Scott Bates is a leader at the state and national level on election security. Bates was part of the first meetings between the Department of Homeland Security and state election officials which led to the creation of the Election Infrastructure-Governing Coordinating Council. In Connecticut, Bates organized and led the work of the Connecticut Election Cybersecurity Task Force. In the 2020 elections, he used the Task Force recommendations to develop and implement a plan that secured networks and trained personnel to protect Connecticut’s election infrastructure from cyber threats.
Bates worked with state and local officials to develop and deploy a system to track and counter election related disinformation. This work was featured in presentations by the Center for a New American Security and the Annenberg Center at the University of Pennsylvania. Bates has also served as a reviewer for the RAND Corporation on projects related to increasing the resilience of election systems across the US. He continues work on election security as Connecticut’s Deputy Secretary of the State.