Despite our intelligence agencies' certainty that Russia meddled in the 2016 election and are preparing to step up their attacks in 2020, the Trump administration has been pathetically – even willfully – slow in addressing election security.

Now the Associated Press is reporting that machines in as many as 10,000 precincts will be running outdated, unsecure software.

Put simply, here's what that means: until November of next year, hackers will be able to find new vulnerabilities in our election equipment, and no one will be doing anything to secure them. And, because security requirements vary by state, and the federal government has yet to implement cybersecurity standards nationwide, some Americans' votes are much more vulnerable than others. That danger is urgent and preventable.

That's why I introduced the Protecting American Votes and Elections (PAVE) Act, which will mandate nationwide cybersecurity standards for our elections.

I've also questioned the top federal election task force in charge of protecting our elections—the Election Assistance Commission—to learn exactly what steps it's taking to make sure that every vote, in every state, is safe from outside interference.

Free, fair, secure, democratic elections form the backbone of our democracy, and I will do everything in my power to guarantee their integrity. There's still time to act, but the clock is ticking.

More soon,

Ron