Virginia Department of Elections
Rob Vance, UX/UI Developer

secure.elections.virginia.gov

The Virginia Department of Election (ELECT) is required by VA Code § 24.2-404 and companion federal law to maintain a complete, separate, and accurate record of all registered voters in the Commonwealth. Currently, the agency manages 85 million records of personal data contained in voter records, felon records, death records, prohibited lists and other list maintenance records.

However, 133 localities statewide had access to this information with only an IP whitelist restriction and single-factor login as the primary security for these records.

In 2018, to meet its strategic plan objective to improve election security and based on the merits of cost, scalability, and a tool's ability to integrate with legacy systems, ELECT adopted the Two-Factor Authentication Initiative (2FA).

The initiative created a protected environment made up of three distinct layers all working to protect a number of legacy systems within the agency. Upon implementation, two-factor authentication became required when accessing core applications.

Layering of security mechanisms is an industry standard that offers scalability and redundancy. ELECT's design protects core agency applications from malicious behavior both from authenticated users and the internet at large. Any future application(s) developed by or for ELECT requiring credentialing will be included within the 2FA framework

The 2FA initiative included educational outreach to the elections community to insure compliance and a smooth transition into the new process. The project launched with a soft opening to internal users and then was successfully released statewide.

The project finished on time and on budget with 100% adoption.

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