Democrats seize on whistleblower complaint to push for election security

Democrats renewed their push for election security legislation after a stark warning from acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire and the release of a whistleblower complaint about President Trump’s call with Ukraine’s leader.

Maguire on Thursday warned that the “greatest challenge” the U.S. is facing is “maintaining the integrity of our election system” and said “there are foreign powers that are trying to get us to question the validity of whether or not our elections are valid.”

The intelligence official made the comment during testimony before the House Intelligence Committee on Thursday about a whistleblower complaint alleging that Trump tried to persuade Ukraine to mount a corruption investigation against former Vice President Joe Biden, the current front-runner for the Democratic nomination.

Democrats also highlighted a section in the whistleblower complaint that Trump’s actions could pose “risks to U.S. national security and undermine the U.S. Government’s efforts to deter and counter foreign interference in U.S. elections.”

The two events have bolstered the need for election security legislation, these Democrats argued, not long after former special counsel Robert Mueller’s report highlighted Russia’s efforts to interfere in the 2016 elections.

Democrats sound the alarm: “The President again, just [as] he did in 2016, sought out assistance from a foreign power to help in his reelection,” House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) said in a statement on Thursday. “This is election interference, plain and simple. The President has continually and persistently undermined the integrity of our elections and our democracy.”

“I agree with the Acting DNI [director of national intelligence] – the top threat to our national security is the security of our elections,” he added. “It is high time for Republicans in Congress to finally realize this and join us in ensuring our elections are wholly and properly secured. We need a comprehensive, whole-of-government effort.”

Democrats also used the two events to sharpen their attacks against the president.

“When a foreign country tries to interfere, that to me is clearly an act against the best interests of the United States, and we certainly do not expect the president to be complicit in that effort,” Sen. Dick Durbin (Ill.), the second highest-ranking Senate Democrat, told reporters on Thursday.

Sen. Christopher Coons (D-Del.), one of the sponsors behind the amendment that added $250 million in election security funds, told The Hill on Thursday that he “would hope” that Maguire’s comments spur more bipartisan action on election security.

“We should be concerned not just about Russia, but about other state and nonstate actors, because the weakness of the response of our government overall to this threat has been unfortunately broadly covered in the press,” Coons said. “It is long past time for us to do more to secure our elections. I hope that Acting DNI Maguire’s testimony today will spur further action, but it is very late in the game.”

Report bolsters their case: Election security concerns were further underlined by the release on Thursday of the annual report that arose from DEFCON Voting Village, a major hacking conference that allows for hackers to test voting equipment for vulnerabilities.

The white-hat hackers tested various voting machines in use throughout the nation and found cyber vulnerabilities that would allow foreign actors or other individuals to interfere in election results.