How Wisconsin increased election security after Russian hack attempt in 2016

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The Wisconsin Elections Commission says the voting system was safe when Russian government agents attempted hacking into the registration system in 2016, and it is safer today.

"We have done a great deal since 2016 to not only enhance the security, not only of our voter registration system, but also the vote counting systems we have," commission spokesperson Reid Magney said.

In addition to working with Homeland Security to increase security, the state trained local election officials.

"The state rolled out a lot of new protocols related to cyber security,"Milwaukee Elections Commission Director Neil Albrecht said. "They impact us as users on the system, and obviously we're observing those protocols."

The state says if you are concerned about security, the entire process, from the voting, to the processing, to the certifying of votes after election day, is all open for the public to see.

"They can observe that process of how that happens, and how those certifications happen," Wisconsin Elections Commission Administrator Meagan Wolfe said. "How reconciliation takes place. They can actually attend those events and watch how that process takes place for themselves."

The state also points out hackers tried to access the registration system in 2016. The vote tallying system is more difficult to hack because it isn't online. The votes are kept on paper, and results are checked against a physical tape.

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