Will Schmitt

WSCHMITT@NEWS-LEADER.COM

Missouri's election system will benefit from extra cybersecurity courtesy of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security as concerns swirl about election interference by foreign hackers.

Homeland Security made several voluntary resources available last month, including remote scans on state systems connected to the internet, such as the webpages that display results on election nights, as well as more intensive, onsite scans conducted by cybersecurity experts.

The department also will continue to relay information on cyber threats to state officials, as it did when it told Missouri that foreign hackers targeted Arizona and Illinois. Missouri's election system was safe then, a Secretary of State's Office spokesman told the News-Leader.

Homeland Security spokesman Scott McConnell said Tuesday that 36 states have accepted the department's offer but did not comment specifically on Missouri.

"It's up to each (state) to disclose whether they're working with us and whether they have seen any activity," he said.

Missouri is indeed one of the states taking advantage of federal resources, said Stephanie Fleming, spokeswoman for the Missouri Secretary of State's Office.

Fleming would not say whether Missouri has been targeted by hackers since the earlier alert this summer, or whether any hacking efforts had been successful, citing "the sensitive nature of this security issue."

"Attempts are a part of today's technology-based world," Fleming said in an email. "This is why our office has software and monitoring tools in place to increase security."

Why this matters

Russian interference has concerned the federal government for months, and those worries came to a head earlier in October when President Barack Obama's administration publicly accused Russia of directing hackers to tamper with American elections.

A federal official told the Associated Press more than 20 states had been targeted but did not say whether hacks were foreign or domestic. U.S. officials have told CNN that the earlier attacks on Arizona and Illinois were "believed to be the work of hackers working for Russian spy agencies."

Russian President Vladimir Putin has denied involvement.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, who has praised Putin, repeatedly has claimed that the U.S. election system is "rigged" against him as he tries to defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton.

Trump, who is slightly ahead of Clinton in Missouri but faces an uphill battle across the nation, said Monday in a tweet: "Of course there is large scale voter fraud happening on and before election day."

PolitiFact, a nonpartisan fact-checking site, gave Trump a "Pants on Fire!" rating for arguing without evidence that there was a massive conspiracy designed to keep him out of the White House.

Trump also has indicted the news media, saying journalists are generally against him and focus more negative attention on him than they do on Clinton. This plays into the narrative that most media outlets are biased toward liberal policies and candidates at the expense of conservative ideas and politicians.

Conservative commentator Joe Concha wrote in a column that when presented with sexual assault allegations against Trump and emails from Clinton campaign chair John Podesta, evening broadcast coverage on ABC, CBS and NBC focused overwhelmingly on Trump. Concha also wrote that he found examples of bias among newspapers, citing coverage by the New York Times and polling by the Washington Post with ABC.

The Podesta emails include lists of pundits believed to be supportive of the Clinton campaign's messaging and of reporters who met with Clinton staff at an off-the-record cocktail party, according to the Intercept, which cited a similar event at Sen. John McCain's ranch in 2008 as evidence that this is not unique.

Even NPR, long accused of having a liberal bias, acknowledged that the Clinton campaign's leaked emails should be getting headlines:

"On the (alternate Earth) where Hillary Clinton is running for president against a traditional, disciplined Republican — and not a Donald Trump, who has declared civil war on other Republican leaders — WikiLeaks' decision to post Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta's private emails would be a major, major news story right now."

Trump and Concha are not alone, according to a poll released Tuesday by Rasmussen Reports. The poll, conducted among 1,000 likely voters with a margin of error of +/- 3, found that 56 percent believed "many in the media are working to get Clinton elected president."

This view is most pronounced among those leaning Republican, with 91 percent of Trump supporters say they agree and just 20 percent of Clinton backers concurring.

An earlier Rasmussen poll found that almost two-thirds of survey respondents believed that the national media — not Trump or Clinton — were "setting the agenda for this year's presidential race."

Trump will likely continue blaming the media for slighting his campaign, sending out frequent social media messages that accuse the "dishonest media" of lying about him and protecting Clinton.

In a news conference Tuesday, Obama said that Trump's assertions of a massive plot to steal the election were "not based on facts" and advised the Republican nominee to "stop whining" before Nov. 8.

"I have never seen in my lifetime or in modern political history any presidential candidate trying to discredit the elections and the election process before votes have even taken place," Obama said. "It's unprecedented."

The reporter can be reached at wschmitt@news-leader.com or by phone at 417-836-1194.