The U.S. 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. 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 confirms 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.
“This particular IP address tried to get into our system. It was an attempt that lasted less than a second," Husted said. "If I were to try to put it in common terms, it’s like somebody walking up to a bank, pulling on the handle, finding that the door was locked and they just moved on.
“I don’t believe that anything in 2016 happened that deserves the attention that this story is getting,” Husted said.
Husted says the only access point a hacker might find is to the statewide voter database, but that’s backed up daily. And he notes 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.
The targeted states were Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, Minnesota, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin.
