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Ohio's Secretary Of State Confirms Attempted 2016 Hack, But Says Voting System Wasn't Compromised

Andy Chow

The Department of Homeland Security has reached out to elections officials in Ohio and 20 other states, which have confirmed they were targeted by hackers during the 2016 election. But Ohio's chief elections official said he thinks the story isn't as shocking as it may seem.

Secretary of State Jon Husted has said several times Ohio’s vote counting system could not be hacked because it’s not online. He confirmed that an IP address did try to access Ohio’s elections system last year for less than a second, but couldn’t get in and nothing was compromised. Husted calls the situation exaggerated. “I don’t believe that anything in 2016 happened that deserves the attention that this story is getting," Husted said.

Husted said the only access point a hacker might find is to the statewide voter database, but that’s backed up daily. And he noted his office has worked on securing the system with the Ohio National Guard and the federal government. Seven of the 21 states that were targeted were considered swing states in last year’s presidential election.

Copyright 2017 The Statehouse News Bureau

Contact Karen at 614/578-6375 or at kkasler@statehousenews.org.