National: Trump doubles down on taking over elections, as outrage builds | Matt Cohen/Democracy Docket

Congress members, state election chiefs, and voting rights advocates are decrying President Donald Trump’s insistence that the federal government wrest control of elections from the states. “Any calls to ‘nationalize’ our elections are a power grab by the Trump Administration,” Rebekah Caruthers, the president and CEO of Fair Elections Center, told Democracy Docket. “Our Constitution says that Congress and the states set the rules for our elections, and the hardworking election officials in thousands of jurisdictions all over the country run them—not the president.”  Mark Lindeman, policy and strategy director at Verified Voting, echoed that view. “As president, Trump has spoken and acted as if he has unlimited power, including unlimited power to interfere in elections,” Lindeman told Democracy Docket. “Americans should expect him to cross Constitutional lines, and we should be ready to push back.” Read Article

National: Steve Bannon calls for Trump to deploy ICE and military troops to polling sites – Jacob Wendler/Politico

MAGA commentator Steve Bannon voiced support for Donald Trump’s push to nationalize elections, calling on the president to deploy ICE officials and military troops to polling sites. Trump said in a Monday podcast interview that “the Republicans ought to nationalize the voting,” despite the fact that the Constitution grants states explicit jurisdiction over election administration. His call sparked outrage from Democrats and largely fell on deaf ears in the GOP — but Bannon, a conservative firebrand who has been a prominent voice in election conspiracy theories, was forceful in his support for the idea. The former White House strategist called for the Trump administration to send Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to polling sites to prevent noncitizens from voting, citing a debunked conspiracy theory about widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election. Read Article

National: Trump’s Call to ‘Nationalize’ Elections Adds to State Officials’ Alarm | Nick Corasaniti/The New York Times

President Trump’s declaration that he wants to “nationalize” voting in the United States arrives at a perilous moment for the relationship between the federal government and top election officials across the country. While the executive branch has no explicit authority over elections, generations of secretaries of state have relied on the intelligence gathering and cybersecurity defenses, among other assistance, that only the federal government can provide. But as Mr. Trump has escalated efforts to involve the administration in election and voting matters while also eliminating programs designed to fortify these systems against attacks, secretaries of state and other top state election officials, including some Republican ones, have begun to sound alarms. Some see what was once a crucial partnership as frayed beyond repair. They point to Mr. Trump’s push to overturn the 2020 election, his continued false claims that the contest was rigged, the presence of election deniers in influential government positions and his administration’s attempts to dig up evidence of widespread voter fraud that year, even though none has ever been found. Read Article

 

National: FBI invites state election officials to an ‘unusual’ briefing on the midterms | Jane C. Timm/NBC

Days after a tense gathering in Washington, D.C., laid bare growing acrimony between President Donald Trump’s administration and state election officials, the FBI invited those same officials to discuss “preparations” for the midterm elections. The invitation, is scheduled for Feb. 25. It will include the FBI, the departments of Justice and Homeland Security, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the Election Assistance Commission. The invitation, which was sent this week, according to the election official, was signed by Kellie M. Hardiman, who identified herself as an “FBI Election Executive.” A LinkedIn page for Hardiman says she was appointed seven months ago. The official who was invited and requested anonymity to speak candidly called it “unusual and unexpected,” adding that they planned to attend. Read Article

National: Top Republicans throw cold water on ‘nationalizing’ elections | Nina Heller/Roll Call

As many Republicans in Congress push for action on a voter ID bill, its future remains uncertain — and key voices in the GOP say they are wary of increasing federal involvement in elections. “I’m supportive of only citizens voting and showing ID at polling places. I think that makes sense … but I’m not in favor of federalizing elections. I mean, I think that’s a constitutional issue,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told reporters Tuesday. While the SAVE Act passed the House in April, it has yet to see action in the Senate. Rep. Brandon Gill, R-Texas, led a letter on Monday urging Senate Rules and Administration Chair Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., to advance the legislation through his committee, saying it was “past due.” McConnell, however, is one of a small handful of Republicans who have not signed on as co-sponsors of the SAVE Act. Asked about his position on the bill, his office pointed to a Wall Street Journal op-ed he wrote in April arguing that increasing federal involvement in elections is a slippery slope. While many states have voter ID requirements of their own, a federal mandate would be different. “Elections may have national consequences but the power to conduct them rests in state capitols. No public mandate, real or perceived, lets Washington tamper with this authority, not even for a worthy cause like election integrity,” McConnell wrote at the time, pushing back on an executive order signed by President Donald Trump in March. Read Article

National: Tulsi Gabbard running solo 2020 election inquiry separate from FBI investigation | Trump administration | Hugo Lowell/The Guardian

Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, is running her own review into the 2020 election with Donald Trump’s approval, working separately from a justice department investigation even as she joined an FBI raid of an election center in Georgia last week. Her presence at the raid drew criticism from Democrats and former intelligence officials, who questioned why the country’s top intelligence officer with no domestic law enforcement powers would appear at the scene of an FBI raid. But Gabbard, whose role ordinarily focuses on overseeing the intelligence agencies, has played only a minimal role in the criminal investigation, according to three administration officials. “She’s doing her own thing,” one of the officials said. The parallel investigations into the 2020 election underscore the extent to which it has returned as a priority for the president. And Gabbard being sent to the raid showed the interest on voting machine manipulation claims that Trump has cited as evidence the election was stolen. Read Article

National: Election officials grapple with a brain drain as threats rise | Andrew Howard/Politico

Increasingly violent threats toward and harassment of public officials — from county clerks up to the president — are driving more and more of those figures out of their jobs, a particular concern among local election officials, who have struggled with attrition for years. In the years since the 2020 election, roughly 50 percent of top local election officials across 11 western states have left their jobs since November 2020, according to a new report from Issue One, a bipartisan organization that tracks election issues and supports campaign finance reforms. The election administration world has been grappling with a significant brain drain since the one-two punch of the 2020 pandemic and threats arising from conspiracy theories surrounding that year’s election. But the new report — which focuses on election offices in Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming — is particularly concerning because it shows departures haven’t tapered off, marking a 10 percentage point uptick since the group’s 2023 report survey. Read Article

National: As feds pull back, states look inward for election security support | Derek B. Johnson/CyberScoop

It’s no secret that the Trump administration has radically altered the federal government’s relationship with state election officials since being sworn into power last year. While his first term included the creation of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the distribution of hundreds of millions in congressional funding sent to help states upgrade election security, Trump’s second term has so far been more adversarial toward states. As CyberScoop and others have reported, CISA has scaled back its election security support – in some cases shuttering work on topics like disinformation — while firing or sidelining election security specialists at the agency. The administration is also pursuing voter data from all 50 states, an effort that has been called “unprecedented and illegal” by one court. As feds pull back, states look inward for election security sRead Article

National: ‘Cowards’: Election officials rip Bondi, Gabbard, Noem for bailing on NASS event | Chris Teale/Route Fifty

The usually staid and bipartisan National Association of Secretaries of State winter conference descended into rancorous dueling press conferences last week, after several administration officials promised to attend, only to withdraw at the eleventh hour. Typically, the event brings together state leaders and federal officials to discuss elections, cybersecurity and business-related issues. But the recent federal raid of the Fulton County, Georgia elections offices, observed by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard apparently in search of alleged voter fraud during the 2020 election, as well as ongoing Department of Justice lawsuits demanding states turn over election data and records, had many officials on edge. Meanwhile, Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a letter that federal agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement would withdraw from Minneapolis if, among other demands, the state turns over its voter rolls to the DOJ. Gabbard, Bondi and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem had been announced on stage at the NASS conference as attending for a “fireside chat” by Jared Borg, special assistant to the president and deputy director of the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs. But none showed up, prompting a furious response from Democratic secretaries of state who had anticipated asking the trio about the data lawsuits, the raid in Georgia and ICE’s continued presence in their communities. Read Article

Arizona has lost more top election officials than any western state since 2020 | Jerod MacDonald-Evoy/Arizona Mirror

In the five years since the 2020 presidential election, during which Republicans sowed doubt in election systems by spreading evidence-free “fraud” claims, a new report shows that Arizona counties have had more turnover in local election administration than any other western state. In fact, all 15 of Arizona’s counties have experienced turnover in at least one chief election position. The report by Issue One, a nonpartisan political reform nonprofit, shows that all 15 of Arizona’s counties experienced turnover, with the vast majority of them leaving due to personal reasons. After Joe Biden won Arizona in 2020, the Grand Canyon State became an epicenter for bogus election fraud claims manufactured by Donald Trump’s supporters. That led to things like the Arizona Senate’s sham “audit” of the 2020 presidential election — even though it was run by vocal Trump supporters and conspiracy theorists, it turned up no evidence of fraud — and efforts by candidates to overturn their election losses, often citing unfounded claims of fraud. Read Article

California: US Supreme Court rejects GOP challenge to new election map | David G. Savage/Los Angeles Times

The Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that California this fall may use its new election map, which is expected to send five more Democrats to Congress. With no dissents, the justices rejected emergency appeals from California Republicans and President Trump’s lawyers, who claimed the map was a racial gerrymander to benefit Latinos, not a partisan effort to bolster Democrats. “Donald Trump said he was ‘entitled’ to five more congressional seats in Texas. He started this redistricting war. He lost, and he’ll lose again in November,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said in response to the court’s decision. Trump’s lawyers supported the California Republicans and filed a Supreme Court brief asserting that “California’s recent redistricting is tainted by an unconstitutional racial gerrymander.” But the court turned down the appeal in a one-line order with no explanation. Read Article

Georgia House considers scrapping touchscreen voting by this year’s midterm elections | Caleb Groves/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

In the wake of an extraordinary FBI raid on a Fulton County elections office, Georgia Republican lawmakers are moving to rework how the state conducts its elections in advance of a crucial midterm election. Under a draft House proposal obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Georgians would have two in-person voting options for casting their ballot. Election Day voters would use hand-marked paper ballots, which would be tabulated by machines. Georgians voting early would be able to choose to fill out a ballot by hand or select their candidates using the current touchscreen system, which prints out a paper ballot receipt. Touchscreen votes would be hand-counted. The proposal was expected to be considered in the House Governmental Affairs Committee on Monday, but the meeting was called off after the proposal’s language immediately sparked controversy among local election officials and Democrats. Read Article

Georgia: Fulton County to challenge FBI seizure of election documents | George Chidi/The Guardian

Fulton county leaders said they would fire back in court on Monday, intent on limiting the scope of a federal warrant that led the FBI to seize 2020 elections documents last week. County attorneys intend to file a motion in federal court asking for an order mandating the return of property that was unlawfully seized or retained, said the Fulton county commissioner Marvin Arrington Jr. “By removing ballots and other election materials from their secure, locally controlled environment, the chain of custody is broken, rendering any future claims from those materials unreliable,” said Pamela Smith, president and CEO of Verified Voting, a non-profit that advocates for election security and the use of paper ballots. “Fulton county’s voters are relying on their election officials to prepare – without disruption – for a new election that is just around the corner,” Smith said. “At the behest of the administration, which has no role in the conduct of elections, this raid is manufacturing chaos, intimidating election workers, and sowing distrust ahead of the state’s primaries, this year’s midterms, and the 2028 presidential election.” Read Article

Minnesota: GOP bill aims to force Secretary of State to hand over voter rolls to federal government | Nathaniel Minor/The Minnesota Star Tribune

Minnesota’s Republican congressional delegation is trying to put pressure on Secretary of State Steve Simon to comply with federal requests for the state’s voter rolls, the latest volley in a monthslong battle between the state and federal government over the data. U.S. Reps. Pete Stauber, Tom Emmer, Michelle Fischbach and Brad Finstad are co-sponsoring a bill that would bar Simon’s office from receiving federal election-assistance funds until it cooperates with several U.S. Department of Justice data requests, including one for the state’s voter rolls that has escalated into a lawsuit. Simon’s office has so far rebuffed those requests, arguing they violate state and federal data privacy laws. DOJ officials have said they want the data to assess Minnesota’s compliance with federal elections laws. Read Article

North Carolina Board of Elections asks 241,000 voters to verify identity | David N. Bass/The Carolina Journal

Nearly a quarter million registered voters in North Carolina will be asked to verify their identity to ensure the accuracy of current voter rolls, according to a Feb. 3 press release from the NC Board of Elections. The state elections board is sending letters to more than 241,000 voters who provided identification information that didn’t validate against other government databases. Voters may confirm their information by providing their driver’s license, social security numbers, or by ensuring the name on their voter registration matches other official government records. The letters noted that the mismatch could be due to a simple error — such as “differences in how a name is spelled in each record such as adding or omitting hyphens apostrophes, or space, or the use of a prior legal name, such as a maiden name, in one of the records … The mismatch may also be caused by a date of birth or [driver’s license number] or [social security number] listing a number in the wrong field or transposing numbers in the records.” Read Article

Pennsylvania: Tempers flare in Chester County as investigators detail causes of pollbook error | Carter Walker/Votebeat

Roughly 100 voters and election workers filled the tiered seating of the wood-paneled courtroom on the top floor of Chester County’s Judicial Center Tuesday night to hear how the county had misprinted its pollbooks last November, and to express their frustration at county officials for the debacle. Two lawyers from West Chester-based law firm Fleck Eckert Klein McGarry LLC, which the county had hired to investigate the episode, sat at the prosecutor’s table and delivered their findings to the general public seated on their left and the county commissioners on their right. On Nov. 4, 2025, pollbooks used to check voters in at polling places didn’t include the names of Chester County’s more than 75,000 unaffiliated and third-party voters. Those voters had to either wait for supplemental pollbooks to be delivered or use a provisional ballot, an option used when there is some question about a voter’s eligibility. The error forced about 12,600 voters in the county to cast provisional ballots, or roughly 6.4% of the county electorate — more than in any other recent election. Almost all of those ballots were eventually counted. Read Article

Puerto Rico: Tulsi Gabbard’s office says it examined electronic voting systems | Dan De Luce, Brennan Leach and Kevin Collier/NBC

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence says it obtained and examined electronic voting machines in Puerto Rico last year to look for possible security vulnerabilities. Authorities in Puerto Rico voluntarily handed over the equipment to ODNI, which wanted to evaluate the risk to the machinery given that “similar infrastructure is used throughout the United States,” an ODNI spokesperson said in an email. Mark Lindeman, the policy and strategy director at Verified Voting, a nonprofit that seeks to promote the responsible use of technology in elections, said he was skeptical that ODNI had discovered important findings in its probe of Puerto Rico’s voting systems, based on its statement. Given that Puerto Rico is far closer to the British Virgin Islands and the Dominican Republic than any U.S. state, “I wouldn’t be shocked if some of the devices are configured to connect through ‘cellular networks outside of the United States,’” he said in an email. “That doesn’t describe a meaningful vulnerability. It sounds like an attempt to rationalize ODNI’s involvement.” Read Article

Texas’ troubled election software and new congressional maps delay voter registration cards | Natalia Contreras/The Texas Tribune

Texas’ unusual mid-decade redistricting and problems with the state’s new voter registration system have delayed the mailing of voter registration certificates, the documents that give voters information about their polling place and their assigned districts, state and local officials say. Under state law, the certificates should have been issued by Dec. 6, though there’s no penalty for a late mailing. With early voting for the March 3 primaries set to begin Feb. 17, the delay has confused some voters who were expecting to have received the certificates by now, and multiple election officials said they have been fielding calls and questions about the missing certificates for weeks. The certificates are small postcards that counties send to registered voters every two years, listing the voter’s local voting precinct, their congressional, state Senate and House districts, county precincts, and city and school districts. Read Article

Washington: Stung by a court ruling, state looks to clarify what is an ‘election’ | Jerry Cornfield/OPB

It may seem obvious that a registered voter in Washington can only vote once in an election. It’s not. Last month, a state appeals court overturned the felony conviction of a Lewis County resident found guilty of voting twice in November 2022 — once in Washington and once in Oregon. In a 2-1 decision, the court concluded that because there were no overlapping candidates or issues on the two ballots, these were separate elections. An election, they reasoned, refers to a choice among a specific slate of candidates or propositions, and not the process of voting on a particular day. Lewis County prosecutors will ask the Washington Supreme Court to review the decision. Meanwhile, lawmakers, at the behest of Secretary of State Steve Hobbs, have responded with a bill to provide a more precise definition of “election” and “same election.” Read Article

Wisconsin Elections Commission challenges Madison absentee voting argument | Alexander Shur/Votebeat

The Wisconsin Elections Commission, filing its first ever friend-of-the-court brief, challenged Madison’s controversial legal argument that it should not be financially liable for 193 uncounted ballots in the 2024 presidential election because of a state law that calls absentee voting a privilege, not a right. The argument presented by city officials misunderstands what “privilege” means in the context of absentee voting and “enjoys no support in the constitution or case law,” the commission wrote in its filing Tuesday, echoing a similar rebuke by Gov. Tony Evers last month. “Once an elector has complied with the statutory process, whether absentee or in-person, she has a constitutional right to have her vote counted,” the commission said. Read Article

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