$ 250 million for electoral security is only a fraction of the needs – Axios

Driving the news: McConnell added his name last week to a $ 250-million bipartisan amendment to a pending appropriations bill, a sharp change from his previous cyber-security bill.

The minimum cost of securing the American electoral system $ 2.153 billion over five years, according to a Brennan Center estimate from NYU Law School. Lawrence Norden, director of Brennan's electoral reform program, told Axios that the cost will likely be similar every five years.

In numbers: According to Brennan's estimates, it will cost:

• $ 734 million for the purchase of voting machines using paper ballots for the latest states, including Pennsylvania, that have not yet toppled. The paper leaves an unassailable record of the voter 's intention.
• $ 486 million for secure voter registration systems.
• US $ 833 million for cybersecurity in local and regional elections, including US $ 55 million in county level cyber security staffing, assuming 1 employee for every 10 counties, and US $ 9.6 million for website security .
• $ 100 million for post-election audits.

This is not just a voting machine problem: The public debate on the security of elections is often wrongly reduced to trading machines without paper ballots against machines with them.

• "People find it easy to get around paper ballots," Norden said. "But there are many other ways to attack elections that have nothing to do with voting machines – if you look at the successful attacks in the world, they are targeting the basics of voting. voter data and reporting systems. "

Many of these costs repeat: "The equipment has aged.The voting machines need to be replaced every 10 years," said Norden.

• Personnel costs, web security and other expenses are recurring throughout the year.
• "People think that on polling day, they will just vote," said Earl Matthews, head of strategy at security firm Verodin and retired Major General of the Air Force. "But this process actually started several months earlier."

The federal government must not bear the total cost of cybersecurity. In fact, most states would prefer a certain degree of autonomy in the conduct of elections.

• But states can not fight nations realistically without a little more help.
• "The federal government has the responsibility to share," said Christopher Deluzio, director of policy at the cyber-center of the University of Pittsburgh, who has often written about the cost of securing elections.

Politics: A GOP aide told Axios that with $ 250 million, the total amount of money allocated to states for electoral security since 2018 exceeded $ 600 million.

• A previous amount of $ 380 million, already taken into account in Brennan's estimate, was not entirely new. It was money earmarked for grants to electoral systems under a law passed after the chad debacle in Florida in 2000.
• The House sent more detailed plans to McConnell's Senate. The People's Bill, the first bill passed by the House during this session, provided for nearly $ 1.6 billion for election security, including $ 1.5 billion for equipment and $ 55 million for dollars for "Bug Bounty" programs.

The bottom line: $ 250 million represents a down payment on security, not the full bill.