Election hacking chatter takes a back seat to web page re-dos

With allegations of political hacking dominating national news, you might be excused for expecting that election cybersecurity would be a hot topic Thursday at the House Government Operations and Elections Policy Committee.

After all, the panel was hosting two of the state’s top election and campaign officials: Secretary of State Steve Simon and Jeff Sigurdson, executive director at the Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board.

But discussion of election-season online shenanigans turned out to be more of an afterthought as Simon crowed about Minnesota regaining the nation’s voter-turnout crown in November and Sigurdson pointed to the campaign board’s mission to promote public confidence in state government.

Indeed, both men touted new online resources their agencies are rolling out.

Simon said a web application that his office debuted two weeks ago is making the state’s appointment process for boards and commissions “far more accessible.”

Information that the secretary of state's office website previously presented in static PDFs posted online “and not refreshed very often,” Simon said, is now available in a fully interactive and up-to-date public database of all applicants, appointment decisions and current rosters of boards and commissions.

Meanwhile, Sigurdson invited committee members to give a test run to the campaign board’s new main website, which is now “rolled out on a soft basis.” There, visitors can search for filings and other information from candidates, lobbyists, elected officials and more.

Election security did come up once during the hearing, as Simon recalled high public concern in 2016.

“In this last election,” he said, “because of reports in the press, we were extra vigilant, as were all secretaries of state, I think, when it comes to cybersecurity.”

Besides his agency’s in-house staff and Minnesota IT Services, Simon said, “we hired an outside vendor to basically find our vulnerabilities and to try to poke holes.”

Rep. Jim Nash (R-Waconia) said he and Simon had discussed “the misperception of some foreign entity perhaps messing around with our elections.” Both agreed, Nash said, “that that was a little far-flung, and you put that to rest.”