National: Senators, FBI Director Patel clash over cyber division personnel, arrests | Tim Starks/CyberScoop

FBI cyber division cuts under President Donald Trump will reduce personnel there by half, a top Democratic senator warned Tuesday, while FBI Director Kash Patel countered that arrests and convictions have risen under the Trump administration. A contentious Senate Judiciary Committee hearing dominated by clashes over political violence, Patel’s leadership and accusations about the politicization of the bureau nonetheless saw senators probing the FBI’s performance on cybersecurity. “My office received information that cuts to the bureau’s cyber division will cut personnel by half despite the ever-increasing threat posed by adverse foreign actors,” said Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, the top Democrat on the panel. The Trump administration has proposed a $500 million cut for the FBI in fiscal 2026. Read Article

National: Voter Registration is Being Undermined Across America | Hannah Fried/TIME

As the country marks National Voter Registration Day on September 16, we reflect on the power of broad participation in our democracy—and the threats to it. While community partners nationwide do the important work to bring more people into the democratic process, federal and state lawmakers are advancing efforts that do the opposite. Congressional Republicans’ misnamed Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, which has passed the House of Representatives but awaits consideration in the Senate, as well as President Donald Trump’s election executive order and his vow to end vote-by-mail are part of a broader national effort to restrict voting access. But the threat is unfolding beyond Capitol Hill and the White House—in the quiet spread of laws and policies closer to home. Less visible, yet just as dangerous, is a wave of copycat bills in statehouses and local governments across the country—over 160 this year alone—mirroring federal attempts to use voter silencing laws to take away the votes of eligible Americans. From Florida to Ohio to Michigan, state lawmakers are pushing for legislation that would force voters to prove their citizenship with documents like birth certificates or passports. Such bills would disproportionately impact populations who already face deliberate barriers to voting, such as students, active-duty military, Black and Brown voters, rural residents, and low-income Americans. Read Article

Arizona: Federal court blocks election manual’s rule on voter intimidation | Jen Fifield/Votebeat

A panel of judges from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes’ rules restricting activity around polling places cannot be enforced. The judges let stand another rule related to what happens if counties don’t certify their election results. The ruling will shape Arizona’s next Election Procedures Manual, which instructs election officials on how to comply with state election laws. While Fontes already released a new draft manual for the 2026 elections, he will be revising the rules until they are approved by the attorney general and governor by the end of this year. Read Article

Georgia Republican Party pursues goals of reducing early and absentee voting | Mark Niesse/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Spearheaded by a 2020 Republican elector for President Donald Trump, the Georgia Republican Party is pitching an agenda to get rid of a week of early voting, end no-excuse absentee voting and eliminate automatic voter registration. The party brought its wish list to a Republican-led legislative study committee that will soon recommend changes to state election laws. Republican Party leaders have said for years that they want to make it “easy to vote and hard to cheat,” but the party’s goals would reduce voting options for the 4 million voters who cast early or absentee ballots in last year’s presidential election. Democrats and voting rights groups say the GOP’s priorities would make it harder for Georgia voters to cast their ballots and would perpetuate policies driven by five years of grievances since Trump’s narrow loss to Democrat Joe Biden. Read Article

Maine: Trump’s Justice Department says it sued Maine for not turning over voter data | Emma Davis is/Maine Morning Star

The U.S. Department of Justice announced Tuesday that it sued Maine and Oregon for declining to turn over personal voter information. “Maine has some of the best elections in the nation,” Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows said in a statement. “It is absurd that the Department of Justice is targeting our state when Republican and Democratic secretaries all across the country are fighting back against this federal abuse of power just like we are.” Maine’s Department of the Secretary of State has received no notification of the lawsuit, as of late Tuesday. The Oregon Secretary of State’s Office also told Maine Morning Star’s partner outlet the Oregon Capital Chronicle that it hasn’t seen a court filing. No documents have yet shown up on the court record database PACER. But in a press release, the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division said that it sued the two states and their respective secretaries of state for not providing information about voter list maintenance procedures and electronic copies of statewide voter registration lists. Read Article

Michigan: Pocket guides on election laws offer bridge between election officials, law enforcement | Kyle Davidson/Michigan Advance

As election officials continue to face threats, harassment and abuse, a bipartisan coalition of election experts and law enforcement officials is working to build collaboration in hopes of protecting voters, elections and their administrators from bad actors. The Committee for Safe and Secure Elections, created in 2022, is offering a number of new resources for both election officials and law enforcement officers, including pocket-sized legal guides detailing election laws in all 50 states, giving both groups an easily accessible reference should questions – or issues – arise on Election Day. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 22 states have enacted or updated laws to protect election officials and poll workers since 2020. In August, the committee released an updated version of these guides to reflect changes to election laws in states across the country. Read Article

North Carolina: Ahead of 2026 midterms, courts rule on key NC election practices | Kyle Ingram/Raleigh News & Observer

A federal judge on Monday approved a settlement between the North Carolina State Board of Elections and President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice regarding over 100,000 voters with incomplete registrations. That settlement largely codifies the board’s existing Registration Repair project, which began this summer and aims to collect driver’s license numbers or Social Security numbers from voters who lack the information in the state’s databases. Since beginning the project, the board has reduced the number of voters with missing information by 22%. “Our plan is working, and this number will continue to drop as more voters become aware of this effort and fix their registrations,” said Sam Hayes, the board’s executive director. Read Article

Oregon: Trump administration sues Oregon for refusing to turn over voter data | Bryce Dole/OPB

The federal government accuses Oregon and Secretary of State Tobias Read of “failing to provide information regarding voter list maintenance procedures and electronic copies of statewide voter registration lists,” a Tuesday press release said. It also sued the state of Maine and its secretary of state. “States simply cannot pick and choose which federal laws they will comply with, including our voting laws, which ensure that all American citizens have equal access to the ballot in federal elections,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said in a statement. The lawsuit, filed Tuesday, is the latest action by President Donald Trump’s administration to curb what they see as voter fraud. In August, the administration sent requests to Read’s office asking for the state to provide voter information and prove that it’s taking steps to root out ineligible voters. Read Article

Rhode Island: ‘I will not participate’: Secretary of State Gregg Amore refuses to give Trump DOJ ‘personally identifiable’ voter info | Katherine Gregg/Providence Journal

The U.S. Department of Justice has demanded Rhode Island’s voter rolls, but Secretary of State Gregg Amore is refusing to provide the level of personal information the federal agency is seeking about the state’s voters. In a response letter that went out Sept. 16, Amore said he would be “pleased to voluntarily” provide a copy of the publicly available voter registration list, but “I must protect the personally identifiable information of Rhode Island voters.” He said he would not, without “a demonstration of a proper legal basis” or a court order. provide the “personally identifiable information” the federal agency is seeking, including the state driver’s license number and the last four digits of the Social Security number of each registered voter. Read Article

South Carolina election commission ousts executive director Howard Knapp | Lucy Valeski/The State

The state election commission fired Executive Director Howard Knapp from his post during a scheduled meeting Wednesday, but declined to immediately disclose why other than a desire for “new leadership.” The removal did not have to do with the “conduct of any election in South Carolina,” chairman Dennis Shedd said in an emailed statement after the meeting. After a nearly five-hour executive session with no lunch break Wednesday afternoon, the commission came back and voted to remove Knapp. The vote was 3-2, with Shedd joining board members Clifford Edler and Scott Moseley voting to remove Knapp. Following the public meeting, staff members had a separate meeting where they were told about Knapp’s removal. Some staff appeared visibly surprised afterward, however, others seemed upset during the executive session before the vote to fire Knapp. Read Article

Texas: Dallas County Republicans vote to hand-count March primary election day ballots | Tracey McManus/Dallas Morning News

Dallas County is poised to become the largest jurisdiction in the U.S. to hand-count paper ballots as the local Republican Party has decided to manually tally election day ballots during its March primary. After two hours discussing their distrust of electronic voting machines and tabulators on Monday, Dallas County Republican leaders adopted the hand-counting plan for ballots cast on March 3 but excluded ballots submitted during early voting. With more than 49,000 Republican ballots expected to be cast on election day, the endeavor presents a significant task for the party as Texas law requires vote totals be submitted to the state 24 hours after polls close on election day. The plan is contingent upon securing sufficient staffing, funding and project management, according to the resolution. DRead Article3

Washington election officials raise concern over federal request for voter data | Mitchell Roland/The Spokane Spokesman-Review

The Trump administration has requested information about Washington voters, including names, dates of birth, addresses and either a driver’s license number or the last four digits of their Social Security number as part of a probe into “ineligible voter entities.” According to Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs, some of the information sought by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division is considered protected information under state law. The request, sent Monday with a deadline of Sept. 22, is part of the White House’s increased efforts to crack down on electoral systems throughout the country. In a statement Wednesday, a spokesperson for the Department of Justice said, “Enforcing the Nation’s elections laws is a priority in this administration and in the Civil Rights Division.” Read Article

Wisconsin has a new bill to allow early start to absentee ballot processing. Can it pass? | Alexander Shur/Votebeat

Wisconsin Republicans are reviving a plan to let poll workers process absentee ballots on the Monday before an election, a change long sought by election officials, but blocked by a small but influential group of conservative lawmakers. This time, the proposal is tied to measures conservatives want, including regulations for ballot drop boxes and an explicit ban on clerks fixing, or curing, errors on ballots. By bundling the measures together, GOP leaders hope to finally unite their party on a plan that would shorten the wait for election results, reduce the opportunity for election misinformation, and avoid a veto by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers. The proposal, which Votebeat obtained in draft form from Republican Rep. Scott Krug, is set to be publicly released next week. Krug, former chair of the Assembly Elections Committee and now assistant majority leader in the Assembly, said he “will use every little ounce of political capital effort I created on elections to get Monday processing done, because that’s 90% of our problem in the state: perception.” Read Article

National: Amid Record Election Official Turnover, States Prepare for the Midterms | Carl Smith/Governing

Election administrators face a number of challenges in the leadup to the 2026 midterms, including managing a changing workforce. A new study by the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC) and the University of California, Los Angeles finds that election office turnover continues at unprecedented rates. In 4 out of 10 local offices, the 2026 midterms will be in the hands of people who have never run a national election. The turnover rate in 2024 is the highest ever recorded, says Rachel Orey, director of BPC’s Elections Project. This is an extension of a trend that started long before President Donald Trump’s false claims of fraud in the 2020 election, and the rise in threats and harassment against election officials they set in motion. Turnover doesn’t necessarily mean risk to the integrity of 2026 outcomes, but it increases chances for glitches that could be exploited to create the appearance of fraud. Read Article

Georgia: Bipartisan support grows for using hand-marked paper ballots | Mark Niesse/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

In a rare show of bipartisanship in Georgia elections, a few prominent Democratic lawmakers are supporting a Republican effort to move toward hand-marked paper ballots. U.S. Rep. Hank Johnson is the most prominent Georgia Democrat so far to embrace the Republican proposal for a test-run of filling out ballots by hand instead of by machine during this November’s elections. Although Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s office quickly rejected the idea this week, state lawmakers could consider bills for hand-marked paper ballots when they return to the Capitol in January. “It’s time for Georgia elections to be conducted free from the substantial threat of undetectable electronic manipulation,” said Johnson, a Democrat from Lithonia. “Hand-marked paper ballots will eliminate that threat.” Read Article

National: United States enters a new age of political violence | Naftali Bendavid/The Washington Post

A Minnesota state legislator killed in her home in June. The Pennsylvania governor’s house set afire in April. Candidate Donald Trump facing two apparent assassination attempts during last year’s campaign. And now conservative activist Charlie Kirk gunned down and killed Wednesday during a talk at Utah Valley University, horrifying a live audience and those who saw the shooting online. America is facing a new era of political violence reminiscent of some of its most bitter, tumultuous eras, including the 1960s, which saw the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. “We are going through what I call an era of violent populism,” said Robert Pape, who heads the Chicago Project on Security and Threats at the University of Chicago. “It is a historically high era of assassination, assassination attempts, violent protests, and it is occurring on both the right and the left.” Read Article

National: Cleta Mitchell Thinks Trump Will Use Emergency Powers to Take Control of Elections | Matt Cohen/Democracy Docket

Cleta Mitchell thinks President Donald Trump may declare a national emergency to allow him to take control of national elections. Her comments will add to growing concern that Trump is plotting a way to use his power over the military and federal law enforcement to rig next year’s vote. “The president’s authority is limited in his role with regard to elections except where there is a threat to the national sovereignty of the United States — as I think that we can establish with the porous system that we have,” said Mitchell, a prominent anti-voting lawyer who played a key role in Trump’s failed bid to overturn the 2020 election, in an appearance on a podcast hosted by the Christian conservative leader Tony Perkins. “Then, I think maybe the president is thinking that he will exercise some emergency powers to protect the federal elections going forward,” Mitchell added. Read Article

National: Trump calls for national voter ID requirement as he asserts election power | Jessica Huseman/Votebeat

President Donald Trump is promising another executive order on elections — this time to make voter ID a national requirement. Voter ID requirements have always been popular with Republicans, but now Trump is hinting at imposing one using federal power, in ways even conservatives used to reject. Elections — I know, I know, I am repeating myself — are managed by the states, with oversight from Congress. There’s a whole clause about it in the Constitution that you can read yourself. Sure, he lacks constitutional authority over elections, but the point may not be policy alone — it’s also politics, and possibly a dangerous power grab. Democratic leaders typically oppose voter ID requirements as an unnecessary barrier to voting, but the politics around voter ID have always been really good for Republicans. “If you persuade people that you are the party trying to make sure elections are controlled by American citizens and that Democrats are doing everything they can to make sure that illegal immigrants can vote by the busload, that’s a good position to be in,” former Texas state Rep. Todd Smith, a Republican, told me back in 2016, after he was booted from office for not writing a strict enough voter ID bill. Read Article

National: Trump’s SAVE system checks citizenship of millions of voters | Jude Joffe-Block and Miles ParksNPR

Tens of millions of voters have had their citizenship status and other information checked using a revamped tool offered by the Trump administration, even as many states — led by both Democrats and Republicans — are refusing or hesitating to use it because of outstanding questions about the system. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) says election officials have used the tool to check the information of more than 33 million voters — a striking portion of the American public, considering little information has been made public about the tool’s accuracy or data security. The latest update to the system, known as SAVE, took effect Aug. 15 and allows election officials to use just the last four digits of voters’ Social Security numbers — along with names and dates of birth — to check if the voters are U.S. citizens, or if they have died. Read Article

National: Deepfakes are rewriting the rules of geopolitics | Sinisa Markovic/Help Net Security

Deception and media manipulation have always been part of warfare, but AI has taken them to a new level. Entrust reports that deepfakes were created every five minutes in 2024, while the European Parliament estimates that 8 million will circulate across the EU this year. Technologies are capable of destabilizing a country without a single shot being fired. Humans respond faster to bad news and are more likely to spread it. On top of that, they are very bad at detecting fake information. The anti-immigrant riots in the UK show just how fast false claims on social media can spin out of control and turn into real-world violence. Fake videos of leaders making false statements, doctored audio instructions, and manipulated images can shake governments or shape public opinion. Businesses aren’t safe either. False announcements or fake board statements can affect stock prices and investor confidence. Read Article

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