Secure elections bill blocked in the Senate—reportedly by the White House

James Lankford

A Senate committee was supposed to be taking action on a bipartisan bill to protect elections from interference on Wednesday, but it didn’t happen. Why? There’s no official explanation, but Yahoo News reports that the White House blocked the Secure Elections Act.

The bill is sponsored by Republican Sen. James Lankford and co-sponsored by fellow Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham and Susan Collins, as well as Democratic Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Kamala Harris.  

As it currently stands, the legislation would grant every state’s top election official security clearance to receive threat information. It would also formalize the practice of information-sharing between the federal government—in particular, the Department of Homeland Security—and states regarding threats to electoral infrastructure. A technical advisory board would establish best practices related to election cybersecurity. Perhaps most significantly, the law would mandate that every state conduct a statistically significant audit following a federal election. It would also incentivize the purchase of voting machines that leave a paper record of votes cast, as opposed to some all-electronic models that do not. 

But apparently the White House doesn’t like something in there. How … interesting that Donald Trump doesn’t want to respond to questions about whether he benefited from Russian interference in the 2016 elections by doing everything he can to prove that in 2018 and 2020, his and other Republican victories aren’t under the same shadow.