A major piece of news happened yesterday, or at least it should be news.  Foreign actors have changed ZERO votes on American voting machines.  The Committee on House Administration held a hearing entitled: 2020 Election Security-Perspectives From Voting System Vendors and Experts.  In a panel of the three manufacturers of virtually all the voting machines in the United States, the following exchange happened (emphasis added):

Ranking Member Rodney Davis (R-IL):  To your knowledge, has a foreign state ever successfully breached or hacked your vote tallying election machines?

Mr. Tom Burt, President and CEO, Election Systems & Software, Omaha, NE: No

Mr. John Poulos, President and CEO, Dominion Voting Systems, Denver, CO: No

Ms. Julie Mathis, President and CEO, Hart InterCivic, Austin, TX: No

After the hotly contested election in 2000, Republicans and Democrats came together to pass the bipartisan Help America Vote Act ("HAVA").  HAVA was a response to the chaos of the 2000 Florida recount.  HAVA was not perfect but it represented a good faith effort on all sides to come together and passed 357-48 in the House and 92-2 in the Senate.  This should be the way all election reform is done.  Unfortunately, it is not true anymore. 

In a rare move, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell took to the Senate floor on Monday to respond directly to those who have criticized him for blocking Democratic election law proposals this past week. Attacks on the Majority Leader masquerading as constructive criticisms have become increasingly ugly in recent days. A Washington Post opinion piece called him a “Russian asset,” and MSNBC host Joe Scarborough has repeatedly referred to him as “Moscow Mitch.”

While we are awaiting some big decisions by the Supreme Court and Democrats begin their Presidential debates, the House begins debate tomorrow on a very important issue: making our elections more secure.  While Democrats continue in their quest to Federalize elections, Republicans continue in their efforts to help states and localities secure their elections.  As a result RNLA will release the following letter tomorrow to Speaker Pelosi and Republican House leader McCarthy:

On Friday, the House Administration Committee held a markup hearing to consider H.R. 2722, also known as the SAFE Act, “a bill to protect elections for public office by providing financial support and enhanced security for the infrastructure used to carry out such elections, and for other purposes, or a related measure, and for other purposes.”

Recently, Congress has been focusing on the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) and election cybersecurity by holding hearings.  Lawyers Democracy Fund (LDF) has been covering these hearings on its blog and Twitter feed.

The Democrat Politician Protection Act, or as it is officially called HR 1, the For the People Act of 2019, is being rushed to the House floor this week.  This unprecedented rewriting of all aspects of elections is ironic, because it does many things that the Democrats have screamed about for years. 

Seemingly the left and the Democrats’ top messaging priority for a number of years has been that Russia somehow “stole” the election for President Trump in 2016.  Facts have regularly proven this narrative false but the reality is the narrative is helping the Russians.  In a USA Today op-ed Eric Wang makes the case: