As the US heads to the polls in November for the midterms, there are growing concerns, as noted by the Brennan Center For Justice that “foreign governments and just plain bad actors are looking to interfere”. The Brennan Center, therefore came up with a tremendously creative and comprehensive list of these 8 ways citizens can help protect the elections from cyberattack. These steps include:

1. If your jurisdiction uses electronic voting machines (known as DREs), ask if local officials provide each polling site with enough emergency paper ballots for two to three hours of peak voting in case of machine malfunctions or failures.
2. If your jurisdiction uses electronic pollbooks to check voters in, ask whether local officials keep paper backup of electronic pollbooks in the polling place.
3. Find out whether each polling location in your jurisdiction has enough provisional ballots for two to three hours of peak voting so voting can continue in the event poll workers are unable to determine whether an individual is eligible and registered to vote.
4. If your jurisdiction uses paper ballots at the polls, confirm that local election officials print sufficient ballots for 100 percent of registered voters.
5. If your jurisdiction uses voting equipment with paper ballots or a paper audit trail, confirm that local election officials plan to conduct a post-election manual audit of a portion of the paper records to ensure accuracy of vote totals.
6. Confirm that local election officials will send signage to every polling location that clearly notifies voters about equipment problems and alternative methods of voting.
7. Ask if plans for machine malfunctions include measures for assisting voters with disabilities.
8. Confirm that state officials keep backup copies of digital voter registration records offline on a daily basis in the weeks before the election.

Protecting the integrity of the elections and the American electoral system is vital for the survival of US democracy. Citizens would do well to follow these guidelines and any other measures proposed by other bodies to do the best we can to ensure that the midterms and other elections go problem free.