State and local officials are at the vanguard defending U.S. elections from foreign tampering. Now they're getting some help from past and present national security officials who are teaching them to take a military mindset to identify threats.
In this Monday, Dec. 16, 2019, photo, Karen Brenson Bell, from North Carolina, listens during an exercise run by military and national security officials, for state and local election officials to simulate different scenarios for the 2020 elections, in Springfield, Va. These government officials are on the front lines of a different kind of high-stakes battlefield, one in which they are helping to defend American democracy by ensuring free and fair elections.
“Everyone in this room is part of a bigger effort, and it’s only together are we going to get through this,” the officer said. Now, these officials are on the front lines. The federal government will be on high alert, gathering intelligence and scanning systems for suspicious cyber activity as they look to defend the nation’s elections. Meanwhile, it will be the state and county officials who will be on the ground charged with identifying and dealing with any hostile acts.
Eric Rosenbach, co-director of the Belfer Center and a former U.S. Army intelligence officer who served as chief of staff to Defense Secretary Ash Carter in the Obama administration, told the group gathered for the training that it “shouldn’t be lost on you that this is a very military-like model.” Piecing together seemingly disparate actions happening in real-time across geographical locations will allow the nation to defend itself, said Robby Mook, Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager in 2016. Mook co-founded the Defending Digital Democracy project with Matt Rhoades, Republican nominee Mitt Romney’s 2012 campaign manager.
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