Senator Bill Nelson told the truth about this, and Governor RICHARD LYNN SCOTT lied about this, during the 2018 Senate race. SCOTT "won" by 10,333 votes.
From Politico and The Washington Post:
Panhandle county that backed Trump among Russian hacking victims
TALLAHASSEE — Russian hackers breached a county elections department in the Florida Panhandle where voters turned out heavily for President Donald Trump in 2018, according to a report confirmed by POLITICO.
Washington County was one two counties successfully hacked by Russians seeking voter information files. The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security in the past week have briefed Gov. Ron DeSantis and Florida’s congressional delegation about the attack, but federal authorities have asked that the names of the two counties be kept confidential.
The Washington Post reported that Russians were able to access Washington County voter information files. A person in Florida familiar with the investigation confirmed that Washington County was targeted after the attack had been revealed by officials in Washington, D.C. Two people in Florida said they suspect the second hacked elections office was in a mid-sized county on the East Coast of the state.
While it was known that Russians targeted Florida ahead of the 2016 election, the first confirmation that the effort was successful came in March, when special counsel Robert Mueller issued a report on Russian interference. The news jolted Florida officials, who had insisted that the effort three years ago was unsuccessful.
DeSantis this week revealed that Russians successfully accessed the voter information records of two counties. But he and other officials have emphasized the FBI's position that the hacking did not affect vote tallying. There is no evidence of "manipulation” of voter information, according to DeSantis and others briefed by the bureau.
Washington County, which has roughly 25,000 residents, is in the middle of the Panhandle and north of Bay County, where Hurricane Michael made landfall last year. Trump in 2016 received 77 percent of the more than 11,000 votes cast in the county.
Members of Florida’s congressional delegation on Thursday expressed frustration that they are only now getting details about the successful intrusion.
While officials at the FBI and Department of Homeland Security say they have no evidence voter databases were tampered with by Russian hackers, "there's more to follow there," said Rep. Michael Waltz (R-Fla.) during a Capitol Hill press conference after a classified briefing from the agencies.
"We have a lot of questions across our delegation on how the FBI came to that determination," Waltz said.
Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell (D-Fla.) said lawmakers weren't able to determine with "certainty" that the databases hadn't been tampered with. The FBI, she said, told them hackers were able to "enter the garage" but not "the house" of the two county networks.
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Russian government hackers targeted small county in Florida panhandle in 2016
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) was among the House members briefed Thursday by FBI and Department of Homeland Security officials about the Russian hacking of voter databases in two Florida counties in 2016. (Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)
The voter registration database of a small county in the Florida panhandle was breached by Russian government hackers in 2016, according to two U.S. officials.
The Russian military spy agency, the GRU, was responsible for the penetration of Washington County’s database, according to the two officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter. The county has a population of about 25,000.
Carol F. Rudd, county elections supervisor, declined to comment on the breach but said it’s important for federal, state and local officials to be able to communicate confidentially. “If each agency gets suspicious of the other’s ability to follow the rules of confidentiality, then those tenuous lines of communication quickly break down,” she said in an email. “That would set our security capabilities back years and severely compromise our ability to protect our elections. THAT would be a big win for the Russians going into 2020.”
Then-Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner said he was “prohibited by law from commenting.” But “the citizens deserve and have a right to know important things with regard to their election security. Over time, it’ll come out.”
Congressional members from Florida are promising legislation to change the rules about breach notification related to election infrastructure after the FBI confirmed that voter databases in two Florida counties were hacked during the 2016 election and told lawmakers the information was classified. It is unclear which other Florida county was targeted.
The bipartisan effort is an attempt to force federal law enforcement agencies to disclose more information about cyberattacks as they occur.
“It is untenable to continue to hold this information classified and not to let the public know,” said Rep. Stephanie Murphy (D-Fla.). “This chaotic, drib drab of information that is coming out is doing more harm to constituents’ faith in our electoral system.”
Lawmakers took particular offense at the FBI’s assertion that it could not publicly disclose the information not only out of concern for protecting sources and methods, but also because the bureau considers county officials to be victims of the Russian hacking.
“That rationale is ludicrous,” said Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), who was briefed Thursday with Murphy. “The victims in these cases are not government officeholders. The victims are voters.”
But some U.S. officials say it’s not the federal government’s place to out victimized localities.
The lawmakers were frustrated that the FBI and Department of Homeland Security officials who briefed them weren’t able to guarantee the breaches hadn’t resulted in election information being compromised. The officials would say only that they found “no evidence” that any data was altered or affected, lawmakers said. Officials also assured them vote counts and electoral processes were not affected.
“We couldn’t get with certainty verification that the Russians were not able to manipulate the data that they had access to,” said Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell (D-Fla.).
The Florida House members’ reaction differed from that of Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), who received an FBI briefing Wednesday. In a statement, Scott also said he wanted the information to be made public, but that he was “confident in the security of Florida’s elections.”
Neena Satijah contributed to this report.
