Hi, folks,

Many people in the election community would love to get to the point where they can tell voters not to trust any emails from their clerk unless it’s coming from a government email address. That would make elections safer, they say, and reduce the likelihood of somebody successfully impersonating a clerk.

But we’re not there yet.

Across the nation, more than half of all election jurisdictions remain on non-government domains, from consumer domains like Hotmail and Yahoo to custom domains like cityofmadison.com.

For a recent Votebeat story, I dug into what was holding officials in Wisconsin back from obtaining government domains.

What I found was revealing: About a third of Wisconsin municipalities still use consumer domains, and all of them have fewer than 5,000 residents. We’re talking small towns with limited resources, typically no in-house IT support and often a part-time clerk. Six hundred of those are still on consumer domains.

Running elections at the municipal level creates a logistical hurdle most other states just don’t face. Arizona’s election jurisdictions are entirely on government domains, but they run elections at the county level and there are only 15 counties.

So it’s a big lift here. The Wisconsin Elections Commission has been helping out, allocating millions in federal funds to bolster local election security. That has led hundreds of municipalities to shift to government domains.

But that switch can be a costly endeavor that requires technical expertise. Registering a government domain is free. But hosting it costs anywhere from a couple hundred to several thousand or more per year, depending on how many users obtain government accounts.

No matter those hurdles, experts say it’s important to make that change to a government domain. It improves cybersecurity and trust, because people interacting with election officials and on government websites can rest assured that they’re interacting with a government official.

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The Big Story

Hundreds of Wisconsin election offices not using cybersecurity best practices

Government entities have been pushing all election officials to use government domains, but that is a challenge for small Wisconsin jurisdictions with limited resources.