Congressional Democrats will ask Republicans to pass legislation to improve election security, ahead of special counsel Robert Mueller’s planned testimony to Congress Wednesday on Russia’s interference in the 2016 election.
House and Senate Democrats are expected to issue their call Tuesday in a press conference at the Senate, and plan to highlight several House-passed bills and Senate proposals to increase security ahead of the 2020 elections.
Congressional Democrats and Republicans remain at odds over how to address election security issues three years after Russia’s interference.
Last month, the Democratic-controlled House passed a bill requiring paper ballots at all polling stations. However, almost all House Republicans opposed the measure, arguing that paper ballots are more susceptible to tampering.
Several Republican-controlled Senate committees have been looking into election security issues, and the Judiciary Committee approved two election security bills in May. However, Senate Democrats accuse Republican leadership of blocking votes on the measures.
Election security has become highly politicized following the Mueller investigation, with both parties disagreeing over how to interpret the report’s conclusions into Russia’s interference.
Democrats are hoping to highlight the issue ahead of Mueller’s anticipated appearance before two House committees.
Mueller has said he will not offer opinions in his congressional testimony beyond what is in the report, which concluded that Trump had not colluded with Russia to help him win the election, even though his campaign had numerous contacts with Russia.
Mueller reached no conclusion about whether Trump obstructed justice by trying to thwart the investigation, in part because of a Justice Department policy prohibiting charges against sitting U.S. presidents. However, Attorney General William Barr and then-Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein concluded that no criminal charges were warranted against Trump.
