Texas Republicans drive a big change to voting. Democrats will have to follow | Natalia Contreras/The Texas Tribune

In an about-face, Dallas County Republicans last week decided against hand-counting ballots in Texas’ March primary, saying they weren’t able to line up enough workers, among other hurdles. That leaves just two counties where Republicans will hand-count their primary ballots: Gillespie County, west of Austin, and Eastland County, southwest of Fort Worth. But Republicans in Dallas and Williamson counties are planning another major change for the March 3 primary election that will also require more election workers, and will affect how voters cast their ballots: They intend to eliminate the use of countywide voting sites on Election Day. That means voters in these counties — Republicans and Democrats — would be required to cast ballots at assigned neighborhood polling places instead of at more centralized polling locations that can accommodate any voter from anywhere in the county. Read Article

Election Deniers Think the Venezuela Attack Is All About 2020 | David Gilbert/WIRED

Election deniers and MAGA influencers are confident that the US capture of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro has nothing to do with oil or drug trafficking. Instead, they’re sure it’s all linked to unfounded claims that the Venezuelan government rigged the 2020 election in former president Joe Biden’s favor. President Donald Trump and his administration appear to have boosted these conspiracy theories. In the days after Maduro’s capture on January 3, Trump shared a flurry of posts on his Truth Social platform about election fraud, including ones related to Dominion Voting Systems. Other MAGA influencers posted about Smartmatic, another election company. Read Article

National: U.S. Capitol attack anniversary renews big lie claims, midterm worries | Antonio Fins/Palm Beach Post

The legacy of the mob attack on the U.S. Capitol hovers over the 2026 midterm voting this year, a top elections analyst said on Jan. 6, the insurrection’s fifth anniversary. David Becker, the founder of the nonpartisan Center for Election Innovation & Research, said the cloud largely exists because of an effort to “rewrite history” about what happened on Capitol Hill on Jan. 6, 2021. In reality, Becker said, what occurred was a violent mob was sent to the Capitol by then-President Donald Trump with the aim of stopping the official election of Joe Biden. “And yet, we’re seeing an attempt to rewrite history,” he said. “It’s been going on almost immediately after those attacks, to not just forget about the events of January 6, but completely reinvent a fake mythology around those attacks.” Read Article

National: Pardoned Jan. 6 Rioters Rally and Demand More from Trump | Karoun Demirjian/The New York Times

Five years after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, several dozen rioters, including many who were jailed and later pardoned, gathered in Washington to retrace their steps and vow to keep fighting for payback, even against the Trump administration. The “J6ers,” as they refer to themselves, have been emboldened by President Trump, who pardoned or commuted the sentences of nearly 1,600 people who planned or participated in storming the Capitol to protest the results of the 2020 election. During Tuesday’s anniversary march, they praised Mr. Trump for setting them free, but were critical of his administration for not doing more for them. “Retribution is what we seek,” said Enrique Tarrio, a far-right activist and leader of the Proud Boys, one of the organizers of the Jan. 6, 2021, demonstration and Tuesday’s anniversary event. “Without accountability, there is no justice.” Read Article

 

National: New USPS postmark rule could affect mail voters | Carter Walker/Votebeat

Mail voters in 18 jurisdictions may need to take extra care to ensure that their ballots aren’t rejected under new guidance from the U.S. Postal Service about how it processes mail. In a notice in the Federal Register that took effect Dec. 24, the Postal Service announced that it may not postmark a piece of mail on the same day that it takes possession of it. The change could affect thousands of people who vote by mail in places that allow mail ballots to be counted if they are received after Election Day but postmarked by Election Day. Those policies are in effect in 14 states — Alaska, California, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Texas, Virginia, Washington, and West Virginia — along with the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The new guidance means that, even if a voter delivers their ballot to the Postal Service by Election Day, it may nevertheless be rejected if it is not postmarked that day. Read Article

National: Trump pulls US out of international cyber orgs | Tim starks/CyberScoop

The Trump administration is withdrawing the United States from a handful of international organizations that work to strengthen cybersecurity. As part of a broader pullback from 66 international organizations, the administration is leaving the Global Forum on Cyber Expertise, the Online Freedom Coalition and the European Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats. Trump’s decision is in line with a president who has expressed hostility toward the existing international order, an approach critics fear creates a leadership power vacuum for U.S. adversaries to fill. Read Article

National: The Supreme Court may leave alone the Voting Rights Act just long enough to keep the GOP from House control in 2026 | Samuel Benson and Andrew Howard/Politico

Republicans want a big Supreme Court redistricting win. They’re losing hope it will help them in the 2026 midterms. The Supreme Court’s decision in Louisiana v. Callais could weaken the Voting Rights Act and open the door to redrawing congressional maps, particularly across the South. Court watchers expect at least a partial win for conservatives that could let the GOP draw more seats for themselves by erasing Black- and Hispanic-majority districts. But while that decision could theoretically come as soon as when the court returns on Friday, many experts think the case is more likely to be resolved with the flurry of decisions the court typically releases in late June. Read Article

National: All eyes on secretary of state races – with 2028 White House at stake | Sam Levine/The Guardian

When Americans go to cast ballots in the midterm elections in 2026, much of the attention is likely to be on races for the US House, Senate and governorships – contests that will serve as a referendum on Donald Trump’s first two years in office and determine the trajectories of the final ones. But further down the ballot, voters will choose secretaries of state in key races that could have a major effect on how elections are run in many US states, including several battleground states that are key to the 2028 presidential race. Twenty-six states are set to choose secretaries of state next year, including the presidential battlegrounds of Nevada, Arizona and Michigan. In many US states, the secretary of state serves as the chief election officer and is responsible for overseeing how elections are run across their state. Many also play an important role in certifying election results in their states. Read Article

National: A court ruling could shrink Black representation in Congress | Hansi Lo Wang/NPR

The United States could be headed toward the largest-ever decline in representation by Black members of Congress, depending on how the Supreme Court rules in a closely watched redistricting case about the Voting Rights Act. For decades, the landmark law that came out of the Civil Rights Movement has protected the collective voting power of racial minorities when political maps are redrawn. Its provisions have also boosted the number of seats in the House of Representatives filled by Black lawmakers. That’s largely because in many Southern states — where voting is often polarized between a Republican-supporting white majority and a Democratic-supporting Black minority — political mapmakers have drawn a certain kind of district to get in line with the Voting Rights Act’s Section 2 provisions. In these districts, racial-minority voters make up a population large enough to have a realistic opportunity of electing their preferred candidates. Read Article

Opinion: Jan. 6 Never Ended | Jamie Raskin/The New York Times

Tuesday is a heavy day for the police officers who fought to put down the bloody insurrection at the Capitol five years ago. It is also a solemn day for the F.B.I. agents and federal prosecutors who worked the largest criminal investigation in American history to bring the members of the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers and all the other police-attacking rioters to justice. Five years after Jan. 6, 2021, we are still caught up in a struggle between forces who are willing to use authoritarian violence outside the Constitution to take and wield power and those who stand up nonviolently for our Constitution in the streets and in the polling places. Neither side can claim victory yet. It’s still very much Jan. 6 in America. Read Article

American Samoa: Americans by Name, Punished for Believing It | Alex Burness/Bolts

They arrived in a pair on November 30, 2023, traveling a stretch of highway that starts in Anchorage but quickly becomes quite rural. They drove past a ski resort and a small shopping center, then turned off through a forested valley with no cell service, until they reached the entrance to the longest highway tunnel in the country: the portal to Whittier, Alaska. The one-lane tunnel, which carves 2.5 dark, musty, bumpy miles through a glacial mountain, opens for two 15-minute periods every hour, once for each direction; the troopers caught the 10 a.m. window heading east. On the other side, Whittier’s punishing microclimate—more snow than Aspen, Amazon-level rainfall, and almost nonstop wind—greeted them with cold, wet bluster. This small port town was built by the military during World War II, as the U.S. warred with Japan. In the 1950s during the Cold War, the military constructed two gigantic housing structures, one of which is still in use: The 14-story complex, set back a few blocks from the waterfront, houses nearly all of Whittier’s roughly 300 residents. Inside this tower, people shop for groceries, get mail, attend church, exercise, and gather in community. The officers parked their Ford Explorer outside the complex. Read Article

Arizona Legislature scrutinizes new elections manual, potential for litigation looms | Kiera Riley/Arizona Capitol Times

With the 2025 Elections Procedures Manual in effect, the Legislature is now taking a fine-toothed comb to each provision, potentially teeing up another round of litigation. Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, Attorney General Kris Mayes and Gov. Katie Hobbs all signed off on the 2025 Elections Procedures Manual on Dec. 23, bringing to a close the odd-year process of promulgating a playbook for election workers and officials. But as the 2025 EPM takes effect, ongoing litigation over the prior draft puts some provisions in limbo, and a new set of eyes could spark another round of legal challenges. Per state law, the secretary of state, in consultation with county election officials, must draft a new manual every odd-numbered year and seal it with a final sign-off from the governor and attorney general. Read Article

Meet Georgia’s most influential conspiracy theorist | David Wickert/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Garland Favorito has said the U.S. government covered up the truth about the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He’s said the Israeli government — not Osama bin Laden — may have been responsible for the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. And he’s echoed an antisemitic claim that Jewish-controlled media have concealed grand conspiracies against the American people.Now the 75-year-old Roswell resident has become a leader among conservatives who say the 2020 presidential election in Georgia was rife with fraud. Favorito has spent five years in court seeking to review Fulton County’s 2020 ballots. He believes it will show counterfeit ballots cost President Donald Trump the election here — though he doesn’t know who orchestrated the scheme. “We don’t know (who did it). We haven’t seen the ballots,” Favorito said in a recent interview. “As long as the ballots remain secret, the cover-up continues.” Investigators found numerous problems with Fulton County’s handling of the election, but no intentional misconduct. Joe Biden’s victory was confirmed by two recounts — including a computer count and a hand count of every ballot cast.Favorito is not deterred. He’s filed multiple lawsuits seeking to scan and inspect the 2020 ballots. And he’s not fighting alone. Read Article

North Carolina: Inside the GOP’s Decade-Long Push to Seize Power From the State’s Democratic Governors | Doug Bock Clark/ProPublica

In November 2024, Democrat Josh Stein scored an emphatic victory in the race to become North Carolina’s governor, drubbing his Republican opponent by almost 15 percentage points. His honeymoon didn’t last long, however. Two weeks after his win, the North Carolina legislature’s Republican supermajority fast-tracked a bill that would transform the balance of power in the state. Its authors portrayed the 131-page proposal, released publicly only an hour before debate began, as a disaster relief measure for victims of Hurricane Helene. But much of it stripped powers from the state’s governor, taking away authority over everything from the highway patrol to the utilities commission. Most importantly, the bill eliminated the governor’s control over appointments to the state elections board, which sets voting rules and settles disputes in the swing state’s often close elections. Read Article

New Ohio Election Integrity Commission begins to take shape | Nick Evans/Ohio Capital Journal

Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose has tapped leadership for the new Ohio Election Integrity Commission. As part of last summer’s budget, state lawmakers axed the state’s existing independent campaign watchdog and replaced it with a new office under the secretary’s control. As of Jan. 1, the Ohio Elections Commission hands the reins to the Ohio Election Integrity Commission. The board’s membership shrinks from seven to five, and instead of a bipartisan panel selecting a nonpartisan colleague, all commissioners will be chosen by state leaders. To start, former Ohio Supreme Court Justice Terrence O’Donnell will lead the commission on an interim basis, after which former U.S. Attorney D. Michael Crites will take over. Crites previously chaired the Ohio Elections Commission after getting appointed to the panel by Gov. Jon Kasich. Read Article

Oregon’s secretary of state expands online voter registration eligibility to all residents | Keely Quinlan/StateScoop

Oregon Secretary of State Tobias Read announced Tuesday that all eligible residents can register to vote online using a digital form, even if they do not have a state-issued driver’s license. Previously, only Oregonians with driver’s license numbers could register to vote online. Now they can register to vote online by providing the last four digits of a Social Security number and a signature, just as they would on a paper voter registration form, the office said. The office said the online voter registration form maintains the security of Oregon’s voter registration system while expanding access. According to an announcement, elections officials will carefully verify the Social Security numbers and signatures submitted before registering voters. Read Article

Pennsylvania disputes claim that it’s in talks to share voter rolls with Ohio | Carter Walker/Votebeat

Pennsylvania officials say they’re not in discussions to hand over private voter information to Ohio, where officials are trying to identify voters who are double-registered following the state’s departure from a bipartisan voter data sharing program. In December, Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, a Republican, announced a “multi-state election integrity network” called EleXa that will share its voter rolls with 10 other states to “identify people who try to vote illegally, often by having more than one active voter registration and then casting multiple ballots in the same election.” The press release also said that Pennsylvania was “finalizing an agreement” to join the program. But officials in Pennsylvania say that is not the case. Amy Gulli, a spokesperson for the Pennsylvania Department of State, said the two state agencies spoke last summer about a possible information-sharing agreement, but the conversation ultimately fizzled out. Read Article

Texas: Republicans in two counties ditch plans to hand-count ballots | Jane C. Timm/NBC

Texas Republicans in two counties who were pushing to count ballots by hand in their March primaries are abandoning their plans, citing logistical concerns. The Dallas County Republican Party said it called off its efforts after it struggled to recruit enough volunteers and stay on budget. And the Hays County Republican Party said it ran into issues around complying with federal voting laws. Republicans in both counties will use ballot-counting machines, as they have in the past, for the March 3 primary, which features contests for the Senate, the House, governor and other down-ballot offices. In Texas, political parties, not local governments, are in charge of Election Day voting in primaries, a process that gives partisan officials unusual authority over election administration. Democrats and Republicans in the state often administer elections jointly and outsource the tasks to county election officials, so their expenses can be reimbursed by the Texas secretary of state. Read Article

Wisconsin case raises a question: Do absentee votes count less than other votes?’ | Alexander Shur/Votebeat

The city of Madison, Wisconsin, and its former clerk are arguing in court that they can’t be sued for failing to count 193 absentee ballots in the 2024 presidential election, in part because a Wisconsin law calls absentee voting a privilege, not a constitutional right. That legal argument raises questions about how much protection absentee voters have against the risk of disenfranchisement — and could reignite a recent debate over whether the law calling absentee voting a privilege is itself unconstitutional. That law, which appears to be uncommon outside of Wisconsin, has been cited repeatedly in recent years in attempts to impose more requirements and restrictions on absentee voting, and, at times, disqualify absentee ballots on which the voters have made errors. It does not appear to have been invoked to absolve election officials for errors in handling correctly cast ballots. Read Article

National: Mobile Voting Project’s vote-by-smartphone has real security gaps | Andrew Appel/CITP Blog

Bradley Tusk has been pushing the concept of “vote by phone.” Most recently his “Mobile Voting Foundation” put out a press release touting something called “VoteSecure”, claiming that “secure and verifiable mobile voting is within reach.” Based on my analysis of VoteSecure, I can say that secure and verifiable mobile voting is NOT within reach. It’s well known that conventional internet voting (including from smartphones) is fundamentally insecure; fraudulent software in the server could change votes, and malware in the voter’s own phone or computer could also change votes before they’re transmitted (while misleadingly displaying the voter’s original choices in the voter’s app). In an attempt to address this fundamental insecurity, Mr. Tusk has funded a company called Free & Fair to develop a protocol called by which voters could verify that their votes got counted properly. Their so-called “VoteSecure” is a form of “E2E-VIV”, or “End-to-End Verified Internet Voting”, a class of protocols that researchers have been studying for many years. Unfortunately, all known E2E-VIV methods, including VoteSecure, suffer from gaps and impracticalities that make them too insecure for use in public elections. In this article I will pinpoint just a few issues. I base my analysis on the press release of November 14, 2025, and on Free & Fair’s own “Threat Model” analysis and their FAQ. Read Article

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