Election Threat Task Force in February to mitigate threats to the election process by establishing communication clear between public agencies.

The task force, led by Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt, includes law enforcement and election administration officials at the federal, state and local levels. The group meets monthly and works primarily to coordinate responses to potential threats made against polling places and workers.

For Allegheny County, that means even more information on how to keep its election technology up to date before November and assistance if problems arise.

“In recent years, we have seen bad faith actors…spread lies and baseless conspiracy theories, and attempt to delegitimize our safe, secure and accurate elections,” Schmidt said in a press release earlier this year .. “This task force has worked together to develop and coordinate plans to combat this dangerous misinformation and continue to provide all eligible voters with accurate and reliable election information. »