Washington State: House Bill 1068 - AN ACT Relating to exempting election security information from public records disclosure

AN ACT Relating to exempting election security information from public records disclosure; amending RCW 42.56.420; creating a new section; and declaring an emergency.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:Sec. 1. RCW 42.56.420 and 2017 c 149 s 1 are each amended to read as follows:

The following information relating to security is exempt from disclosure under this chapter:

(1) Those portions of records assembled, prepared, or maintained to prevent, mitigate, or respond to criminal terrorist acts, which are acts that significantly disrupt the conduct of government or of 11the general civilian population of the state or the United States and that manifest an extreme indifference to human life, the public disclosure of which would have a substantial likelihood of threatening public safety, consisting of:

(a) Specific and unique vulnerability assessments or specific and unique response or deployment plans, including compiled underlying data collected in preparation of or essential to the assessments, or to the response or deployment plans; and

(b) Records not subject to public disclosure under federal law that are shared by federal or international agencies, and information prepared from national security briefings provided to state or local 1government officials related to domestic preparedness for acts of terrorism;

(2) Those portions of records containing specific and unique 4vulnerability assessments or specific and unique emergency and escape response plans at a city, county, or state adult or juvenile correctional facility, or secure facility for persons civilly confined under chapter 71.09 RCW, the public disclosure of which would have a substantial likelihood of threatening the security of a city, county, or state adult or juvenile correctional facility, secure facility for persons civilly confined under chapter 71.09 RCW, or any individual's safety;

(3) Information compiled by school districts or schools in the 13development of their comprehensive safe school plans under RCW 1428A.320.125, to the extent that they identify specific vulnerabilities of school districts and each individual school;

(4) Information regarding the public and private infrastructure 17and security of computer and telecommunications networks, consisting of security passwords, security access codes and programs, access codes for secure software applications, security and service recovery plans, security risk assessments in their entirety, and security test results to the extent that they identify specific system vulnerabilities, and other such information the release of which may increase risk to the confidentiality, integrity, or availability of security, information technology infrastructure, or assets;

(5) The system security and emergency preparedness plan required under RCW 35.21.228, 35A.21.300, 36.01.210, 36.57.120, 36.57A.170, and 81.112.180; ((and))28

(6) Personally identifiable information of employees, and other security information, of a private cloud service provider that has entered into a criminal justice information services agreement as contemplated by the United States department of justice criminal justice information services security policy, as authorized by 28 33C.F.R. Part 20;34

(7)The continuity of operations plan for election operations, and any security audits, security risk assessments, or security test results relating to physical security or cybersecurity of election operations or infrastructure. These records are exempt from disclosure in their entirety; and

(8)Those portions of records containing information about election infrastructure, election security, or potential threats to election security, the public disclosure of which may increase risk to the integrity of election operations or infrastructure.

NEW SECTION.Sec. 2. The exemptions in this act apply to any public records requests made prior to the effective date of this section for which the disclosure of records has not already occurred.

NEW SECTION.Sec. 3. This act is necessary for the immediate reservation of the public peace, health, or safety, or support of the state government and its existing public institutions, and takes effect immediately.

• END -

21H-0190.1HOUSE BILL 1068 State of Washington 67th Legislature 2021 Regular Session By Representatives Dolan and Valdez Prefiled 01/04/21.p. 1HB 1068

https://legiscan.com/WA/text/HB1068/2021

>>50140

Eyes on. They think we aren't watching.

https://legiscan.com/

>>50128, >>50140, >>50187

digg-possibly other states have bills attempting to restrict public records regarding voting

Washington State: House Bill 1068 - AN ACT Relating to exempting election security information from public records disclosure

comment

Jennifer Cichocki Kammeyer

Chapter 42.56 RCW Public Records Act

RCW 42.56.30 Construction states "The people, in delegating authority, do not give their public servants the right to decide what is good for the people to know and what is not good for them to know. The people insist on remaining informed so that they may maintain control over the instruments that they have created. This chapter shall be liberally construed and its exemptions narrowly construed to promote this public policy and to assure that the public interest will be fully protected. In the event of conflict between the provisions of this chapter and any other act, the provisions of this chapter shall govern."

RCW 42.56.420 Security

"The following information relating to security is exempt from disclosure under this chapter:…

"(4) Information regarding the public and private infrastructure and security of computer and telecommunications networks, consisting of security passwords, security access codes and programs, access codes for secure software applications, security and service recovery plans, security risk assessments, and security test results to the extent that they identify specific system vulnerabilities, and other such information the release of which may increase risk to the confidentiality, integrity, or availability of security, information technology infrastructure, or assets;" in the current text of RCW 42.56.420 (4) … "security risk assessments,"

Original text of the Proposed changes to RCW 42.56.420 (4) by the 5 State House Representatives sponsoring this bill WAHB 1068 2021-2022 adding languare after security risk assessment… they propose …security risk assessment in their entirety.

In the text of RCW 42.56.30 it states:

"The people insist on remaining informed so that they may maintain control over the instruments that they have created. This chapter shall be liberally construed and its exemptions narrowly construed to promote this public policy and to assure that the public interest will be fully protected."

Are the proposers of this 2021-2022 House Bill giving a carte blanche exemption to the State's Public Records Act in regards to risk assessments?

i.e. any entity takes a risk assessment adds the word "security" to it and then if the proposed changes go through they point to RCW 42.56.420(4) and say our risk assessment is not required to be publicly disclosed. Seems to me it conflicts what RCW 42.56.30 says.

comment

Chloe Talbot

THIS IS THE EQUIVALENT OF RESPONDING TO BLM PROTESTS BY RETROACTIVELY SEALING ALL POLICE BODY CAM FOOTAGE FROM THE PUBLIC

The language 'entirety' has not existed in reference to anything in this previous law at all. It's new, and weirdly extreme. "security test results relating to physical security or cybersecurity of election operations or infrastructure" will now be "exempt from disclosure in their entirety"?

So this;

1) doesn't really do much to actually strengthen security. It could slow an attack down, sure: don't give anyone a roadmap by all means. But again, security via obscurity doesn't work. And I mean, if someone is going to hack a system they probably aren't going to file an open records request to do so.

Also, redacting sensitive information is a thing. Remember this is in its entirety IS A HUGE CONCERN. This prevents even a 'did the system pass the assessment this year yes or no?' request from being answered via record request, is that right?

2)makes those who think there was some grand conspiracy feel validated

3) confirms people's (wrongful or rightful) claims of general election shenanigans by the blatant rushing to increase opacity

4) makes it to where if there ever was a huge problem down the road years from now, citizens will never ever, ever get to see or ask for any evidence of their election system's security, ever again.

Now let's just re-cap the narrative that has been extended to the average WA resident (not even specifically someone who voted for Culp):

This gubernatorial lawsuit is absolutely without merit

Our WA system is great, this is just another salty loser

It is such a waste of time and money being sued pointlessly, we will sue back to make him stop suing(…fair enough)

'''And just to prove our system is good and fair, we will now retroactively seal all election security data in its entirety(!)

Also we will now deny all open public requests already in progress, from everyone, of the records of election security, categorically.(!!)'''

Nooooo, no, its not weird at all. It's for your saftey.(!!!!!)

Want people to NEVER trust the system again? This bill is how you do it.

https://legiscan.com/WA/comments/HB1068/2021