Remember This: As He Blocks Election Security Bills, McConnell Takes Checks from Voting Machine Lobbyists

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In 2016, Russian hackers targeted voting systems in 21 states and, according to Special Counsel Robert Muellerโ€™s report, breached systems in Illinois and two counties in Florida, gaining access to information on millions of registered voters. In his report, Mueller described the Russian governmentโ€™s interference in the 2016 elections as โ€œsweeping and systematic.โ€

Three years later, security experts warn that not enough has been done to address vulnerabilities in the U.S. election system. The director of the Federal Bureau of Investigations recently told Congress that โ€œthe threats just keep escalating,โ€ adding that he viewed the 2018 midterms as a โ€œdress rehearsal for the big show in 2020.โ€

In fourteen states, some 2018 midterm voters submitted their votes on touchscreens that did not produce paper trails necessary to verify their votes or audit election outcomes. If votes had been inaccurately processed in these precinctsโ€”whether through equipment errors or foreign hacking operationsโ€”election officials wouldnโ€™t have been able to find or correct the problems.

Several Democratic and Republican members of Congress have submitted legislation to shore up election security. Proposals from Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) and Rep. John Sarbanes (D-Md.) include replacing paperless electronic voting machines with hand-marked paper ballots and optical scanners, subjecting voting equipment vendors to rigorous cybersecurity standards, and requiring vendors to report cybersecurity incidents.

But all the bills have hit a roadblock. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has reportedly told his colleagues that he will not allow the Senate to vote on election security legislation this session.

โ€œAt this point I donโ€™t see any likelihood that those bills would get to the floor if we mark them up,โ€ Senator Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) said recently when asked by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) whether the Rules Committee, which Blunt chairs, would mark up any election security bills. The Hill asked McConnellโ€™s office about Bluntโ€™s comments regarding election security and was referred to the majority leaderโ€™s verdict on the Mueller report: โ€œcase closed.โ€

Several of the lobbyists working for ES&S and Dominion Voting Systems have recently made contributions to McConnellโ€™s campaign and joint fundraising committee.

Brownstein Hyatt Farber and Schreck lobbyist David Cohen, who lobbies for Dominion Voting Systems on issues related to election security and monitors federal legislation for the company, gave McConnell $2,000 on March 31: $1,000 to his campaign committee and $1,000 to his joint fundraising committee. Lobbyist Brain Wild, who works alongside Cohen on the Dominion contract, gave McConnell $1,000 on the same day.

Emily Kirlin, a lobbyist for Peck Madigan Jones who lobbies for ES&S on election security and H.R. 1, gave McConnellโ€™s campaign committee $1,000 on February 19, and her colleague who works with her on the contract, Jen Olson, gave McConnell $1,000 on March 4.

โ€œItโ€™s not surprising to me that Mitch McConnell is receiving these campaign contributions,โ€ the Brennan Center for Justiceโ€™s Lawrence Noren told Sludge. โ€œHe seems single-handedly to be standing in the way of anything passing in Congress around election security, and that includes things that the vendors might want, like money for the states to replace antiquated equipment.โ€

โ€œMitch McConnellโ€™s conflicts of interest in blocking any and all election security legislation is not only shameful, it is placing our democracy at risk,โ€ Craig Holman, government affairs lobbyist at Public Citizen, told Sludge. โ€œThe conflicts of interest arise from more than the campaign contributions he is receiving from voting machine vendorsโ€”contributions which certainly appear to be a reward from the industry for letting them off the hookโ€”but it is also a self-serving act for strictly partisan purposes.

By Donald Shaw

Read Full Article on readsludge.com

Original Article published on June 10, 2019

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