WASHINGTON – Committee on House Administration (CHA) Ranking Member Rodney Davis (IL-13) called for a bipartisan look at election security during his opening remarks at the Committee's Election Security hearing this afternoon. You can view his opening remarks below:

Rep. Davis

Election security is one of the most important issues that this Committee is tasked with, and I take the responsibility of ensuring fair and secure elections very seriously. I know that my colleagues on this committee share in this sentiment.

We know that at least 21 states were targeted by a foreign state actor prior to the 2016 U.S. election, and we know that Russia undertook a misinformation campaign during the same election. I think I can safely say that everyone on this panel finds that troubling.

But we must also factually say that no votes were changed in the 2016 election, and that through the tremendous effort of local, state, and federal officials, the 2018 midterm elections were secure with record voter participation. In fact, we saw the highest voter turnout for a midterm election in the last fifty years.

As we discuss election security today, it is important to note that many of the best practices used to protect our elections are noncontroversial, and I want to take a moment to clearly demonstrate what I'm for:

I am for election systems remaining as critical infrastructure;

I am for helping our election technology venders secure their voting systems;

I am for ensuring our election officials, both at the state and federal level, get security clearances in a timely manner;

I am for empowering the Election Assistance Commission to lead our federal support to state and local officials;

And, I am for the Department of Homeland Security lending their expertise to state and local officials when appropriate.

We must also recognize that our states and the federal government have taken significant steps to carry out these practices and services. Take a look at my home state of Illinois, which has invested in a new Cyber Navigator Program, that helps counties detect and defend themselves against cyber-security attacks.

I believe we cannot lose sight of what of Chris Krebs, Director of the Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, said before the House Homeland Security Committee earlier this year: "local officials know their system and what they need to conduct a successful election" [and] that state and local officials should remain in control of their elections.

As I have said many times, I believe that partisanship is the greatest threat to our elections. Election security cannot be a partisan exercise, but what we saw during the markup and passage of H.R. 1 was purely partisan. Too much is at stake to make this about party.

If this hearing is an effort by my colleagues to take a bipartisan look at election security, I welcome it. We have important work to do here. However, I will not support any attempt today to waste an opportunity to work together and strengthen our election security for an attempt to make the nightly news with a partisan political agenda.

I look forward to learning from our witnesses today on best practices that states are implementing to combat foreign interference and secure our nation's elections, and I look forward to hearing more about the tremendous effort of the Election Assistance Commission, the Department of Homeland Security, our Secretaries of State, and most importantly our local officials.

Background:

During the Committee on House Administration (CHA) markup of H.R. 1 on February 26, 2019, Ranking Member Rodney Davis (IL-13) introduced an amendment to strike the majority's partisan attempt at election security, Title III, and replace it with the Secure Elections Act (S. 2261), a bipartisan election security bill that was introduced during the 115th Congress in the Senate by Senator James Lankford (R-OK) and cosponsored by Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Kamala D. Harris (D-CA), Susan M. Collins (R-ME), and Martin Heinrich (D-NM). The amendment was voted down on party lines during the CHA markup.

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