CNN:

After dismantling the federal system designed to protect US elections, the Trump administration now says it has a plan to rebuild it — less than 100 days before Election Day and just weeks before ballots begin going out in the mail.

A year after forcing out many of its most experienced election-security specialists, a key federal cyber agency is now reassigning remaining staff into new roles.

The agency says the new liaisons are expected to “build trusted relationships” with state and local elected officials, according to an internal summary of the administration’s plans obtained by CNN.

The memo, which US officials emailed Capitol Hill staff earlier this month, reveals more details than the Trump administration has publicly provided about how it intends to reconstitute its election-security operation amid demands from President Donald Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin for a sweeping overhaul.

The DHS agency that oversees this work — the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) — says it will use a security mechanism it employed during the World Cup to protect the midterm elections. It also promises a public plan in 30 days that will “lay out cyber and physical security resources” for states, according to the July 17 email.

But election officials and non-partisan experts warn it’s too deep into the election cycle for any major changes to their security protocols, and they are skeptical that the agency’s hollowed-out workforce can deliver even the baseline support to states before the midterms.

In a closed-door briefing this month, a CISA official recently assigned to election security told congressional staff that the agency has been so depleted of staff that it wouldn’t be able to provide its normal election-security assistance ahead of the midterms, according to a US official.
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