Congressional Democrats call for greater DHS role to secure elections from cyber threats

The top Democrats on the House and Senate Homeland Security committees Monday urged the Department of Homeland Security to protect the electoral system from cyber attacks, a request that if adopted would establish a new role for DHS in securing national elections and could involve defining state election boards as critical infrastructure under federal cyber protections.

The request is laid out in separate letters to Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson following the cyber attacks against the Democratic National Committee, which...