The company might spread the pilot to other elections and other high-profile users, including existing government staff.

There's no mystery as to why Facebook is making this available, even as late as it is in the campaign season: it's trying to prevent John Podesta-style account breaches from Russia and other actors that might try to meddle in the election. Facebook has admitted that it was too slow to act on election threats in the 2016 presidential election, and it doesn't want to be accused of a similar shortcoming this year. While these and other measures won't guarantee a hack-free election (especially not when they're optional), Facebook could at least say that it offered help.