National: Trump says Republicans will ‘never lose a race’ if Congress restricts voting | Jacob Knutson/Democracy Docket

During a rambling rehash of false assertions of voter fraud, President Donald Trump claimed that Republicans will never lose an election “for 50 years” if his allies in Congress pass the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act (SAVE) America Act, which critics have called the most restrictive anti-voting law in U.S. history. “I tell you what, Republicans have to win this one,” Trump said during a speech at a steel facility in Rome, Georgia. “We’ll never lose a race. For 50 years, we won’t lose a race.” Trump’s remarks Thursday were just his latest alarming comments calling into question the security of American elections — and pressuring Congress to suppress the vote to benefit Republicans. Read Article

National: Meet the election denier now heading White House election security | Josh Meyer/USA Today

As President Donald Trump ramps up his interest in taking federal control of the November 2026 elections, he’s tapped one of the lawyers who worked on his efforts to overturn the 2020 election to be his administration’s “director of election security and integrity.” That’s Kurt Olsen, a conservative lawyer who has been hit with ethics complaints and a legal sanction for spreading “unequivocally false” claims about Trump’s 2020 loss to former President Joe Biden and Kari Lake’s 2022 gubernatorial loss in Arizona. Olsen, a 63-year-old former Navy SEAL, quietly joined the Trump White House in October as a special government employee. Since then, he’s been working with law enforcement and intelligence officials to re-investigate Trump’s debunked allegations about 2020, including that he lost Georgia because of voter fraud and that states used “COVID to cheat” via mail-in ballots. Read Article

National: What if everyone had to prove their citizenship to register to vote? | Nathaniel Rakich/Votebeat

Presidents’ Day is always the hardest holiday to shop for; it’s hard to know what to get the president in your life. But the U.S. House of Representatives got President Donald Trump exactly what he wanted when it passed the SAVE America Act on Wednesday. The act, which passed with the support of all 217 House Republicans but only one Democrat, is a centerpiece of Trump’s agenda to exercise more federal oversight over elections and prevent illegal voting, which is already very rare. It’s essentially version 2.0 of the SAVE Act, which passed the House last year. Like its predecessor, the SAVE America Act would require people who are registering to vote to provide proof of their U.S. citizenship. (Currently, new registrants only have to attest under penalty of perjury that they are citizens.) This version of the bill also adds a photo ID requirement for voters and requires states to run their voter rolls through the Department of Homeland Security’s Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements database to scan for noncitizens. All provisions of the bill would take effect immediately upon enactment. Read Article

National: Trump vows voter ID requirements for the midterms, ‘whether approved by Congress or not’ | Kyla Guilfoil/NBC

Trump has called for Republicans to “nationalize” and “take over” the administration of elections. While Congress can pass federal regulations, the Constitution states that “the times, places, and manner of holding elections for senators and representatives, shall be prescribed in each state by the legislature thereof.” Nate Persily, a law professor at Stanford University, said that an executive order mandating changes to elections would be unconstitutional. “The Constitution is clear on this. There are a lot of things where it’s ambiguous, but it doesn’t give unilateral regulatory authority for election to the president,” Persily said. He said the only way for state procedures to be overridden would be if Congress passes a law, like the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Read Article

National: Even Republican election officials are balking at Trump Justice Department’s voter roll crusade | Tierney Sneed/CNN

As the Trump administration has sued 25 mostly Democratic state election chiefs for their voter rolls, it has also encountered quieter resistance from Republican officials who have balked at the Justice Department’s demands for confidential voter registration information. At least a half-dozen Republican-led state election offices have declined the Justice Department’s request for non-public voter data, which can include a voter’s Social Security number, driver license ID number or current residence, according to interviews, local media reporting and records obtained by CNN and by the Brennan Center, a left-leaning think tank that researches election issues. “They can have the voter rolls. They’re gonna pay for it like everybody else,” West Virginia Secretary of State Kris Warner told CNN last month, referring to the public list that can be purchased in his state for $500. “They’re not going to get our personal information.” Read Article

National: Republicans are eyeing major election changes. Trump’s mail voting crackdown isn’t one of them. | Mia McCarthy/Politico

President Donald Trump is pushing Congress to end mail voting as Americans have come to know it. So far, Republican lawmakers aren’t heeding his calls. Trump has long railed against the expansion of vote-by-mail, arguing despite scant evidence that it is rife with fraud and suggesting it was responsible in part for his 2020 election loss. Since retaking office, he has repeatedly called for action — most recently Monday night to reporters on Air Force One. “Why would you want mail-in ballots if you know it’s corrupt?” Trump said. “It’s a corrupt system.” But other Republicans don’t see it that way — many of their own voters have voted by mail consistently for decades. So far, the type of blanket ban on mail voting Trump wants has not gained traction on Capitol Hill as GOP lawmakers counsel for a more targeted approach. Read Article

National: Democracy nonprofit launches project to aid elections officials on cybersecurity | Colin Wood/StateScoop

The nonprofit advocacy group Center for Democracy and Technology on Friday announced a new initiative to provide local elections administrators with additional support as they attempt to defend their infrastructure from cyberattacks. The work is to be led by Geoff Hale, a former election-security associate director at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. According to the group’s press materials, the new project aims to “strengthen mechanisms that provide timely, actionable research and analysis to support the cybersecurity and resilience of vital election processes.” Alexandra Reeve Givens, the nonprofit’s president and chief executive, said in a press release that elections officials “deserve top-notch technical support” to protect their systems, particularly when the nation is so contentiously divided along political lines. Read Article

National: Voter trust in U.S. elections drops amid Trump critiques, redistricting, fear of ICE | Kevin Rector/Los Angeles Times

President Trump and his allies are questioning ballot security. Democrats are warning of unconstitutional federal intervention. Experts and others are raising concerns about partisan redistricting and federal immigration agents intimidating people at the polls. Voter trust in the upcoming midterm elections, meanwhile, has dropped off sharply, and across party lines, according to new research by the UC San Diego Center for Transparent and Trusted Elections. Out of 11,406 eligible voters surveyed between mid-December and mid-January, just 60% said they were confident that midterm votes will be counted fairly — down from 77% who held such confidence in vote counting shortly after the 2024 presidential election. Read Article

Alaska: Federal government may seek removal of individual Alaskans from state voter rolls | James Brooks/Alaska Beacon

When the state of Alaska turned over a copy of the state’s voter rolls to the Department of Justice in December, it also signed an agreement that allows the DOJ to ask the state to put individual Alaskans on track for removal from the state’s voter list. Officially labeled a “confidential memorandum of understanding,” the document was signed Dec. 19 by Carol Beecher, director of the Alaska Division of Elections, and U.S. Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon. Alaska is one of at least a dozen states that have signed similar documents or expressed an interest in them, even as more states continue to fight the requests in court. Read Article

Arizona: ICE at the polls: Republicans push plan to require agents at all polling places | Jerod MacDonald-Evoy/Arizona Mirror

Polling shows that Americans want to abolish U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement following the murders of two American citizens in Minnesota amid a violent surge to round up immigrants as part of President Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda, but Arizona Republicans want to require ICE officers to be stationed at polling places this year. This week, the Arizona Senate will take up a proposal to force all 15 of the state’s counties to sign an agreement with ICE “to provide for a federal immigration law enforcement presence at each location within this state where ballots are cast or deposited.” The Senate Judiciary and Elections Committee is slated to take up the strike-everything amendment to Senate Bill 1570 either Wednesday or Friday. (The committee has scheduled nearly 60 bills for hearings over the two meetings, but it’s unknown which measures will be considered on which day. This is the final week for legislative committees to hear bills.) Read Article

Georgia: Fulton County lawsuit claims feds used ‘gross mischaracterizations’ to justify raid | Derek B. Johnson/CyberScoop

A former federal official who tested and certified voting machines used in Fulton County, Georgia for the 2020 presidential election told a court that the federal government misrepresented key facts and omitted exculpatory public evidence while seeking a warrant in last month’s law enforcement raid. The raid, carried out by the FBI and overseen by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, saw agents seize ballots and other documentation from the Fulton County election offices. A public affidavit cited five core allegations related to the county’s recordkeeping, electronic ballot image storage, and election night reporting. Authorities allege these issues point to a potential conspiracy to intentionally manipulate the vote count in favor of Democrat Joe Biden. Fulton County officials sued the federal government in response, arguing that the affidavit used to obtain a warrant for the raid “does not identify facts that establish probable cause that anyone committed a crime.” Read Afrticle

Mississippi: Lawmakers eye changes to in-person absentee voting | Derrion Arrington/Mississippi Independent

Both chambers of the legislature have each passed bills to overhaul the state’s in-person absentee voting process, setting up a cross-chamber negotiation that could reshape how Mississippians cast ballots before Election Day. Both bills seek to eliminate the longstanding ballot-envelope procedure that has governed in-person absentee voting for decades, replacing it with a machine-based tabulation system. But the two measures diverge on a critical question: How many days before an election should voters be permitted to cast their ballots? The House bill, H.B. 447, would retain the existing 45-day in-person absentee voting window while modernizing ballot processing. The Senate’s version would compress that period to 22 days, beginning roughly three weeks before an election and continuing until noon on the Saturday before Election Day. The Senate measure would also require that in-person absentee votes be counted alongside Election Day ballots, with results announced after the polls close at 7 p.m. Read Article

North Carolina letter sent by the State Board of Elections sparks voter registration confusion | Kyle Ingram/Raleigh News & Observer

A letter sent to 241,000 North Carolina voters about their registration status sparked confusion and worry among some, who flooded county election offices with hundreds of calls and visits amid an already busy primary election season. The letter, which was sent by the State Board of Elections in recent weeks, informed recipients that their voter registration lacked certain required identification information. It asked them to provide either a driver’s license number or the last four digits of their Social Security number to clear up the issue. What the letter did not say was that recipients would have their vote counted normally regardless of whether they responded or not. Kelly McPherson, director of the Dare County Board of Elections, said that in the days following the letter’s arrival, her office fielded over 100 phone calls and visits from voters worried that they were now ineligible to cast their ballot. Read Article

Oklahoma: Election Board decision to keep voter data private garners support | Emma Murphy/News From The States

A group of Oklahomans on Monday said they’re prepared to sue the federal government if they continue trying to push state leaders to release protected voter information. C.J. Webber-Neal, a member of Sooner State Party, said at a press conference outside the State Election Board offices that the Department of Justice does not need access to Oklahoman’s protected voter information, like Social Security numbers and driver’s license numbers. Continued requests for that information amount to government overreach and could disincentivize Oklahomans from participating in elections, he said. “I think that it does not even help with voter integrity because now voters are going to be concerned about voting,” Webber-Neal said. “So that’s going to cause voters maybe not to go vote because they know that the government is going to have that information and it might affect them adversely.” Read Article

Pennsylvania: Paper ballots OK’d for Westmoreland County  voters at $18K price tag | Rich Cholodofsky/Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

Westmoreland County voters will again be able to cast paper ballots at the polls during this year’s primary and general elections. Republican commissioners Sean Kertes and Doug Chew on Thursday approved a contract with an estimated price tag of $18,275 to supply paper ballots at each of the county’s 306 voting precincts for the May 19 primary. Voters will continue to have an option to use the touch-screen voting machines at the polls. Commissioners authorized the paper ballot option for the first time during the last year’s general election, calling it a test run for a future where digital ballot marking devices, such as what has been used in Westmoreland County since 2020, will no longer be part of the Election Day process. Read Article

Texas: Gillespie County Republicans scale back hand-count amid staffing shortage | Natalia Contreras/The Texas Tribune

Gillespie County Republicans have scrapped plans to hand-count all of their 2026 primary ballots after failing to recruit enough workers — at least for early voting. The lack of manpower prompted party officials to vote last week to use the county’s voting equipment to tabulate thousands of ballots expected to be cast during the two weeks before Election Day on March 3. However, Gillespie Republicans still plan to hand-count ballots cast on Election Day, party officials told Votebeat. The effort has deepened a divide within the county party: Some members wish to ditch electronic voting equipment entirely and hand-count all ballots, while others trust that the county’s electronic voting equipment is safe and the process contains appropriate checks and balances. It’s a continuation of a long-running disagreement that began in 2024, when the county party first hand-counted primary ballots. Read Article

Wisconsin: In unhinged brief, GOP compares not giving the Trump DOJ voters’ personal data to Jim Crow | Yunior RivasDemocracy Docket

The Republican Party of Wisconsin filed a disturbing amicus brief Tuesday urging a federal court to force the Wisconsin Elections Commission to hand over the state’s unredacted voter rolls to Trump’s Justice Department. The Wisconsin GOP didn’t just file a typical “friend of the court” brief supporting the DOJ’s attempt to seize the state’s unredacted voter rolls. Instead, it delivered a culture war-addled screed complete with typographical errors, segregation-era comparisons, anti-immigrant panic and ad hominem attacks. Instead of leading with sober legal analysis, the 27-page brief opens with a quote from a “self-help” author, implying that defending privacy rights is an admission of guilt or obstruction. From the outset, the brief frames anyone opposing the federal demand as corrupt, dishonest or afraid of being exposed. Read Article

Wyoming Supreme Court dismisses attempt to remove secretary of state | Kamila Kudelska/Wyoming Public Media

The Wyoming Supreme Court agreed with a district court judge’s decision to dismiss an attempt to remove Secretary of State Chuck Gray from office on Feb. 13. Retired Laramie attorney Tim Newcomb sought to have Gray removed under Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment, which bans state officials from having engaged in insurrection or rebellion, or given aid or comfort to those who have. Newcomb’s lawsuit alleged Gray provided “aid and comfort” to Jan. 6 insurrectionists who rioted at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. His original lawsuit was filed in Albany County’s Second Judicial District last February. That court ruled against Newcomb in August. He then appealed to the state’s high court. In the Supreme Court decision, justices agreed with the lower court that Newcomb failed to state a claim on which the dismissal could be granted. Read Article

National: States’ mistrust of Trump’s fraud crusade could hinder fight against foreign influence in elections, federal officials fear | Sean Lyngaas and Evan Perez/CNN

State and local election administrators’ growing suspicion of the Trump administration’s motives has triggered concerns among some federal officials that distrust of even routine moves by the FBI could hinder cooperation with states and give an opening for US adversaries trying to influence elections. An FBI official this week sent a standard email to top state election officials inviting them to discuss how federal agencies could help with securing the midterms. It’s a message that has gone out numerous times in the years since Russia’s 2016 influence campaign as the feds have looked to offer security resources for election administrators. But this email came a week after the FBI executed a search warrant at the elections office of Fulton County, Georgia, and seized ballots related to the 2020 election — a move that alarmed many election officials. And it came amid Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard’s move to study voting machines for security vulnerabilities as she tries to support President Donald Trump’s false claims that the 2020 contest was stolen from him. Read Article

National: After Trump attacks, voting machine company Dominion is forging ahead as Liberty Vote | Carrie Levine/Votebeat

On a freezing December day, Liberty Vote executive Robert Giles sat before the New Hampshire Ballot Law Commission to answer questions about a familiar company operating under an unfamiliar name. Until October, the company had been Dominion Voting Systems — one of just two vendors certified to sell voting systems in the state. Then, it was sold to a former election official named Scott Leiendecker and rebranded as Liberty Vote. State regulators required to sign off on changes wanted to know more about who and what, exactly, they were signing off on. As one ballot law commission member pointed out, in New Hampshire, “when we give somebody a liquor license for a little restaurant, they have to go through quite a bit of a background check before we’re able to provide that. So I think we’d like to know a little bit more.” Secretary of State David Scanlan, a Republican, said he and others had “some really hard questions” for the company. A commission member had a fundamental one. “Why did he acquire this company?” he asked, referring to Leiendecker. “You would have to ask him that question,” Giles replied. Read Article

National: GOP pushes ahead on strict voter ID bill ahead of midterm elections | Lisa Mascaro/Associated Press

House Republicans rushed to approve legislation on Wednesday that would impose strict new proof-of-citizenship requirements ahead of the midterm elections, a long shot Trump administration priority that faces sharp blowback in the Senate. The bill, called the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility, or SAVE America Act, would require Americans to prove they are citizens when they register to vote, mostly through a valid U.S. passport or birth certificate. It would also require a valid photo identification before voters can cast ballots, which some states already demand. It was approved on a mostly party-line vote, 218-213. Republicans said the legislation is needed to prevent voter fraud, but Democrats warn it will disenfranchise millions of Americans by making it harder to vote. Federal law already requires that voters in national elections be U.S. citizens, but there’s no requirement to provide documentary proof. Experts said voter fraud is extremely rare, and very few noncitizens ever slip through the cracks. Fewer than one in 10 Americans don’t have paperwork proving they are citizens. Read Article

National: Federalizing Elections: It’s Been Proposed Before. It Doesn’t Work | Donald F. Kettl/Governing

President Donald Trump startled both parties this month with his declaration that “the Republicans ought to nationalize the voting” in federal elections. When criticism of his statement arose on all sides, he doubled down. If states “can’t count the votes legally and honestly,” he said, “then somebody else should take over.” Trump’s argument for national control goes further than anything Republican presidents have ever broached, but there’s nothing new in Republican claims that Democrats steal elections. There’s the case of Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley in the 1960 presidential election, when Republican Richard Nixon was sure that Daley had taken the state — and the election — from him. At a Christmas party a few weeks after the election, Nixon told guests, “We won, but they stole it from us.” He had a point, but not a very strong one. Researchers since have concluded that there was fraud in Illinois, but not enough to tip the state. And even if Nixon had won Illinois, he still would not have had enough electoral votes to win the presidency. Read Article

National: ‘The trust has been absolutely destroyed’ – Some state election officials say they no longer trust their federal partners | Michael Scherer, Yvonne Wingett Sanchez, Sarah Fitzpatrick, and Jonathan Lemire/The Atlantic

The email that federal law enforcement sent this week to the nation’s top election administrators would have been routine just a few years ago. “Your election partners,” the Tuesday missive from FBI Election Executive Kellie Hardiman read, “would like to invite you to a call where we can discuss preparations for the cycle.” But multiple secretaries of state who received the document told us they viewed it as a threat, given recent events. The FBI had just seized 2020 election materials in Georgia, and President Trump had announced his desire to “nationalize” elections, a state responsibility under the U.S. Constitution. The Department of Justice has sued more than 20 states to obtain their election rolls, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence is conducting an investigation of U.S. voting technology. The upshot is that a yearslong partnership between state and federal authorities—in which the feds have provided assistance on election security and protected state and local voting systems from threats—is now in danger of falling apart. Instead of “partners,” some state authorities now view federal officials involved in election efforts with deep suspicion. “The trust,” Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows told us, “has been absolutely destroyed.” ‘Read Article

National: US surveillance, election cybersecurity and Tulsi Gabbard | Ann-Marie Corvin/Cybernews

Earlier this week, a US senator publicly warned about the expanding use of personal data by federal authorities while separately sending a brief, private letter to the director of the CIA. In a video posted on Instagram, and intended to reach a wide audience, Ross Wyden pointed to the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) practice of using surveillance technologies and data sources in enforcement activity. “ICE is using apps to collect biometric data on protesters,” he warned. “That means that they can track your location, where you go, what you do, and especially who you talk to.” Wyden also said the agency is purchasing location information from commercial data brokers and using motor-vehicle records obtained from state governments. “My investigators have found that ICE is using government data they collect from state Departments of Motor Vehicles,” Wyden said. “They are refusing to answer any questions of ours about how this data is being used.” Read Article

National: Alarm bells sound over Trump’s ‘take over the voting’ call | US voting rights | Sam Levine/The Guardian

Donald Trump set off alarm bells earlier this week with comments that his administration should “take over the voting” in some states in the run-up to the 2026 midterms, which followed an unprecedented FBI raid on an election office in Georgia. Although election experts say it’s clear the president doesn’t have authority over elections, they warn the president’s corrosive rhetoric leaves little doubt about his intent. For months, the Trump administration has stoked doubts about the integrity of American elections largely through lawsuits designed to create the impression states aren’t doing enough to keep ineligible voters off the rolls. That effort escalated significantly last week when the FBI raided the election office in Fulton county, Georgia and seized ballots, along with other materials, related to the 2020 election. Shortly after the raid, Trump escalated his attack even further, saying the federal government should take over elections. “The Republicans should say, ‘We want to take over,’” he said during a recent interview with Dan Bongino, the former deputy FBI director who has returned to hosting a podcast. “We should take over the voting, the voting in at least many – 15 places. The Republicans ought to nationalize the voting.” Democracy experts believe there is no longer any doubt about Trump’s desire to interfere with this fall’s elections. Read Article

Arizona primary to move up 2 weeks under bipartisan legislation | Sasha Hupka/Votebeat

Arizona will permanently move up its state primary election date under a new law that will also give voters more time to fix signature problems on early ballots and codify where party observers may watch election activity. The Arizona House voted unanimously on Feb. 2 to pass the legislation, which will move the primary from the first Tuesday in August to the second-to-last Tuesday in July. That will ensure that election officials can meet federally mandated deadlines to send out general election ballots to military and overseas voters, even if a statewide recount delays the finalization of the primary results. The legislation passed the Arizona Senate with a similarly bipartisan vote on Thursday, and was signed by Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs on Friday. The 2026 primary election date will now move from Aug. 4 to July 21. Read Article

Delaware Elections Office asks for state funds increase after drop in federal support | Bente Bouthier/Delaware Public Media

Gov. Matt Meyer’s 2027 budget plan opted not to fund several requests from Delaware’s Dept. of Elections, such as expanded early voting locations and upgrades to its campaign finance reporting system. State Election Commissioner Anthony Albence told the Joint Finance Committee that funds for an updated campaign finance reporting system border on necessary. CFRS was implemented first in 2015, and the Office of Budget and Management said its approved updates to the system since then. Albence said that making tweaks to the current system is more expensive. Read Article

Georgia: FBI raid of Fulton County was driven by Trump appointee, court docs show | Chloe Atkins, Ryan J. Reilly, Jane C. Timm and Corky Siemaszko/NBC

The FBI last month raided a Georgia election hub near Atlanta and seized ballots and voter records at the urging of a lawyer who had worked with President Donald Trump to try to overturn the results of the 2020 election, a newly released court record revealed Tuesday. FBI special agent Hugh Raymond Evans wrote in an affidavit that the investigation “originated from a referral sent by Kurt Olsen, Presidentially appointed Director of Election Security and Integrity.” Olsen, who took part in the “Stop the Steal” campaign more than five years ago and promoted baseless claims of widespread voter fraud, was previously sanctioned by a federal judge for making “false, misleading and unsupported factual assertions.” He was hired last year by the administration to investigate the 2020 election. Read Article

Michigan governor’s budget proposal includes $43 million for new voting machines | Hayley Harding/Votebeat

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s proposed 2027-2028 budget includes more than $43 million for new voting equipment, an appropriation election officials across Michigan say is critical in keeping the state’s election infrastructure secure and up to date. The money is only a tiny portion of the $88.1 billion proposal Whitmer unveiled Wednesday. If approved, it will allow clerks to upgrade their machinery to the newest federal standards without forcing cities and townships to shoulder all the costs on their own. If that money doesn’t win approval from the Legislature, however, it could put a major crunch on local clerks who have already seen their elections budgets double or even triple in the last decade with recent expansions to voting procedures. Read Article

New York: Amid turmoil at U.S. Attorney’s Office, federal probe of Ulster County Board of Elections ‘still ongoing’ | Paul Kirby/Daily Freeman

A federal unspecified probe into the Ulster County Board of Elections is apparently ongoing despite upheaval in the U.S. Attorney’s Office that is conducting it. Deputy County Executive Amberly Jane Campbell said Thursday that the investigation is “still ongoing (but) we can’t provide any other update right now.” Deputy County Executive James Amenta confirmed last week that in the last month, the U.S. Attorney’s Office Northern District of New York requested documentation from the Ulster County Board of Elections, although Amenta declined to say what documents the federal government requested. On Wednesday, federal judges appointed Donald T. Kinsella as U.S. Attorney for the Northern District, but U.S. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, in a social media post, fired Kinsella. That apparently left John A. Sarcone III in charge even after a federal judge last month concluded he was serving as U.S. attorney unlawfully. Read Article