Dem Sen Warner: Trump Administration’s Lack of Focus on Election Security an ‘Embarrassment’

Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) said it is an “embarrassment that this White House has not made election security a top priority” in response to Russian election meddling.

Warner said, “I think there’s more to be done and I’m very proud of our Senate Intelligence committee where we’ve got bipartisan legislation that would actually improve election security. I’m proud of the fact that Congress acted to put out $380 million of additional funds so that states could upgrade their voting machines, so there actually is a paper trail. In a normal administration, in a normal administration, because elections touch federal state and local, there would be someone designated out of the White House on election security to make sure there’s better coordination. Because as you mentioned, even the Trump election — intelligence officials have said Russians will be back.”

He added, “I think it’s an embarrassment that this White House has not made election security a top priority and has not put the kind of attention and focus on it that we need. The truth is, I’m not sure we’re fully prepared. We had hearings just this past week where we brought in some of the vendors who control — three vendors control 90% of all of the IT systems that deal with the voter files. I think we need to do more education and state and local level. Again, a normal administration, this kind of election security coordination would be done out of the White House. But as Trump’s own intelligence officials have indicated, there’s been no signal from the White House that election security in 2018 should be a priority.”

(h/t The Hill)

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