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Sen. Nelson stands by statements about Russia hacking claims

Nelson says he stands by his statements that Russians have hacked their way into Florida's voter registration systems.
Credit: WTSP
Sen. Bill Nelson

“I stand by my statements,” says U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson.

It's the statement Nelson made stating that Russians have hacked their way into Florida's voter registration systems.

RELATED: Florida official calls for Nelson to release any 'classified' info he has on election hacking

The Florida Department of State, though, says it has absolutely no evidence supporting his claim.

They even sent out this response, “Although the Department has already reached out to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and they have not confirmed the claims made by Senator Nelson that "Russians are in Florida's election records," we continue to aggressively pursue answers.”

“I’ve said everything I can say,” Nelson says.

Nelson would not go into detail about his claims but referred to a report out by NBC News that confirms what Nelson has been saying to be true, saying they spoke with three classified sources.

“I did exactly what the Leadership Committee, the Senate Intelligence Committee asked Marco Rubio and I to do. To give that warning,” says Nelson.

RELATED: Letter supports Sen. Nelson's claims Russians penetrated Florida voter registration systems

Sen. Rubio has not specifically commented on the exact claim Nelson made about Russians "penetrating the system," but did talk about the need to beef up security measures at the polls on "CBS This Morning."

"Well, I'll be careful because I'm on the Intelligence Committee. Suffice it to say that I've been warning consistently that I believe they'll do this again," he said. "I think they've learned from 2016 methods ... and different tactics that I believe they'll utilize again whether it's in '18, '20 or '22, but they'll do it again and they'll be better at it.

"So I strongly urge every election official in America to take advantage of all the resources provided to them and available to them from the Department of Homeland Security and other federal agencies,” Rubio said.

The Department of State again says though they have upped security measures for this year’s election that include that they are working with counties to modernize their voting systems and counties are also using more than $14.5 million in funding to make significant investments in election security prior to the 2018 elections.

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