For The First Time Senators Take Action To Secure Elections

We know for sure that Russian hackers targeted voting systems in 21 states with the goals of influencing our elections and destroying our democracy.

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For the first time since the 2016 election, Congress is now moving forward on legislation to combat Russian hackers and trolls who have been openly targeting American democracy without suffering any negative consequences for their illegal actions.

The bipartisan Secure Elections Act has strong support in Congress as a way to help safeguard our elections and restore faith in the legitimacy of the democratic process. This bill is rare in the amount of bipartisan support it has, as U.S. Senators from both parties have been expressing their favorable opinions on twitter.

Democratic Senator Heinrich of New Mexico:

Republican Senator Lankford of Oklahoma:

Democratic Senator Warner of Virginia:

Senator Lankford tweeted again yesterday his support for the revised bill:

Republican Senator Richard Burr of North Carolina:

Others have also tweeted their favorable opinions of this important bill:

The measure now has very strong backing from some of the most high-level and powerful lawmakers in Congress. This might result in the first real Congressional action in response to the many urgent calls from cybersecurity experts, election integrity advocates and state officials for Congress to help this threat to American democracy.

Oklahoma Senator Lankford had this to say about the Secure Elections Act:  This bill “helps the states to prepare our election infrastructure for the possibility of interference from not just Russia, but possibly another adversary like Iran or North Korea or a hacktivist group.”

All of the states are short of money but they desperately need to upgrade their voting technology which is very much out of date. The Russian hacking and disinformation campaigns cannot be allowed to continue.

In a bit of good news, the $1.3 trillion dollar spending bill approved by Congress on Thursday contained $380 million for election security. This shows that when senators from both parties work together some important things can actually get done in Congress.

Leo Vidal

I am a lifelong Democrat with a passion for social justice and progressive issues. I have degrees in writing, economics and law from the University of Iowa.