U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson announced the move Friday with 30 minutes’ notice to the National Association of Secretaries of State and U.S. Election Assistance Commission, an independent bipartisan federal agency that develops voluntary voting guidelines and certifies voting systems.
Officials at both agencies are criticizing the department for what they said was a failure to work with state officials to fully answer their questions about the designation before making the change.
“We’re having trouble understanding exactly what they’re going to do, that we’re not already doing,” Connecticut Secretary of State Denise W. Merrill, who heads the national secretaries association, told The Associated Press. “States were already doing much of this (security work) themselves using very different products.”
Discussions between Homeland Security Department officials and the states about whether to designate elections systems as critical infrastructure began in August after hackers targeted the voter registration systems of ultimately more than 20 states in the months prior to the election.
But after many states expressed worries about the potential for increased federal regulation or oversight, Secretary Johnson said he wouldn’t make a decision until after the election.
The designation puts responsibilities on the Department of Homeland Security, requiring it to conduct security checks and provide information about emerging and imminent threats. The designation does not, however, require entities identified as critical infrastructure to participate.
Much of the nation’s critical infrastructure is in the private sector. Other sectors identified as critical infrastructure include energy, financial services, health care, transportation, food and agriculture and communications.
