Stand with Reality Winner (standwithreality.org)

State election officials didn’t know their election systems had been hacked by Russian intelligence until they read the report in The Intercept about the document allegedly leaked by Reality Winner, according to a CBS News article.

Intelligence and law enforcement withheld information

Connie Lawson, President-Elect of the National Association of Secretaries of State, testified to a Senate panel that information about Russian interference into U.S. election systems was withheld from state election officials, who only learned about the serious security vulnerabilities when they read about them in The Intercept:

“It remains unclear why our intelligence agencies would withhold timely and specific threat information from chief state election officials, who can use it to better defend their systems and neutralize specific threats,” said Lawson.

Steve Sandovoss, Executive of Illinois’ State Board of Elections said that FBI officials never even informed them that it was the Russians who were behind the attacks on voting systems.

When asked if there were any remaining states that were not aware if they were attacked, Lawson said her home state of Indiana was never notified of such an intrusion, and assumed many others were not as well.

Reality Winner is the alleged source of the document. She’s being charged under the Espionage Act, a law intended for prosecuting foreign spies, for allegedly leaking a document confirming interference in election systems by foreign intelligence agencies.

The document said Russian intelligence agents successfully infiltrated voter databases before the 2016 election. News reports later confirmed intrusions into databases in 21 states.

Senators say information should have been public

Senator Mark Warner (D-Virginia) said the country is “not any safer” not knowing which states were affected by the intrusion.:

“He said it was “totally unacceptable” local election officials don’t even know if their state was part of the 21 targeted, saying there are many who claim Russia was not behind the attack, making the issue of notifying election officials even more vital.

Senator Marco (R-Florida) agreed, saying:

“It is important Americans understand how our voting systems work and communicate that in real time.” He suggested if additional reports on compromised systems occurs in the 2018 election “we can put out information in September so there aren’t any doubts.”

Despite these Senators confirming the importance of having this information out in the open, the Department of Justice is pursuing an extremely harsh sentence of up to ten years in prison for Reality Winner.