disagrees at the atten Sgtatea Washingtan 33% 2311515 September 28 2016 Hon Todd Valentine President National Association of State Election Directors 21946 Royal Montreal Drive Suite #100 Katy TX 77450 Dear President Valentine The US Constitution reserves to the states the responsibility for administering elections In the committee report for the 2002 Help America Vote Act Congress explained that This system has many benefits that must be preserved The dispersal of responsibility for election administration has made it impossible for a single centrally controlled authority to dictate how elections will be run and thereby be able to control the outcome This leaves the power and responsibility for running elections where it should be in the hands of the citizens of this country Local control has the further added bene t of allowing for flexibility so that local authorities can tailor their procedures to meet the demands of disparate and unique communities Further by leaving the responsibility for election administration in the hands of local authorities ifa problem arises the citizens who live within their jurisdictions know whom to hold accountable The local authorities who bear the reSponsibility cannot now and should not in the future be able to point the nger of blame at some distant unaccountable centralized bureaucracy Today the states face the challenge of malefactors that are seeking to use cyberatta cks to disrupt the administration of our elections We urge the states to take full advantage of the robust public and private sector resources available to them to ensure that their network infrastructure is secure from attack In addition the Department of Homeland Security stands ready to provide cybersecurity assistance to those states that choose to request it Such assistance does not entail federal regulation or binding federal directives of any kind and 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 For over 200 years the states have overcome every challenge to ensure the smooth function of our democracy We trust that you will take the steps necessary to meet the new challenges of the 213 century by securing your election systems against cyberattack's Sincerely 'i r i If I Ing - Paul D Nancy Pelos'i Mitch McConnell Speaker Democratic Leader Majority Leader Democ atic Leader PRINTED ON RECYCLED PAPER This document is from the holdings of The National Security Archive Suite 701 Gelman Library The George Washington University 2130 H Street NW Washington D C 20037 Phone 202 994-7000 Fax 202 994-7005 nsarchiv@gwu edu