CISA Director Jen Easterly Remarks at the Election Center 39th Annual National Conference in Detroit
As prepared for delivery, September 9, 2024
Good morning. Thank you to the Election Center and to Tammy Patrick for your leadership and service in this critical space. And thank you all for having me here today. My team was especially excited that this year’s conference is taking place in Detroit. I have some Michiganders on my team that have made Jet’s the official CISA pizza of choice in our office. It works particularly well for me as Jet is my son’s name. But children and deep-dish pizza aside, I was personally thrilled to be asked to participate in this conference at this critical time.
As Tammy mentioned, I am the Director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, or CISA, which is the newest agency in the Federal government. Established in 2018 to serve as America’s cyber defense agency and as national coordinator for critical infrastructure security and resilience, we are charged to protect and defend the cyber and physical infrastructure that Americans rely on every hour of every day, including the infrastructure that Americans use to cast their votes and ensure that those votes are counted as cast.
Nearly eight years ago, election infrastructure was designated as critical infrastructure, and CISA designated as the federal government lead for election infrastructure security. Since that time, CISA and our partners across the federal government have made significant progress increasing the security and resilience of our Nation’s elections, working to support state and local election officials who serve on the frontlines of our democracy—administering, managing, and securing our elections. And today, because of the incredible work across the election stakeholder community, election infrastructure has never been more secure. So, I first just want to express my sincere thanks to all of you.
We owe you our thanks, our respect, and our admiration for your tireless public service to protect and preserve our democracy.
To put the importance of your work into context, I want to speak for a moment about another group of public servants whose sacrifice we will also honor in a couple days.
Let’s go back a few decades to the November 2002 midterm elections. It was a routine federal election by any measure—in fact most of us in this room are probably struggling to remember any details about it other than it happened. Republicans picked up seats in the House and Senate; Democrats picked up seats in state gubernatorial elections. But that’s about it. The 2002 midterm was just another securely run election for the history books. But the fact that the 2002 midterm election was, what we all in the room are hoping for, “just another federal election”, is a testament to election officials around the country.
Just a year prior our country was rocked by the terror attacks of 9/11. And in two days, Americans across the country will honor those 2,977 lives tragically lost on 9/11 twenty-three years ago. I distinctly remember how in the weeks and months after the terrorist attacks, Americans were encouraged to go back to work; to remain vigilant, but to still find the strength to carry on with business as usual. Reverting to mundane daily activities was a sign that while our country was hurt, it was by no means broken. And looking back, the routine, rather uneventful 2002 midterm election held just a little over 1-year after the attacks—at a time of great uncertainty and concern—was the final and surest sign for the entire world that America’s democracy can and would endure.
Some of you in this room may have been on the frontlines of our democratic process during the 2002 midterms. Election Center was definitely there supporting election officials around the country. Many of you, like me, may have joined this mission in the years since. I am so inspired by everyone here in this room today because just like those public servants whose service we honor more than twenty years later, you all understand and live the challenges of serving in this space day in and day out, year after year.
You all know we are facing the most complex threat environment yet for an election cycle. You all know how much hard work goes into ensuring the security and integrity of our democratic process. And knowing ALL of that, you CHOSE to be part of this sacred mission. You CHOSE to be part of this distinguished community entrusted to protect the most critically important part of our democracy, our elections process. And while this is a tall order, this community has, without fail, delivered safe and secure elections for the American people since the start of this republic. You have faced all sorts of Election Day and voting period crises from natural disasters to global pandemics. But as weeks like this one remind us, our nation has also held elections in the face of more nebulous or existential threats to our democracy. Time and again we have prevailed, regardless of context and circumstance. The result of your good work and the work done by the election officials who came before you is that this country’s secure and resilient elections have become the truest indicator that our democracy is strong and thriving.
Since taking the reins at CISA more than 3 years ago, I have come to appreciate how none of this good work can be taken for granted. I am acutely aware that all of you are conducting your work in a country that is vastly different than it was two decades ago, and you are staring down threats and challenges that far exceed anything that election officials and administrators had to face in decades past. From intensifying natural disasters to ongoing threats of ransomware, to hack and leaks and denial of service attacks from cyber criminals and foreign adversaries to physical threats to election officials of both parties and their families—you all must operate in an environment that has never been more complex.
On top of all of that, as we know from recent warnings from the Intelligence Community, our adversaries—Russia, Iran, and China—remain a persistent threat and will likely attempt to influence our upcoming elections to undermine democratic institutions and foment partisan discord. Just last month, we issued a statement with the FBI and ODNI confirming reports that Iranian actors have been targeting U.S. presidential campaigns using cyber operations. And just last week, the Justice Department announced the ongoing seizure of 32 internet domains used in Russian government-directed foreign malign influence campaigns. These domains were used to covertly spread Russian government propaganda, to include influencing voters in the U.S. and foreign elections. These are just the latest attempts by our adversaries to influence our elections, and it certainly won’t be the last. As last week’s activity demonstrates, the Federal government is committed to not only identifying the malicious actions of nation states like Russia, but also looks to disrupt and deter those operations.
We should all anticipate that these types of threats will continue in the coming weeks, and as such, we must all be incredibly vigilant, but also know that in doing so we will prevail.
You should also know that you are not expected to take on these burdens alone. You are NOT alone in this fight. Defending our democratic process is a top priority at every level of government from the federal to the state to the local. In fact, we are joined here today by many federal colleagues that we at CISA work with day in and day out to support YOU in our unwavering commitment to defend this nation.
At CISA, we recognize that we need to take your lead with regard to how, where, and when we provide assistance to support state and local efforts. As anyone who works in elections learns early on—if you’ve seen one state’s election, you’ve seen one state’s election. So, over the years, we have worked with you to better understand your communities’ unique concerns and needs and have calibrated our work accordingly.
As an example of this partnership, since the beginning of 2023, CISA has worked with you all and other election infrastructure partners to conduct more than 1,000 physical security assessments, over 700 cyber assessments, to provide weekly vulnerability scanning reports to nearly 1,000 election jurisdictions, and to hold more than 400 trainings reaching tens of thousands of election stakeholders. And just a few weeks ago, we hosted our seventh annual Tabletop the Vote national election exercise with some 1,250 participants representing federal agencies, private sector partners, and election officials from several dozen states and territories.
Just as we are working to help election stakeholders understand the threat environment, we are also working to help put these threats in context for the public. That’s why we are working with our colleagues at the FBI to do a four-part public service announcement series focused on educating the American people about some of the most common cyber incidents they may see this election cycle, but most importantly why, if the proper layers of physical, cyber, and procedural controls are put in place, those incidents should not impact the vote casting or counting process.
In that context, I am excited to announce that today we are releasing two products: physical and cybersecurity checklists for election infrastructure stakeholders. These products will help all of you identify areas to potentially enhance your security and operational resilience at election infrastructure facilities. They also walk you through how to implement low- or no-cost options in the short term. The CISA team here will provide more details on these products in their presentations later today and tomorrow.
If you haven’t done so already, I encourage you to take a look at the resources on our Protect2024 website and see what else might be most useful for you and your respective communities as you prepare for November. Make sure to also connect with your region’s election security advisor. These are elections experts who individually bring decades of experience from this community. I have with me today our Region 2 ESA, Lauren Zyriek, our Region 4 ESA, David Stafford, our Region 5 ESA, Spencer Wood, and our Region 10 ESA, Lori Augino. Out in the field our ESAs are your go-to people, but make no mistake, you have the entire agency at your disposal.
None of us can predict with certainty what specific challenges November will bring, but what I know to be true is that the extensive contingency planning and preparation you all have done—planning and preparation underpinned by grit and grace, by courage and character, by resilience and resolve—will all ensure you are ready for whatever lies ahead.
When I was 11 years old, my dad took me with him to the inauguration of President Reagan’s. In his address, Reagan noted that “in the eyes of many in the world, this every four-year ceremony we accept as normal is nothing less than a miracle.” It was a miracle then, it was a miracle in 2002, and thanks to this community’s tireless work, this is a miracle I feel confident will no doubt continue this year and beyond.
I thank you all again for all you do to protect and preserve our most sacred of democratic processes. I wish you all the very best for the coming months, and we at CISA look forward to working alongside you and cheering you on every step of the way.