House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) called for a ban on electronic voting systems in an interview that aired Thursday on Hill.TV’s “Rising.”
“The one thing we’ve been warning about for many, many years on the Intelligence committee is about the electronic voting systems,” Nunes told Hill.TV’s Buck Sexton, who sat with the lawmaker on Wednesday.
“Those are really dangerous in my opinion, and should not be used. In California — at least in the counties that I represent — they do not use an electronic system,” he continued.
“I think anybody that does that, and that’s communicating over the web, it’s going to be a challenge. So you have to make sure that you limit that as much as possible, and we need a paper trail so that you can go back in case you have to do a manual recount,” he said.
In February, a DHS cybersecurity officials said that Russia had “successfully penetrated” the voter rolls in a small number of states in 2016 and warned California and 21 other states that Russia attempted to breach their systems.
They said that the systems targeted were not involved in vote tallying.
The U.S. intelligence community said that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election and has warned that the Kremlin will continue to attempt to interfere in the upcoming 2018 midterm elections.
President Trump, who has sent mixed signals on whether he believes the intelligence committee’s assessment on election interference, said on Tuesday that he is “very concerned” that Russia will try to interfere in the 2018 midterm elections to aid Democrats.
“I’m very concerned that Russia will be fighting very hard to have an impact on the upcoming Election. Based on the fact that no President has been tougher on Russia than me, they will be pushing very hard for the Democrats. They definitely don’t want Trump!” the president tweeted.
I’m very concerned that Russia will be fighting very hard to have an impact on the upcoming Election. Based on the fact that no President has been tougher on Russia than me, they will be pushing very hard for the Democrats. They definitely don’t want Trump!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 24, 2018
In the wide-ranging interview, Nunes also addressed reports that Trump is considering revoking former intelligence officials’ security clearances.
Nunes said officials such as former FBI Director James Comey and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper have acted in a way that is “extremely dishonest,” but said the president should not pull their clearances.
The lawmaker also revealed that his committee is probing whether various informants in Russia received payments before there was an authorized investigation.
He also commented on redactions and omissions from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant on former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page, saying they were more damning to the intelligence community than what has already been released.
— Julia Manchester
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