Williamson County's election security to be assessed in state program

Williamson County will participate in an election security assessment program provided by the Texas Secretary of State.

The county commissioners approved the county’s participation July 14, which will be supplemental to the assessments already regularly conducted, county Public Safety Technology Director Richard Semple said.

The assessment will be conduct by AT&T, which was state selected and contracted, and will be done at no cost to the county, Semple said.

“This is one assessment of many,” Semple said. “We feel very good about the security and integrity of the [election] process, but it’s always nice to have another independent look and make sure there aren’t some other things we can improve upon.”

Semple added that neither he nor any member of the county’s technology services department will be conducting the assessment, nor is the county in any way financially involved in the process.

The scope of the project is to review the election processes, procedures, technology and staff in order to provide concerns and recommendations to improve the security of the elections process for the county, according to the project brief. The assessment includes a site visit by one or more cybersecurity professionals to perform a holistic compliance, vulnerability and security assessment of the entire election process, it said.