Homeland Security: No Wisconsin Election Threats Have Been Seen

A security official for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security says no new threats against election security in Wisconsin have been detected to date ahead of the November midterm election.

Wisconsin was the target of Russian hackers before the 2016 election. Federal and state officials have said Wisconsin’s elections systems were not compromised, but the state and Elections Commission have taken numerous steps since then to increase security.

Alex Joves is the regional director for infrastructure protection with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in Chicago. He testified at a hearing Tuesday of the Wisconsin Elections Commission. When asked about signs of attempts to infiltrate Wisconsin’s election system, Joves said “we are not seeing anything to date.”

But he says “processes and protocols” are in place to prevent hacking attempts.

Voters Back On The Rolls After Being Cut Last Year

The Wisconsin Elections Commission has agreed to allow local election clerks to reinstate voter registration for voters who were wrongly cut from the rolls last year.

The commission voted unanimously at its meeting to allow for the clerks to reinstate the voters ahead of the Nov. 6 midterm election.

The move came after Milwaukee city and election officials complained that as many as 32,000 voters could have been wrongly removed there.

Notices were sent last year to about 340,000 voters, letting them know they may need to update their registration. Those who didn’t were removed.

Milwaukee Election Commission director Neil Albrecht testified Tuesday that after this spring’s primary his office identified about 100 voters who were deactivated but shouldn’t have been.

Editor’s note: This story was last updated at 1:41 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2018, with information regarding the voting voter rolls.