A process map and risk assessment for mail-based voting

The sudden shift to mail-based voting because of the COVID-19 pandemic precipitated national concerns about the security of this process. This research addresses mail-based voting impacts to elections security. Specifically, we develop a process model for mail-based voting and identify and map cyber, physical, and insider threats to the process. We then apply a utility-based methodology for assessing threat to evaluate the process model scenarios and nodes. We illustrate the model using Maryland's mail-based voting process as a case study and identify nodes or activities of concern due to higher relative risk. The goal of this research is to better understand how the dramatic shift and scaling of mail-based voting during the 2020 General Election can impact threat. Results will provide election officials insight on how voting system vulnerabilities develop and when and where to employ mitigating security measures. © 2021 IISE Annual Conference and Expo 2021. All rights reserved.

Poll worker security: Assessment and design of usability and performance

Election infrastructure includes socio-technical systems that are designated as United States critical infrastructure within the Government Facilities sector. Following the 2016 United States' General Election and during the 2020 Presidential Election cycle, election security and the integrity of election processes became a prevalent, national conversation. From the 2019 U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee report indicating that election systems in all 50 states had been targeted by foreign adversaries to the more recent broadened use of, and concern about, mail-based voting during the COVID-19 pandemic, election integrity is increasingly important. Furthermore, poll workers play a crucial role in elections and election equipment, as they are one of the first lines of defense in systems security. This paper contributes to improving the security of election infrastructure through intentional, targeted, cyber, physical, and insider threat training for poll workers. Specifically, this paper details the engineering design, including pedagogical approach, and deployment of online, election-specific, threat training modules. Results of a System Usability Scale assessment from 44 poll workers indicate the content and online platform are easy to interact with and use. Further, the developed modules were piloted and then deployed in a mid-Atlantic state;participating counties include over 1,900 poll workers who serve nearly 750,000 voters. © 2021 IISE Annual Conference and Expo 2021. All rights reserved.