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0	3580	Good afternoon, Voting Village. My name is Thor Ascenti. I'm the Director of Business
3580	6480	and Government Affairs at the National Cyber Security Center, and I'm Maddie
6480	10420	Gullickson, and I'm the Program Manager for Secure the Vote. We'd like to thank all of you for
10420	13660	having us here today. We're excited to have our presentation accepted to the
13660	17960	Voting Village. We look forward to future years in our work in elections. So we're
17960	21980	with the National Cyber Security Center. We're a 501c3 based out of Colorado Springs,
21980	26180	Colorado. We were founded in 2016, and a lot of our big focus has to do with
26180	30200	cyber innovation and awareness and solving world cyber problems. We work in
30200	34660	areas like space, where we actually have a presentation from one of our fellow
34660	38700	colleagues in the Aerospace Village today, as well as areas like smart city
38700	43400	technology like ICS and K-12, so being the future of the cyber workforce. Our
43400	46260	presentation today is about the electronic ballot return standards and
46260	50480	guidelines, titled The Future of Voting. I want to start off by talking a little
50480	55620	bit about who we are, what the program is, and kind of how we fit into this whole
55620	61440	picture. I want to start off by acknowledging that Secure the Vote is a
61440	67820	nonpartisan, multi-agency, multi-policy group that kind of goes after a
67880	72040	layered challenge. A lot of the different things out there with groups like EAC,
72740	77320	CIS, the Election Security ISAC, even groups like Verified Voting, MIT,
77320	82260	Alliance for Securing Democracy, all tackle different aspects of our
82260	85460	election security problem in the U.S. And the combination of all these has
85460	89360	led to a brilliant ecosystem in the United States that allows us for us to be able to
89360	94160	publish and listen to and advocate for different policy standards, guidelines,
94160	98880	whether it be at the federal or state and local levels. And a lot of our focus has
98880	102860	primarily been on the ways that we can identify different gaps in critical
102860	106640	infrastructure related to elections. So the first gap that we've really
106640	110200	identified that we really want to talk about, the reason why we're here again, is all
110200	114580	about this gap where security exists in the conversation of election technology.
115620	119640	Security traditionally over this past, you know, four or five years has become
119640	125360	an even heightened level of focus in the world of election security. So we're not
125360	128040	going to say that we're going to become the new experts, but the biggest thing
128040	133040	for us is all about identifying the critical piece of the future of voting
133040	136800	technology. And what it means is that we've identified that security, cyber
136800	141020	security specifically, is a barrier to the future of election technology. And
141020	144560	what that looks like is that if people with disabilities or overseas voters
144560	147580	or even the everyday person who might have an emergency come up and they can't
147580	152900	get to their mail ballot or in-person voting, that there's more and more calls,
152900	156260	especially after the pandemic, that people want to do this. But the biggest
156260	160420	thing, the community agrees, the security is an issue and is a barrier to the
160420	163540	future of where these technologies can go. And that's why we're interested in the
163540	168180	conversation today. A little more background on us and how we've kind of
168180	172360	learned more about this space and why. Our program was started in the middle of
172360	175880	2018, specifically to work on helping address security issues for overseas
175880	180020	voters. Since then, we've participated in reviewing post-election logs and got
180020	184000	feedback from jurisdictions in 10 pilots involving the use of mobile and online
184000	189600	voting between 2019 and 2020. And like all critics of online voting, in every
189600	194240	single pilot, we saw the need for enhancing these technologies. We also saw
194240	198000	that there was also increased demand. Of the pilots we worked in, there was at
198000	202340	least two to one, if in some cases three to one, in more demand for more places to
202340	205920	use it. But the number one reason people chose not to is because of security
205920	210260	concerns. So the more we try and understand these technologies and find
210260	213900	and understand the different things that address the gap between where we are
213900	218440	today, where we are tomorrow, consistently between election officials, the security
218440	222480	community, and the academic community, we consistently see that these technologies
222480	227760	are not going away, but the desire for them is growing. And to go back to the
227760	234220	beginning, security is still a barrier. And through those pilots, some of the
234220	240480	things that we have seen that are part of that core security problem are
240480	244480	critical need for end-to-end verification of votes that maintains the secrecy of
244480	248520	the ballot, critical need for common standards around better verification
248520	254180	procedures and policies. Again, there's really no federally mandated or
254180	260100	even state-mandated requirements around these newer technologies. And so there is
260460	264800	a need for common standards around voter information privacy procedures as well.
264920	270780	And also one of the biggest concerns is that vulnerability of the voters devices
270780	276960	that may have problems on them that could hurt the system and
276960	282600	interfere with the vote. And so we really need to have a system in
282600	287860	place and standards in place that these newer technologies can be held
287860	293660	accountable to. We need pre-election reviews and post-election reviews. We
293660	299020	need the same kind of a level of guidelines that are offered through the
299020	305900	Voluntary Voting System guidelines, the EAC. And that's really where we are
305900	309340	working with, we have a working group that is looking at these different
309340	315120	issues. We continue to look at these issues through the pilots. But
315120	320560	ultimately, again, we're really working on these questions because even in 2016
320560	324740	there were about 3 million overseas voters who were eligible to vote, but
324740	331180	only 6.9 percent of them actually submitted a ballot, compared to a 72
331180	335900	percent rate of domestic voters who are eligible to vote. We're doing this
335900	341800	because if disabled voters had had the same access that voters without
341800	346500	disabilities had in the 2018 election, we would have seen a rate increase of
346500	351880	about 2.35 million additional voters participating in the system. You know,
351880	356900	ultimately we live in the 21st century and we shouldn't accept that people
356900	361040	living overseas or with disabilities don't vote because they struggle with
361040	365880	access to voting centers or because they lack the privacy to do so. And this
365880	371440	just, this slide in particular, just demonstrates that technology is a part
371440	376200	of voting and it is part of our infrastructure. We have email and fax are
376200	382080	already continually used by over 31 states. We have web portals that are
382080	388380	allowing people to return a ballot via a web portal. So the technology exists, it's
388380	393420	moving in that direction. Again, we just believe that there needs to be a common
393420	399640	set of standards and guidelines that can be used to help provide those guardrails
399640	407540	as this technology develops. When we look back at our progress in voting, one of
407540	411980	the biggest things, and this drives home the point that Forrest was making, is we
411980	416900	see that most of our legislation around voting has had to do with undoing policy
416900	422460	barriers that have kept, actively kept, people from voting. For the 21st
422460	426520	century, what is that going to look like? It's going to look like trying to undo
426520	431800	the barriers of technology and security as, as the things that prohibit people
431800	439060	from voting. And so as we look to that future, we want to, we want to participate
439060	442620	with as many people as possible and collaborate with as many people as
442620	446280	possible to figure out what does that future state of voting look like? What is
446280	449860	the timeline going to look like in the next 10 to 30 years of legislation that
449860	453960	we see, of technological advancements that we see? You know, these are some
453960	457900	ideas. These are some of the things that we'd love to see happen. And, and we
457900	462100	understand the concern about, about these, these types of technologies taking
462100	468860	place today. But the point is, is that, that it isn't going away. And, and so how
468860	471560	do we work together? How do we come together to figure out how to make these
471560	476640	things happen? Because we believe that with the collective genius of the
476640	480600	elections community and of the security community, we can make end-to-end voter
480600	488480	verification a reality. We can make full-scale citizen audits of these a
488480	494280	reality. And so this is what we envision when we see the timeline going forward.
494280	498640	And, and what gets us excited about it. You know, there's, with, with the different
499500	503320	organizations that we've worked with, blockchain has been one of the, one of the
503320	506620	ways that people have been able to, one of the technologies that people have
506620	510640	used. Is that the right way? Does it complicate things? Or does it make it
510640	519920	safer? AWS as, as the secure cloud service, is that the right way? These are
519920	522820	the kinds of conversations that we need to be having, not just the binary
522820	527680	conversation of it shouldn't or it should. The fact is that it is. And so we
527680	536600	have to have that conversation about what this looks like moving forward. And,
536600	541420	where we wanted to come to the voting village, which is really that we want
541420	547880	feedback. We know so many of you have thought through these things. And we want
547880	551780	to provide that place where you can offer your advice and your feedback on
551780	558500	how we can make these things the safest, the most secure, but ultimately the most
558500	562540	accessible. Because that's the, that's the whole point of this thing in the, in
562540	567480	the first place. And to get really sentimental about voting, I mean, it is
567480	573060	truly the bedrock of our representative democracy. If we still have significant
573060	579380	barriers to voting, that whole piece, the integrity of that, that institution in
579380	586800	itself is, is undermined. And so, so we want your feedback. And so if you, if you
586800	592360	have thoughts, questions about it, even, please email us at securethevote
592360	597860	at cyber-center.org. We also will have an RFI that's going to go live this month
597860	602380	for solutions to some of these key issues, like we talked through, that are
602380	608420	associated with, with mobile or online voting. So please email us to receive a
608420	612320	notification when that goes live. If you've got that next brilliant idea of
612320	615160	how you think you can tackle a piece of this.
615160	620060	Excellent. Well, a big thanks again to the Voting Village for having us. We
620060	625560	want to thank you and just reaffirm that this issue is not just a security
625560	628880	technology, security communities issue. This goes out to all the different
628880	631860	election officials, government organizations, nonprofits, and think
631860	635820	things out there that are all working on this. Whether you're against it or for
635820	640320	it, there's a component of this that will be driving into the future. And if it's
640320	643640	going to happen, the best thing we can do is make it as secure as possible. So
643640	644040	thank you.
648940	652300	Hi, this is Colorado Governor Jared Polis and I want to thank everyone
652300	656680	involved with this effort to secure the vote. Voting is the most sacred right
656680	661480	that we have in America. It's the right that protects all of our other rights,
661480	665580	which means that we need to do everything that we can to safeguard
666160	673060	voting. I'm proud that Colorado has been a national model for voting rights. With
673060	678420	our all mail ballot system that guarantees paper trail for every vote,
678420	681880	same day registration and so many other protections, we're not only
681880	685760	recognized as one of the most secure election states, but one of the top
685760	690140	states for voter participation and turnout as well. But we can't rest on
690140	694120	our laurels and our past success. We need to continue to meet the challenges
694120	699280	of today and tomorrow, which is why I'm proud. The one initiative led by the
699280	704080	National Cybersecurity Center started right here in Colorado to secure the
704080	708840	vote pilot program, where over 4,000 Coloradans use the blockchain secured
708840	713320	mobile voting application to cast their vote. That program from Denver has
713320	717120	since expanded to six other states, and now includes other technologies to
717120	721980	also secure our vote and empower voters. Free and fair elections are the
721980	725620	bedrock of democracy, and we need to work together to protect the integrity
725620	730260	of our elections together. Thank you for your work on this critical and
730260	734260	important initiative to make sure everyone has confidence that their vote
734260	735440	will be counted.
736840	740360	Good afternoon. My name is Jocelyn Beccaro. I'm the Director of Elections
740360	743620	for the City and County of Denver. And I want to thank the National
743620	748100	Cybersecurity Center for the invitation to be a part of this video. I am here
748100	751720	because COVID-19 has highlighted the need for more options for voters to
751720	756320	vote safely and securely, particularly voters with disabilities. Many states
756320	760420	already offer some form of electronic delivery and return for some voters,
760420	763780	but unfortunately, these voting technologies exist without robust
763780	768640	standards for safety and security. This crisis has shown why we can't wait.
768640	773420	We need all levels of government security, policy, and technology to join
773420	777120	with election officials to establish better standards and guidelines to
777120	782820	implement new technology solutions so all voters can vote safely and securely.
782820	784080	Thank you so much.
785060	789600	Hi, my name is Amelia Powers Gardner. I'm the Utah County Clerk Auditor, and
789600	793500	I'm here to bring you a challenge, one that I'm confident you can accomplish.
793800	798540	As you know, this week, we mark an important milestone. Astronauts safely
798540	802140	returned to Earth from the space station for the first time aboard a
802140	806320	private vessel. Add to that the mere fact that we have put men on the
806320	811500	moon, can 3D print internal organs, and there's even emerging technology
811500	816560	that can edit DNA. Technology has radically transformed the human
816560	820980	experience and solved a great number of our challenges, both large and
820980	826640	small. It's time to start finding voting solutions for the 21st century.
826640	831700	It's no longer acceptable to suppress votes of an entire demographic or
831700	837320	to accept low voter turnout because of weather, natural disasters, or a
837320	842680	pandemic. Mobile voting is the future of elections. Upcoming generations
842880	847040	demand it, and our current generations need to embrace it as a solution
847040	852780	to age-old problems with voting. Our current voting methods require extensive
852780	857780	logistics and cost a lot of money while still failing many voters, including
857780	862760	those with disabilities, those with lower socioeconomic status, and our men
862760	867200	and women serving us in the military. It's time to stop saying it can't be
867200	873380	done, and it is time to start finding a way to do mobile voting. The industry
873380	877900	needs to create standards that innovators can strive to accomplish and
877900	882600	that election administrators like myself can use to judge potential solutions
882600	889300	by. Join me in improving the way we do democracy in the 21st century. Thank you.