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Padilla: Russia Didn't Target California Election Systems After All

SACRAMENTO (AP) -- California's chief elections officer says the U.S. Homeland Security Department is walking back its conclusion that Russian hackers looked for vulnerabilities in the state's election systems.

Secretary of State Alex Padilla said Wednesday that federal officials now say hackers scanned systems at the California Department of Technology, which does not house the state's election systems.

California's announcement comes a day after Wisconsin officials said their Department of Workforce Development was targeted by the Russians, not the Elections Commission. California and Wisconsin were among 21 states told on Friday that the Russians scanned their election systems in search of vulnerabilities before last year's presidential election.

Padilla, a Democrat, says Californians can rest assured that the state's elections infrastructure was not hacked or breached by the Russians.

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