How Can States Protect Their Election Systems?

By Hans von Spakovsky

Anonymous law-enforcement sources are telling the media that up to 10 states have had their voter registration databases “probed or breached” by hackers — most likely Russians, according to cybersecurity experts.

But there is no indication that any voter information in those databases was altered or deleted, or that we are facing a realistic threat that the outcome of the November election will be changed by cyber criminals. Is this yet another leak intended to push state election officials into involving the Feds in their administration of local elections?

No one should discount or underestimate the dangers from these types of cyber intrusions, but as explained in a Conservative Review story back in August, there is still no credible evidence of a successful cyberattack on our voting and ballot-counting system (which is separate from the voter-registration databases “probed” in these states). All these revelations emphasize is that those states that have brought voter registration online are acting foolishly, since that gives hackers an internet pathway into their registration databases. And there is no reason to provide online registration — getting registered to vote is already extremely easy. Adding online registration is of only marginal benefit in comparison to the increased risks it brings.

There is no question that hackers could cause major headaches if they were able to hack into voter-registration databases and alter data, which could cause registered voters problems when they go vote. But it should be kept in mind that under federal law, any individual who shows up at a polling place and claims he or she is eligible and registered to vote will not be turned away even if his or her registration has been deleted or changed. Those voters are given provisional ballots and, if an investigation after Election Day bears out their claims, their vote is counted. States could greatly diminish the chances of this type of cyber intrusion happening through a very simple expedient: stop online voter registration.

Jeh Johnson, the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, seems to have backed away from designating our nationwide election system as “critical infrastructure,” as he was threatening to do only a month ago. He did issue a press release on Oct. 1 praising a letter sent to the National Association of State Election Directors by Paul Ryan, R-Wisc. (F, 51%), Nancy Pelosi, D, Calif. (F, 11%), Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. (F, 40%), and Harry Reid, D, Nev. (F, 2%) urging state election officials to “take full advantage of the robust public and private sector resources available to them to ensure that their network infrastructure is secure from attack.”
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But that Sept. 28 letter emphasized that these congressional leaders “would oppose any effort by the federal government to exercise any degree of control over the states’ administration of elections by designating these systems as critical infrastructure.”