2019 is coming to a close and we're running out of time to safeguard our elections. On December 20, Congress will go on recess and won't be back until 2020 -- and by then, it could be too late.

Right now, the election security fight is in the Senate. We have a very simple way you can get their attention before the recess: placing a letter to the editor in your local paper, publicly shaming Senate leadership for not protecting our elections. Our tool makes it easy. Click here to send a letter today:

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Why do we need better election security?

Our elections are vulnerable. We have mountains of evidence that Russia infiltrated election systems in all 50 states and attempted to sway the 2016 election in Trump's favor. We've heard from top national security officials and, more recently, career public servants who testified that along with Russia, countries like China and Iran are already working to tamper with the 2020 elections.

One of the main reasons Trump is being impeached in the first place is because he personally ordered White House officials to withhold military funding from Ukraine until they agreed to interfere with the upcoming elections. Impeachment is the safeguard against a self-serving president who abuses his power, but we still need to protect our election systems, the literal backbone of our democracy.

And how can we protect our elections?

In 2020, we have to defend against cyberattacks and hackers -- and the best way to do that is to replace outdated voting equipment with systems that use voter-verified paper ballots. Creating a paper trail is one of the most effective ways to prevent cyberattacks from affecting vote counts. But replacing machines costs money. States need more funding, and Congress has yet to provide a single dollar.

If this is such a big problem, why hasn't Congress approved funding?

I ask myself this question every day. In June, the House of Representatives passed a bill with $600 million in election security funding. The problem is the Senate, which continues to hold up funding.

The biggest roadblock is Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. For months, McConnell has blocked attempt after attempt to pass election security funding, instead passing short-term spending bills that haven't included one cent for election security.

After we aggressively targeted him for failing to protect our democracy, Moscow Mitch caved and allowed $250 million in election security funding to pass the Senate Appropriations Committee. But that was in September. It still hasn't received a full Senate vote, which means that funding is still stuck in limbo.

They don't call the Senate a legislative graveyard for nothing.

So here's what you can do:

Public pressure is one of the most important tools in our arsenal. Thanks to grassroots pressure from the Stand Up America community -- your phone calls, your emails, and your tweets -- we got Mitch McConnell to agree to some funding (not enough, but it's a start). Now we need to keep the pressure on.

Send a letter to the editor of your local newspaper urging your senator to pass a spending bill that gives states $600 million in election security funding.

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Let's finally get this funding across the finish line and safeguard our democracy.

Thanks for all you do.

Brett Edkins
Political Director, Stand Up America






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