Senator Richard Burr (R-NC) and Senator Mark Warner (D-VA), the Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the Senate intelligence Committee, held a press conference on Wednesday in which they said they have concluded Russia interfered in our 2016 election, including with our election systems, and that their interference is continuing.
The Department of Homeland Security first notified 21 states in September, a year late, that their systems had been targeted by Russian government hackers during the 2016 elections. Burr and Warner expressed concern that it took so long and warned that Russian interference is on-going and could impact the integrity of the 2018 elections. Their concerns were echoed by Christopher Wray, Trump’s newly appointed FBI head. Former ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul has also warned that the US is not prepared for Russian interference in 2018 and 2020.
Senator Kristen Gillibrand (D-NY) and Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) have introduced bipartisan legislation to establish an independent commission to determine how Russia interfered with our election systems and to make recommendations to prevent future interference.
The integrity of our elections is critical to our democracy. We must have a thorough bipartisan examination of the Russia’s cyber interference and recommendations on how to ensure it is stopped in future elections.
Your Action:
Call your Senators and urge them to support S.1821, a bill to create an independent commission to prevent cyber threats to US election systems.
Sen. Marco Rubio
DC : 202-224-3041
Jacksonville: 904- 354-4300
Sen. Bill Nelson
DC: 202-224-5274
Jacksonville: 904-346-4500
Find your representative:
https://www.house.gov/representatives/find/
Sample Script/Talking Points:
This is [NAME] and I’m a constituent in [ZIP].
I want [Sen.____] to support S.1821, which creates an independent commission to prevent cyber threats to U.S. election systems.
The Senate committee on intelligence has determined Russia tried to interfere with our election systems in 2016 and is continuing to try to disrupt them.
Almost nothing has been done to to combat the Russian cyber threats to our election systems.
The integrity of our elections system is critical to our democracy. We must have a thorough and credible bipartisan report on Russian attempts on our election systems and guidance on how to combat on-going threats.
Thank you for your hard work answering the phones.
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