Tag: Election Security

West Virginia Secretary of State Says Election Is Safe After Feds Report Interference Attempts In Other States

With concerns over election security heightened less than two weeks from Election Day, West Virginia’s top elections official says state voter registration data has not been compromised.

Federal homeland security officials announced Wednesday evening that foreign nation-state actors had accessed voter information in Alaska, Arizona, Florida and Pennsylvania.

Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe abruptly held a news conference Wednesday evening to announce that the intelligence community believes Iranian and Russian operatives obtained voter-record information. Accessing the information enabled Iran to send intimidating emails to voters based on party registration about how they’d better vote for President Trump “or else.”

The senders posed as members of the white supremacist group The Proud Boys and claimed they had voter data that revealed for whom their targets voted — but that was a false flag, according to intelligence officials.

At a Thursday morning news conference in Charleston, West Virginia Secretary of State Mac Warner detailed the federal government’s findings and assured West Virginians that the voter registration data had not been compromised as it had in other states.

“The goal seems to be to create chaos, to cause confusion, to sow discord and to cast doubt on the legitimacy of U.S. elections,” Warner said. “Now they mentioned four states in particular were involved. I’m here to assure the voters in West Virginia that West Virginia is not one of those states. There’s been no interference here. There’s been no manipulation of data.”

Warner called concerns over election security an “ongoing situation” and said all states are potential targets for nefarious actors.

“They’re using this to try to change the minds of the electorate, not necessarily to try to change votes,” he said “They are doing this to cause social unrest, if possible.”

Warner did clarify that voter registration data is a matter of public record in West Virginia and that political parties, candidates and others often purchase that information.

“There are legal means by which they can obtain that. So that is what our 300 agencies are watching all the time, particularly the Federal Bureau of Investigation,” he said. “They are watching for that kind of activity. I think that’s the sort of thing that triggered them to this specific situation.”

Following reported Russian interference in the 2016 election, West Virginia has been considered a leader in strengthening election security. Warner noted some of the ways the state has worked to combat threats against the state, including deploying a cybersecurity expert.

“We do have a National Guard asset with a top secret security clearance who is constantly watching from the Fusion Center and in the basement of the Capitol here to watch for any sort of attempted penetration,” Warner said.

Prior to the 2016 election, former Secretary of State Natalie Tennant, who is opposing Warner for the seat this election, began using the National Guard to aid in election security efforts. Since taking office the following year, Warner has embraced the program, bringing on a guardsman to be assigned full-time to the matter.

West Virginia Secretary of State, Federal Prosecutor Warn Against Election Tampering

West Virginia’s chief elections officer and a federal prosecutor announced they are looking into an possible attempted intrusion into the state’s election system last year. The two officials held a news conference Tuesday to make note of the incident and to promote election security as part of October’s designation as National Cybersecurity Awareness Month.

Secretary of State Mac Warner said Tuesday he referred a matter to the United States Attorney’s Office that might have been an unsuccessful attempt to gain access to the state election system during the 2018 election cycle.

Warner said the incident occurred during the rollout of a mobile voting pilot for uniformed overseas absentee voters. During the pilot rollout, Warner said application vendor and Boston-based company Voatz identified activity that could have been an attempt to gain access to the system.

Warner has touted the Voatz application as a means to give wider election access to military absentee voters. However, the concept of online voting — including those on mobile applications, like Voatz — has been highly scrutinized by election and cybersecurity experts in the wake of the 2016 election. 

“In last year’s election, we detected activity that may have been an attempt to penetrate West Virginia’s mobile voting process,” Warner said. “No penetration occurred and the security protocols to protect our election process worked as designed.”

Warner also said no votes were tampered with and the integrity of the election was not compromised.

U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of West Virginia Mike Stuart held a press conference with Warner Tuesday at the federal courthouse in Charleston. 

Stuart said his office and the FBI are investigating the incident, although no determination has yet been made whether any federal laws were broken. He provided no further details on the investigation.

Even so, Warner and Stuart noted that October is National Cybersecurity Awareness Month — a period recognized by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security “to raise awareness about the importance of cybersecurity and to ensure that all Americans have the resources they need to be safer and more secure online.”

The two officials used the Tuesday news conference to warn against uninvited attempts to breach the West Virginia’s election system.

“This announcement today is to warn people that any attempt to hack an election will be fully investigated by the FBI and turned over to prosecutors when appropriate,” Warner said. 

Stuart echoed Warner’s remarks, stating that his office is prepared to pursue criminal charges against those who attempt to tamper with the state’s election system. 

“If you are a party – any party – or an individual – any individual – that intentionally compromises or attempts to intentionally compromise our election systems, the security related to our election systems, or the legitimacy of the votes cast by citizens, my office will prosecute you to the fullest extent of the law,” Stuart said. “Free and fair elections are a critical foundation to the maintenance of liberty.”

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