Hawaii, 21 other states request help to protect elections

Hawaii Attorney General Clare Connors on Tuesday joined 21 other attorneys general from throughout the country to ask Congress to take action to protect America’s elections from “persistent threats.”

In the letter, the AGs request Congress provide additional election security grants to states and localities, support the establishment of cybersecurity and audit standards for election systems and pass bipartisan election security legislation.

The letter was led by Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and addressed to four U.S. senators on key committees.

“Modernizing and securing our election infrastructure is vitally important to our democracy,” Connors said. “Our Hawaii election officials should be given the necessary resources and tools to ensure the integrity of our process. This must come in the form of funding, increased cooperation with federal officials and legislation.”

The letter notes warnings that “our election systems have been a target for foreign adversaries and that those same adversaries are currently working to undermine the upcoming elections.”

The letter follows confirmed reports that Russia successfully breached election systems in Florida, installed malware on a voting systems software company used by North Carolina and targeted the election systems of all 50 states in 2016.

Joining Connors in the letter are the attorneys general of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia and Washington.

Tuesday’s letter follows up on a similar letter that AGs from 21 states sent to Congress in July 2018.