Maine to beef up cybersecurity of voter registration system

AUGUSTA, Maine — Maine wants to beef up cybersecurity of its voter registration system.

Maine Public reports that Democratic Secretary of State Matt Dunlap last week requested over $3 million from a $380 million pool of federal funds.

Dunlap’s spokeswoman Kristen Muszynski (moo-zyn-ski) said that the office is asking for more time to draft its plan to spend such funds. She said the office has been delayed because of the roll-out of the state’s new system allowing voters to rank candidates.

Maine would use the money to train municipal election officials and also boost efforts to protect the central voter registration system.

Maine’s closed, password-protected system primarily relies on paper ballots and counting machines that aren’t connected to the internet.

Muszynski said Maine has trained municipal clerks to spot phishing scams.

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