Telephone Press Conference on Tuesday; Sens. Wyden, Blumenthal, Rep. Sarbanes, Experts and Activists to Demand Election Security Be Strengthened
At More Than 40 Events Around the Country, Activists to Urge Senators to Give States the Money They Need to Secure the Vote
WHAT: Telephone press conference with U.S. Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), U.S. Rep. John Sarbanes (D-Md.), election security experts and activists to coincide with a national day of action to highlight the need for Congress to fund and strengthen election security ahead of the 2020 election.
Concerns about the vulnerabilities of U.S. elections to internal and external threats have mounted following reports on the threats from U.S. intelligence agencies, the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee and Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
Hundreds of activists across the country will gather on Tuesday in front of district offices of U.S. senators to demand that the Senate pass important election security legislation that would help secure the vote, including providing more reliable sustained funding and improving security requirements across the board. This includes approving the U.S. House of Representatives’ $600 million funding bill (H.R. 3351) to help secure elections from hacking.
The funding measure passed by the House in June is being blocked in the Senate by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). The Senate version of the funding bill that may include election security funds is being marked up Tuesday afternoon in the Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee.
Throughout the day, concerned citizens in more than 40 locations will call on their senators to approve the funding legislation. The legislation would provide money for states and localities to purchase new voting machines with verifiable paper ballots, check machine-reported election results against ballots, secure voter data and hire staff to help managing the evolving threats to our elections.
According to a Brennan Center for Justice report, states will have spent 85% of the funds allocated in 2018 for election security by the 2020 elections. But that previous allocation funding was not adequate to cover major upgrades to voting equipment in all counties.
WHEN: 11 a.m. EDT Tuesday, Sept. 17
WHO: U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Senate Intelligence Committee member
U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.)
U.S. Rep. John Sarbanes (D-Md.)
Robert Weissman, president, Public Citizen (moderator)
Lawrence Norden, deputy director, Election Reform Program, Brennan Center for Justice
Sister Simone Campbell, executive director, NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice
Diana Burns, activist, Clean Elections Texas, co-organizer of Dallas rally outside the district office of Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas)
Carolina Stover, Georgia Alliance for Social Justice, organizer, rally outside the district office of Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga) in Atlanta
CALL-IN: (800) 875-3456 (U.S); (800)-648-0973 (Canada), passcode SECURE2020