Speaker Ryan’s Failure To Help Protect Our Elections Is Indefensible And Inexcusable

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freadshotFRED WERTHEIMER’S WEEKLY NOTE | FEBRUARY 8, 2018

“Speaker Ryan, your failure to move any legislation towards passage and thus your failure to help protect the integrity and security of our elections is indefensible and inexcusable.”

Yesterday, NBC News reported that the U.S official responsible for protecting our elections from hacking confirmed that the Russians “successfully penetrated the voter registration rolls of several U.S. states prior to the 2016 presidential election.”

This means our actual election results may well become vulnerable to manipulation by Russia or other foreign adversaries in the future, unless steps are taken to strengthen election security.

CIA Director Mike Pompeo said earlier this year that he has “every expectation” that Russia will again attempt to influence our elections in 2018, as they did in 2016.

We are facing a direct threat to our democracy and our constitutional system of government. Yet, nothing has been done by Congress to address this threat.

There are important bipartisan bills pending in both the House and the Senate to address these dangerous problems.

They include legislation to require increased disclosure to citizens about campaign-related internet communications by foreign interests, new penalties for foreign interests who attempt to influence our elections, and federal assistance, including grants, to states to strengthen the security of their election systems against outside hacking.

Democracy 21 and other reform groups and watchdogs have challenged House Speaker Paul Ryan on his failure to take any action to protect the country from future Russian efforts to sabotage our elections.

In a letter sent to Speaker Ryan today, the groups said, “Your failure to move any legislation towards passage and thus your failure to help protect the integrity and security of our elections is indefensible and inexcusable.” 

A similar letter will be sent to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Congress must act to protect our national security, our elections, and the interests of the American people.

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Fred Wertheimer is the Founder and President of Democracy 21, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that works to strengthen our democracy and ensure the integrity and fairness of government decisions and elections.