“The most urgent task American leaders face is to ensure that the election’s results are accepted as legitimate. Electoral legitimacy is the essential linchpin of our entire political culture,” Coats said in a statement emailed to Newsweek.
Other prominent officials on the Council and joining the initiative include former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, former Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General James Cartwright, former Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff, former GOP Senate Majority Leader Bill First and former Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, among others. The group is also urging Congress to form a bipartisan national commission “to help reassure the American public about the integrity of our elections by identifying weaknesses in our elections systems and issuing recommendations to strengthen the resiliency of our election systems and processes.”
