Situation Room: Two separate errors in recent Kansas City-area elections exemplify why data accuracy and validation are critical security measures to protect election integrity.
Resource Library: Two resources to help prepare your staff and election workers to handle election mail safely and securely.
Planning Desk: Before mailing begins, review your mail ballot process end-to-end to confirm security protocols are in place, tested, and ready.
New Exchange Webinar September 22 at 3:00 PM ET!When a voter asks a chatbot how to register, where to vote, when polls close, or what security safeguards are in place, the answer should come from your office. Right now it comes from wherever the AI decided to look, with varying degrees of reliability. Sometimes that means a deadline from two cycles ago, a polling place that moved, or a rule from the county next door. That is a security problem, not just a communications one. Register here to join us for You’re the Authority on Elections. Does AI Know That?
Election Data Integrity Incidents: Lessons from Recent Addressing and Ballot Errors
Election security is often discussed in terms of cyber and physical disruptions, such as preventing hacking, malware, and unauthorized access. However, protecting the integrity of election data is a core function of election security. Ensuring that the data driving elections—voter registration, ballots, tabulation, and results reporting—is accurate, complete, and properly validated strengthens the overall security posture of an election office.
The electoral process can feature robust cyber and physical defenses and still be compromised by inaccurate or incomplete election data. Recent incidents highlight how undetected data errors can bypass system security and directly impact voters.
In Wyandotte County, Kansas, over 2,900 advance mail-in ballots wereprinted with an outdated post office box return address. Some completed ballots were delivered back to voters' home mailboxes instead of the election office. The failure was not a cyber intrusion, but an unverified, incorrect data field on carrier envelopes.
A second incident occurred in Kansas City, Missouri, where nearly 1,700 absentee and mail-in ballots omitted two required county legislature races. The error affected both early in-person and mail-in voters. It was only discovered when a voter alerted an election official, requiring the board to issue supplemental ballots containing the missing races to affected voters.
The Unique Threat of Data Security Issues
Physical disruptions or active cyberattacks generate immediate warnings. In contrast, data integrity failures are often invisible threats:
They produce no system alarms or physical signs of intrusion.
Faulty data can be distributed to or negatively impact thousands of voters before detection.
Damage occurs quietly across the entire pipeline—from registration systems to final reporting.
Election security is ultimately about protecting the integrity of the entire election process, which demands accuracy of the data and information on which election officials and workers, voters, and vendors rely. Election offices need controls designed not only to prevent errors but also to detect errors quickly after they occur.
Best Practices for Critical Data Controls
Election officials can take several practical steps to reduce data integrity risks.
Dual-Verification Protocols Require a mandatory second-party review for any critical data entries or updates and multiple quality-control checks before mass production. There is a lot of data to check: addresses, ballot styles, contests, candidate details, precinct assignments, envelopes, barcodes, and instructions. A single review should not be expected to catch every error.
Traceable Change Management Treat every database modification, software configuration shift, ballot file revision, and vendor file production as a documented, approved, and traceable event.
Independent Acceptance Testing Election offices must independently verify vendor deliverables to ensure the final product is correct rather than relying solely on vendor quality checks. Vendor testing is important, but election offices need to have their own acceptance criteria and sign-off procedures.
Finished Product Testing Inspect the final printed products (ballots, envelopes, barcodes, return addresses), not just the digital files. Viewing a correct electronic file does not guarantee that the final product is correct.
Production Reconciliation Track expected versus actual ballot and envelope output across every ballot style and precinct to account for every piece of election material.
Rapid Response & Communication Plans Pre-establish protocols to instantly pause distribution, identify affected voters, issue corrective materials, and transparently notify the public.
After-Action Review Evaluate any errors and determine which additional controls can prevent them from happening again.
When data is well-governed, well-protected, and routinely verified, it becomes harder for errors, disruptions, or malicious activity to undermine operations and erode public confidence.
The Situation Room focuses on real security incidents and threats in the news relevant to election security. To review previous issues, see thenewsletter archive.
Secure Mail Handling Resources
With increased focus and evolving challenges around voting by mail, election officials need to establish safeguards to protect election workers and secure the election mail stream. The following resources can help prepare for safely handling mail-in ballots and responding effectively to potential hazardous exposure.
Preparing for potential mail disruptions by conducting training, deploying protective equipment, and identifying areas to isolate mail.
Identifying common characteristics of suspicious packages.
Responding to potential hazardous material exposure.
How To Respond To Potential Toxic Exposure(by The Elections Group) is a print-ready poster designed for posting in mail processing areas, offering immediate, at-a-glance instructions for handling suspected toxic mail.
The Resource Library section of the newsletter spotlights election security resources. All highlighted resources are available online in the Resource Library.
Week E-8: Mail Ballot Security—Are you ready?
With UOCAVA ballots beginning to go out in some jurisdictions, primary preparation for mail balloting is likely complete. Now is the time to conduct a final review of the entire mail ballot process and to test and verify security protocols across every step.
Data & Printing Security: Confirm the accuracy of voter and ballot style data before printing. If you use a vendor, verify their security protocols, data access limits, timelines, and ballot reconciliation procedures.
Outbound Mail: Verify how ballots are delivered to the Postal Service and entered into their system. If a vendor transports them, confirm transport schedules, driver credentials, chain-of-custody handoffs, vehicle-tracking access, and primary USPS contacts. Make sure your office can access that information throughout the process.
Inbound Ballots: Review incoming ballot channels—through the mail, to your office, at voting locations, or other authorized sites. Ensure standardized procedures for receiving, securing, documenting, and processing mail. Make sure undeliverable ballots are processed promptly.
Drop Box Inspection: Test locks, security seals, lighting, and cameras, where used. Evaluate collection schedules and enforce two-person collection procedures to secure transport and documentation of every pickup. Ensure teams are trained to report suspicious activity, persons, objects, or damage.
Internal Processing: Audit ballot intake, processing, tabulating, and storage protocols. Test cameras and other security measures, and confirm that access is limited to authorized personnel, all handoffs are documented, and numbers are verified as ballots move through the process.
Staff & Mail Handling Safety: Train personnel to recognize suspicious mail and follow escalation procedures for potential hazardous exposure. See the resources in this issue's Resource Library for tips on safe mail handling.
To help with this review process, create a simple checklist. Map every security step and chain-of-custody checkpoint across the ballot’s path, assign ownership for each, and fix identified gaps immediately.
Finally, prepare to clearly explain the mail balloting process and the protective measures that safeguard it. Draft basic holding statements so your office can respond quickly and consistently to questions or issues. Consider creating a plain-language “Mail Ballot Security” FAQ that explains the protections without revealing sensitive process details.
The goal isn't to redesign the process. It's to take one last trip along the ballot's path, verify safeguards remain in place, and be prepared to show voters how you are protecting their ballots.
The Planning Desk is a running timeline of key election security tasks. You can find prior editions in thenewsletter archive.
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