Elections cyber threat: Gov. Scott Walker's admin has been the holdup to filling the jobs.

STATE ELECTIONS SECURITY | POSITIONS WON’T BE FILLED BY PRIMARIES
As election nears and feds warn of cyber threats, Wisconsin election-security posts sit vacant

https://madison.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/as-election-nears-and-feds-warn-of-cyber-threats-wisconsin/article_826dde49-06c5-596f-b271-37ca7513c434.html

MARK SOMMERHAUSER msommerhauser@madison.com Jul 21, 2018 0


Elections cyber threats

Voters file in and out of the Olbrich Gardens polling location during the spring election. New state staff positions to help secure elections from cyber threats remain unfilled and some say it's critical the positions are filled soon.


Six new state positions to help secure Wisconsin elections from cyber threats remain vacant months after being created, and members of the Elections Commission say Gov. Scott Walker’s administration has been the holdup to filling the jobs.

It’s now clear the positions won’t be filled before the Aug. 14 primary election. At least one commissioner and a Democratic state legislative leader say it’s critical that the roles are filled by the November midterms.

National security officials have warned that malicious cyber actors, including those tied to the Russian government, this year may reprise or intensify their attacks on U.S. election systems.

The bipartisan state Elections Commission voted in April to create and fill the six staff positions, in addition to its existing 25.75 positions, as part of preparing for the 2018 elections. All six jobs have some election-security duties and three are focused on it: two are in elections IT and one provides security training to local election workers.
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“The Wisconsin Elections Commission is fully capable of running a secure election on Aug. 14 with our current staff,” Magney said. “We had hoped to have new staff on board before the partisan primary so they would have the benefit of experiencing an election day before the general election in November, but that is not essential.”................. .............................

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