By Robert Lemos (e-Week)
Six weeks after the U.S. Department of Homeland Security underscored the importance of election computers and physical systems by designating them “critical infrastructure,” a group representing the nation’s secretaries of state voted to oppose the federal appellation.
In its winter meeting, the National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS) adopted a resolution opposing the “critical infrastructure” designation by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The rebuke of the federal agency was partly due to concerns of overreaching by the federal government and because the agency had refused to provide adequate information on the impact that the designation would have on the states, according to Kay Stimson, spokeswoman for the National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS).
“We have members that feel that it is federal encroachment on state authority over elections,” she told eWEEK. “But we also have members that are deeply troubled by the fact that no written parameters were provided by the DHS, despite repeated requests since last August when we heard they were considering this designation.”