‘We are prepared’: Secretary of State Merrill says as Covid, cyberattacks loom over election

Covid-19, threats of voter intimidation and charges of fraud by the incumbent president have combined to sow more than their share of uncertainty over the November election.

But, Connecticut Secretary of the State Denise Merrill says, there is no cause for undue alarm about what will happen on Nov. 3; instead, she and the system she oversees have got this.

“We”™ve done a lot” to prepare for the election, Merrill told the Business Journal. “Since 2016 we”™ve had a much closer relationship with the Department of Homeland Security and we”™ve increased our networking with other states and with federal law enforcement agencies.”

Many of those efforts are centered around combating what Merrill calls “bad actors” ”“ foreign and domestic ”“ that are tirelessly mounting cyberattacks against the state”™s voting system.

“We didn”™t even know it was going on in 2016 at first,” she said. “That”™s no longer true.”

Connecticut was one of 21 states that had their online voter registration databases targeted by Russian hackers during the election four years ago; while those efforts failed, Merrill said, it was obvious that cyberattacks would continue into the future.

The state received $5.1 million from the federal government to make the necessary upgrades to its software and to help train local officials on how to recognize and report potential security breaches.

The local level, the secretary said, is “where the vulnerability is.” One municipality was still using Microsoft 7 for voting tabulation not so long ago, she said, “so we put in an upgrade and provided training to bring them up to date.”

She noted that Hartford was the target of a ransomware attack in September, forcing the postponement of the first day of school. The attack was ultimately unsuccessful due largely to newly installed cybersecurity software, according to Mayor Luke Bronin.

Merrill has also enlisted the National Guard to help her office assess and address shortcomings in each of the state”™s 169 municipalities.

“A lot of (cyberattacks) are well-funded, and they have pretty sophisticated systems too,” she said. “Finding them can be like a needle in a haystack. But we”™re pretty good too ”“ no one has ever gotten into our voter registration system.”

Also playing in Connecticut”™s favor is the fact that it still tabulates votes by hand, Merrill said. “We print our voter lists constantly,” she said. “If a ransomware attack were to happen on Election Day, we”™re not relying on a network but on the lists that are available at the polls.”

Tabulating machines are operated by hand independently of the state”™s election management system, “which is a blessing and a curse,” she said. “It takes more time, but it”™s worth it. There”™s not a direct upload for the tabulators to the system ”“ everything has to be typed in by hand. We”™re sacrificing speed for security.”

The state is facing a potentially huge turnout on Nov. 3, with a record 2.2 million-plus Connecticut residents registered to date; roughly 1.64 million voted in 2016, with Hillary Clinton defeating Donald Trump by about 13%.

Merrill confirmed that as of Sept. 30, about 426,500 absentee ballot applications had been processed statewide, representing 26% of registered Democrats, 14% of registered Republicans and 15% of unaffiliated voters. In 2016, all absentee ballots totaled 126,948.

On Oct. 2, Gov. Ned Lamont signed into law a measure that should at least partially help speed up the counting of votes. It allows local election officials to open the outer envelope used in absentee ballots and verify the legitimacy of the inner envelope beginning on Oct. 30 at 5 p.m., rather than 6 a.m. on Election Day, as was previously required. The inner envelope, which contains a voter”™s submitted ballot, still cannot be opened or the ballot counted until the day of the election.

As part of that bill, Bridgeport ”“ which has experienced some questionable absentee voting episodes in the past ”“ will have a federally funded Election Day monitor this year. The move was made in part due to the role absentee ballots played in last year”™s Democratic mayoral primary.

State Sen. Marilyn Moore defeated incumbent Mayor Joe Ganim 4,721 to 4,337 in that primary, but an absentee ballot tally of 967 to 313 pushed Ganim to a 5,304 to 5,034 victory. Moore has questioned the validity of such an overwhelming 654 absentee-vote swing.

Ganim went on to easily win re-election over Republican challenger John Rodriguez by a 60% to 10% majority; Moore, as a write-in candidate, received over 29.5% of the vote.

 

Trump behavior ”˜shocking”™
When the subject turned to criticism by Trump and others of absentee voting being somehow open to widespread fraud, Merrill waved those concerns away.

“We are extremely restrictive here compared to other states,” she said, “but we”™ve allowed absentee ballots in Connecticut since 1832.”

Trump ”“ who famously has voted by mail-in ballot himself in New York”™s 2017 mayoral election, the Empire State”™s 2018 midterm election and in Florida”™s Republican primary this year ”“ is being “harmful” with such claims, Merrill said.

“I never imagined that a sitting president would question our elections,” she said. “He”™s making it up. None of the examples he cited the other night (during the Sept. 29 debate against Democrat Joe Biden) were true. It”™s shocking to me that he would try to undermine faith in our elections.

“And his assertion that he will not necessarily abide by the results of the election is the most shocking of all,” Merrill said.

The secretary said the state is braced for an unprecedented level of absentee balloting next month, though she doubted that it will be at as high a rate as the roughly 68% of residents who took that route during the primaries, with Greenwich and Fairfield having particularly high rates.

“We usually get only around 5%,” she said. “My guess is that (on Nov. 3) we”™ll see 30 to 40% (absentee).”

She said she was also stunned by Trump”™s assertion during the debate that “my supporters (should) go into the polls and watch very carefully” ”“ a statement that many took as encouraging the intimidation of voters.

“That”™s a crime in Connecticut and in every state in the country,” Merrill said. “(State Attorney General) William Tong and I have been very clear about voter intimidation at the polling place.”

Merrill said complaints about intimidation in years past have usually involved “aggressive campaigning” or violating the “75-foot rule,” which prevents anyone from soliciting support for, or opposition to, a candidate within a 75-foot radius of the entrance to a polling place.

“I can”™t imagine” an actual bullying situation on Nov. 3, Merrill said, “but if one occurs, we are prepared to respond.”

The secretary issued a statement on Sept. 30 further decrying Trump”™s claims, which read in part: “I want to make crystal clear that Connecticut and federal law prohibits intimidating or threatening voters for the purpose of interfering with their right to vote. In Connecticut, we take voter intimidation extremely seriously and our laws explicitly restrict access to the polling places to voters and people who are appointed by the local registrars of voters to perform specific Election Day rolls.

“My office has also seen a significant uptick in complaints, questions and concerns from voters who are scared that the president of the United States will be invalidating their absentee ballots,” the statement continued. “Connecticut voters should know that the president’s claims are baseless and that every valid vote cast in Connecticut will be a vote counted. Connecticut voters can confidently and safely cast their votes by the method of their choosing, either by absentee ballot or in a socially distanced polling place, knowing that their votes will be counted by their local election officials.

“The president”™s comments are wildly irresponsible, not rooted in facts or evidence, and could result in discouraging voters from participating in our democratic process,” the statement concluded.

“No voter should ever have to choose between protecting their health and exercising their right to vote, or feel intimidated by casting their vote in person, and in Connecticut they absolutely will not.”

A hotline has been established to process reports of such behavior, Merrill said.

Admitting that November”™s election will almost certainly be like no other, the secretary noted that voters can track their registration and election results in real time at the state”™s www.myvotect.gov website, and the status of their own ballot at https://portaldir.ct.gov/sots/LookUp.aspx.