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Federal government notifies 21 states of U.S. election hacking

The federal government is telling election officials in 21 states that hackers targeted their systems last year, although in most cases the systems were not breached.

States that told The Associated Press they had been targeted include Alabama, Colorado, Illinois, Maryland, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin. In most cases, they had not known until notified Friday by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Federal authorities told officials in Pennsylvania that Russian hackers unsuccessfully tried to access election systems in the state before last year's presidential election.

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Homeland Security officials tell the AP that in September hackers believed to be Russian agents targeted voter registration systems in more than 20 states.

A spokesman for Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf said Friday that Pennsylvania was one of the 21 states targeted by the Russians. The Wolf administration says neither it nor the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has any evidence of a breach of the state's election systems, however.

The disclosure to the states comes as a special counsel probes whether there was any coordination during the 2016 presidential campaign between Russia and associates of Donald Trump.

Trump won the election and calls the Russia story a hoax. Trump also won Pennsylvania, becoming the first Republican presidential candidate to do so since 1988.