Rock Island County Clerk, Karen Kinney, is waiting to find out what elected officials have learned about potential cyber-attacks on election systems in Illinois.
In June, US Senator Dick Durbin and Illinois State Senator Michael Hastings (Tinley Park) sent all the county clerks a questionnaire. The answers should help them assess the current state of registration, voting, and tabulating systems in the state.
WVIK's Michelle O'Neill talks with Kinney who says hackers have not attacked her office's voting equipment, computers, or voter registration rolls.
Summary
Besides steering clear of the internet, the Rock Island County Clerk also says election officials must use analog phone lines instead of digital ones to keep information private. And Kinney says they should never synchronize databases and other voting information across networks.
Kinney and her staff in the Rock Island County Clerk's office have already started taking steps to improve security in other areas.
At each poll and early voting site, Kinney says a computer is available for election judges to access Rock Island County's voter registration files. The database is encrypted and stored using software called a poll book. And she says voters can choose whether to use a touch-screen machine or a paper ballot.
Illinois State Board of Elections is working with Durbin and Hastings. hey're waiting for to receive more responses from all the election authorities.
