Stephen Lynch Confident Bill Galvin Will Protect Mass. From Election Interference In 2020

Members Of Congress Call For Release Of Intelligence Findings On 9/11 Attacks — U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-MA), right, with U.S. Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC), speaks during a press conference on U.S. House bill H.R. 428 in the Cannon House Office Building on March 12, 2014 in Washington, DC.

Arjun Singh is a producer for Boston Public Radio. A California native, Arjun moved to Boston to study international relations at Boston University. Prior to working at WGBH, Arjun worked at a tech company and for a political campaign.

April 23, 2019

One issue that has come to light following the release of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report on Russian interference in the 2016 election is a lengthy description of how Russian operatives targeted local boards of elections, secretaries of state and private companies charged with administering software related to electronic polling and voter registration software in an effort to destabilize the election.

Speaking with Boston Public Radio on Tuesday, Rep. Stephen Lynch said that he’s concerned with the large scale hacking operation, and while he is confident in Massachusetts Secretary of State Bill Galvin’s ability to protect the state from interference, he’s not as sure about the rest of the nation.

“I think Bill Galvin has done a good job here in Massachusetts,” Lynch said. “Our system, I think, has integrity, [but] I’m not convinced [about other states].”

Though Lynch is concerned with other aspects of the report, he said he was alarmed by how deep the interference into the elections was. This is one reason he’s enthusiastic about a sweeping reform bill that, if passed, would issue cyber security guidelines for states, standards for private vendors who handle voting information, and provide states with new voting machines and training about how to use them.

The bill passed in the House without a single Republican vote, and is not expected to get much traction in the Republican controlled-Senate, but Lynch said that electoral security cannot afford to be a partisan issue.

“The very purpose that [Russian leader Vladimir] Putin is doing this is to undermine America’s faith in the electoral system and democracy itself,” Lynch said. “There’s every indication that Russia continues to do what they have been doing.”

As for the question that has been dominating the Democratic party of whether to move toward impeaching President Donald Trump, Lynch said he’s not prepared to move forward with impeachment now, and to do so would be hasty and possibly impede efforts by several House committees to investigate the president.

“Let’s do this investigation and let’s get all of the evidence. We’ve got all these subpoenas out [and] we think we’re going to prevail on those,” Lynch said. “So, lets get that information, then with [our] best case ... then go forward on impeachment if it's substantiated by the facts.”