Election security is an important facet for county clerks across the state.
One county clerk created a program to monitor election equipment without interfering with the tabulation process.
The Santa Fe County Clerk’s Office won the Election Center’s Professional Practice People’s Choice Award for its Codename: Project Bruno program.
“This project was built from the ground up to fill a crucial gap in election security,” Santa Fe County Clerk Katharine Clark said in a press release.
The program is called Project Bruno because Clark’s team wanted to name their tabulator security program.
“It just stuck as what we were calling it, because ‘tabulator security program’ was long and boring, right?” Clark said.
The People’s Choice Award recipients are chosen by election professionals across the country and recognize programs for both their impact and innovation.
Codename: Project Bruno was chosen for the award “for its transformative approach to real-time election security, setting a new national standard for protecting elections while ensuring efficiency and transparency,” the press release states. Codename: Project Bruno has four parts, including extending the amount of time tabulators can operate without an external power source in the event of a power outage, it gives immediate power loss alerts to election staff as a means to maintain election security with fast response times, and it uses location tracking and motion sensors to detect unauthorized access, movement or tampering of tabulators as an extra layer of security to ensure rapid responses to security concerns, the release continues.
Codename: Project Bruno does all of this without interacting or altering the tabulation process, the press release states.
“It is solely a monitoring tool for the tabulators themselves, ensuring that election officials can respond swiftly to any potential security concerns without disrupting the vote count,” the press release states.
“Election security isn’t just about reacting—it’s about being proactive,” Clark said in the press release. “Project Bruno proves that we can protect the process in real time while ensuring elections remain efficient and accessible. Winning both the Guardian Award and the People’s Choice Award is a testament to the strength of this initiative and its impact nationwide.”
The program previously won election security excellence Guardian Award.
