WASHINGTON - Committee on House Administration top Republican and Ranking Member on the Subcommittee on Elections Rodney Davis (R-Ill.) shared the following key takeaways from Super Tuesday and the primaries held in 14 states across the country.

Our Elections Are Secure.
"The Department of Homeland Security reported that there were no findings of election-related hacking or large-scale disinformation campaigns like we saw in the 2016 election," said Ranking Member Davis. "That's a win for the federal government, state, county and local administrators who have worked to bolster our election security efforts. Most importantly, it's a win for the American people that their election systems are secure and their votes are being counted."

Election Technology Still Needs Help.
"Intermittent IT issues with election technology underscored the need for Congress to pass my bill, Protect American Voters Act that will create standards for our non-voting election technology. We saw technology issues occur with the software glitches in California, and in Texas and Minnesota, where the technology that allows voters to look up their polling locations was not functioning due to heavy web traffic," said Davis. "Also, it's imperative that the Election Assistance Commission issue a new version of its Voluntary Voting System Guidelines."

Vote-By-Mail Isn't a Cure-All in Administering Elections.
"Today, we learned that California's push for a vote-by-mail system did not decrease in-person wait times for voters, even though many California voters were automatically mailed a ballot. Californians also have the option to participate in ballot harvesting, where volunteers pick up a ballot from the voter's home, then deposit those ballots to an election authority. Despite these methods that were designed to create greater access to voting, California citizens still reported hour-long wait times to cast a ballot - with lines so long that Bernie Sanders' campaign filed an emergency injunction to keep polls open an extra 2 hours." Davis said, "Many voters still want to participate in in-person voting, and we need to ensure streamlined processes are provided by administrators on the front end, like maintaining efficient voter rolls and extensive training of poll workers, to reduce long lines and guarantee secure and efficient voting."

Elections Aren't Won by Money Alone.
"Opponents of the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision are wrong in at least one sense - you cannot buy a presidential election, as Mike Bloomberg found out after spending almost $500 million on ads for his failed presidential campaign," said Davis. "Those who rebuke the Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United routinely say that pouring large amounts of money into campaigns drastically alter the outcomes of elections. However, we can see, at least at the national level, a candidate's message is more important than her or his funding level. It is essential that we not limit that messaging or speech in our electoral process."

For background on Ranking Member Davis' bill H.R. 5707: Protect American Voters Act (PAVA), click here.

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