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Nineteen US States Seek Help to Protect Election Systems From Hackers

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Nineteen US states have requested help from the US federal government to protect computerized election systems ahead of November’s election, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson told a conference sponsored by The Atlantic news publication on Wednesday.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — On Tuesday, Johnson testified before the US Congress that 18 states had sought assistance to protect their election systems from cyberattacks. The following day, Johnson noted, one more state has also requested help.

"I’ve been out there very publicly encouraging state and local election officials to seek our assistance… and were seeing pretty good responses from the states," Johnson said. "Some 19 states have requested our assistance and were in the midst of providing it right now."

Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton speaks at a campaign rally with Vice President Joe Biden(L), August 15, 2016, in Scranton, Pennsylvania - Sputnik International
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In November, voters in the United States will elect the next president, most members of Congress and dozens of officials at the state and local level. Unlike in many countries, voting in US national elections is managed on a state-by-state basis.

Johnson reiterated that in several instances, hackers have penetrated state voting systems to obtain data on individual voters.

The United States, Johnson added, has not determined who was responsible, and he declined to comment on allegations by some lawmakers and media reports that that blamed hackers in Russia.

Russia has repeatedly denied any involvement in the incidents and has called all such allegations absurd.

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