WASHINGTON – Members of Florida's congressional delegation say it's "unacceptable" that the FBI and Department of Homeland Security Department won't publicly identify the two counties where Russian hackers gained access to voter databases ahead of the 2016 election.
A bipartisan group of lawmakers said after a classified briefing with the agencies Thursday that they were told the names of the counties but were not allowed to share them with the public. The briefing came two days after a similar briefing with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who said he also was not allowed to share the information.
The Florida lawmakers said they urged the federal agencies to be more transparent and pledged to work on bipartisan legislation to strengthen rules for notifying the public when hacking occurs.
The FBI indicated Russia did not alter vote tallies or voter information, according to Rep. Michael Waltz, Florida-R.
“It is unacceptable that we cannot inform the voters what happened in 2016,” Waltz said. “Maintaining the integrity of our elections is an ongoing battle. The first step to preserving our electoral system is by being transparent and declassifying the names of the affected counties."
Waltz said voters in those counties and all Floridians deserve to know what happened in 2016.