The hackers who broke into the Illinois State Board of Elections’ website in July appear to have only seen information about 90,000 voters in Illinois, less than half the 200,000 the state board feared. (Image by Mark Warner)

It appears hackers got ahold of information about far fewer Illinois voters than first thought.

The hackers who broke into the Illinois State Board of Elections’ website in July appear to have only seen information about 90,000 voters in Illinois, less than half the 200,000 the state board feared.

And McLean County Clerk Kathy Michael says most of what the hackers got — name, address, voting history — is available with a simple FOIA.

“It sounds alarming at first. But anyone has access to your name, your address, and how you vote,” Michael explained. “You can come in here, and file a freedom of information request.”

Michael said hackers may have seen some personal information though.

“The only ID most of us put in is the last four digits of our Social Security numbers,” Michael said. “You can’t get that with a FOIA. That’s what the hackers got.”

Illinois State Board of Election attorney Ken Menzel said people needn’t worry about voter integrity on election day.

“We’re not only highly confident that the people who accessed the system didn’t have an opportunity to change anything in the system,” Menzel explained. “Because the voter information comes from up from local (election offices), the database is secure.”

The State Board of Elections is notifying the 700 voters they know were hacked. The board is reviewing the rest of the potential victims.

— Illinois Board of Elections hack not as widespread as initially thought —