NASS Resolution Opposing the Designation of Elections as Critical Infrastructure WHEREAS the United States Constitution recognizes the authority of the legislatures of each State to regulate the times places and manner of holding federal elections and WHEREAS the election infrastructure of the United States is utilized to conduct federal state and local elections alike and WHEREAS on January 6 2017 U S Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson announced that he had designated election infrastructure as a subsector of the existing Government Facilities critical infrastructure sector and WHEREAS Secretary Johnson’s scope of the designation of elections as critical infrastructure includes physical elements such as “storage facilities polling places and centralized vote tabulations locations ” to which cybersecurity issues do not apply “voter registration databases ” of which redundant copies are separately stored and “other systems to manage the election process and report and display results ” which are not critical to the determination of official certified election results and WHEREAS Section 1016 e of the USA Patriot Act of 2001 42 USC § 5195c e the “Critical Infrastructure Protection Act” defines critical infrastructure as “systems and assets whether physical or virtual so vital to the United States that the incapacity or destruction of such systems and assets would have a debilitating impact on security national economic security national public health or safety or any combination of those matters ” and WHEREAS the election infrastructure in the United States is highly decentralized and constitutionally under the purview and control of the states and their local jurisdictions and WHEREAS the opposition to designating elections as critical infrastructure is bipartisan as evidenced by a September 28 2016 letter signed by Paul D Ryan Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi Democratic Leader of the United States House of Representatives Mitch McConnell Majority Leader of the United States Senate and Harry Reid Democratic Leader of the United States Senate stating “we would oppose any effort by the federal government to exercise any degree of control over the states’ administration of elections by designating these systems as critical infrastructure ” and WHEREAS Secretary Johnson stated that he would not designate elections as critical infrastructure without a thorough discussion with members of this body and WHEREAS questions submitted by numerous members of this body and other election officials remain unanswered and WHEREAS numerous members of this body and other federal state and local election officials have publicly opposed the designation of elections as critical infrastructure and WHEREAS several states have discovered attempted intrusions by the Department of Homeland Security under former Secretary Johnson which need to be thoroughly investigated by the Department of Homeland Security’s Inspector General including regarding such attempted intrusions to the designation process and WHEREAS on February 7 2017 current U S Homeland Security Secretary John F Kelly indicated during testimony before the U S House of Representatives’ Homeland Security Committee that he intends to uphold the former secretary’s designation of elections as critical infrastructure and WHEREAS the U S Department of Homeland Security has no authority to interfere with elections even in the name of national security NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the National Association of Secretaries of State NASS opposes the designation of elections as critical infrastructure Adopted the 18th day of February 2017 in Washington DC EXPIRES Winter 2022 Hall of States 444 N Capitol Street N W Suite 401 Washington DC 20001 Phone 202 624-3525 Fax 202 624 3527 www nass org