Feds slow in reviewing states’ election systems

With the midterm congressional primaries about to go into full swing, the Department of Homeland Security has completed security reviews of election systems in only about half the states that have requested them.

The government’s slow pace in conducting the reviews has raised concerns that the nation’s voting systems could be vulnerable to hacking, especially after U.S. intelligence agencies warned that Russia plans to continue meddling in the country’s elections.

Among those still waiting for Homeland Security to conduct a risk assessment is Indiana, one of four states with primaries on Tuesday. Its ballot includes several hotly contested races, including a Republican primary for a U.S. Senate seat.

Indiana Secretary of State Connie Lawson said she is confident that state officials have done what they can to safeguard Tuesday’s voting, but she acknowledged: “I’ll probably be chewing my fingernails during the entire day on Election Day.”

Like other states, Indiana used a private vendor to conduct a risk assessment and is one of 33 states and 32 local election offices that are receiving remote cyber scanning services from Homeland Security to identify vulnerabilities in their networks.

Of the three other states holding primaries on Tuesday, Ohio and North Carolina said they had received on-site reviews by Homeland Security. Election officials in West Virginia said they plan to request a federal risk assessment before the November election. They asked the National Guard to help monitor the election networks Tuesday.

The nation’s intelligence chiefs warned this year that Russia remains interested in disrupting U.S. elections after a multipronged effort to interfere two years ago. That included attempts to hack into the election systems of 21 states. Election officials in nine of those states said they are still waiting for a DHS risk assessment, according to a nationwide AP survey.

U.S. security agencies say that Russian hackers managed to breach the voter rolls in Illinois in 2016. That state and Texas are the only two to have held statewide primaries this year, and neither reported any intrusion into their election systems.