Former Special Counsel Robert Mueller testified this week that the nation’s election systems are targets of tampering from Russia. Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon says “it has really brought renewed attention to this issue. Robert Mueller said at one point, ‘they’re doing it as we’re sitting here,’ that as he and they were sitting there, and that’s true, that’s consistent with what we’re hearing from the intelligence folks.” Mueller testified that Russia continues work to interfere in next year’s presidential election and Simon says “we’re taking that very seriously in Minnesota especially because in 2016 we were one of the targeted states, and so we just got our hands on some federal money, just a few weeks ago at the end of the last legislative session which is directed exactly at election security.” The state is using just over $6.5 million to help bolster Minnesota’s election system for the upcoming election. Simon says that money is being used for long-range projects, like securing the state’s voter registration database. And for short-term projects like hiring a person to coordinate election security in cities and counties. Here is more with Secretary Simon: