Two lawmakers from Florida say federal officials should be required to inform Congress, state and local authorities and the public if an election-related computer system is hacked.

Gov. Ron DeSantis ordered the state and all 67 counties to review their security after learning Russian hackers had successfully breached two counties' voter databases in 2016.

The relationship between state and federal officials has improved, but there are still plenty of challenges in securing election systems across the country, speakers at an NGA conference said.

The governor said he cannot name the counties, citing an "unusual" nondisclosure agreement he signed with federal officials.

The special counsel wrote that the FBI believes Russian government hackers succeeded gaining access to the network of at least one Florida county just before the 2016 election.

States have only spent a sliver of their federal grant funding so far, but investment is expected to ramp up heading into the next presidential election.

The department worked hard to win over election officials who were uneasy about working with the federal government, Jeanette Manfra said at the South by Southwest Conference.

The city's deployed military and overseas voters will be offered the ability to use Voatz, the mobile-voting app that was tested in 2018 by West Virginia.

The bill would allow the secretary of state's office to hire a chief information security officer, and fund the creation of a unit of civilian cybersecurity professionals to respond to attacks on state or local government.