It has never been more clear that our elections are in danger. We know that Russia hacked American state boards of elections and voting machine companies in 2016. What’s more, Moscow is already gearing up to do it again in future elections. Enough is enough.
Our current system isn’t equipped to handle the growing level of interference. In many cases, states have no way of verifying vote counts in the event of a cyberattack.
The House of Representatives did their part and passed a bill that would help prevent future attacks, giving $600 million to replace outdated voting equipment with systems using voter-verified paper ballots, plus additional security measures that would safeguard election results from hackers and cyber attacks. Now, it’s up to the Senate to stand up for our democracy and pass a spending bill with $600 million for election security resources for states before the end of the year. If they fail to do so, time may have run out for us to protect the integrity of the 2020 elections.
Congress needs to stop kicking the can down the road. We need action on election security now, otherwise our enemies will be able to sway our elections in their favor. That’s why I’m urging my senator to support passing $600 million to safeguard our democracy.
Janet Brooks