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Protect our elections from foreign interference

Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-MN, took to the U.S. Senate floor on Wednesday to make her case for her bipartisan amendment with Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-SC, to safeguard U.S. election infrastructure from foreign interference. According to Klobuchar, the amendment would help states block cyber attacks, secure voter registration logs and voter data, upgrade election auditing procedures, and create secure and useful information sharing about threats.

“Time is of the essence if we want to improve election cybersecurity ahead of 2018 and 2020,” Klobuchar said. “If we do not act now, we leave state election officials — the people on the front lines of our democratic process — without the resources they need to combat cybersecurity.”

There is no reason in the world not to support this legislation. We know from Department of Homeland Security that Russian hackers tried to access election-related computer systems in at least 21 states during the 2016 election. Intelligence officials say there is no evidence that hackers changed any votes, but experts have no doubt that Russian intelligence operatives have the capability to change votes.

That’s a real threat to U.S. democracy.

This legislation should not be confused with partisan politics. This really has nothing to do with ongoing investigations into possible collusion between the Trump administration and Russia.

This has everything to do with how Americans vote. The equipment used for voting purposes must be trusted. The collection of data and how it’s processed can’t be penetrated by those who want to disrupt or change election outcomes.

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