St. Johns County Congressman leading bipartisan effort to require notifications about elections hacking

Jacksonville, FL — A St. Johns County-area congressman is leading a new, bipartisan effort to require government officials and some voters be notified if there is an election system breach.

US Representatives Michael Waltz (R) and Stephanie Murphy (D) have formally unveiled the Achieving Lasting Electoral Reforms on Transparency and Security, also known as the ALERTS Act. 

Under the ALERTS Act, the Department of Homeland Security would be required to notify state and local officials, certain members of Congress, and potentially affected voters when a breach of elections systems is identified. However, it does create an exception for notifying the public, if it's determined that it would compromise intelligence sources or cause issues for an ongoing investigation.

"The FBI's notification protocol is inadequate and unacceptable. Voters and state and local officials have the right to know when personal information has been compromised," says Waltz.

This bill's introduction comes following reports that two Florida counties had their computer networks breached by Russia ahead of the 2016 election. Those two counties still haven't been disclosed publicly.

"It has now been nearly two months since Florida delegation members were briefed by the FBI on the two hacked counties in Florida-- and the voters in these counties still don't know if Russians have accessed their personal data," says Waltz.

This bill has the following 18 co-sponsors: Florida Reps. Vern Buchanan, Charlie Crist, Ted Deutch, Mario Diaz-Balart, Matt Gaetz, Brian Mast, Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, Donna Shalala, Darren Soto, Ross Spano, John Rutherford, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, and Ted Yoho, along with Reps. Jodey Arrington (Texas), Brian Fitzpatrick (Pennsylvania) and Kendra Horn (Oklahoma).