Democrats release roster for ‘election security task force’

The Democratic leaders of a congressional task force on election security on Thursday released the names of its six members. 

The task force was announced last month, in the wake of new revelations about Russia’s effort to target state and local election-related systems ahead of the 2016 presidential election. 

{mosads}The task force will include Reps. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) and Robert Brady (D-Pa.), its chairmen, as well as Reps. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), Jim Langevin (D-R.I.), Cedric Richmond (D-La.) and Val Demings (D-Fla.). 

The U.S. intelligence community said in January that Moscow accessed state and local electoral systems not involved in vote tallying as part of a wider effort to interfere in the presidential election. 

Last month, an official with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) testified of evidence that Russia targeted election-related systems in 21 states. While officials maintain that the efforts did not affect vote counts, the development has nevertheless exacerbated fears on Capitol Hill about the possibility of foreign interference in future elections. 

DHS has moved to provide additional protections to states by designating election infrastructure as critical earlier this year, though the move has received pushback from state and local officials. 

In a joint statement, Thompson and Brady accused Republican lawmakers of displaying “no appetite” to help protect election systems going forward. 

“Ensuring the security of our election systems for our next major election should not be a partisan issue and should be a top priority for both Republicans and Democrats,” they said. “It is clear that if we continue to do nothing, we make it easy for Russia — or anyone else — to meddle in our elections and undermine public confidence in democratic institutions.”

While Republicans have raised alarm about Moscow’s actions, they have been caught in a tricky position as a result of the federal investigation into Russian interference, which includes whether there was coordination between President Trump’s campaign and Moscow. 

The task force will hear from experts on election infrastructure security and cybersecurity about how to guard against future threats in the 2018 midterms and beyond.