Oregon Democratic Senator, Ron Wyden, is calling for mandatory election security standards.
This call follows the Senate committee’s report detailing Russian interference with the 2016 election. The report also indicates numerous vulnerabilities still exist in the system.
One of Wyden’s main concerns is that election security should not be left up to state and county officials, per the report’s top recommendation.
“I just don’t think that if you’re fighting against Russia and their armies and their tremendous military capabilities, you wouldn’t put up a county official against that,” says Wyden. “I don’t think we ought to put a county IT person against all the cyber security experts of Russia.”
In June, the House of Representatives passed the Securing America’s Federal Elections Act to invest more in election security. These improvements will include funding for replacing outdated machines and mandates paper ballot voting systems.