One Big Thing: It’s Super Tuesday. How Secure Is Your Vote?

What is it?

• Super Tuesday is the biggest primary day in the presidential election season with 14 states and one territory holding elections. 
• With California and Texas holding primaries, it is expected that the Democratic party’s field of candidates will continue to narrow.
• As people vote today and throughout the year- right up until November, election meddling will continue to be a topic that looms amid growing fears over foreign influence of social media and other mechanisms.
• The U.S. government and the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee released detailed reports of Russian interference into the 2016 elections.
• Recently, U.S. intelligence services again warned that Russia has been trying to intervene to influence both the primary elections and the general elections. 

Why is it important?

• Free and fair elections are the crux of the democratic system and foreign meddling is a huge threat to their integrity.
• For American democracy to remain strong, the United States government and its citizens must be more aware and proactive in countering misinformation and foreign interference.
• This is not a partisan issue. Bi-partisan legislation has been introduced and passed to secure American elections by Republicans and Democrats. Issue One’s Don’t Mess With Us project has extensive information on legislation. 
• Last year, several top U.S. Intelligence Agencies released a joint statement naming election security as one of their top priorities.

What can you do?

• As technology grows, election meddlers get craftier. Check out ways to spot fake news and combat disinformation in your news cycle!
• Check out the Alliance for Democracy to learn more about HOW authoritarian regimes are interfering with democracy.
• Explore Issue One to find out more on what needs to be done to fix and protect our elections.