Vermont Secretary of State Jim Condos Issues Statement Demanding Congressional Action on Election Security Following Mueller Hearings

July 25 2019

Montpelier, VT – Vermont Secretary of State Jim Condos issued the following statement after former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s testimony before members of the U.S. House Judiciary and House Intelligence committees on June 24^th.

The Mueller report spelled out plainly and simply what I and my election official colleagues, alongside the entire U.S. intelligence community, already knew: the Russians executed a sweeping and orchestrated campaign to attack U.S. state election systems, warp public opinion, and weaken voter confidence in the integrity of our elections in 2016.

Yesterday, in former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s testimony before congress, he couldn’t have spelled out these facts more clearly for members of Congress. When asked if these attacks were a one-time occurrence, or an ongoing threat, he responded “they’re doing it as we sit here.”

Ask any members of the U.S. intelligence community, from DHS to the FBI, and they’ll tell you the same thing. Yet members of the U.S. Senate once again blocked bills that would further protect our elections from foreign attacks, without explanation, only hours after the special counsel’s testimony, repeating a pattern of partisan stonewalling on any measure that would strengthen election security and get states the resources we need to defend our democracy sustainably into the future.

Last year the bi-partisan Secure Elections Act was killed on direct order by the White House, and while the House has passed measures that would strengthen our posture protecting the integrity of every vote cast, under Senator McConnell’s leadership they all have been dead on arrival in the Senate.

It’s time for the partisan games to end. Our free and fair elections are the foundation on which our democracy rests, not a political football used to score cheap points.

States like Vermont are doing the hard work we need to do to protect the integrity and security of our elections, but it’s time for the President and Senator McConnell to either get on board to help us do this work, or it’s time for them to get out of the way.