Report: New Jersey 1 of top 5 states vulnerable to election hacking

<p>Democrats in New Jersey and other states want Congress to put more money into protecting voting machines from hacking, but those funds appear to be hard to come by.</p>

News 12 Staff

Aug 6, 2018, 3:45 PM

Updated 2,098 days ago

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Democrats in New Jersey and other states want Congress to put more money into protecting voting machines from hacking, but those funds appear to be hard to come by.
“Anything that can potentially affect our election process concerns me whether I'm on the ballot or not,” says Sen. Bob Menendez. “Because the essence of democracy is people get to elect their representatives and they must have faith and confidence in a system that guarantees that election at the end of the day. So we're going to continue to fight to get resources for the state but time is running out in terms of making those resources effective.”
Sen. Menendez says he's seen no evidence Russian hackers have targeted his campaign or staff so far.
Reports last month indicated the hackers targeted the staff of Sen. Claire McCasskil, a Missouri Democrat up for re-election in November.
A recent report found New Jersey is one of the top five states vulnerable to election hacking.
The reason is because voting machines are paperless, and there's no way to audit the vote if something goes wrong.
NJ Attorney General Gurbir Grewal has written to Congress, saying the nearly $10 million that was already allocated to the state for election security is "simply insufficient to provide for the upgraded technology needed."
Menendez also said today he is not one of the Democrats who wants to #AbolishICE.
The senator was critical of the federal agency, which he said has become a deportation machine under President Donald Trump.
But Menendez wants to reform ICE, saying that as long as Trump is in office, the president could use any federal agency to deport people.


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