CISA and its partners collaborate on security exercises to enhance election safety.
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) collaborated with the National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS) and National Association of State Election Directors (NASED) to organize a tabletop exercise aimed at enhancing election security. This exercise, known as Tabletop the Vote, has been conducted in previous years and this year marks its seventh edition.
This tabletop security exercise brings together private sector partners, along with federal, state, and local officials, to strengthen election security measures. Participants in the exercise exchanged best practices for incident planning, preparation, identification, response, and recovery for both cyber and physical incidents.
CISA Director Jen Easterly, along with the Election Infrastructure Subsector Government Coordinating Council (EIS-GCC) Executive Committee, released a joint statement regarding the collaborative exercise:
“Tabletop the Vote offers a valuable opportunity for the election community to strategize for potential scenarios and enhance our response plans in a simulated training environment. Exercises like this help us prepare for incidents that may occur before, during, and after an election, and improve our understanding of response and recovery efforts. They also aid in identifying the most effective ways to address today’s increasingly complex threat landscape by refining communication and intelligence sharing practices, and identifying potential process enhancements. Tabletop the Vote is just one example of the continuous efforts of state and local election officials and the federal government to safeguard the security and resilience of America’s most crucial democratic process.”
The statement concludes, “Elections are overseen by thousands of state and local election officials across the country who work tirelessly to conduct secure and resilient elections. It is due to their dedication that Americans can trust in the integrity of our nation’s elections.”
