Here & Now

More Staff Requested For Elections Agency

Frederica Freyberg:

Now to more state political news. Wisconsin was one of 21 states targeted by Russian hackers in the 2016 presidential election. Now the State Elections Commission wants more staff heading into the 2018 election. The commission is asking the legislature for the funding. Elections Commission Administrator Michael Haas is here with details. Thanks for being here.

Michael Haas:

Sure.

Frederica Freyberg:

So what are you seeking?

Michael Haas:

We are seeking three additional positions that are program positions really for our agency. And it is partly about election security, but not all about election security, not all about the Russians. There are some basic positions that we feel our agency needs in order to fulfill all of its responsibilities under the statutes.

Frederica Freyberg:

What happens if you don’t get these?

Michael Haas:

Well, I think it’s going to put us in a little bit of a bind. As you know, under the budget the legislature approved, five of these positions, which were actually continuing positions and the governor’s veto reduced that. So both our commission and the legislature recognize that we needed five positions to continue what we are already doing. If we don’t have these three positions in addition to the additional steps we’re planning to take, I think eventually we’re going to be falling behind and we’re seeing some of that already.

Frederica Freyberg:

Falling behind how?

Michael Haas:

Well, a lot of our job has to do with supporting clerks at the local level so that they can run elections. And we maintain the voter registration database, which creates poll lists, make sure voters are in the right place. There’s just a lot of steps from a candidate getting certified to be on the ballot to election day. And we need to support the clerks and eventually the things we’re falling behind in on our projects are going to show up at the local level.

Frederica Freyberg:

What is the status on any kind of new security measures to protect the integrity of the election?

Michael Haas:

One of our big projects is our election security planning, which we undertook this year. Actually, it’s a continuation of what we had been doing, but it’s obviously a lot more prominent now. It’s a little bit ironic in that we’re probably one of the smallest state agencies and yet we are in the position of trying to ensure that all the local clerks, 1853 local clerks around the state, have the IT security that they need to keep personal information safe and to keep voter information and election information safe. I’m not aware of any other state agency that has really taken on the task of working with local officials to protect data that eventually comes to the state.

Frederica Freyberg:

How concerned are you heading into another round of elections about, I mean even Russian hackers?

Michael Haas:

It's one of our — one of many concerns. And it’s certainly been more in the news lately. We are putting in a lot of new steps, working with the Department of Homeland Security, as well as the State Department of Administration, which really does a great job providing cyber security at the statewide level. But nobody wants to have another headline that our state was the target of hacking, much less that anybody was successful in breaching a system or getting access to data.

Frederica Freyberg:

Now, I understand that the governor had said that he thought that perhaps the Elections Commission could get by and make do with kind of temp or contract employees. What about that?

Michael Haas:

Well, there’s some truth to that. First of all, we do appreciate there was a big step in the budget that both the governor and the legislature supported, which was to make most of our staff, which is federally-funded, into state permanent positions, because those federal funds are running out within a year. So that was a big boost to the stability of our staff and the agency. We do currently use some contracted services for IT developers, for instance. And we are planning to at certain points in the process to bring on a handful of temporary staff. They can accomplish some things for us, but there are some limits to what you can do when you bring in temporary staff for a few weeks.

Frederica Freyberg:

What's your expectation as to whether or not you will get this funding?

Michael Haas:

We're hopeful. We’re optimistic. We are planning to meet with Department of Administration next week to talk about exactly what the process is. There’s a little bit of uncertainty because these positions are transitioning from federal to state positions and so the legislative mechanism is something we need to work out. We’re hoping we can get on the same page with DOA and the administration and the legislature and make this happen so that we’re fully staffed for 2018.

Frederica Freyberg:

Michael Haas, thank you very much.

Michael Haas:

Thank you.