Robert Mueller, the special counsel who investigated Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, emphasized that the interference in the 2016 presidential election was not a one-off event. "They are doing it while we sit here. And they expect to do it during the next campaign," Mueller said in his congressional testimony in July. A 61-page report from the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence sketches out just how helpless a local election IT staffer is against "Russia's cyber army."

Rick Hasen, chancellor's professor of law and political science at the University of California Irvine School of Law says Congress likely won't be passing election interference legislation on a federal level. Instead, the United States' counties and states are all that's between the 2020 presidential election and Russia's horde of hackers.

The National Law Journal spoke with Hasen about the legal roadblocks and threats facing the nation's voting infrastructure. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.