A US territory’s colonial history emerges in state disputes over voting and citizenship | Mark Thiessen, Becky Bohrer and Gene Johnson/Associated Press

Squeezed between glacier-packed mountains and Alaska’s Prince William Sound, the cruise-ship stop of Whittier is isolated enough that it’s reachable by just a single road, through a long, one-lane tunnel that vehicles share with trains. It’s so small that nearly all its 260 residents live in the same 14-story condo building. But Whittier also is the unlikely crossroads of two major currents in American politics: fighting over what it means to be born on U.S. soil and false claims by President Donald Trump and others that noncitizen voter fraud is widespread. In what experts describe as an unprecedented case, Alaska prosecutors are pursuing felony charges against 11 residents of Whittier, most of them related to one another, saying they falsely claimed U.S. citizenship when registering or trying to vote. The defendants were all born in American Samoa, an island cluster in the South Pacific roughly halfway between Hawaii and New Zealand. It’s the only U.S. territory where residents are not automatically granted citizenship by virtue of having been born on American soil, as the Constitution dictates. Read Article

How Arizona is lining up the next generation of election workers, as more people leave the field | Jen Fifield/Votebeat

In Arizona, where each election is closely watched, officials are under such intense pressure to conduct elections perfectly, that some counties hire a person whose sole duty is ensuring that all laws are followed. Filling that compliance officer spot isn’t easy. It needs to be someone who knows the complex, technical side of conducting elections, and also is well-versed in all the rules officials must follow. This year, though, Pima County had a candidate who not only had the right skills and interests, but also had been trained already. Constance Hargrove, elections director in the state’s second-largest county, said she was thrilled when a young law student named Carly Morrison came to her and said she wanted the job. “I’m like, ‘Yes!’” Hargrove said, pumping both of her fists. “That was awesome.” Read Article

National: Federal judge appears open to blocking Trump’s election overhaul order | Nate Raymond/Reuters

A federal judge appeared open to blocking enforcement of U.S. President Donald Trump’s sweeping executive order overhauling elections that calls for requiring voters to prove they are U.S. citizens and barring states from counting mail-in ballots received after Election Day. At a hearing in Boston before U.S. District Judge Denise Casper, a lawyer for the Trump administration argued the Republican president’s order was lawful and that any request by 19 Democratic-led states challenging it was premature. But Casper said those states were under pressure to comply with Trump’s order before voting begins in the 2026 federal election cycle and that 13 of them that accept mail-in ballots postmarked by Election Day say they could be sued by the U.S. Department of Justice unless she issues an injunction. Read Article

National: House committee sets CISA budget cut at $135M, not Trump’s $495M | Tim Starks/CyberScoop

A House panel approved a fiscal 2026 funding bill Monday that would cut the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency by $135 million from fiscal 2025, significantly less than the Trump administration’s proposed $495 million. The chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security, Rep. Mark Amodei, said the annual Department of Homeland Security funding measure “responsibly trimmed” the CISA budget. But Illinois Rep. Lauren Underwood, the top Democrat on his panel, said the legislation “fails to address the catastrophic cybersecurity threats facing our critical infrastructure.” The subcommittee approved the bill by a vote of 8-4. CISA would get $2.7 billion under the measure, according to a committee fact sheet, or $134.8 million less than the prior year. Read Article

National: How Trump Upended Biden’s Successful Push For Federal Agencies to Register Voters | Matt Cohen/Democracy Docket

In March, 2021, then-President Joe Biden became the first president to make it clear: Federal agencies should be registering voters. An executive order issued by Biden that month led to unprecedented voter registration efforts by federal agencies that were lauded by voting rights advocates: The Department of the Interior worked with several states to make Tribal institutions voter registration centers. The Department of Veterans Affairs created a pilot voter registration program with Kentucky, Michigan and Pennsylvania. And the Small Business Administration started registering voters at local entrepreneur events in Michigan. That was just the start. But Republicans went ballistic, filing lawsuits and launching congressional probes into the order. They described the move as federal overreach, and warned, without evidence, that it would lead to non-citizens getting on the rolls. Read Article

National: Trump executive order takes steps to protect domestic hackers from blowback | Maggie Miller and John Sakellariadis/Politico

The Trump administration announced Friday it is amending “problematic elements” of two landmark cybersecurity executive orders — though the extent of the changes in many cases appears modest. The modifications are part of a new executive order signed Friday by President Donald Trump. The full text of the EO was released Friday afternoon, and the Trump administration first outlined details of the order in a White House fact sheet. The order outlines a potentially weighty change: the new EO would change the Obama-era order — which allows for sanctions on individuals behind cyberattacks on U.S. critical infrastructure — by limiting it “only to foreign malicious actors” and clarifying “that sanctions do not apply to election-related activities. Read Article

National: States are picking sides as competing election integrity efforts move ahead | Colin Wood/StateScoop

Two events last week offered a glimpse of the growing weight of politics in the nation’s elections process. Alabama’s secretary of state, Wes Allen, announced that Virginia had become the tenth state to join his voter integrity database, called AVID, an increasingly popular alternative to a larger bipartisan voter integrity coalition used by half of the nation’s state governments. And the New York State Assembly approved legislation permitting the state to join the more popular bipartisan system, called the Electronic Registration Information Center. With 26 members, ERIC is still the most popular way for states of all political persuasions to verify the accuracy of their voter rolls, but the Alabama Voter Integrity Database is proving an enticing, if less sophisticated, option for some secretaries of state, particularly in conservative regions where claims of noncitizen voting and a multitude of unfounded conspiracies of ERIC’s shadowy dealings abound. Read Article

National: Federal vs. state power at issue in a hearing over Trump’s election overhaul executive order | AP News

Democratic state attorneys general and government lawyers argued Friday over the implications of President Donald Trump’s proposed overhaul of U.S. elections and whether the changes could be made in time for next year’s midterm elections, how much it would cost the states and, more broadly, whether the president has a right to do any of it in the first place. The top law enforcement officials from 19 states filed a federal lawsuit after the Republican president signed the executive order in March, saying its provisions would step on states’ power to set their own election rules. During a hearing in U.S. District Court in Boston, lawyers for the states told Judge Denise J. Casper that the changes outlined in the order would be costly and could not be implemented quickly. Updating the voter registration database just in California would cost the state more than $1 million and take up to a year, said the states’ lead attorney, Kevin Quade, a deputy attorney general with the California Department of Justice. Read Article

National: CISA’s executive director is leaving the agency | Natalie Alms/Nextgov/FCW

Bridget Bean, the executive director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, is retiring, the agency confirmed with Nextgov/FCW Tuesday evening. Bean had been serving as the acting director of the government’s cybersecurity agency as of early May when she testified before Congress, although currently, the agency lists its deputy director, Madhu Gottumukkala, as its acting director. Gottumukkala joined CISA in late April. “I am honored to represent CISA’s work supporting our mission to understand, manage and reduce risk to our nation’s cyber and physical infrastructure,” Bean told lawmakers in early May. “The risks we face are complex, geographically dispersed and affect a diverse array of our stakeholders and, ultimately, the American people.” Read Article

Arizona: Maricopa County Recorder sues county supervisors over election powers | Jen Fifield/Votebeat

Maricopa County Recorder Justin Heap is suing the county’s supervisors, claiming they are illegally trying to seize control of the county’s elections. The lawsuit, which Trump-aligned group America First Legal filed Thursday on Heap’s behalf, claims that the supervisors “engaged in an unlawful attempt to seize near-total control over the administration of elections.” It specifically states that Heap wants control over the information technology staff that manages the county’s voter registration system, and that the board has prohibited him from accessing certain areas of the elections building that he needs entry to for early voting purposes. The legal action comes after a months-long feud over control of elections between Heap, a Republican who took office in January, and the Republican-controlled board. The dissension has cast doubt on the officials’ ability to work together to run the elections in the closely scrutinized swing county. Read Article

Colorado: Trump’s DOJ makes its most sweeping demand for election data yet | Miles Parks and Jude Joffe-Block/NPR

The U.S. Department of Justice is demanding an unprecedented amount of election data from at least one state, according to documents obtained by NPR, as the DOJ transformed by the Trump administration reviews cases targeting the president’s political allies and caters to his desire to exert more power over state voting processes. On May 12, the Justice Department asked Colorado’s secretary of state to turn over “all records” relating to 2024 federal elections, as well as preserve any records that remain from the 2020 election — a sprawling request several voting experts and officials told NPR was highly unusual and concerning, given President Trump’s false claims about elections. “What they’re going to do with all this data, I don’t know,” said Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold, a Democrat. “But I’m sure they will use it to push their ridiculous disinformation and lies to the American public.” Read Article

Georgia Supreme Court rejects State Election Board voting rules | Mark Niesse/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The State Election Board exceeded its authority by passing new voting rules last year, the Georgia Supreme Court unanimously ruled Tuesday, limiting the Republican-led board’s power. The 96-page decision upholds a lower court decision that invalidated rules that would have required hand counts of ballots and election inquiries. The board’s efforts to change Georgia’s voting rules before the presidential election attracted national controversy, highlighting attempts to alter procedures that could affect vote counts. “Although it is not certain that these rules would actually lead to the rejection of votes that have been cast, the threatened violation of a plaintiff’s rights is sufficient to establish standing” that they were able to sue, Chief Justice Nels Peterson wrote. “The SEB can pass rules to implement and enforce the election code, but it cannot go beyond, change or contradict the (the law).” Read Article

Michigan: Election oversight fight headed to court: House GOP files lawsuit against Secretary of State | Zoe Clark and Rick Pluta/Michigan Public Radio

House Republicans are putting the squeeze on Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson in their ongoing feud over election materials that brings into play legislative prerogatives versus executive authority. The newest twist is the House complaint filed this week in the Michigan Court of Claims to compel Benson to comply with a legislative subpoena. Not that this is a surprise. The level of trust between the House GOP majority and the Democratic Secretary of State hovers somewhere around non-existent. The GOP-controlled House voted along party lines last month to hold Benson in civil contempt, which cleared the way for the lawsuit alleging “irrational and even conspiratorial objections” to keep those materials from the House Oversight Committee and the House Election Integrity Committee. Read Article

Montana: Advocacy groups sue over new absentee ballot law | Victoria Eavis/Helena Independent Record

A disability rights nonprofit and an elderly advocacy organization are suing the secretary of state over a recently enacted law that they say could disproportionately harm their ability to vote absentee. This complaint marks the third lawsuit — but the fourth bill — filed over elections-related bills since the 69th legislative session adjourned earlier this year. House Bill 719, sponsored by Columbia Falls Republican Rep. Braxton Mitchell and backed by Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen’s office, is the latest bill to be entangled in a lawsuit. The main provision of that new law requires Montanans voting absentee — which accounts for the majority of ballots cast in Montana — to now write their birthdate on the outermost envelope. Like a signature comparison which already exists in state law, elections officials would now also have to compare that date to the one they provided when registering to vote. Read Article

Nevada GOP governor vetoes voter ID bill pitched as compromise with legislative Democrats | Tabitha Mueller and Eric Neugeboren/The Nevada Independent

Gov. Joe Lombardo on Thursday vetoed a bill brought by legislative Democrats that would have required voter ID beginning in next year’s elections, meaning that voter ID’s rollout in Nevada will rely on passage of a ballot question next year. It’s a significant turn of events for AB499, the result of an apparent deal between Assembly Speaker Steve Yeager (D-Las Vegas) and the Republican governor. Along with requiring voter ID, the bill would have resurrected Yeager’s previously vetoed effort (AB306) to increase ballot drop box access in the days leading up to an election. The proposal, which was amended in the Senate to include voter ID, received opposition from five Senate Democrats before the Assembly agreed with the proposed changes in a voice vote. Read Article

Oregon: Trump administration challenges  state over voter rolls in lawsuit | Dirk VanderHart/Oregon Public Broadcasting

The Trump administration is wading into a court fight over whether Oregon does enough to scrub its voter rolls of ineligible voters. Last week, the U.S. Department of Justice announced it would file a “statement of interest” in an ongoing suit between a number of conservative plaintiffs and the Oregon Secretary of State’s Office. The U.S. DOJ says it is watching the case closely for signs Oregon violated a federal law, the National Voter Registration Act. Trump administration challenges Oregon over voter rolls in lawsuit – OPB

Pennsylvania improves election data transparency, with more upgrades to come | Jordan Wilkie/WITF

Pennsylvania’s election data is easier to access and interpret than it’s ever been, with more changes in the works to improve transparency, the state’s top election administrator said last week. The state has sold the ability to download bulk data on every voter in the state for $20, including vote history, party registration, voter age and more, but the files are convoluted and hard to handle. Downloading the statewide voter registration file and gaining any meaningful insight from it requires computer programming savvy and knowledge of county-by-county election administration. To make it easier for people to understand the data, the Department of State rolled out new data dashboards in late May. One covers 2024 general election vote history and registration. The other shows data on mail-in ballots. Read Article

Texas bill creating more weekend early voting could boost turnout, but delay election results | Natalia Contreras/The Texas Tribune

Texans will have a new schedule for early voting in coming years under new legislation that starts the voting period later but slides it right up to Election Day, eliminating the three-day break in between. Experts say Senate Bill 2753, which lawmakers approved this week, will likely boost turnout, as it includes more time for voting on weekends. The author of the bill, Sen. Bob Hall, R-Edgewood, told Votebeat that the change also “simplifies the process” and would reduce the cost of election operations and equipment. But local election officials said they aren’t so sure of that, and are still determining how it will work and what it could cost counties. The bill doesn’t allocate any funding for counties to implement the changes. Read Article

Wisconsin Democracy Campaign sues Elon Musk, alleging million-dollar check giveaways were voter bribes | Bruna Horvath/NBC

A Wisconsin watchdog group has filed a lawsuit against Elon Musk claiming that he unlawfully bribed voters with million-dollar checks and $100 giveaways in the state’s latest Supreme Court election. Wisconsin Democracy Campaign — a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that investigates election transparency — along with two Wisconsin voters, filed the suit against Musk, his super PAC America PAC and another Musk-owned entity called the United States of America Inc. In the suit, the plaintiffs claimed that Musk and his entities violated state laws that prohibit vote bribery and unauthorized lotteries. It also accuses Musk of conducting civil conspiracy and acting as a public nuisance. Read Article