[Infowarrior] - State Officials Say They Are Told Too Little About Election Threats

[Richard Forno]

State Officials Say They Are Told Too Little About Election Threats
By Michael Wines

Feb. 19, 2018

WASHINGTON — More than 15 months after a general election that was stained by covert Russian interference, the chief election officials of some states say they are still not getting the information they need to safeguard the vote.

They say the federal government is not sharing specifics about threats to registered voter databases, voting machines, communication networks and other systems that could be vulnerable to hacking and manipulation.

In some cases, the election officials say they have no legal access to the information: After a year of effort, only 21 of them have received clearance to review classified federal information on election threats.

Top federal officials have promised to do better. Still, some leaders worry that there will not be enough time to protect the integrity of the midterm election season, which will kick off in some states in the next few weeks.

“It’s not about 2020, it’s not about November 2018 — it’s about primaries that are upon us now,” said Alex Padilla, California’s secretary of state.

The state officials expressed their unhappiness at a meeting of the National Organization of Secretaries of State that ended on Monday. The officials from Washington, West Virginia and other states complained openly about the quality and speed of federal cooperation.

Their worries were underscored by the indictment of 13 Russians last week in connection with an elaborate online campaign to boost Donald J. Trump’s candidacy in 2016 and to demonize Hillary Clinton. Hours after the indictment was announced, President Trump’s national security adviser, Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster, said it was “incontrovertible” that Moscow was engaging in a campaign of “disinformation, subversion and espionage” that he said Washington would continue to expose.

Some state leaders said they were disappointed over a classified briefing they received on Friday on the threat posed by Russia, saying that senior intelligence officials left a great deal unclear, including the precise nature of the threat and exactly why state officials were being left in the dark.

“I would have thought that behind closed doors yesterday would have been the time to say, ‘This is why this stuff has to be classified,’ and I heard none of it,” Mac Warner, the Republican secretary of state in West Virginia, said on Saturday at a discussion of security preparations for the 2018 election season. “The phrase ‘rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic’ comes to mind.”

Department of Homeland Security officials acknowledged the need for improvement. “That’s the No. 1 goal for us — to make sure you get what you need,” Christopher Krebs, the department’s acting undersecretary for national protection, told the state officials. “A year ago, I don’t think we had that self-awareness and humility, but things are a little bit different now.”

Still, the federal officials urged the state secretaries to take their word that the threat from Russia and possibly other countries was substantial, even if they were not given specifics.

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https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/19/us/elections-states-hacking.html