On Election Day 2016, President Trump offered an unequivocal statement on how our elections should be run: “There’s something really nice about the old paper ballot system,” he told Fox News. “You don’t worry about hacking.”
Trump’s view is increasingly becoming the consensus position. There’s growing agreement that the United States needs action to ensure verifiable elections with paper ballots and audits — as well as to patch cybersecurity vulnerabilities and to upgrade dangerously old election infrastructure.
Leading Republican lawmakers, including the chairs of the Senate Judiciary and Intelligence Committees and the leader of the House Freedom Caucus, have advocated strongly for this agenda. Top Democrats in the House have come around to the position as well. And as of this past month, even the CEO of a major election machine vendor — a player with the most at stake in paperless systems — expressed this view.
So here’s the question: Why hasn’t Congress yet passed legislation to secure America’s elections from foreign interference? It’s up to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and his colleagues to ensure we take action in time for 2020.
The risks are now clear. The Department of Homeland Security has notified 21 states that their election systems have been probed by overseas hackers. This isn’t just another disputed Russia issue. Looming threats could be from China, North Korea, Iran, extremist hacker groups like Anonymous or other enemies, foreign or domestic.
American elections are a soft target. Leading computer security experts have studied a range of electronic voting infrastructure — including touch screen machines, optical scanners, electronic poll books, and registration database systems — and found significant vulnerabilities that could enable a range of hackers to threaten election integrity. A survey of over 250 election officials in 37 different US states discovered that a strong majority need to replace their outdated voting machines, but most did not have adequate funds to do so.
There’s a plain and simple solution to safeguard our elections: paper ballots and cost-effective audits to check results. In the last Congress, Rep. Mark Meadows of North Carolina, co-chair of the House Freedom Caucus, introduced a bill to standardize these sensible reforms. Meadows’ PAPER Act enabled cost-sharing with states to replace vulnerable electronic equipment with new systems that produce a voter-verified paper record.
The Freedom Caucus bill also laid the groundwork for states to implement risk-limiting audits — processes to check small and random samples of paper ballots to quickly provide assurance about election results. Rep. Rodney Davis, the lead Republican on the House Administration Committee, just released a plan to provide new security funding to states. Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma, had a far-reaching piece of legislation focused on funding and prudent standards — the Secure Elections Act — that was gaining serious bipartisan momentum at the end of the last Congress.
This summer, the Senate Appropriations Committee has an opportunity to apportion funds for essential security upgrades to states that cannot currently afford them. We believe Senate Republicans should lead the charge — so long as funding is offset to be deficit-neutral and so long as legislation stipulates that no funding can go to insecure electronic voting systems.
Congress made a down-payment on election security funding last year and, according to estimates from the Election Assistance Commission, more than 85% of those funds will be spent on replacing vulnerable systems in time for 2020. But a range of states — including Pennsylvania, Alabama, Kentucky, Indiana, and Oklahoma — still have critical unfunded election security reform needs.
As conservatives, we are naturally skeptical of any new government spending or any federal actions that could usurp state and local responsibilities. Yet it’s time for lawmakers to accept that this is a matter of national security. Just as federal agencies in national security assist state law enforcement in dealing with terrorist threats, the federal government has a role in supporting states and addressing election security risks, through federal funding, coupled with increased security coordination. Dollar for dollar, these are some of the most cost-effective investments we can make in America’s security. Informed estimates show that we can replace all insecure paperless systems in the nation for close to the cost of a single F-22 fighter jet.
Republicans — as advocates of accountable government and national defense — should lead on election security. The technical solutions are clear. The political will is present. It’s time for Senate Republicans to act.
Grover Norquist is president of Americans for Tax Reform. Tony Shaffer is a retired intelligence officer in the U.S. Army with 30 years of field and operational experience.
