Scott Walker puts Wisconsin National Guard cyber team on standby for Election Day

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) on Friday activated his state National Guard’s cybersecurity teams to be on standby for Tuesday’s midterms.

“Wisconsin voters should feel confident that the Wisconsin National Guard’s team is ready if needed to provide assistance on Election Day,” said Maj. Gen. Donald Dunbar in the National Guard’s announcement of the move.

“The governor’s executive order simply allows us to deploy those resources quickly.”

{mosads}Maj. Joy Staab of the Wisconsin National Guard told local ABC affiliate 27 News that the division has not been given any orders beyond remaining on alert.

“At this time we have no requests for support but in the event that we were requested to support we could more rapidly deploy service members, in this case our cyber security team,” Staab said. 

The officer added that this will be the first time the cybersecurity teams will come into use since their creation in 2016, though he noted that the activation is just precautionary. 

“We would rather be prepared to more rapidly deploy the troops and not use them if we don’t have to,” Staab said.

Though some warn that the U.S. is still subject to election meddling from outside forces, experts have said that states have been working to improve cybersecurity ahead of the elections.

The Center for Strategic and International Studies found last Tuesday that 40 states have invested over $75 million in improving election security.

Top Senate Democrat Mark Warner (Va.), said Sunday that Americans can “vote with confidence” in Tuesday’s midterms, asserting that the elections will be protected from foreign threats.

“I think we’ve made great progress, particularly at the individual polling stations and with the tabulations of votes. So I think people should vote with confidence,” Warner said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”