Identifying your election assets and detailing how your office works will allow your security partners to understand the risks to your election equipment, people, processes, and systems, so that together you can build a robust plan for emergencies
- Step 1: Dedicate 15-20 minutes to document the people and tools you rely on in the various operational areas of your office and backup resources you might need in an emergency. While you may not be able to address every area, we suggest starting today by addressing two. The Elections Group offers this way of sorting elections into operational areas:
- Leadership, Personnel & Poll Workers
- Central Facilities
- Cybersecurity, IT & Communication Networks
- Physical Security & Chain of Custody
- Voter Registration & Office Data Needs
- Voting Sites
- Voting Equipment, Systems & Resources
- Tabulation & Results Reporting
- Step 2: Draft a list for each operational area that gathers the information below.
- Operations can be impacted by many types of disruptions. What work must continue during an incident?
- List the assets – equipment, facilities, people, systems, and tools. What does it take to get the job done?
- Backup resources keep operations going during an incident. What do you already have? What can security partners provide? What do you wish you had?
- Step 3: Repeat this process for remaining operational needs.
- Step 4: Share these lists at your first meeting. Walk through them with your security partners, elaborating so that everyone gets the full picture of your concerns and needs.
Need more tips? Check out our It Starts with a Team: Building Your Election Security Working Group guide as well as the Emergency Readiness Guide from The Elections Group.
Want help facilitating your first meeting? Contact us at [email protected].
The Planning Desk is a running timeline of key election security tasks. You can find prior editions in the newsletter archive.