Counties urged to make election safety, security and readiness shared work

County officials heard a consistent message Saturday at an educational summit on election administration ahead of the 2026 midterms: safety, security and disaster readiness can no longer be siloed in separate departments.

Whitney May, chief program officer at the Center for Tech and Civic Life, framed three national trends. On safety, she cited a Brennan Center survey finding that roughly one in three local election officials have faced threats or harassment, and that the 2024 general election drew more than 200 bomb threats. 

On security, she warned that foreign adversaries are again expected to probe election systems, with stolen usernames and passwords the leading entry point and artificial intelligence accelerating attacks. 

On readiness, she noted the United States has averaged 23 $1 billion weather disasters a year over the past five years — more than double the historical norm — increasingly striking during election season.

“Disaster planning and election planning can no longer be treated as separate conversations,” May said, pointing officials to nonpartisan resources including the Committee for Safe and Secure Elections, the Election Security Exchange and a new CORE Playbook for election continuity launching in August 2026.

Brevard County, Fla., Supervisor of Elections Tim Bobanic described building cybersecurity from the ground up. After communication gaps with county IT, his office pulled its network infrastructure out in 2018 and became one of the first to hire full-time certified cybersecurity staff; it now keeps two on hand. Florida, he noted, was the first state to enroll all 67 county elections offices in the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center with monitoring sensors, turning isolated incidents into shared intelligence. 

Human error, he said, remains the biggest risk, countered with multifactor authentication and phishing simulations.

Corinne Duncan, elections director in Buncombe County, N.C., recounted running the 2024 presidential election through Hurricane Helene, a 500-year flood that made Buncombe the hardest-hit county. Landslides blocked roads, communications failed and her team had to replace 21 polling places while a third of early-voting workers were unavailable. 

Her office became a supply hub and, informally, a place of comfort. Duncan urged colleagues to prepare through tabletop exercises, build psychological resilience, meet basic needs first and lean on partners outside the disaster zone — in her case the State Board of Elections under then-Executive Director Karen Brinson Bell and state emergency management, which delivered generators, water and mobile facilities. She also advised keeping messages simple and going low-tech, relying on radio, word of mouth and paper. Despite the devastation, she said, turnout in the region held strong.

Jackson County, Ore. Clerk Chris Walker opened the session with her own cautionary tale: a suspicious device left near her elections building the day after 2020 certification, initially written off as graffiti, which sharpened her focus on staff safety and partnerships with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and local law enforcement. Russell County, Ala. Sheriff Heath Taylor offered a law enforcement perspective on helping voters feel secure at the polls.

The bottom line, speakers agreed: no county must face these challenges alone.