“10 Months After Election Day, Feds Tell States More About Russian Hacking”

Pam Fessler for NPR:

On Friday afternoon, DHS placed individual calls to the top election official in each state and six U.S. territories to fill them in on what information the agency has about election hacking attempts in their state last year. It will be up to the election officials to decide whether to share what they learn with the public….

The calls are one sign of an improving relationship between election officials and DHS over how to deal with the cybersecurity threat.

State and local officials balked when Obama Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said in January he planned to designate elections as part of the nation’s critical infrastructure, which meant additional security assistance from the federal government. Election officials feared the federal government would start telling states how to run their elections, which are traditionally under local control.

In recent months, DHS and election officials have been meeting regularly and just last week agreed to set up a 28-member coordinating council — to include three federal agency representatives and 25 state and local election officials — to share security information and assistance.

See also this statement from Common Cause.

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