States are “ill-equipped” to defend elections from foreign interference and in need of additional funding from the federal government, a report warned Thursday.
Released by the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University, the report argued that further resources are needed to fully secure the U.S. electoral process ahead of next year’s presidential race.
“Elections are the pillar of American democracy, and, as we saw in 2016 and 2018, foreign governments will continue to target them,” said the report. “States cannot counter these adversaries alone, nor should they have to. But at a time when free and fair elections are increasingly under attack, they can, with additional federal funding, safeguard them.”
The report summarizes the findings reached by experts from a bipartisan group of organizations — the Brennan Center, Alliance for Securing Democracy, Pitt Cyber and R Street Institute — after examining how states used their share of $380 million federal funding awarded through the Help America Vote Act passed by Congress in 2018.
A review of how the funds were spent in six particular states found that each was in need of further funding to fully bring their election systems up to snuff.
Among the report’s findings: Alabama, Arizona and Illinois lack the funds to replace out-of-date, or “legacy,” voting equipment, Louisiana and Pennsylvania are unable to afford voting machines that keep paper backup copies, and Oklahoma needs money to upgrade vulnerable hardware and software.
“Unfortunately, given the myriad security challenges faced by these states, the $380 million is not enough to address the needs of state and local offices; many have substantial election security needs that likely will not be met absent additional federal support,” the report’s authors wrote.
Although only a few states were studied, the report said it clear that the rest of the country has “similar unfunded needs.”
“States should not be expected to defend against such attacks alone. Our federal government should work to provide the states with the resources they need to harden their infrastructure against cybersecurity threats. At the very least, each state should develop the ability to verify election results in the case of a breach,” said the report.
In addition to the funds authorized under the Help America Vote Act, lawmakers have proposed several election security bills pending on Capitol Hill that would fund upgrades to the nation’s election infrastructure.
In the House of Representatives, lawmakers last month passed the Democratic-sponsored Securing America’s Federal Elections Act, or SAFE Act, which would authorize more than $600 million for states to modernize and secure their voting systems.
More recently, Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer warned last week that the U.S. government needs to do more to secure next year’s presidential race.
“Interference in our elections is a very, very serious problem and it is obvious we have to do a lot more at both the public sector and private sector levels to combat it,” Mr. Schumer, New York Democrat, said following a classified election security briefing held on Capitol Hill.
Election security efforts are unlikely to advance in the Senate, however, where Republican leadership has been reluctant to advance related measures in recent months.
“Leaders across government are continuing to explore and repair potential vulnerabilities and increase cooperation ahead of the 2020 presidential election. Congress will certainly continue to monitor this closely, while resisting any efforts to use the failures of the past to justify sweeping federalizations of election law, as some on the other side have consistently sought to do,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said last week.
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