Kan. Admin. Regs. § 7-21-2

Current through Register Vol. 43, No. 46, November 14, 2024

Section 7-21-2 - Voting equipment security

Each county election officer shall adopt written procedures to secure the voting equipment. Each county election officer shall review these procedures annually. On or before April 1^st of each year, each county election official shall certify to the secretary of state that the annual review and update has been completed. These procedures shall include the following requirements:

(a) All computers or other devices used to prepare ballots or to program elections and voting equipment used for voting shall never be connected to the internet. All networking adapters or other communication devices inside or connected to the computer or other device shall be disabled except in the case of a server/client election management system environment. In such server/client environments, networking adapters must only be used to facilitate connections between the air-gapped election management system server and the client devices used to access that server.

(b) Each computer or other device used to prepare ballots or to program elections shall be equipped with software, firmware, or an operating system used only for preparing ballots and programming elections. The software, firmware, or operating system shall be certified by the secretary of state. Each computer used to prepare ballots or to program elections shall also contain software relating to system security, including virus protection.

(c) Each computer or other device shall be accessible only to authorized county election personnel and shall require user authentication for access. Each staff person with access shall have unique login credentials. The election programming computer shall be stored in a secure room with controlled access. This also includes maintaining access logs, locks and seals to control and document access to the secured room.

(d) For each user-initiated event that occurs on a computer or other device used to prepare ballots or to program elections, a log record shall be made of the nature of the event, the date and time of the event, and the person initiating the event.

(e) The election results reported from polling places to the county election office shall be sent only by hand-delivery or phone. Election results reported from the county election office to the secretary of state shall be sent only by fax, phone, hand-delivery, encrypted electronic transfer, or other secured transmission methods approved by the secretary of state.

Kan. Admin. Regs. § 7-21-2

Authorized by and implementing K.S.A. 2023 Supp. 25-4415 and K.S.A. 25-4614; effective Jan. 1, 1972; amended July 7, 2008; amended by Kansas Register Volume 43, No. 22; effective 6/14/2024.