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

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security told the Associated Press in September that the hackers are believed to be Russian agents who targeted voter registration systems more than 20 states. Alabama, Colorado, Illinois, Maryland, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin were those named by the AP.

In most cases, the states did not know about the activity until notified Friday by the Department of Homeland Security.

Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill, in a statement Friday, said that Homeland Security and the MS-ISAC (Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center) observed suspicious traffic from IP addresses on the Alabama state networks, but those IP addresses were thwarted from conducting any successful breach.

In Alabama, DHS and the MS-ISAC observed suspicious traffic from IP addresses connected to election-related activity, but not necessarily to election-related activities. According to Merrill's office, Alabama's system protections and preparations "were successful in thwarting attempted hackers from breaching state networks and voting systems during the attacks."

"While it is encouraging that our efforts to protect Alabamians' data have proven to be successful, we must remain vigilant and prepared for the constant evolving threats to our voting systems and the integrity of those processes," Merrill said. "We will utilize every resource available to ensure we are protecting the data of all Alabamians."

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, who won the presidency in November. Trump calls the Russia story a hoax.

The disclosure also come days ahead of Alabama's GOP runoff election between Senator Luther Strange and former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore.