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Election security funding stalls at Capitol

A year after Congress sent election security money to states, Minnesota is the only one that hasn't put it to use.

ST PAUL, Minn. — Minnesota was one of 21 states that had their voting systems targeted by Russian hackers in 2016, and it's the only state in the nation that hasn't put federal election security money to use.

Congress approved the money when it updated the Help America Vote Act in 2018. Minnesota's share was $6.6 million.

The North Star State is one of a handful of states where the legislature must give a green light to spend those federal funds. The House passed a version that released all $6.6 million, but the Senate's version only included $1.5 million.

"We need all of this money, and we needed it yesterday in order to safeguard and secure our elections," Secretary of State Steve Simon told KARE.

A House-Senate conference committee designed to reconcile the differences between the bills has stalled.

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The Senate's $1.5 million amount would enable Simon's staff to modernize the voter database, but it would not include the cyber security updates he's seeking.

It also wouldn't be enough to fund a "Cyber Navigator" - a state official who could work with local election officials on their IT issues.

Simon is acting on the advice of a panel of experts who made recommendations to shore up the system. He is also acting on advice of federal Homeland Security officials who toured his office.

"We need to make sure going into a presidential election year that our elections system is as secure as it can possibly be, and to do the things the intelligence community says we have to do, that’s going to take money and it’s the very reason the federal government made that money available to us."

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