Senator Collins Joins Bipartisan Group in Urging Election Systems Vendor to Commit to Independent Equipment Testing

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Susan Collins (R-ME), a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, joined a bipartisan group of Senators in urging Election Systems & Software (ES&S) to support testing of their equipment.  The letter was also signed by Senators Kamala Harris (D-CA), Mark Warner (D-VA), and James Lankford (R-OK).

This letter comes in response to participants in the cybersecurity conference DEF CON probing ES&S voting systems to find that they had security vulnerabilities. ES&S is one of the three largest election systems vendors in the country.  

In the letter, the Senators highlighted that ES&S should not dismiss the security vulnerabilities found by DEF CON participants.

“As members of the United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, we agree with the conclusion of the Intelligence Community: America’s elections are the target of unprecedented attacks by foreign adversaries,” the Senators wrote.  “Free, fair, and trusted elections are the bedrock of our democracy, and safeguarding our elections is an urgent national security priority. We are concerned that ES&S and other election system providers may not be prepared for the growing threats to our elections.”

“The reality of these unprecedented security risks was on full display at the DEF CON cybersecurity conference, where researchers at the ‘Voting Village’ successfully probed a variety of electronic equipment used to administer elections,” the Senate continued.  “We are disheartened that ES&S chose to dismiss these demonstrations as unrealistic and that your company is not supportive of independent testing.  We believe that independent testing is one of the most effective ways to understand and address potential cybersecurity risks.”

Full text of the letter is available HERE.