In this week’s episode of Fed’s At the Edge, we are talking about US Elections. From observations about challenges seen in previous elections to best practices to ensure a safe and fair election process.
We’ll explore sources of help for election officials like utilizing CISA, local associations, and the US Election Assistance Commission. We also touch on critical areas like cybersecurity, communications, and physical security.
Mark Earley, Supervisor of Elections for Leon County, FL, shares how election professionals should be aware of phishing vulnerabilities as they honor the responsibility of answering citizens emails.
Tune in on your favorite podcasting platform today to hear this and more. Learn how you can get involved.
To view this webinar: Election Security: Protecting the Foundation of Democracy.
Featured Speakers:
Mark Earley
Supervisor of Elections
Mark Earley has worked in elections for over 30 years, the last 8 serving as the elected Supervisor of Elections for Leon County, Florida – Florida’s Capital County. Over his career, he has been integral to the design and deployment of core election systems such as Ballot on Demand printing; voting system inventory, testing, and control software; and post-election audit technologies.
Mark was President of the Florida Supervisors of Election’s association for the 2022-23 term, and has served on the association’s Executive, Legislative, Cybersecurity, Rules, Public Relations, and U.S. Postal Service committees. He takes an active role in the formulation of state election laws, frequently testifying before Florida Senate and House Committees.
At the national level, Mark serves on the Executive Committees of both the U.S. Election Assistance Commission’s Local Leadership Council and the Elections Infrastructure and Information Sharing and Analysis Center. He has been a featured speaker and panelist for the EAC, NCSL, EI-ISAC, and The Election Center.
Mark holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the FAMU/FSU College of Engineering and maintains Master Florida Certified Elections Professional (MFCEP) and Certified Elections Registration Administrator (CERA) certifications.
Supervisor of Elections,
Leon County, FL
Ben Hovland
Chairman, U.S. Elections Assistance Commission
Benjamin Hovland was confirmed by unanimous consent of the United States Senate on January 2, 2019 to serve on the U.S. Election Assistance Commission. Mr. Hovland currently serves as Chairman of the EAC and the Designated Federal Officer (DFO) for the Technical Guidelines Development Committee (TGDC).
In 2020, Commissioner Hovland served as EAC Chairman and helped lead the agency during an election year with unprecedented challenges. Under his leadership, the EAC administered nearly $825 million in federal grant money to help election officials respond to the pandemic and enhance election security. In addition to distributing critical funding, the EAC strategically pivoted resources to help election officials as they confronted obstacles and made difficult decisions of how to best run their elections.
As EAC Chairman, Mr. Hovland also served as Co-Chair of Election Infrastructure Subsector’s Government Coordinating Council and Chair of the Joint Subsector COVID-19 Working Group to coordinate pandemic response amongst state and local election officials, federal partners, and the private sector. Other innovations under his leadership included the first-ever National Poll Worker Recruitment Day, which led national recruitment efforts to alleviate concerns about a significant shortage in poll workers due to the pandemic.
During Commissioner Hovland’s tenure as Chairman, the EAC also adopted a new version of the Voluntary Voting System Guidelines (VVSG). Known as VVSG 2.0, this represents the first major overhaul of the standards in 15 years and a major leap forward for future election systems.
Mr. Hovland’s career in elections spans over 20 years and includes service as Acting Chief Counsel for the U.S. Senate Committee on Rules and Administration, where he was a driving force behind Congress appropriating $380 million in Help America Vote Act (HAVA) funds to enhance election security to the states in 2018. While at the Senate, he focused on the federal government’s role in election administration and campaign finance regulation. He organized several hearings on election security preparations and improving election administration. He was integral to pushing for the restoration of a quorum at the EAC in 2015.
Earlier in his career, as the Deputy General Counsel for the Missouri Secretary of State’s office, he focused on legal issues related to the administration of state and federal elections, including recounts, poll worker training, voter registration list maintenance, statewide database matching, voter education resources and ballot initiative litigation.
Chairman, U.S. Elections
Assistance Commission
Ben Spear
Chief Information Security Officer
Ben Spear is the Chief Information Security Officer for the New York State Board of Elections, overseeing the agency’s security program, as well as outreach and support for security programs at the 58 county/city boards of elections. Ben previously served as the founding Director of the Elections Infrastructure Information Sharing and Analysis Center (EI-ISAC), securing elections through the deployment of a coordinated cyber defense suite supporting all 50 states and over 3,000 local election offices in advance of the 2018 and 2020 elections. Ben also served in various roles on the MS-ISAC intelligence team, developing innovating new ways to identify and present current cyber threat trends to SLTT constituents and providing expertise on critical infrastructure security.
Chief Information Security Officer,
New York State Board of Elections
Jeffery Baez
Security Advisor
Before joining Splunk, Jeffrey served as the first CISO for the New York State Dept of Financial Services and later, Board of Elections. During his tenure, he helped ratify a governance charter establishing the Secure Elections Center, led a series of Statewide tabletop exercises, and has spoken at numerous conferences.
Jeffrey is now a Security Advisor for Splunk where he advises on best practices for establishing and improving their cyber security programs.
Security Advisor,
Splunk
John Breeden II
Moderator & Contributing Editor
FedInsider Contributing Editor John Breeden II is an award winning journalist and reviewer who has spent 20 years working in the federal, technology and government space. Articles and reviews written by him have appeared in numerous national publications including Chief Security Officer, Stars and Stripes, The Washington Post, NextGov Magazine, Newsweek, The Wall Street Journal, Washington Technology, Network World, The Sacramento Bee, The Boston Globe, Government Computer News, Up Front New Mexico and many others.
For FedInsider, he has written many articles and white papers and acted as the moderator for over 20 interviews featuring federal, state and local officials discussing technology, policy and governmental issues.
In addition to his normal writing, Breeden has authored two technical how-to type computer books published by Prompt Publications. Those titles, Exploring Microsoft Office and Guide to Webcams enjoyed both commercial success and reviewer acclaim. He is also the founding publisher and chief editor of Gameindustry.com, one of the longest running publications covering the video game industry. He is the CEO of the Tech Writers Bureau, a group of professional journalists who craft thought leadership projects for government and private organizations.
He has twice been awarded Jessie H. Neal gold medals for excellence in business journalism as well as numerous national awards for journalism by the American Society of Business Publication Editors.
Contributing Editor,
FedInsider
