The Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly passed a consent agenda item at the Tuesday night meeting that would conduct a pre-election security risk and vulnerability assessment and develop a security design for any election used to administer Borough elections. Resolution 2021-032 was presented to the assembly by Assemblymen Bill Elam and Jesse Bjorkman.
In introducing the resolution, Bjorkman said, “What this resolution would do would be to put in a policy that would administer a security assessment and vulnerability study of our election system to make sure that any election system that we have, whether it is with new equipment or the equipment that we have, is secure and reliable and to make sure that we are following the best practices in place to make sure that our election equipment is secure and not going to be tampered with.”
According to the memo, the security and vulnerability assessment and security design would be conducted and developed by an independent third party professional IT security provider prior to the October 2021 borough election.
A similar ordinance for introduction passed the consent agenda Tuesday night as well. Ordinance 2021-18 would enact a new chapter of code to ensure that Borough elections are accessible, reliable and secure. Bjorkman stated, “This ordinance is scheduled for hearing on May 18th and what this ordinance would do would put into code much of the secure standard operating procedure that we have for executing elections. It essentially does four things. First, it establishes a clear chain of custody for all ballots and election materials as well as any machines. Then, it establishes a system by which ballot counting machines or tabulators are tested in public and those tests are announced so that people could observe those tests. Next, it establishes a policy by which poll watchers can be named by candidates or interested parties to a ballot measure. Those poll watchers would be then able to observe all election processes. Finally, it outlines the pieces of unique identification that people would be required to provide for an absentee by mail ballot.”
A public hearing on Ordinance 2021-18 will be held on May 18th.
