A bipartisan report released by the Senate Intelligence Committee indicated that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election attempting to exploit vulnerabilities in the election infrastructure in all 50 states. Experts have indicated that Russia and other countries are intent on interfering in future U.S. elections. There is an urgent need to strengthen our election security systems and limit their vulnerability to any and all interference. Our nation faces severe cybersecurity threats and we must take immediate action to safeguard the accuracy of our elections. Protecting the integrity of our democracy is an election security issue and a national security issue.
“This is about the integrity of the 2020 election... There’s legislation like the SHIELD Act that is designed to prevent what happened in 2016 from happening again... and Senate leadership will not allow those bills to move forward.”
Sherrilyn Ifill on Rachel Maddow
The Act takes steps to prevent foreign disinformation campaigns by making sure online political advertisements are covered by the same rules as TV ads.
The SHIELD Act requires political campaigns, parties, and committees to report any attempt by a foreign government and their agents to influence our elections.
The Act would close loopholes that allow foreign governments to spend money in U.S. elections. It also closes other avenues of spending like digital advertising.
The SHIELD Act would prevent foreign governments from being able to get campaign info by making offering non-public campaign material to foreign governments and agents an illegal solicitation of support.
The Act helps stop voter suppression by prohibiting anyone from providing false information about voting procedures and creates strong penalties for voter intimidation.