Bill seeks to offer election protections against foreign interference

A bipartisan delegation of legislators recently supported legislation seeking to prohibit foreign ownership or control of the nation’s elections systems.

Rep. Jeff Van Drew (D-NJ) recently joined Reps. Kendra Horn (D-OK), Abigail Spanberger (D-VA), Xochitl Torres Small (D-NM), Dan Crenshaw (R-TX), Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE), Roger Marshall (R-KS) and Greg Steube (R-FL) in introducing the
Protect Our Elections Act.

“The right to vote is the foundation of our democratic system of government, and ensuring the integrity of elections is the single most important thing that we can do to keep Americans’ faith in our system of government,” Van Drew said. “At a time when foreign governments are trying to sow doubt about the integrity of our elections, prohibiting foreign ownership and control of our elections infrastructure is a simple and common-sense step to securing our elections.”

The bill requires companies providing election services to report any foreign national that owns or controls their firm to relevant government agencies and notify those same agencies of any material change in ownership or control. It also requires state and local governments to conduct an annual evaluation of their election service providers to ensure each election service provider is solely owned and controlled domestically, with the exception of Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand.

“Election security is not a partisan issue, it is essential to our democracy,” Horn said. “Congress must protect our electoral process from foreign interference and bad actors who seek to undermine our democracy. As co-chair of the Election Security Task Force, I’m proud to introduce this bipartisan legislation with my colleagues. The Protect Our Elections Act will prohibit foreign ownership and control of election systems and require increased transparency for election services companies.”