Last week, the county board of elections
released a public statement urging anyone
who had sent an absentee ballot application
by email since Oct. 15 to call the board to
verify it had been received. The statement said
the cyber attack would not otherwise impact
voting because “the board has redundancies
in place that will allow the secure and effective
administration of the general election.”
“It was not an attack on the election system,” said
state Board of Elections spokesman John Conklin.
Erickson said affected computers are being
wiped clean to remove the malware and all
software is being reinstalled. The county’s email
system was down for several days but is back in
operation, he said.
State police and the U.S. Department of
Homeland Security are investigating the attack,
which appears to have originated in Hong Kong,
Erickson said.
Chenango County is part of the 22nd
Congressional District in central New York,
where Republican Claudia Tenney is in a tight
race to reclaim her seat from U.S. Rep. Anthony
Brindisi, a Democrat who ousted her by fewer
than 4,500 votes two years ago.