Voting systems in 21 states were targeted by hackers, government agency says Only a handful of election systems were actually breached.

 -- Election officials in 21 U.S. states were notified Friday by government officials that hackers had targeted their systems ahead of the 2016 presidential election.

The list includes Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin, Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, Minnesota, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas and Washington, according to The Associated Press.

Election officials were informed about a year after the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) first announced states were targets of hacking efforts possibly connected to Russia. However, election systems in only a handful of states, including Illinois, were actually breached.

"It is completely unacceptable that it has taken DHS over a yearbut most were not successful, the AP reported.

DHS acknowledged that state and local officials should be kept in the know about cybersecurity threats to election systems.

"We are working with them to refine our processes for sharing this information while protecting the integrity of investigations and the confidentiality of system owners," the department said in a statement obtained by The Associated Press.

The government did not say who was behind the hacking efforts or provide details about what had been sought. But election officials in several states told the AP the attempts were linked to Russia.

For instance, the Wisconsin Election Commission said its systems were targeted by "Russian government cyber actors." And Alaska Elections Division Director Josie Bahnke said computers in Russia were scanning the state's election systems searching for