Connecticut's Secretary of the State said Wednesday that a hack or a cyber-attack on the state's upcoming election would be very difficult and likely wouldn't do anything to change an outcome.
Secretary of the State Denise Merrill said one of the main reasons is how decentralized the state's elections system is.
“In Connecticut, we have 169 towns who control elections in those towns," she said. "None of them are connected to the internet. I think that’s the first point to make so I think the idea that there can be some kind of national system hack is very unlikely."
In this case Connecticut's convoluted system of a voting office for each city and town works to the state's advantage.
The concerns came after Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson held a conference call with Secretaries of State this week about election security. He even said there was consideration that election equipment be deemed, "critical infrastructure."
On the topic of the likelihood of a hack that could hit the entire presidential election, Merrill said it's simply not feasible with the number of different offices and systems used throughout the country down to the local level.
“You’re talking about 8,000 or more jurisdictions and then within those 8,000 jurisdictions, literally hundreds of election processes go on this country.”
Local
In Connecticut, the only data that gets transferred is on a piece of paper that then gets inserted into an online election system, which for the first time ever will be mandatory for all local registrars to use in November. That piece of paper will then be used for a given town's specific Statement of the Vote, not the online system. The vote tabulators are merely readers that count the bubbles that have been filled on physical paper ballots. Those machines have data cards that simply track activity and those cards then analyzed after elections.
“I think it is highly improbable at best that a national system of elections could get hacked," Merrill said.
