This week, more than 50 representatives from a cross-section of government — local, state, federal, and law enforcement — gathered in a Salem conference room to join a national tabletop exercise on election security.
Tabletop the Vote is an annual exercise sponsored by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) in collaboration with the National Association of Secretaries of State and the National Association of State Election Directors. It provides an opportunity for federal partners, state and local election officials, and vendors to identify and share best practices and areas for improvement related to election security.
Oregon representatives joined election administrators from dozens of states across the nation to participate in the exercise. Among those in attendance were representatives from the Oregon Secretary of State’s Office and Elections Division; the Oregon Department of Emergency Management; multiple county clerks and elections staff; Oregon State Police and FBI agents from the Portland field office; and CISA officials.
2024 marked the 7th annual Tabletop the Vote exercise. Oregon’s participation has quadrupled since Tabletop the Vote’s inaugural year to include this year’s exercise involving state, local, and federal partners, demonstrating election security is truly a whole-of-government mission.
“I want to thank our elections officials, both in Oregon and across the nation, for their collaboration and partnership,” said Secretary of State LaVonne Griffin-Valade. “I also want to thank CISA for sponsoring this exercise, which clearly demonstrated our readiness to administer a secure and accurate election — as we’ve done through vote-by-mail in Oregon for over 20 years — and reaffirms our shared commitment to protecting democracy.”
The exercise provided an opportunity for election officials and their partners to enhance awareness of and resilience to potential threats — including cybersecurity, physical, and operational security threats to election infrastructure. Participants were able to examine how they would share information, respond to any incidents, and discuss the available resources to protect election security.
“This was an important opportunity to work alongside our Oregon election partners to enhance the readiness and resilience of our security preparedness as we know American elections remain an attractive target to our foreign adversaries and cybercriminals,” said Lori Augino, Election Security Advisor for CISA, Region 10. “CISA remains committed to providing any help we can to county and state election offices to ensure the security and resilience of election infrastructure in 2024.”
For more information on how Oregon officials are working to ensure the integrity of elections, visit OregonVotes.gov or Election Security | Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency CISA
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