What exactly are we accusing the Russians of doing concerning our election?

[Platapus]

I think it is important to get down to the base level here. What exactly do we think the Russians did concerning our election and was it illegal?

The press uses/misuses terminology a lot and this does not make it easier for people to keep the issue straight. Whether the press is misusing terminology due to bias or ignorance is not clear. Probably a bit of both.

Are we accusing the Russians of interfering with our elections or are we accusing the Russians of influencing our elections? The two, while related, are quite different.

Interfering with an election is preventing, hindering, or adversely affecting the actual running of the polls, collection of the votes, counting and reporting the votes and other official type activities that ensure the fair and honest running of the polling. This would be an illegal act and would violate both Federal and State laws.

Influencing an election, or more accurately, influencing a campaign is using both legal and illegal methods attempting to change the opinions and ultimately the voting decision of the voter. The concept of influencing a campaign is not intrinsically illegal. After all, the very idea of a campaign is attempting to influence the voter. However, the methods used for this influence can be legal (advertisements) or illegal (voter intimidation).

Countries trying to influence another country's campaigns is not unusual nor illegal. The US spends a lot of money and effort in influencing elections in other countries. There are campaigns and candidates that we want to be elected and those we don't want to be elected. The US is hardly unique in this.

But what exactly are we accusing the Russians of doing? And we need to be clear on the terminology.

If we are accusing the Russians of interfering with the election, then we need to have evidence that the Russians, or their agents, deliberately prevented or hindered election officials in the performance of their duties; or show evidence that the Russians adversely affected the operations of any election machine.

I have not seen such evidence, and as far as my precinct goes, there was no interference either foreign or domestic.

If we are accusing the Russians of influencing the campaigns, we need to look at the methods. Most methods of influencing campaigns are legal. There are federal laws that prevent foreign entities from directly contributing money to a specific campaign, but there are no legal prohibitions against any foreign entity from running or donating money to a Political Action Committee.

We may not like the idea of Russia trying to influence US voters, but I imagine that Russia does not like the idea of the US trying to influence Russian voters either. But not liking something does not mean that something is illegal.

So before we start to invest money into an investigation, we should be clear on what exactly are we investigating? We should not be spending money investigating something we may not like,but is not illegal.

The first step is to bound the issue and define the terms.