State investigates Russian investor's ties to Maryland elections software.

'Maryland officials are investigating a Russian investor’s ties to a local software vendor that maintains part of the State Board of Elections’ voter registration system, legislative leaders said Friday.

At a hastily called news conference, Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller and House Speaker Michael Busch said the FBI informed them and Gov. Larry Hogan that without the state’s knowledge, a Russian investor had bought the software vendor in 2015.

Miller called the news “shocking,” but said the FBI did not indicate that Maryland elections had been compromised.

“We felt it imperative that our constituents know that a Russian oligarch has purchased our election machinery,” Miller said.

The men said they have asked federal officials to help the State Board of Elections review the system to ensure there have been no breaches.

Deputy Election Administrator Nikki Charlson said officials would audit existing data, review their defenses and implement any changes to secure the systems before November’s general election.

The FBI informed the state Thursday that a vendor Maryland has contracted with — ByteGrid LLC — to host data for statewide elections has ties to a Russian oligarch, officials said.

ByteGrid LLC owns the servers that hold the data for voter registration, candidacy, election management, and election night results, state elections officials said. An ownership stake in the company was purchased by AltPoint Capital Partners, whose largest investor is a Russian oligarch named Vladimir Potanin, the election officials said.'>>>

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/politics/bs-md-election-russia-20180713-story.html