[V]ermont Secretary of State Jim Condos is urging Congress to take action on election security after former special counsel Robert Mueller and the Senate Intelligence Committee highlighted Russian efforts to infiltrate American elections systems this week.
“If you look at both of those together, they have basically been consistent that the Russians did attack us, the Russians will attack us, this is not going away, this is a very serious issue,” Condos said Friday.
Condos is encouraging Congress to pass legislation to help states address the cybersecurity threats election systems face, including providing more funding and requiring states to produce a paper record of ballots.
The report released by the Senate Intelligence Committee Thursday, on the tails of Mueller’s testimony, found that Russia likely scanned the election systems in all 50 states — a more extensive effort to find vulnerabilities than had previously been publicly revealed. The Department of Homeland Security said in 2017 that 21 states had been targeted.
Condos said the state was aware that its election system was being scanned for vulnerabilities in 2016 — there are “tens of thousands” of scans a day, he said. He likened a scan to a burglar “trying to doorknob to see if the door opens or looking through a window to see if there’s an access to get in.”
“And we’re blocking every one of them,” Condos said.
When federal authorities alerted states to a potential Russian threat in 2016, Condos said state officials knew about efforts to detect vulnerabilities in the state’s system, though not particularly Russian actors.
“I don’t think that the information we got two years ago or three years ago, or the information that’s coming out today is really that much different,” he said. “I think it’s just the way it’s been packaged.”
Condos emphasizes that no attempts to access Vermont’s election system have been successful.
“Vermont was not infiltrated at all,” he said. “We did our jobs.”
The committee’s report, which was heavily redacted, examines Russian efforts to access election systems in 21 states. Though foreign actors were able to infiltrate Illinois’ system, there is no evidence that any votes were changed.
Last year, the protections the state and federal governments have put in place got a test when Vermont officials detected efforts to scan the system from Russian IP addresses. Condos alerted federal authorities to the effort, and election officials across the country were notified. He and his office view the incident as an instance of the system functioning successfully.
Condos, who testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee on election security in 2018 as the then-president of the National Association of Secretaries of State, said he was glad to see Mueller highlight the ongoing threat posed to U.S. election systems in his testimony this week.
During a full day of testimony before two U.S. House committees Wednesday, Mueller told lawmakers Russian efforts were not a one-time event. “They’re doing it as we sit here,” he said.
While Mueller was being questioned by Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., he suggested that the best way to address the efforts of foreign actors is collaboration among U.S. enforcement agencies.
“The first line of defense really is the ability of the various agencies who have some piece of this to not only share information but share expertise, share targets and use the full resources that we have to address this problem,” Mueller said.
There have been proposals considered in Congress to bolster election security efforts. However, on Thursday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell blocked two Democrat-backed measures that would increase funding to states as well as require them to use paper ballots.
McConnell, who called the legislation “partisan,” has pointed to concerns of federal overreach in election systems, which are managed by states.
But Condos said, though there is a need to be cautious about maintaining state authority over election management, federal resources and support are needed.
“What we really need is for the president and Sen. McConnell to stop dismissing the threat from Russia, to stop calling it a hoax to face up to it and help the states,” Condos said, “because we as states can do only so much, and we can’t do it alone.”
He feels that it is appropriate for Congress to mandate certain electoral practices, such as utilizing backup paper ballots and requiring post-election audits — both of which are currently used in Vermont’s system.
Meanwhile, Vermont is continuing to make changes to improve the security of its election systems. Eric Covey, Condos’ chief of staff, pointed to implementation of two-factor authentication for anybody with access to the election system, trainings for people who work with the system to identify suspicious emails, and efforts to replace tabulators.
Condos said the work to protect the election system from threats is ongoing, and will continue to be.
“Cybersecurity is a race without a finish line,” he said.
