1. United States
2. Kan.
3. Letter

I am writing to urge you to oppose any federal takeover of election administration and to reject the ongoing misuse of intelligence resources to promote debunked conspiracy theories about the 2020 election. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard is currently leading an administration effort to re-examine the 2020 election, including seizing materials from Fulton County, Georgia's elections office despite two recounts confirming unremarkable results. The Justice Department has even investigated whether Venezuela contributed to illegal voting in 2020, reviving the thoroughly debunked Smartmatic conspiracy theory originally promoted by Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani. These investigations waste taxpayer resources and undermine public confidence in our democratic processes. Gabbard has demonstrated a troubling pattern of cherry-picking intelligence to support predetermined conclusions. When announcing supposed bombshell Russiagate documents, she quoted a 2016 email suggesting Russia was "probably not trying to influence the election by using cyber means" but omitted the rest of that sentence: "to manipulate computer-enabled election infrastructure." The very next sentence warned that Russia was using cyber means to steal campaign data and leak select items, exactly what investigations concluded happened. This is the inverse of how intelligence work should operate. President Trump has explicitly stated his motivation for these investigations, saying at the National Prayer Breakfast: "They rigged the second election. I had to win it. I needed it for my own ego." He has also advocated for nationalizing elections, giving the federal government control over our intentionally decentralized voting process. When asked if he would trust midterm results if Republicans lose Congress, he replied: "I will if the elections are honest." Our election integrity depends on decentralized state and local administration with proper oversight, not federal control driven by partisan grievances. I urge you to publicly oppose any legislation that would federalize election administration and to demand that intelligence resources be used for legitimate national security purposes, not political investigations of already-verified election results.