A woman casts her ballot during a 2017 special election in Georgia. Congress has yet to pass a bill that specifically addresses election security with just weeks left before the 2018 primary season begins. | Joe Raedle/Getty Images House Democrats demand election security hearings

House Democrats on Thursday urged the Judiciary Committee to hold "immediate hearings" on the cyber threats facing America’s electoral system.

The gatherings are necessary because the Justice Department "appears to have taken little — if any — action to secure our election systems" in the wake of a 2016 digital meddling campaign that intelligence officials have pinned on Russia, said Democrats on the panel in a letter sent to Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.).


The request is the latest in a string of Democratic actions meant to pressure Republicans on Moscow's election meddling.

Senate Judiciary Democrats are also demanding that their committee hold hearings on Russian election meddling, and a parade of Democrats took to the Senate floor Tuesday night to castigate the Trump administration for not doing enough to bolster the cyber defenses of U.S. election infrastructure.

“We cannot afford to ignore the mounting evidence of a coordinated effort to undermine the most basic and essential aspects of democratic process,” the lawmakers told Goodlatte, pointing to news stories about Russian intrusions into voter registration databases, voting system vendors and state election offices.

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Democrats are also angry with the White House for not imposing congressionally mandated sanctions on Russia in retaliation for its 2016 actions.

Specifically, Thursday's letter harps on a vow Attorney General Jeff Session made at a November hearing to brief the committee on DOJ’s election security work. The Democrats wrote that DOJ still has not provided a briefing or responded to questions sent to Sessions in early December.

The lawmakers also called for the heads of DHS and the State Department to appear before the panel.

“It is our Committee’s responsibility,” they wrote, “to examine the vulnerabilities and risks facing our election processes and infrastructure in order to protect Americans' right to vote.”

Despite numerous legislative proposals and several congressional reports, Congress has yet to pass a bill that specifically addresses election security with just weeks left before the 2018 primary season begins.

