Contact: Ron Boehmer 202-225-2906
WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Representative Mark Pocan (WI-02) today released the following statement regarding news that Russian-linked Facebook ads targeted Wisconsin during the 2016 Election.
“Russia’s interference with our national elections hit home when we found out that Russian backed interest groups bought ads in specifically targeted to Wisconsin. These ads underscore the lengths to which Russia went to meddle in our electoral process and going forward, we must work to strengthen and protect our democratic institutions from these attacks. We must also continue to support Special Counsel Robert Mueller and his investigation to get to the bottom regarding whether or not there was collusion between the Trump Campaign and the Russian government. With the 2018 elections just over a year away, we need to know the full scope of this foreign interference and how to prevent it.
“We must ensure the widespread Russian hacking and interference in the 2016 election never happens again. Congress should immediately bring the Securing America’s Future Elections Act, legislation I introduced earlier this year, to the House Floor for a vote so that we can secure our electoral process from start to finish.”
Earlier this year, Pocan introduced the Securing America’s Future Elections (SAFE) Act, legislation that would safeguard U.S. elections from future foreign cyber-attacks and interference by permanently classifying the integrity and security of elections as a key component of critical infrastructure.
This important classification would place elections systems in the same category as other critical infrastructure including the power grid, the banking system, and other utilities. The SAFE Act also addresses election standards to protect against cyber-threats, better voting machines that provide paper ballots, and random audits of ballots to thwart interference.
