Illinois Chronicle: Will the state’s budget crisis threaten the integrity of Illinois elections?

This article was published on September 6, 2017. A link to the article can be found here.

A Politico report found the U.S. needs hundreds of millions of dollars in order to protect elections from hacking and increase cyber security. Few states across the nation are devoting the needed funds to upgrade and protect their voting systems, but Illinois faces a unique situation due to its more than two-year budget impasse.

Officials believe it's unlikely that Illinois will come up with funding in order to secure the state's elections. The Illinois State Board of Elections spent the budget impasse "trying to keep the lights on and the doors open," said General Counsel Ken Menzel.

During the impasse, Governor Bruce Rauner pushed the state to the brink, holding the budget hostage in order to pass non-budgetary reforms. The state racked up more than $15 billion in unpaid bills to schools, social service agencies, healthcare organizations, local governments, and others. When Rauner took office, the backlog was $6 billion.

In July, lawmakers passed a state budget without the involvement of Governor Bruce Rauner. The bipartisan coalition ultimately decided the Governor's agenda – which would have pushed the state into a third consecutive year without a budget – would do irreparable damage to the state's finances and institutions. None of Rauner's major reforms were passed into law.

Illinois has already acknowledged that its voter registration system has been attacked. Hackers were found to have made attempts to delete or alter voter data.

"The Russians hacked into the Illinois State Board of Elections," Rep. Mike Quigley, a member of the House Intelligence Committee. "They got into the database," he said. "I believe they're on the doorstep to hacking into our voting systems. That is my educated guess."

As many as 90,000 records were ultimately compromised, records that include personal information like names, birthdays, driver's licenses, and partial Social Security numbers.

In total, investigators have found evidence of cyber breaches in 37 different states. Experts worry that without the additional funding to upgrade and secure systems, the U.S. – and Illinois – will be unprepared for additional attacks by Russian hackers.

"I'm concerned that we are almost as vulnerable, perhaps, now as we were six, nine months ago," former Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said.