Boone County election security – protecting polls from hackers & threats

The official election day for Boone County is Aug 7. Boone County Clerk Taylor Burks said the election world is “trying to play catchup” to cyber security threats.

The Department of Homeland Security revealed over twenty states were targeted by hackers in 2016 but Missouri was not one of them.

“That doesn’t mean they were penetrated or that they were hacked or specifically that voter results were changed,” he said.

Boone County has attempts all the time, Burks said. Firewalls are used to help protection election data.

Missouri is slated to receive $7.2 million from the U.S. Election Assistance Commission. Burks said he hopes funds go towards the Missouri National Guard Cyber Security Unit which helps to monitor external threats to the state’s election system.

Burks said with the new voter ID law, people should bring their driver’s license to the polls. If they do not have one he recommends getting a non-driver’s license and the state has a process to pay for it.

Number of registered voters for this year’s primary election had doubled from 2014.