Officials testify in Congress about election integrity, worker protection efforts before November

WASHINGTON — With election day less than two months away, members of U.S. Congress met with top elections officials from around the United States to discuss what’s being done to secure the vote in November.

Channel 2 Washington Correspondent Kirstin Garriss was in Washington, where secretaries of state from across the country testified about the issues they’re facing before election day.

Still, with less than eight whole weeks to go before the presidential election, both Democratic and Republican officials say they’re ready.

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Jocelyn Benson, the Michigan Secretary of State, said steps for securing elections aren’t a mystery.

“We know what we must do to make sure our elections are secure in our states,” Benson told Congress.

In some states, like Ohio, officials said election security means upgrades to cybersecurity infrastructure.

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“As well as vulnerability disclosure policies so yes we ask the good guys to try to hack us and tell us where there are holes in our fence so we can patch those,” Ohio Sec. of State Frank LaRose said.

LaRose also said Ohio is taking steps to remove noncitizens from voter rolls, among other updates to their voter registry.

“We have found that just in the last year alone nearly 600 noncitizens registered to vote. we have removed them from the voter roll and yes, referred them for prosecution,” LaRose said.

In addition to vote security, some Democratic secretaries of state say there are security concerns about worker protections for those running elections, saying that administrators and their families have been receiving threats and harassment in the lead-up to November.

“[They] make us afraid to go to work, afraid to go grocery shopping, afraid to take our kids to school, afraid to go into our backyard,” Benson said.

Some of those officials think the threats are fueled by the spread of false information about the accuracy of elections.

“I need you to be on notice that unsubstantiated allegations and rhetoric without evidence makes our elections less secure because they erode the public’s confidence in elections,” Benson told Congress.

Earlier this year, U.S. Congress approved $55 million in election security grants for the states, but some officials think they need more consistent federal funding to make necessary improvements.

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