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Election Security Updates

Speaking to National Public Radio, Shelby Pierson, the nation’s intelligence community election threats executive said that threats to U.S. elections in 2020 could be broader and more diverse than before.

“This isn’t a Russia-only problem,” she told Noel King on Morning Edition. “We’re still also concerned about China, Iran, non-state actors, ‘hacktivists.’ And frankly … even Americans might be looking to undermine confidence in the elections.”

Pierson said that the intelligence community is expanding its technical capabilities and trying to develop more human sources to alert it to interference efforts.

Officials from the FBI and the Department of Justice announced last week that the FBI will notify state election officials about cyber breaches to elections systems in their states even if those breaches only affect one county. According to NBC News, typically the FBI notifies only the victim of a cyber intrusion, but if the FBI only notifies local officials, “it may leave the state officials with incomplete knowledge of the threats,” an FBI official told reporters on a background call.

Election News This Week

A new National Public Radio/PBS NewsHour/Marist Poll finds that 41 percent of Americans don’t believe the U.S. is prepared to keep the November election safe and secure. Two-thirds of Democrats think the country isn’t prepared, while 85% of Republicans said they think it is. “Like so many issues, Americans view election security from opposite poles of the partisan divide,” said Lee Miringoff, director of the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion, which conducted the poll. According to NPR, driven by Democrats and independents, 56% of those surveyed think the president has not done very much or has done nothing at all to make sure there will be no future election interference — although 75% of Republicans think he has done enough.

By a 2 to 1 vote, Iowa’s Registration Commission has dismissed a complaint filed by Linn County Auditor Joel Miller. In the complaint, Miller alleged the state voter registration system does not meet security standards mandated under HAVA. “We won’t rush to judgment on what to do next, but I think there is a good case to appeal because federal law is very clear that a hearing shall be heard and that didn’t happen,” Miller told the Des Moines Register. The four-person registration commission is tasked with preservation and maintenance oversight of Iowa’s voter registration records.

Chalk this up to the law of unintended consequences. Beaver County, Pennsylvania announced recently that it would no longer be covering the cost of return postage for absentee ballots. In the past, the county had covered those costs, about $20,000 in a presidential election year. However, a new Pennsylvania law which allows for no-excuse absentee voting means that more people than ever before could be voting by mail. “With the volume of requests we’re going to get with the state going to mail-in voting, it makes sense to eliminate the postage,” orene Mandity, director of the Beaver County Bureau of Elections told the Ellwood City Ledger. “There’s going to be a high turnout I think, three or four times more than a normal presidential election.”

The law of unintended consequences part 2. Voters in Falls County, Texas will be using brand new voting machines this year after a move to a new facility destroyed the county’s existing voting machines. It seems the 8-9 hours in the moving trucks melted the plastic rollers inside the ballot scanning machines. “I have no words. I have no words. What do you say to that? Really, what do you say to that?” Terri Westmoreland, a voter in Marlin aske KXXV. Weighing the cost of repairing aging voting equipment with refurbished parts vs. purchasing all new equipment, the county went with spending $250,000 on 36 new voting machines. “I didn’t want to be the “hanging chad” county of Texas,” Falls County Judge Jay Elliot told KXXV.

Choosing polling locations is never easy. The Smith County, Texas commissioners court was under fire this week for its decision to locate one of the county’s 35 vote centers at a juvenile attention center. Residents speaking out against the location compared the location to voter suppression and one even invoked the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. “’Our lives begin to end the day we become silent on things that matter,’ and I cannot be made silent on this matter,” voter DeAnn Fox. “I just feel very strongly about that.” Fox was joined by other residents like Mike Nichols who said he did not want to have to tell his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren that their polling location is at a jail. According to the Tyler Morning Telegraph, Commissioner JoAnn Hampton pushed back. “It is one of the nicest facilities that we have in Smith County. You do not have to go through security. You just walk in, you go to the right into the conference room,” Hampton said. “You don’t even know it’s a juvenile attention center, not a detention center. And we do that because we care about the students here in Smith County, and I do not appreciate you saying we are doing voter suppression because we are not.” The commissioners court voted unanimously to locate the vote center at the attention center.

Sticker News: The Rhode Island board of elections is hosting a statewide competition for members of the public to design “I Voted” stickers to be used during the 2020 election cycle. According to The Providence Journal, the submission period for designs will be open through March. “We want it to represent something uniquely Rhode Island,” Miguel Nunez, deputy director of elections said. At the end of the submission period, board members and the secretary of state will each choose a finalist, and during the beginning of April, the public will be able to vote on a winner. The winning design will be announced in early May, Nunez said.

Personnel News: Janet Moden is the new Madison Township, Michigan clerk. Ted Davis has resigned from the Jefferson County, Arkansas election commission. Acting Contra Costa County, California Clerk-Recorder Deborah Cooper has been tapped to permanently take over the job. Jose M. Adames has been appointed to the Luzerne County, Pennsylvania election board and will serve as its chairperson. Coty Thigpen has resigned as the Sand Springs, Georgia city clerk. Middlesex County, New Jersey Clerk Elaine Flynn will not seek re-election for a sixth term. She was first elected in 1995.

Legislative Updates

Federal Legislation: U.S. Sens, Bob Casey, D-Pa., ranking member of the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging, and Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., ranking member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Rules and Administration,  have introduced the Accessible Voting Act.

Alabama: Two pre-filed bills sponsored by Rep. Thomas Jackson, D-Thomasville, would allow early voting up to 14 days before an election, and would abolish the need to apply for absentee voting. House Bill 28 would allow voters to vote absentee without having to supply an excuse, and House Bill 30 would require each county to provide at least one voting center to be open for in-person voting for 14 days preceding an Election Day.

Arizona: Rep. Jay Lawrence, R-Scottsdale has introduced a bill (HB 2137) that would require police to be posted at every polling place in the state. According to the Capitol Media Services, Lawrence said this isn’t about mediating disputes between election officials and people who are told they’re not registered to vote. “We are talking about contentious, we’re talking about anger, we’re talking about someone who comes in and intends to disrupt the polling place because of the politics,” Lawrence said. “There are individuals in our society whose anger is so thorough, so extreme, that they will do anything they can.”

Rep. Bob Thorpe (R-Flagstaff) has introduced HB 2461 that would essentially prohibit college students from voting where they attend school instead of where their parents live. According to Capitol Media Services, the bill would spell out that anyone who is living in a dormitory “or other temporary college or university address” is presumed to be there only temporarily and is there “with intent to return to some other permanent address.”

The House Elections Committee voted unanimously to support a bill that will allow officials to resolve ballot issues digitally. The current process to correct a ballot requires a physical duplicate copy of a ballot be printed and filled out in full, even if there’s only one vote on the ballot in question. That takes election workers an average of 12 minutes. The proposed legislation would allow ballots to be duplicated digitally. That would allow election workers to identify and correct individual questions on ballots, a process that takes less than one minute to resolve.

Delaware: The Senate has approved House Bill 73 that would allow for no-excuse absentee voting. The measure, the first leg of a constitutional amendment, passed the House 38-3 in April but fell short of the necessary two-thirds threshold in the Senate just after midnight on July 1, 2019 before the chamber gaveled out for the year. The Senate was able to move the bill this year after several senators were persuaded to change their previous no votes. Gov. John Carney supports the measure, although as a constitutional amendment it must pass again in either 2021 or 2022.

Illinois: Gov. J.B. Pritzker has signed legislation into law that will allow eligible students to be excused from school for two hours in order to vote in elections. Students can be excused to vote on the day of election or on a day where early voting is offered. Under the legislation, schools may specify the hours in which students may be excused.

Kentucky: Senate Bill 2, which would require a voter to show a photo ID has passed a Senate committee with modification. It will no longer require that the photo identification presented at polling locations have an expiration date (most college IDs, one of the forms of identification accepted, do not have expiration dates); it will allow people who don’t have photo identification but have a credit card, debit card or social security card to sign an affidavit at the polls and cast a regular ballot; and it no longer requires voters to get a notarized affidavit stating why they don’t have an ID.

Maryland: The Maryland General Assembly is considering a bill that would require returning citizens to be notified of their voting rights status. The bill would mandate the state’s Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services to provide a voter registration form, voting requirements and other information before an inmate is released.

Massachusetts: This week, the Joint Committee on Election Laws will hold a public hearing on a proposal that would give cities and towns the option to lower the voting age to 16 in local elections. The bill wouldn’t lower the voting age statewide, but instead let cities and towns extend the franchise to 16 and 17-year-olds without having to seek permission from the Legislature.

Missouri: The House Elections and Election Officials Committee is considering House Bill 1600 which would give the secretary of state’s office the power to subpoena for investigations and makes changes to the state’s voter ID law which was recently gutted by the Missouri Supreme Court. Under the legislation, “voters without personal identification at a polling place to vote a provisional ballot which will be counted” as long as the voter returns with proper documentation for election officials.

New Jersey: Gov. Phil Murphy (D) has signed S589/A422 into law. The legislation establishes an online voter registration system in New Jersey and enables all eligible New Jersey voters to register to vote online with an ID issued by the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission or the last four digits of their social security number and a digital signature.

Murphy also signed a bill into law that will provide funds to local elections officials to cover the costs of vote-by-mail.

New York: The New York city council is considering a measure that would change the city charter to allow people with green cards and non-citizen work authorizations to vote in local New York City elections. According to The Daily News, if approved the voting rights could be granted to anywhere from 500,000 to one million people.

Ohio: A coalition led by the ACLU of Ohio filed initial paperwork and signatures for “The Secure and Fair Elections Amendment” with the Ohio attorney general this week. The proposed amendment would allow Ohioans to register and cast a ballot on the same day during the early-voting period, including on Election Day. It also would enact automatic voter registration. Eligible citizens would be registered to vote when applying for, renewing or updating an Ohio driver’s license, learner’s permit or state ID card at the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles unless they opt out.

Virginia: By a 31-9 vote, the Senate has approved Senate Bill 111 that will allow for no-excuse absentee voting in the commonwealth. Similar legislation has yet to make it out of committee in the House of Delegates.

The Senate also approved a bill—Senate Bill 601—that designates Election Day as a state holiday. The bill would eliminate Lee-Jackson Day which celebrates the birthdays of Confederate generals.

Washington: The House (HB 2647) and the Senate (SB 6412) are considering legislation designed to make elections more secure. The bills  would make knowingly destroying or failing to deliver a voted ballot a felony, appropriate $1.8M so the state can tap into $8.6M in federal matching funds to improve elections security and would remove electronic methods of ballot return for military and overseas voters. The legislation has the support of the secretary of state.

Also in Washington, House Bill 2529 would permit elections in odd-numbered years in limited circumstances, such as special elections, including school levies or recall of a public official. By 2026, all local elections would have to switch to even-numbered years, though special elections could continue in odd years. State ballot measures, which are seen most years, could only be run in even years starting Jan. 1, 2021.

West Virginia: The House Judiciary Committee is considering Senate 94, which was approved by the full Senate on Jan. 15. Under the bill West Virginians with physical disabilities would be able to vote using the same mobile voting app that the state has used for its military and overseas voters.

Wisconsin: The Senate has approved a bill that will legalize ballot selfies. The bill, which was approved on a voice vote, goes to the Assembly next. The Wisconsin County Clerk Association opposes the legislation.

Legal Updates

Florida: The Florida Supreme Court has sided with Gov. Ron DeSantis and Republican lawmakers who argued that felons must pay back all court-ordered fines, fees and restitution before registering to vote. “We conclude that the phrase, when read and understood in context, plainly refers to obligations and includes ‘all’ — not some — LFOs [legal financial obligations] imposed in conjunction with an adjudication of guilt,” justices wrote according to The Miami Herald.

New Jersey: A trial to determine whether 42 uncounted provisional ballots in a race for Morris Township committee began this week. In a situation that’s become known as Gluegate, Peter Mancuso was declared the winner by just 15 votes over Democrat Bud Ravitz after a recount of the November 2019 general election.  Democrats want to see if the 41 uncounted votes will reverse the outcome of the election. The ballots were not counted because the ballot envelopes were not properly sealed allegedly due to issues with glue on the ballot envelopes.

Pennsylvania: A federal judge has ordered a month-long delay in a case that seeks to bar the state’s use of the ExpressVote XL touchscreen voting machines violates a legal settlement that sets higher standards for election security in the commonwealth.

South Carolina: The South Carolina Elections Commission has settled a lawsuit filed by the Democratic Congressional Campaign, the South Carolina Democratic Party and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. Under the agreement, the state will no long require voters to provide their entire Social Security numbers when registering to vote. They will only have to provide the last four digits, which is the case in 47 other states and the District of Columbia.

Wisconsin: Attorneys for the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, or WILL, asked the state Supreme Court to overturn a state appeals court’s Jan. 14 decision to place the original Ozaukee County judge’s ruling to purged 209,000 from the voter rolls.  on hold. It also asked the high court to undo the stay of a contempt order against the state Elections Commission that an Ozaukee County judge issued after the commission failed to proceed with the voter purge.

Tech Thursday

Illinois: According to the secretary of state’s office, a programming error led to more than 500 possible noncitizens being registered to vote. Secretary of State Jesse White’s office discovered last month that between July 2, 2018, and Dec. 13, 2019, registration information of 574 people was “improperly forwarded” to local election authorities to be registered, even though those people had indicated while at secretary of state facilities that they were not citizens. According to the State Journal-Register, of those people, registered under an automatic voter registration system for people who apply for driver’s licenses or state identification cards, 16 ended up voting, including one who voted in three elections and another who voted in two, according to State Board of Elections spokesman Matt Dietrich. Combined, 19 ballots were cast statewide in the general election of 2018, the consolidated primary of spring 2019 and the consolidated election of spring 2019. The Illinois House executive committee will be holding a hearing next week on the problem.

North Dakota: Welcome the Roughrider State to the growing list of states that rely on e-poll books to check-in voters on Election Day. Although North Dakota has no voter registration, it does maintain a central voter file and the use of e-poll books in all 53 counties will help maintain that file. While Secretary of State Al Jaeger touts the new machines as an election security benefit, local county auditors told The Bismarck Tribune they see them as a time saver. The poll books are part of larger purchase that included 425 ballot scanners, 425 assistive devices for voters with physical difficulty in marking ballots and 53 central count machines for processing absentee and mail ballots. The new equipment will all be used for the first time June.

Utah: Utah County has finalized a deal for an election app that voters can use to choose a party affiliation, request a primary ballot and confirm that they returned a signed ballot. According to KJZZ, The thousands of people who mail back their ballots without signing them are contacted by elections officials. Only half responded in Utah County during the last election, so the other 1,000 votes could not be counted. “Oftentimes they’re difficult to contact,” said Josh Daniels, chief deputy clerk, “and they don’t return the affidavit in a timely fashion. With a convenient mobile option, they’ll be able to return those forms quicker, and we’ll be able to count those ballots, which will actually increase total voter turnout.”

Washington: This week, voters in the King Conservation District were able to begin casting their ballots via mobile app in the District’s election, which is open to about 1.2 million voters in Seattle and more than 30 other cities. Voting, which can be done via app or by mail closes on February 11. According to NPR, King County voters will be able to use their name and birthdate to log into a web portal and cast their votes. Once they’ve completed their ballots they must verify their submission and submit a signature via the touchscreen on their ballots. The King County elections office will print all submitted ballots and count those along with ballots received by mail. The county is working with Democracy Live on the technology. Security experts and Secretary of State Kim Wyman have expressed concerns over the program.

Opinions This Week

Arizona: Police at the polls

California: Election preparation | Presidential primary

Connecticut: Election security

Florida: Ex-felon voting rights, II

Iowa: Election security

Massachusetts: Automatic voter registration | Election security | Voting age

Michigan: Election preparations

Missouri: Election security

Montana: Voting rights

New Mexico: Secretary of state

New York: Polling places | Ballot images

North Carolina: Voter ID

Oklahoma: Online voter registration

Pennsylvania: Voting machines | Ballot counting

Rhode Island: Ranked choice voting

South Carolina: Kiowa County

Tennessee: Voting machines

Wisconsin: Automatic voter registration

Upcoming Events

IGO 2020 Mid-Winter Conference — The International Association of Government Officials will hold its 2020 Mid-Winter Conference in Isle of Palms, SC on January 24-30, 2020. This conference will offer approximately 30 hours of continuing education with 9 hours hosted by iGO’s new Certified Public Leader (CPL) Partner, Pepperdine University! Join iGO at Wild Dunes Resort this January to further your education on best practices, industry trends, and emerging technology, all while creating and strengthening professional relationships. iGO’s conferences provide the perfect combination of education and networking events to appeal to current members, prospective members, and non-members alike. Where: Isle of Palms, South Carolina. When: Jan. 24-30.

USC Election Cyber Security Initiative — Campaigns, policymakers, thought-leaders and concerned citizens alike need objective, factual tools and information to help them secure campaigns and elections. Join us for a day-long training session, designed to help protect campaigns and elections in this critical election year. Who should attend? Everyone who touches campaigns and elections, including elected officials, candidates, campaign staff, political parties and state and local election workers. Designed for general audiences rather than technical specialists, they will be led by cybersecurity experts from government, industry, research and academia. They are designed to provide information for campaigns and election officials on how to defend against digital hazards and cyberattacks and to keep people and systems safe and secure.  Each program will address three topics: Cyber safety and security; Disinformation and misinformation and Crisis communication. Where: Columbia, Maryland When: January 28

NASED Winter 2020 — Twice a year, the National Association of State Election Directors members gather to discuss the latest developments in election administration.  Members of the public are welcome to attend at the non-member registration rate. Check back here for more information about the Winter 2020 Conference. Where: Washington, DC. When: January 30-February 2.

NASS Winter 2020 — The National Association of Secretaries of State will hold their Winter 2020 conference at the Fairmont Hotel in Washington, D.C.’s West End. Check back here for more information about the Winter 2020 conference when it becomes available. Where: Washington, D.C. When: January 30-February 2.

Election Center Special Workshop: The following courses will be offered during this workshop: Course 1 (Intro to Election & Voter Reg Systems); Course 2 (Management and Leadership); and Renewal Course 32 (Redistricting/Gerrymandering). Where: Greenville, South Carolina When: February 12-16

Election Center Special Workshop: The following courses will be offered during this workshop: Course 3 (Planning and Budgeting); Course 4 (Information Technology & Security); and Renewal Course 21 (Public Trust and the Integrity of Elections). Where: Seattle When: April 29-May 3

NASED Summer 2020 Conference: — Twice a year, the National Association of State Election Directors members gather to discuss the latest developments in election administration.  Members of the public are welcome to attend at the non-member registration rate. Check back here for more information about the Summer 2020 Conference. Where: Reno, Nevada When: July 19-22.

NASS Summer 2020 Conference: The National Association of Secretaries of State will hold their Summer 2020 conference at the Silver Legacy Reno, Nevada. Check back here for more information about the Winter 2020 conference when it becomes available. Where: Reno, Nevada. When: July 19-22.

Job Postings This Week

electionlineWeekly publishes election administration job postings each week as a free service to our readers. To have your job listed in the newsletter, please send a copy of the job description, including a web link to mmoretti@electionline.org.  Job postings must be received by 5pm on Wednesday in order to appear in the Thursday newsletter. Listings will run for three weeks or till the deadline listed in the posting.

Assistant Director, Kentucky State Board of Elections— The Kentucky State Board of Elections is an independent agency of state government, established by the Legislature to administer the election laws of the Commonwealth. The SBE also provides training and resources to the County Clerks and County Boards of Election, and supervises registration and purgation of voters within the state. The position of Assistant Director is a highly skilled and valued member of the SBE staff who performs duties ranging from staff management, advising and training of local and state officials, budgeting and policy development. While not required, a license to practice law is preferred. Compliance with Kentucky Revised Statute 117.025 requires that this position be filled by a candidate that is a registered member of the Republican Party of Kentucky. Out of state candidates will be considered if they can show proof of registration with the Republican Party of their current state of residence. Application: For the complete job listing and to apply, click here.

Associates, Democracy Works— We’re staffing up quickly as we prepare for the 2020 elections, and we’re looking to add seven people to our organization at a Junior level. This application is for all seven of those roles. Here’s how it works: You’ll submit your resume and answer a few questions. We’ll send you a practical exercise to complete within one week. We’ll anonymously grade the practical exercises and select the highest scoring candidates for interviews. There will be two rounds of interviews during which we’ll learn about each candidate. During these interviews, candidates will have the opportunity to ask us questions about the roles and teams below. These interviews are evaluative, but they’re also meant to give you space to learn about which role might be the best fit for you. We will choose a set of finalists. We’ll ask finalists to rank their preferred roles as we begin checking references for each finalist. We’ll select seven of our finalists to hire into our open roles, taking candidate preferences into account. We’ll then make offers to our finalists. The open positions are: Government Associate; Voting Information Project Outreach Associate; Research Associate; Partner Outreach Associate; and Partner Support Associates (three positions open). Salary: $57,000 – $72,000 annually. Application: For the complete job listing and to apply, click here.

Assurance Engineer, Free & Fair — Free & Fair (F&F) seeks an experienced assurance engineer—a developer who is thrilled to work on high-assurance open source elections technologies that demonstrate what is possible with modern applied formal methods-based development processes, methodologies, tools, and techniques. Our focus on national critical infrastructure, transparent engineering, and formal assurance makes this opportunity unique. Application: For the complete job listing and to apply, click here.

Deputy Director of Elections, Douglas County, Colorado — Directs, administers, and coordinates the Core Services of the Elections Division of the Clerk and Recorder’s Office, including voter registration, conducting elections, voter education and outreach, and precincting and boundaries. Performs complex administrative and supervisory work in a variety of management functions including personnel management, statutory compliance, and execution of the integrated processes to conduct all primary, general, coordinated, and other special elections within the county. Responsible for strategic planning, policy/procedure development and implementation, and continuous improvement. Salary: $7,295.58 – $9,119.42 Monthly. Application: For the complete job listing and to apply, click here.

Elections Clerk I, Douglas County, Colorado— This position serves as office support for the Elections Division of the Clerk and Recorder’s Office. The Election Clerk provides customer service, assists with clerical functions, and performs data entry for voter registration. Other duties in support of the conduct of elections or mail ballot processing may be assigned. Must be detail oriented, well organized, productive, and able to adapt in a high change environment. This role requires both independent judgment and the ability to work well as a part of a team. Professional representation of the Clerk and Recorder’s Office to the public is required to include standards outlined in the Vision, Mission, and Core Values of the Office. Salary: $2,304.00 – $2,879.00 Monthly. Application: For the complete job listing and to apply, click here.

Elections Outreach Coordinator, Thurston County, Washington— The Thurston County Auditor’s Office is looking for a candidate to join our outstanding team as our Election Outreach Coordinator.  In this role, the successful candidate will coordinate activities related to candidates, voter and election outreach. This position also develops and produces election information and voter education materials and prepares and disseminates informational materials to encourage citizen participation in the election process. Salary: $3,952-$5257/month. Application: For the complete job listing and to apply, click here.

Elections Specialist, Douglas County, Colorado — This position is focused on routine customer service and general office/clerical support including data entry, communications, and processing mail. This is a support role capable of performing a variety of tasks, with problem solving abilities, managing multiple competing responsibilities and prioritizing to maintain a continuous flow of election office operations. This is a visible and crucial position requiring exceptional computer, customer service, and communication skills.  This position may require technical work in a lead role capable of performing a variety of complex tasks, with solving problem abilities, managing multiple competing tasks and prioritizing to maintain a continuous flow of operations and temporary support. This position may be classified as an Elections Specialist I or II dependent upon the skills of the candidate and the department’s business needs. Salary: $2,842.00 – $4,017.00 Monthly. Application: For the complete job listing and to apply, click here.

Elections Specialist, King County Elections — The Department of Elections – is searching for energetic and resourceful professionals who like to “get stuff done”. The Administrative Specialist II positions in the Voter Services Department combines an exciting, fast-paced environment with the opportunity to cultivate talents and apply a variety of skills. The ideal candidate will have a desire to help ensure the democratic process through public service. They will thrive in an innovative environment and will not hesitate to roll up both sleeves, work hard, have fun, and get the job done. Application: For the complete job listing and to apply, click here.

Elections Warehouse Worker, Douglas County, Colorado — This is a highly physical position with a heavy emphasis on warehouse work, requiring the ability to continually lift equipment weighing more than 50 pounds. This position will perform routine maintenance on voting equipment, identify non-routine repairs to election equipment and mark and track equipment for follow up maintenance. incumbent will coordinate equipment and maintain records documenting device history. Forklift certification is a plus. Salary: $2,445.00 – $3,056.00 Monthly. Application: For the complete job listing and to apply, click here.

Embedded Systems Engineer, Free & Fair— Free & Fair (F&F) seeks an experienced embedded systems engineer—a developer and engineer who is thrilled to work on a high-assurance open source elections technologies that demonstrate what is possible with modern development processes, methodologies, tools, and techniques. Our focus on national critical infrastructure, transparent engineering, and formal assurance makes this opportunity unique. One component of the BESSPIN Voting System is a custom-built, open source, open hardware platform for demonstrating secure hardware. It includes low- and mid-range FPGAs running softcore RISC-V CPUs, simple I/O devices, and an RTOS. This platform is called CASCADES (Configurable, Affordable System-on-Chip for Analysis and Demonstration of Election Security) and is a CrowdSupply project. A prototype for CASCADES is the Smart Ballot Box that we brought to DEF CON 2019. We call this role an embedded systems engineer, since much of the development that we do spans hardware, firmware, and software design and development. Moreover, we use a mixture of low-level and high-level languages, COTS and novel (FPGA-based) development platforms, and traditional and novel operating systems. We hope that potential applicants do not put themselves in an unnecessarily small box. Application: For the complete job listing and to apply, click here.

Executive Director, Chicago Board of Election Commissioners— The Executive Director serves as the chief administrator, providing leadership and implementing policies and programs to carry out the work of the Board. The Executive Director directs an annual operating budget of approximately $34M and leads a staff of 130 full-time employees broken into 7 Divisions comprised of: Registration; Information Technology; Human Resources; Finance; Community Services/Poll Workers; Pre-Election Voting & Logistics; and, Warehouse Operations. All full-time employees, including the Assistant Executive Director, are compensated through the City of Chicago and subject to the benefits offered to City employees, although they are employees of the Board and not the City. Although an employee of the Board, the Executive Director is compensated through Cook County and receives employee compensation and benefits in line with County policies. By statute, the Executive Director must take an oath of office before the Cook County Circuit Court. Application: For the complete job listing and to apply, click here.

Grants Specialist, U.S. Election Assistance Commission— The Grants Specialist will assist the Grants Director to manage and administer the grants program for the EAC pursuant to 5 USC §3109 (See 42 USC §15324(b)) and §204 (6)(c) of HAVA. The incumbent provides expert advice to EAC leadership regarding grants management; provides advice and guidance to States and U.S. territories regarding the use of funds provided by EAC to ensure State/U.S. territory compliance with HAVA, Appropriations Law and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) circulars; conducts pre- and post-audits to review how funds have been spent; and makes recommendations to the Executive Director for audit resolutions. Salary: $69,581 to $128,920 per year.  Deadline: June 17, 2020. Application: For the complete job listing and to apply, click here.

Project Manager, Hart InterCivic— Project Managers at Hart InterCivic are highly motivated “self-starters” who are enthusiastic about providing exceptional customer service. Working with other members of the Professional Services and Operations teams, the Project Manager directs activity, solves problems, and develops lasting and strong relationships with our customers. Hart InterCivic’s unique and industry known culture of innovation, transparency, and customer-centric focus creates an environment where team members will continually grow and be challenged to develop their careers. Application: For the complete job listing and to apply, click here.

Rigorous Systems/Software Engineer, Free & Fair — Free & Fair (F&F) seeks several experienced systems/software engineers—developers who are thrilled to work on high-assurance open source elections technologies that demonstrate what is possible with modern development processes, methodologies, tools, and techniques. Our focus on national critical infrastructure, transparent engineering, and formal assurance makes this opportunity unique. We call this role either/both system engineers or software engineers, since much of the development that we do spans hardware, firmware, and software design and development. Moreover, we use a mixture of low-level and high-level languages, COTS and novel (FPGA-based) development platforms, and traditional and novel operating systems. We hope that potential applicants do not put themselves in an unnecessarily small box. Application: For the complete job listing and to apply, click here.

Security and Support Technician, North Carolina State Board of Elections— Four position available.  The Voting Systems Team is a section of the State Board’s Election Administration Division and works directly with the IT Division of the agency. This professional team is tasked with coordinating, managing, and preparing the voting systems certified for use in North Carolina. This team manages the initial certification of voting systems including hardware, software, and firmware evaluation and testing, procurement, and installation for each of the 100 counties; the ongoing use and support of the voting systems including maintenance, programming of contest and election definitions, ballot coding, logic and accuracy testing procedures, and collaborative work with other IT sections for development and management of election night results reporting, post-election audits, and tools such as the test script generator; and coordination of any subsequent upgrades, modifications, or enhancements. Also works with other IT sections and agency divisions to establish or make modifications to precinct boundaries or district lines through mapping and redistricting software and analysis. This position is 100% travel and can potentially work from one of the following counties: Anson, Bladen, Columbus, Cumberland, Harnett, Hoke, Lee, Montgomery, Moore, Richmond, Robeson, Sampson, Scotland, Brunswick Carteret, Craven, Duplin, Greene, Jones, Lenoir, New Hanover, Onslow, Pamlico, Pender, Pitt, Wayne. This position is grant funded and is time-limited based on the availability of funds. Position currently funded UP TO 3 years. Salary: $46,203- $78,218. Deadline: February 4. Application: For the complete job listing and to apply, click here.

Software Developer, Democracy Works— We are currently looking for developers for all our projects, at a variety of levels. Experience with the technologies listed below is helpful, but not necessary; we hope you’ll bring excitement to learn what you haven’t seen yet. We support junior team members by explicitly setting aside time for learning, and providing training from a more experienced developer. In addition to full-time hires, we’re also looking for two senior, temporary hires for the Voter Engagement team to work with us until the end of 2020 as we prepare for the November general election. Candidates joining our Voter Engagement team will work on TurboVote and the Democracy Works API. You’ll join eight other software developers and an engineering manager to collaborate with the product and partnership teams in building software that helps voters and future voters. The technology that underpins this work is mostly microservices written in Clojure running in Docker containers on Kubernetes hosted on AWS. These services communicate over RabbitMQ and store their data in Datomic. The web front-ends are written in ClojureScript backed by React. Candidates joining the Election Administration team will be working on either the Voting Information Project (VIP), or Ballot Scout. For VIP, you’ll join two other software developers to collaborate with the product and data collection teams in building software that helps collect, validate, QA, and publish data about elections, which in turn service millions of queries in major election years. For Ballot Scout, you’ll join a team of two that enables seamless tracking of ballots through the United States Postal Service and allows both voters and election administration officials to monitor progress of the ballots to and from election offices. The technologies that underlay these systems are written in Clojure, Clojurescript, Javascript, Python, and Go, with an emphasis in moving active development towards Clojure and Clojurescript. Infrastructure is hosted on AWS, and developers are beginning the process of migrating to a Kubernetes based deployment. Salary: $90K to $130K. Application: For the complete job listing and to apply, click here.

Software Sales Specialist, VOTEC— VOTEC’s Sales Specialist is responsible for creating news sales with prospects and existing clients in targeted areas in the US. We are looking for an election professional comfortable using insight and consultative selling techniques to create interest that offers unique solutions on their operations, which link back to VOTEC’s solutions. Application: For the complete job listing and to apply, click here.

UI/UX Engineer, Free & Fair — Free & Fair (F&F) seeks an experienced UI/UX engineer—someone who practices user-centric design, finds usable security a fascinating area of R&D, someone who appreciates usable and accessible technologies, and a developer and engineer who is thrilled to work on high-assurance open source elections technologies that demonstrate what is possible with modern development processes, methodologies, tools, and techniques. Our focus on national critical infrastructure, transparent engineering, and formal assurance makes this opportunity unique. Application: For the complete job listing and to apply, click here.

VP of Engineering, Free & Fair— Free & Fair (F&F) seeks an experienced systems engineering development leader—an executive who can step in and build a dynamic, distributed engineering team, deliver solutions to the market, and execute challenging development activities focused on national critical infrastructure. The VP of Engineering at F&F will be responsible for executing on the Company’s overall technology vision and driving its development execution. This person will recruit world-class talent, manage and evolve development processes and methodologies, and foster an organizational structure to help our high-performing development team deliver applications to the market. This person will keep abreast of and influence research and technology trends, standards, and stakeholders. This person will have the ability to bridge technology with business acumen, will bring experience in developing state-of-the-art customer-facing applications, and will develop and sustain a culture of passion, hard work, and innovation. Application: For the complete job listing and to apply, click here.

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