NASS 2018 Winter Conference Highlights

For Immediate Release — Feb. 21, 2018 —

Washington, D.C. — The National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS) held its Winter Conference Feb. 16 -19 in Washington, D.C at the Fairmont Georgetown. Thirty-five Secretaries of State/Lieutenant Gov­ernors were joined by an audience of 300 senior state government staff and private sector representatives holding bipartisan discussions on a variety of issues including: elections cybersecurity, election auditing, voter confidence research, business reg­istration and identity theft, assistance for small business exporting, and state IT workforce issues.

Highlights from the conference include the following:

Department of Homeland Security Meetings— On Friday, Feb. 16, Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen M. Nielsen met with the NASS Executive Board to discuss DHS’ commitment to working with state election officials on cybersecurity for the midterm elections and beyond.

In addition, DHS joined together with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Federal Bu­reau of Investigation to sponsor classified briefings for election officials from all 50 states. These briefings fo­cused on increasing awareness of foreign adversary intent and capabilities against the states’ election infra­structure, as well as a discussion of threat mitigation efforts.

Resolutions— The following NASS policy resolutions were approved at this meeting on Feb. 19, 2018:

*NASS Support for the Revised National Electronic Notarization Standards

*NASS Resolution in Support of Self Determination and Equality for Puerto Rico

*NASS Resolution of Support for Enhancing Voter Registration Process Via USPS Change of Address Pro­gram

Resources for States— The following resources were introduced for member use at this meeting:

*Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School Election Cyber Incident Com­munications Plan Template

*Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School Election Cyber Incident Com­munications Coordination Guide

*Handbook for Elections Infrastructure Security

New NASS Members—

*The Hon. Doug Chin, Lt. Governor, Hawaii

*The Hon. Tahesha Way, Acting Secretary of State, New Jersey

*The Hon. Robert Torres, Acting Secretary of State, Pennsylvania

Margaret Chase Smith Award— Nominated by Arkansas Secretary of State Mark Martin, the inspirational Little Rock Nine were given the 2017 Margaret Chase Smith award for political courage.

IDEAS Award— The following member offices were announced as national finalists for the NASS 2018 IDE­AS Award competition, recognizing innovation and excellence in state programming. See all submissions:

*California - Digital Archives: A Public-Private Partnership with Google
*Colorado - Cybersecurity Protects Election Integrity Initiative
*Indiana - INBiz
*Mississippi - Y'all Business

All finalists will be invited to showcase their programs at the NASS 2018 Summer Conference in Philadelphia July 13-16, where the recipient will be announced and recognized.

Corporate Affiliate White Papers— Each year, NASS corporate affiliates submit white papers showcasing their expertise:

*Clear Ballot & Voatz: Smartphone Voting: Impossible or Inevitable?
*Cyberscout: State Officials Must Reassure Voters that Elections Will be Protected

*Cybraics: Adopting a “Detect to Protect” Philosophy to Safeguard our Democracy

*Dun & Bradstreet: Understanding Beneficial Ownership Structures

*Everyone Counts: Engineered to Endure: the Building Blocks for a New Class of Voter Registration Sys­tem

*Foster Moore: Going Digital, Delivering a Fully Electronic Registry

*Hart Invercivic: Courageous Leadership: Instilling Voter Confidence in Election Infrastructure

*Runbeck: Vote Centers: Bringing Efficiency to the Polls

*Votem: Policy Considerations

Workshops/Speakers— Conference speakers represented a diverse array of public and private sector enti­ties, including: 18F Acquisition, Brunswick Group, Center for Democracy and Technology, Center for Internet Security, Cloudflare’s Athenian Project, Democracy Fund, Facebook, Google, Harvard University’s Belfer Center, International Association of Government Officials, MS-ISAC, National Association of State Chief Infor­mation Officers, National Association of State Technology Directors, National Conference of State Legisla­tures, National Cybersecurity Society, National Governors Association, National Guard, Non-Profit Vote, Twit­ter, U.S. Commercial Service, U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Election Assistance Commission.

A full conference agenda can be found here, which includes a full list of speakers and organizations.

Photos of the conference can be found on our Facebook and Twitter pages.

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Media Contact:
Maria (Dill) Benson, Director of Communications
mbenson@sso.org | 202-624-3528 | www.nass.org