Oregon election officials join 7th ‘Tabletop the Vote’ exercise

from the Office of the Oregon Secretary of State, Lane County Board of Commissioners, and staff reports

More than 50 representatives from local, state, federal, and law enforcement gathered in a Salem conference room the last week of August to join a national tabletop exercise on election security.

Tabletop the Vote is an annual exercise sponsored by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) in collaboration with the National Association of Secretaries of State and the National Association of State Election Directors.

The exercise provides an opportunity to identify and share best practices and areas for improvement related to election security.

Joining election administrators from dozens of states across the nation to participate in the exercise were representatives from the Oregon Secretary of State’s Office and Elections Division; the Oregon Department of Emergency Management; multiple county clerks and elections staff; Oregon State Police and FBI agents from the Portland field office; and CISA officials.

2024 marked the seventh annual Tabletop the Vote exercise. Oregon’s participation has quadrupled since Tabletop the Vote’s inaugural year, demonstrating that election security is truly a whole-of-government mission.

“I want to thank our elections officials, both in Oregon and across the nation, for their collaboration and partnership,” said Secretary of State LaVonne Griffin-Valade. “I also want to thank CISA for sponsoring this exercise, which clearly demonstrated our readiness to administer a secure and accurate election — as we’ve done through vote-by-mail in Oregon for over 20 years — and reaffirms our shared commitment to protecting democracy.”

The exercise provides an opportunity to enhance awareness of and resilience to potential threats — including cybersecurity, physical, and operational security threats to election infrastructure. Participants were able to examine how they would share information, respond to any incidents, and discuss the available resources to protect election security.

Lori Augino, the election security advisor for CISA Region 10, said she appreciated the opportunity to work alongside “our Oregon election partners,” adding that American elections remain an attractive target to foreign adversaries and cybercriminals.

“CISA remains committed to providing any help we can to county and state election offices to ensure the security and resilience of election infrastructure in 2024,” Augino said.

Lane County Elections built out its management team over the summer. Lane County’s top elections official, County Clerk Dena Dawson, announced the hiring of two new managers to commissioners in July:

• Elections and Recording Supervisor Pamela Nevin. Ms. Nevin will be focusing on recording for the first year and will then be cross-trained on elections.
• Elections and Recording Manager Richard Barron. Mr. Barron brings over 23 years of election experience, including eight years as registration and elections director in Fulton County, Georgia. For the first year in Lane County, Mr. Barron will focus on elections, and will then be cross-trained on recording.

For more information on how Oregon officials are working to ensure the integrity of elections, visit OregonVotes.gov and the CISA Election Security site. For frequently asked questions about elections, see the Lane County elections site.