Intel report fuels vote security urgency
Some want feds to have bigger role in balloting
WASHINGTON — A Senate report on Russian interference in U.S. elections highlights one of the biggest challenges to preventing foreign intrusions in American democracy: the limited powers and ability of the federal government to protect elections run by state and local officials. That has given fuel to those who argue for a larger federal role.
The Senate Intelligence Committee issued the first part of its report into Russian interference in the 2016 election last week, noting that Russian agents “exploited the seams” between federal government expertise and ill-equipped state and local election officials. The report also emphasized repeatedly that elections are controlled by states, not the federal government.
It called for the reinforcement of state oversight of elections, a view blasted as inadequate by Sen. Ron Wyden, D-ore. He called on Congress to establish mandatory cybersecurity requirements across the country.
“We would not ask a local sheriff to go to war against the missiles, planes and tanks of the Russian Army,” Wyden wrote. “We shouldn’t ask a county election IT employee to fight a war against the full capabilities and vast resources of Russia’s cyber army. That approach failed in 2016 and it will fail again.”
As the 2020 elections loom, questions of who bears responsibility for securing the vote are becoming more dire. President Donald Trump has been largely silent on the subject, and the Republican-controlled Senate has not taken up legislation by Wyden and others to fortify election security.
Officials at the Department of Homeland Security have been reluctant to weigh in on whether there should be more federal oversight.
Many cybersecurity experts support legislation stalled in Congress that would require states to have a voter-verified paper record of every ballot cast.