CISA has released its 2026 Election Infrastructure Security Plan, providing voluntary guidance, tools, and resources for state and local officials to protect election infrastructure from cyber and physical threats ahead of the midterm elections. The 13-page plan outlines the election infrastructure officials are responsible for protecting, including voting and processing facilities, voting hardware, voter registration systems, and tabulation systems.
The plan identifies potential threats including cyberattacks targeting state voter registration databases and bomb threats directed at election offices. To address potential cyber vulnerabilities, it recommends considering paper ballots that can be reviewed by hand for transparency, auditability, and resilience against software failures or manipulation. It also recommends post-election manual audits of paper ballots to verify voting systems functioned properly and identify errors before final results are certified.
CISA also lists several no-cost security services available to election officials. These include Risk & Vulnerability Assessments, which evaluate an organization’s security posture, including internal and external systems, authentication weaknesses, network architecture, and exploitable pathways. The plan also highlights Vulnerability Scanning, which continuously monitors internet-accessible network assets for vulnerabilities and risky configurations and provides participating election offices with weekly reports and alerts about urgent issues.
The plan provides election officials access to CISA’s 10 regional directors, who serve as Election Security Advisors for groups of states and provide cybersecurity risk-reduction support. It also identifies fusion centers as a channel for sharing threat intelligence and risk-assessment information and coordinating responses to cyber and physical risks affecting election infrastructure.
The plan also stresses incident response and continuity-of-operations planning to help election operations continue if disruptions occur. It emphasizes collaboration, cyber defenses, and ongoing threat intelligence to prepare election officials to address evolving risks.
