The Department of Homeland Security has designated elections systems as part of our nation’s critical infrastructure.

relevant Federal departments and agencies, with critical infrastructure owners and ... Facilities and Monuments and Icons. ... Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools. ... EFS has human, physical, and cyber assets. However, the EFS assets of ... - Will this designation allow state government entities that are not election offices to alter operations

September 18, 2019 - Subsequently, in January 2017 the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) designated the election infrastructure used in federal elections as a component of U.S. critical infrastructure.

In January 2017, the Department of Homeland Security officially designated election infrastructure as a subset of the government facilities sector, making clear that election infrastructure qualifies as critical infrastructure.

Voting machines, registration databases, polling locations, and voting storage facilities are designated by the Department of Homeland Security as “critical infrastructure.” · In light of significant concerns, component sourcing for elections ...

May 12, 2026 - Elections today function as critical infrastructure: highly visible, time-sensitive operations that combine physical security, public participation, information integrity, and institutional trust.

February 19, 2026 - Learn more about how the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency helps protect the nation’s elections.

July 1, 2023 - Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson says he's designating U.S. election systems as critical infrastructure, a move that will provide more federal help for states to keep election systems safe from tampering.

February 24, 2026 - When the U.S. Department of Homeland Security first declared in January 2017 that election systems were “critical infrastructure,” alarmed state election officials pushed back quickly and loudly, fearing the move could lead to a federal ...

But concerns over the hacking of Democratic Party servers, allegedly by the Russians, during the recent presidential election prompted Johnson to designate the electoral system as critical infrastructure (see Deep Dive: US Intelligence Report ...

While remaining a state and local responsibility, on January 6, 2017, elections were designated as critical infrastructure by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

The committee is meeting today to examine the work that the Department of Homeland Security is doing to assist State and local officials to secure election infrastructure, including voting machines, vote tallying systems, and voter databases.

2 weeks ago - For nearly a decade — after a decision in 2017 by the outgoing Obama administration to designate elections a subsection of the nation’s critical infrastructure — CISA forged relationships with election officials through 10 regional offices, which were eventually staffed with election advisers who could help direct resources to voting officials. Those resources included table-top exercises, stress-testing election systems’ cyber defenses and intelligence advisories laying out potential threats. Physical security of elections became a focus after the 2020 election made harassment and threats to election officials a more prominent issue. At the request of local offices, CISA officials would conduct assessments of the physical security around polling locations or other election sites. But CISA’s presence shrunk drastically after Trump returned to the White House — more fixated than ever that a deep state was rigging elections against him — and his administration made dramatic cuts to the a

The Department of Homeland Security designated election infrastructure as critical infrastructure in 2017 following Russian cyberattacks, a designation that provides states and localities with access to many of the cybersecurity protections that DHS offers other private and public entities, such as ongoing threat monitoring, risk and vulnerability assessments, and security best practices.

January 6, 2017 - On January 6, 2017, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Jeh Johnson designated U.S. election · systems as part of the nation’s critical infrastructure, a decision that was later affirmed by current DHS

U.S. elections systems, defined as voter registration systems and voting systems, as critical infrastructure and argues that this is constitutional.

May 11, 2017 - It established the current critical infrastructure sectors and identified each sector’s Sector Specific Agency (SSA), which is the agency charged with structuring and managing the sector. As part of its mandate to serve the election community, the Election Assistance Commission has studied the implications of this designation since its inception.

In January 2017, DHS designated election systems as critical infrastructure.

October 23, 2019 - Congress should provide a steady stream of funding for the periodic replacement of outdated voting systems, upgrading of database and other election infrastructure, and the purchasing of ongoing technical and security support for all these systems. But federal funding alone is not enough—state and local governments should make election security a budget priority and develop long-term plans to fund regular equipment upgrades, training, and cybersecurity staff to assist local officials. The Brennan Center has estimated the nationwide five-year cost for several critical election security items to be approximately $2.2 billion.