OMAHA — Four secretaries of state and a federal agency director in cybersecurity described their work Wednesday as a line of defense in upholding election integrity and security ahead of the Nov. 5 election.

Nebraska Secretary of State Bob Evnen, in explaining the reason for Wednesday’s summit, asked simply, “Why not?” He said the Midwest states of Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and South Dakota have demonstrated that elections can be safe, smooth and secure.

“Election security is not static. Election security is not a one-and-done deal. Election security is dynamic,” Evnen said at the news conference. “If you’re going to continue to address these dynamic challenges to elections, then you do so in a dynamic fashion.”

The ‘imperative’ of election confidence

The National Counterterrorism Innovation, Technology and Education Center, or NCITE, headquartered at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, hosted the event.

Evnen’s three counterparts from Iowa (Paul Pate), Missouri (Jay Ashcroft) and South Dakota (Monae Johnson) joined the event, which Evnen said he expects to be repeated in future years. Kansas Secretary of State Scott Schwab participated in other summit events, including briefings on NCITE research, but was unable to attend the news conference, officials said.

Pate, who is in his fourth term as Iowa’s secretary of state, said he has seen elections evolve and become “more aggressive” in the past two decades, particularly through technology.

Yet election confidence remains essential, Pate said, and secretaries of state are doing everything they can to uphold integrity and security.

“It’s imperative that Americans, and Iowans, have confidence in those election results because the day after the election, if they don’t believe that that’s their governor or their senator or their president, our Republic has fallen without a single bullet being fired,” Pate said. “That’s not acceptable, so we’re going to continue to be vigilant and do what we can on our front.”

Director Jen Easterly of the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, said CISA stands “shoulder to shoulder” with election officials nationwide. She said she has “tremendous confidence” in U.S. elections.

Easterly said CISA was established in 2018 from a previous U.S. Department of Homeland Security agency in part due to foreign attempts to influence the 2016 presidential election and after election infrastructure was designated as “critical” infrastructure.

Security protocols and training

The agency helps state and local election officials to prepare for any threats, including ransomware, physical threats and threats from foreign adversaries (such as Russia, Iran and China). Some of the support the agency provides, Easterly said, are security assessments, hypothetical scenario training and training for de-escalation and anti-active shooter incidents.

“At the end of the day, we know that elections will be safe. They will be secure. They will be free. They will be fair. But there will be things that go wrong,” Easterly said. “The good news is these disruptions, while problematic, will not affect how votes are counted and how votes are cast.”

Evnen said some of the ways that Nebraska has partnered with CISA in the past two years have included weekly scans of all 93 Nebraska county election websites for vulnerabilities, giving local officials “.gov” emails and website addresses and setting up internal protocols for day-to-day security.

“These are important steps we’re taking across Nebraska to ensure that our cyberinfrastructure is protected,” Evnen said.

Pate said those steps are national standards as officials “plan for the worst and hope for the best.” 

Elections for ‘we the people’

All five secretaries of state who partnered with NCITE this week are elected Republicans, and Ashcroft said the officials don’t serve just Republicans or Democrats or  Libertarians or any other third parties in their respective states.

He said if officials do their job well, they are the basketball ref or linesman of a football game who “no one notices.”

The secretaries of state and Easterly invited more people to get involved in the election process, such as serving as poll workers or watchers, and for anyone who has questions to ask.

“We run elections for the people of the states,” Ashcroft explained. “We run elections for our government because it is how ‘we the people’ decide that our Republic will move forward.”

Ashcroft added that no matter who wins or loses, or which issues pass or fail, “at the end of the day, the American people can drink their beverage of choice and either celebrate or commiserate, but know that they were a part of the decision, that their votes counted and that the votes made a difference.”

The election officials noted that it is typical for “official” results not to be finalized for up to a week after Election Day, but they said that’s due in part due to the need to process provisional ballots, as well as conducting the “checks and balances” needed to ensure accurate results, particularly in close races, or possibly hand-count some ballots.

But for the most part, the secretaries of state said of their jurisdictions, most election results are typically available within a few hours of polls closing on Election Day.

“I believe in getting quick results out, my colleagues do, but we all believe in getting it right, and we believe in making sure that every American, no matter where Uncle Sam has sent them, has the right to participate in our elections,” Ashcroft said, indicating overseas voters.

Johnson, from South Dakota, said the “greatest unease” about the general election is the period between when polls close and when results are finalized. She said officials are workshopping scenarios with public safety teams to ensure that post-election events proceed smoothly and on time.

“Protecting the voting process and its facilitators is a collaborative process, and we have full faith in our state’s ability to overcome any disruptions,” Johnson said.

NCITE research

Gina Ligon, director of NCITE at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, said the center, which includes 38 partner universities, is working on four projects, such as tracking threats to election workers through federal charges and possible threats from emerging technologies.

Ligon said the federal charges are the “tip of the iceberg” as federal charges are a “really high bar,” while other NCITE research includes threats or violence specifically against election officials in swing states, including Pennsylvania, Arizona and Georgia.

Those states have seen the largest spikes in data in recent years, Ligon said.

That project is extending to Nebraska, partially with the competitiveness of Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District for president. There are currently no federal charges, according to Ligon.

Other research, out of the University of Arkansas, includes interviews of election workers who have faced threats of violence. Initial research has indicated women don’t always report when they are victims of violence, Ligon said, and that people don’t understand when they cross First Amendment protections from anger to prohibited threats.

“As much as people say this is nothing new — ‘we’ve experienced this for a long time’ — our data just doesn’t support that,” Ligon said.

‘It’s up to all of us’

As of this time, Easterly said, there have been no specific election threats from terrorists, though she noted federal authorities thwarted the apparent plans of an Oklahoma City man on Tuesday and charged him with allegedly plotting a terrorist attack on Election Day in support of ISIS.

“If there are other things that we are seeing from the terrorist landscape, we will ensure that election officials are apprised of that immediately,” Easterly said.

Easterly said the period between Election Day on Nov. 5 and the presidential inauguration on Jan. 20 will be critical. She said foreign adversaries will try to create a “wedge” and attempt to “shred our institutions” or sow discord as each milestone of certification and validation passes.

“That’s why it’s up to all of us as Americans — as the secretary [Ashcroft] said, ‘We the people’ — these elections are for us,” Easterly said. “It’s up to all of us to do our part in protecting and preserving our democracy.”

Keisei Tominaga’s departure left a significant void in the Nebraska men’s basketball program, in more ways than one.

Aside from his infectious energy on the court and popularity with fans within the fan base and beyond, Tominaga also led the huskers with 15.7 points per game and was sixth in the Big Ten in 3-pointers made, sinking 76 of them at a 37.6% clip.

Brice Williams’ return (50 3-pointers made, 38.8%) helps to soften that blow, but Nebraska also lost C.J. Wilcher (50 3-pointers made, 39.4%), Jamarques Lawrence (36, 35.6%) and Eli Rice (10, 37%) to the transfer portal. Adding perimeter shooting was a priority for the Nebraska men’s basketball coaching staff during the offseason, and Fred Hoiberg said at Big Ten Media Days that he thought the Huskers landed two of the best in Connor Essegian and Gavin Griffiths.

“Connor will be a very important piece for us, especially with what we lost not only with Keisei but a couple of the players we lost to the portal that put the ball in the basket for us, especially from behind the arc,” Hoiberg said. “Getting players that could knock down shots and space the floor was a big objective for us in the poral. With Connor and with Gavin Griffiths, you get two guys who have played in the league that can really get it going from the outside.”

Essegian, a 6-foot-4 guard from Indiana, spent his first two seasons at Wisconsin. He made the Big Ten All-Freshman team after averaging 11.7 points and shooting 35.9% from 3, setting a freshman school record with 69 made 3-pointers. Essegian saw his playing time cut by 20 minutes per game as a sophomore as he struggled to crack the lineup following a back injury he suffered in the season-opener that impacted him throughout the Badgers’ nonconference slate. He averaged 3.2 points and shot 30.3% from 3 in 7.3 minutes per game, logging just nine games with double-digit minutes all season.

Essegian opted to enter the transfer portal in the spring and chose to continue his career in Hoiberg’s shooter-friendly offense.

“Connor, he’s got such a level approach to everything, and I’ve been really impressed with that,” Hoiberg said. “He’s picked things up defensively. He played for a great program and Greg Gard obviously demands a lot on that end. When you get guys from programs like that, they pick things up quicker. He’s done a nice job on the defensive end as well. It’s a very different style than Wisconsin and he’s picked things up very quickly. I’ve loved what Connor’s brought to us. He’s a great locker room guy, another guy that can give us leadership out there, and he’s played in the league and he knows what it’s all about.”

Essegian logged 24 double-digit scoring games as a freshman including nine games with three or more 3-pointers, and Nebraska is hoping to see him return to that level of performance with a fresh start.

Griffiths also transferred from another Big Ten school as he spent his freshman year at Rutgers. The Connecticut native was a consensus four-star recruit ranked in the top 50 by On3, ESPN and Rivals. He played 20 games at Rutgers, averaging 5.8 points per game. Griffiths shot 28.2% from 3 overall, but that included a 37.5% mark (12-of-32) over his last six games. The 6-foot-7 wing scored 16 points and shot 4-of-8 from 3 in two games against the Huskers last season.

“He’s going to be on the court for us,” Hoiberg said. “He’ll have days where he’ll run off four, five, six 3s in a row, and making contested ones as well. Shot selection is something that I’ve talked with him a lot about, taking the right shots. Early on last year he took some really, really tough ones, but then at the end of the year he figured it out and shot almost 40% the last month of the season. So having success playing against teams in this league, I think he’s primed for a really nice year.”

While shooting has been Griffiths’ calling card thus far (he attempted more than twice as many shots from beyond the 3-point line than at the rim as a freshman), Hoiberg said there’s far more than meets the eye with him.

“The thing I’ve been really pleasantly impressed by with Gavin, I knew he could shoot — he did it against us in PBA last year; he hit one from the logo — but his athleticism has been off the charts,” Hoiberg said. “He finishes above the rim. He’s not going to back down from anybody. He’s an unbelievable worker; he’s in the gym nonstop. Just a lot, a lot of raw talent and ability. He’s still young, he’s a true sophomore, but he learned from a great guy in Steve Piekell. You get some of those early learning curve situations out of the way when you play for another great coach and we’re just trying to do the best we can to put him in a position for success based on his unique skill set. We love Gavin.”

Williams has also impressed his teammates during the offseason workouts and early preseason practices.

“Gavin’s a grasshopper,” Williams said. “Gavin is stronger than what you would think. Gavin is a better shooter than what you would think. Gavin can go on a heater and hit five in a row, but Gavin can also put his head at the rim easily. He’s the only one at the end of the week that still looks like he’s fresh.”

At a listed 193 pounds, Griffiths is the fourth-lightest player on the Nebraska roster, and the three players lighter than him are all 6-foot-4 and under guards. Continuing to add strength to his frame will be a key for Griffiths moving forward, but Hoiberg cautioned against judging a book by its cover in this case.

“He’s working extra in the weight room,” Hoiberg said. “Some guys come back and work on their game and shot, which he certainly does that, but he also puts in extra time in the weight room with our strength coach. So he’s made really good gains in the weight room. I don’t think he’ll ever be Arnold, but he’s wiry strong. I played with maybe the best wiry strong guy of all time, Reggie Miller. He could lift a lot of weight but he never put on size. Gavin’s a strong kid, but it’s not going to show up in his body. It shows up in his athleticism and he’s going to put the work in, there’s no doubt about that.”

With a fresh start in a shooter-friendly system, Essegian and Griffiths are looking to live up to their potential as Cornhuskers. Nebraska led the Big Ten in 3-pointers in 2023-24, and the two transfers will play a significant part if the Huskers are to repeat that feat this season.