The incoming president to a national group of state voting officials said the Department of Homeland Security failed to properly communicate the hacking threats to state voting system during the 2016 election.
Indiana Secretary of State Connie Lawson, incoming president to the bipartisan National Association of Secretaries of State, told the Senate Intelligence Committee pointed to DHS actions in the 2016 elections, especially in light of a leaked document that said dozens of local election systems were targeted or “scanned” by Russian cyberattacks.
“It is gravely concerning that election officials have only recently learned about the threat referenced in the leaked NSA report, especially – and I emphasize this – given the fact that DHS repeatedly told state election officials no credible threat existed in the fall of 2016,” Lawson said.
Lawson also told the committee that secretaries of state participated in conference calls with DHS in August, September and October of last year, and each time, then-Secretary Jeh Johnson said there were no credible threats to voting systems.
“It remains unclear why our intelligence agencies would withhold timely and specific threat information from chief state election officials, who can use it to better defend their systems and neutralize specific threats,” Lawson added.
Lawson wants the Department of Homeland Security to rescind its designation of the nation’s voting systems as “critical infrastructure.”
She wrote in written testimony that the “critical infrastructure” designation by DHS, “clashes with some of the most basic principles of our democracy and already seems likely to cause more problems than it actually solves.”
The classification by DHS came from Johnson in the final days of the Obama administration. By designating voting systems as critical infrastructure, the federal government has some ability to manage election systems that have always been run at the local level.
She also testified many of the secretaries of state had a conference call with Johnson the day before he made the “critical infrastructure” designation, and claims Johnson did not bring up his decision to go forward with the designation.
In his closing remarks, committee chairman Richard Burr, R-N.C., criticized the lack of communication between the federal government and state voting officials
“It is absolutely critical that we have not only a collaboration but a communication between the federal government and the states as it relates to our voting systems,” Burr said.
“If not, I fear that there would be an attempt to, in some way, shape, or form, nationalize [voting systems]. That is not the answer,” Burr concluded.
