Critical Infrastructure Partners,
Attached is a new CISA product on improving security posture at polling stations, which may prove helpful for your situational awareness.
Today, CISA released a general guide on Physical Security of Voting Locations and Election Facilities . Intended for election officials, the guide encourages coordination with CISA regional personnel to make informed decisions about actionable steps they can take to improve their physical security posture.
Through the document, CISA encourages state and local election officials who operate election facilities to:
- Connect with their community by establishing strong relationships, which can increase vigilance and speed up response time if an incident occurs.
- Plan and set expectations on how the election infrastructure in their jurisdiction will handle a physical security event, should one occur.
- Train election workers and exercise plans where practicable.
- Report details on suspicious activities and encourage election officials, poll workers, and voters to report suspicious behavior. By providing your employees and volunteers with your physical security plan so they can exercise the plan in the case of an event.
Election administrators and poll workers should be prepared to handle possible challenges that may arise, as they may be the first line of response in addressing incidents that disrupt election operations and the public’s ability to cast votes in a safe and secure environment. This guide provides resources election officials can utilize to mitigate risk and enhance the security and resilience of election facilities.
To view the Physical Security of Voting Locations and Election Facilities guide, or learn more about CISA’s effort to enhance the integrity and resilience of the Nation’s election infrastructure and accuracy of the free and fair elections, please visit CISA.gov/protect2020.
If you have any questions, please contact the Election Infrastructure Sector-Specific Agency at EISSA@cisa.dhs.gov.