After the ( CISA ) to its election security programs, Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes ( D) is taking matters into his own hands and forming an alternative program to fill CISA’s void for state and local election offices.
According to a letter obtained by Democracy Docket, Fontes ‘ company wants to form a new organization called VOTE-ISAC,” an impartial organization committed to supporting elections and restoring international confidence in the integrity of our political processes”. The idea for the program is to fill the void left by CISA’s crucial Elections Infrastructure Information Sharing and Analysis Center ( EI-ISAC ).  ,
A spokesperson for Fontes ‘ office told Democracy Docket that he started work on this strategy also before CISA cut its EI-ISAC system and has already been in touch with different states and partners to get on board with the plan.  ,
The memo mentions that EI-ISAC’s dissolution has left county election offices across the country with a$ 45 million gap in cybersecurity resources. Without EI-ISAC’s resources, thousands of state and local election offices are now without 24/7 risk monitoring systems and national knowledge sharing on ongoing foreign election and disinformation threats.  ,
” National support for real-time vote cybersecurity after provided through companies like CISA and the FBI has been immediately dismantled”, the letter reads. ” This behavior has eliminated critical risk intelligence, halted defenses against Advanced Persistent Threat Actors, and sidelined thousands of cybersecurity professionals. Given the scale of modern cybercrime which, if it were a nation, would have the world’s third-largest GDP, the stakes for protecting election infrastructure are too high to ignore”.
Right now, VOTE-ISAC is just in the proposal phase. The plan is for VOTE-ISAC to run as a non-profit organization and the memo outlines a nine-month phased implementation, which includes getting public officials, philanthropic partners and private industry leaders on board to help secure funding.  ,