Our right to vote is the foundation of our democracy. That's why the Kings County Elections Department works with California Secretary of State's Office, the nonpartisan official election source in the state of California, and the Office of Election Cybersecurity.  

The Office of Election Cybersecurity serves California with the sole purpose of keeping every Californian’s vote safe from online interference, especially the spread of mis and dis information. The Office of Election Cybersecurity works to make sure every Californian is equipped with the accurate information they need to vote and trust that their vote counts. For more information about the California Office of Election Cybersecurity, please visit their website:

www.sos.ca.gov/elections/election-cybersecurity.

The Kings County Elections Office and the Office of Election Cybersecurity would like to offer these tips when viewing elections related posts on social media.

When viewing content on social media, remember to Pause:

• P - Pay attention. Any source that uses overly emotional language, suggests your vote doesn't matter, or questions the safety and security of our elections may have ulterior motives for doing so.
• A - Ask questions. Why haven't I seen this source before? What does their wikipedia page say? Run a reverse image search on Google and see where an image came from.
• U - Understand motives. Whereas your County Elections Office and Secretary of State's only motive is safe and secure elections, other organizations may have other goals in mind.
• S - Send possible misinformation to VoteSure@sos.ca.gov, the California Secretary of State's official misinformation email line so they can investigate.
• E - Expect to get accurate election information from your official, nonpartisan election source - your County Registrar or the California Secretary of State. 

Remember, the primary goal of misinformation is to prevent Californians from casting their ballot and or diminish trust in our elections so the best defense to misinformation is to vote.

For information regarding the most common election rumors along with the facts, please visit the Elections Cybersecurity's Elections Rumor Control page.  

Political parties, candidates and elections administrators cannot be alone in the fight against malicious actors who seek to undermine our elections. As political campaigns and organizations are targets of cyber threats, they too have a role and responsibility in defending our democracy. Their actions are critical in maintaining public trust in our elections and minimizing the threat of cyber incidents.

As an integral part of protecting our democracy, we wish to remind political parties, candidates, and other organizations to take preventative measures to reduce the likelihood and severity of cyber incidents.

• Obtain training on security awareness to avoid social engineering and phishing attacks.
• Practice the principles of “least privilege” by restricting user access to the minimum need based on users’ job necessity.
• Ensure user accounts are logged off or the session is locked after a period of inactivity, which should be no more than 15 minutes.
• Remove, deactivate, or disable accounts or default credentials.
• Restrict physical access by not leaving your computer in places unlocked and unattended.
• Use wireless technology securely with Wi-Fi Protected Access 2 (WPA2) or better.
• Use a strong and unique password (“strong password hygiene”) per account with access to the voter registration information or privileges to grant access.

If you detect suspicious activity

In the event you observe or detect any suspicious activity, please alert law enforcement officials immediately and contact the Kings County Elections office or the California Secretary of State’s office with any important information. As a reminder, California state law requires any entity that has access to voter data from the California Secretary of State’s office to report a breach of this information to the appropriate officials as quickly as possible.