With the November election fast approaching, La Plata County election officials earlier this month participated in a statewide training exercise to prepare for the worst-case scenarios surrounding election security.
“It was the worst of the worst,” said La Plata County Clerk Tiffany Parker. “It was just really impressive to see how we responded.”
Colorado is considered to have one of the most secure election systems in the country. Kirstjen Nielsen, secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, said as much on Sept. 6.
“We’d love to continue to use you as an example of what other states can adopt,” Nielsen said, according to a blog headed by the Colorado Secretary of State Office’s spokeswoman Lynn Bartels.
The event was designed to replicate the possible chaotic and disastrous scenarios that can present themselves before or during an election, Parker said.
About 180 Colorado election officials from nearly every county in the state attended the training exercise in Denver. La Plata County sent Parker, as well as election administrator Erin Hutchins and operations manager for the county’s Information Technology Department, James Torres.
Hackers, bunk emails, safety concerns at polling centers and equipment outages were just some of the practice exercises.
“It was probably the most worthwhile conference I’ve ever attended,” Torres said. “It gave me much faith in the way these folks handle elections. I came away, as a voter, feeling way more secure.”
Election security has become a polarized national issue in light of the U.S. intelligence community finding that Russia meddled in the 2016 election in an attempt to benefit the election of Donald Trump.
Colorado was one of 21 states targeted by Russian hackers. Security experts have since said the state has done everything to stave off a possible attack this November.
“Colorado is certainly hitting all the high points that we’ve been arguing others should,” Joseph Lorenzo Hall, chief technologist at the Center for Democracy and Technology and an expert on voting systems told the Washington Post in May. “It’s hard to compare states apples-to-apples because they’re so different, but Colorado has really been a leader.”
Here in La Plata County, Parker, first elected in 2010, said she wants to drive home to residents voting is safe and secure.
“My goal is to do more outreach and education on this for our citizens to make them feel more comfortable, and have the facts of what we’re doing,” she said.
For instance, Colorado’s voting is not connected to the internet or any network, a little known fact, but an important defense against hacking.
Hutchins said representatives with La Plata County were well-prepared for the training exercise, especially because of the good relationship between the county’s election and IT departments.
“It was cool to see we were already doing a lot of the right things,” she said.
Parker said La Plata County hasn’t faced all of the scenarios presented in the exercise, but the county has had to respond to emergency situations, such as flooding at a service center and power outages.
Because each scenario was thrown at election officials at a rapid-fire pace, Torres said they had to know what they were doing. La Plata County passed with flying colors, he said.
“We’re in a pretty good place, and there’s nothing major we need to overhaul,” he said. “It was an eye-opener, but an eye-opener in a positive way.”
Parker said this month’s training was just a starting point on honing in on security practices. She hopes to engage in more exercises, especially that focus on counties of La Plata County’s size, to prepare for the future.
jromeo@durangoherald.com
