TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Russian hackers infiltrated the election files of two Florida counties during the 2016 election, Gov. Ron DeSantis told reporters Tuesday, though he was quick to add that no votes were manipulated or results altered.
“Two Florida counties experienced intrusion into the supervisor of election networks,” DeSantis said. “There was no manipulation or anything but there was voter data that was able to be got. Now, that voter data was public anyways, nevertheless those were intrusions. It did not affect any voting or anything like that.”
The information was part of a briefing from the FBI that DeSantis and state election and law enforcement officials received at the FBI’s offices in Tallahassee last week. It was previously known that one county had been breached, giving hackers access to voter files, but not the systems used to count votes.
But because of a non-disclosure form he signed with the FBI, DeSantis said he couldn’t say which counties were the ones involved.
“I would be willing to name it for you guys but they asked me to do that so I’m going to respect their wishes,” DeSantis said.
