Recent research by the nonprofit U.S. Digital Response and the National Association of State Chief Information Officers examined what vendors don’t like about states’ request for proposal documents. The work was dead simple, as was the solution they proposed: Just put a cover sheet on your RFPs. Waldo Jaquith, a government delivery manager with USDR, joins StateScoop’s Priorities Podcast to explain the findings and why he thinks this one simple change could not only save vendors time, but improve the quality of responses that states get when they’re making purchases.

This week’s top stories:

In a letter addressed to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Norm last week, 21 Republican secretaries of state asked for improvements to her department’s Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, or SAVE, program, so they can more easily detect noncitizens who are voting in elections.

According to a recent report published by the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center, state and local governments need to adopt a more “whole-of-state” approach to cybersecurity, involving all levels of government in policy and strategic planning in order to better protect critical infrastructure.

In recognition of the growing threats posed by artificial intelligence, a new security advisory committee in Arizona has published its first recommendations, including one to create an AI elections lab that can fine tune election-specific AI models for use by election offices.

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