INTERVIEW – HANS VON SPAKOVSKY- former counsel to the assistant attorney general for civil rights in the Justice Department, former commissioner for the Federal Election Commission from 2006 to 2007 and senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation

TOPIC:
– Hackers targeted election systems in 21 states, DHS says. The federal government on Friday told election officials in 21 states that hackers targeted their systems last year, although in most cases the systems were not breached. The government told The Associated Press last year that more than 20 states were targeted by hackers believed to be Russian agents before the 2016 elections. But for many states, the calls Friday from the Department of Homeland Security were the first official confirmation of whether their states were on the list.

– DHS authority over state elections at stake in October meeting. The Department of Homeland Security and election officials from around the country are expected to meet in October to begin working toward an understanding of what authority DHS has over the country’s election systems since it designated those systems as “critical infrastructure.”