SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Mitt Romney’s Senate candidacy in Utah is adding urgency to election officials’ work to beef up security and guard against the threat of voting interference from Russian hackers.
Lt. Gov. Spencer Cox said Tuesday the presence of the onetime presidential candidate and Russia critic on the ballot is among the reasons why the state is taking extra steps to ensure the Nov. 6 midterm election is secure.
He says the state has updated voting equipment, invested in additional monitoring software and ramped up testing of its cyber defenses. He’s hoping those steps can also help counter heightened voter mistrust in U.S. election systems.
Utah was not among the states whose election systems were targeted by Russian hackers in 2016, but state-run websites already fend off up to 1 billion attacks in a single day.
