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Revised Secure Elections Act introduced, Burr and Warner join as co-sponsors

A revised version of the Secure Elections Act has been made public that includes several alterations including streamlining communications between the states and federal governments and provides for more funding for election security.

The new measures, several of which were mentioned in the Senate Intelligence Committee's recent list of recommendations for improving election security, requires states to quickly inform federal authorities about any potential cybersecurity issues. However, the original three-day deadline to do so has been dropped. Other changes involve the advisory panel, whose creation is mandated in the original bill, that would see it housed within the Election Assistance Commission and not the Department of Homeland Security as in the original version of the bill. The panel would be tasked with developing security recommendations that would have to be followed by states receiving any federal election grants, said Sen. James Lankford, R-Ok.

The panel will also authorize those grants.

The revisions helped bring additional co-sponsors onto the bill, including Election Assistance Commission Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr, R-N.C. and Vice Chairman Mark Warner, D-Va.

The original bill was introduced in December.

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