Arizona Secretary of State Proposes Alternative to Defunded National Election Security Program

After the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) cut funding to its election security programs, Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes (D) is taking matters into his own hands and forming an alternative program to fill CISA’s void for state and local election offices.

According to a memo obtained by Democracy Docket, Fontes’ office wants to form a new organization called VOTE-ISAC, “an independent organization committed to safeguarding elections and restoring international confidence in the integrity of our democratic processes.” The idea for the program is to fill the void left by CISA’s crucial Elections Infrastructure Information Sharing and Analysis Center (EI-ISAC). 

A spokesperson for Fontes’ office told Democracy Docket that he started work on this plan well before CISA cut its EI-ISAC program and has already been in touch with different states and stakeholders to get on board with the proposal. 

The memo mentions that EI-ISAC’s dissolution has left county election offices across the country with a $45 million gap in cybersecurity resources. Without EI-ISAC’s resources, thousands of state and local election offices are now without 24/7 threat monitoring systems and federal intelligence sharing on ongoing foreign election and disinformation threats. 

“Federal support for real-time election cybersecurity once provided through agencies like CISA and the FBI has been abruptly dismantled,” the memo reads. “This action has eliminated vital threat intelligence, halted defenses against Advanced Persistent Threat Actors, and sidelined hundreds of cybersecurity experts. Given the scale of modern cybercrime which, if it were a nation, would have the world’s third-largest GDP, the stakes for protecting election infrastructure are too high to ignore.”

Right now, VOTE-ISAC is just in the proposal phase. The plan is for VOTE-ISAC to run as a non-profit organization and the memo outlines a nine-month phased implementation, which includes getting public officials, philanthropic partners and private industry leaders on board to help secure funding.