WPRO News & The Associated Press
Rhode Island officials say it’ll be an ongoing process to ensure that elections in the state are secure and additional funding is needed.
U.S. Sens. Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse met Monday in Providence with Rhode Island Secretary of State Nellie Gorbea, the state’s chief elections official. They discussed how to strengthen election security, the local resources available to do so and the threats.
Reed said Republican leaders in Congress turned down efforts by Democrats to add $250 million in funding for stepped up elections security.
“The reality is we’re going to need this money, and it’s not going to be one year or two years, because the threats are not one year or two years, it’s persistent,” Reed said. He called on President Donald Trump to lend his personal support and the resources to guard against election interference.
“Absolutely,” Gorbea said, when asked whether Rhode Island is continuing to detect outside threats to elections systems.
“Every single state, Rhode Island included, must face the challenge of ongoing attempted interventions by foreign actors, Russia in particular, but others as well,” she said.
Reed said that he and Whitehouse would return to Washington to introduce measures to extend security clearances to state elections officials.
“As Sen. Reed said, it’s critically important for those of us managing elections systems to know what are the real threats to those systems,” Gorbea said.
