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

National: The GOP Is Attacking the VRA From All Angles — and Could Soon Make it All But Useless | Jim Saksa/Democracy Docket

It took nearly a century for Congress to enact legislation to enforce the 15th Amendment. It may take conservatives on the U.S. Supreme Court only a little more than a decade to fully eviscerate that law — the 1965 Voting Rights Act (VRA). After a 2013 ruling neutered the strongest plank of the VRA, it now faces an unprecedented and multi-pronged legal attack that could leave the landmark civil rights law all but useless for stopping racial discrimination in voting. A raft of lawsuits aimed at narrowing the VRA, or gutting its most powerful remaining section completely, are either now before the court or waiting in the wings. Read Article

Arizona counties defy attorney general opinion on voters caught in proof-of-citizenship error | Jen Fifield/Votebeat

Thousands of Arizona voters caught up in a state record-keeping error will lose at least some voting rights if they don’t prove their citizenship, despite a recent opinion from the state attorney general saying they should remain fully eligible to vote. In Maricopa County, affected voters who don’t provide documentary proof of citizenship in time will be allowed to vote only in federal elections, according to public records obtained by Votebeat. And neighboring Pinal County will continue to suspend the registration of any voters affected by the error if they try to change their address or otherwise update their record without providing citizenship documentation, the county recorder’s office confirmed. Read Article

Georgia: Judge rejects challenge to election law provisions related to absentee ballots | Kate Brumback/Associated Press

A judge has rejected a challenge to two provisions of a Georgia election law related to absentee ballot applications. The provisions were part of a sweeping elections overhaul passed by Republican state lawmakers in Georgia in 2021, months after President Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential election to Democrat Joe Biden. Advocacy groups and the Department of Justice under Biden sued to challenge various aspects of the law. The ruling Monday by U.S. District Judge J.P. Boulee focused on the two absentee ballot provisions that were challenged by nonprofit groups devoted to increasing voter turnout. One of the provisions prohibits sending voters absentee ballot applications with the voter’s required information already filled in. The other bars the sending of an absentee ballot to anyone who has already requested one. Read Article

Michigan Republican budget proposal would cut funds for local election support | Hayley Harding/Votebeat

Michigan House Republicans have put more than $10 million in state election support on the chopping block in their proposed budget for the coming fiscal year. The $10 million hit is a tiny portion of a huge budget battle that may lead to a shutdown of Michigan’s government next month. But in a state that has over 1,600 election officials and dozens of local elections scheduled for November, it represents the slashing of a critical resource. In the 2024-25 fiscal year, the Department of State’s budget was about $292 million. Proposals from the Senate, which is controlled by Democrats, and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s office would both boost it to about $296.5 million, while the latest budget proposed by House Republicans would cut it down to $222.5 million. Read Article

Ohio: Cuyahoga County elections machines damaged by leaky garage at new headquarters; ballots safe | Kaitlin Durbin/Cleveland Plain Dealer

The Cuyahoga County Board of Elections just settled into its new headquarters this summer, but it has already encountered a serious problem: rainwater and crumbling cement in the parking garage damaged two expensive machines that process mail-in ballots. First, the water and debris damaged a sensor and the control arms on one of the machines, which sorts ballots by municipality and precinct while capturing voters’ signatures for verification. That machine now has to be sent out for repairs, costing an estimated $20,000-26,000, Deputy Director Anthony Kaloger told BOE Board members during a Monday meeting. Then, cement flakes and water infiltrated the second machine over Labor Day weekend, despite staff attempting to cover the machines with carport tents. The leaks didn’t interfere with voting in Tuesday’s Primary Election, thanks to staff workarounds and relatively low turnout, Kaloger assured: “Not one ballot was damaged. Not one voter was disenfranchised,” he said. But he said staff also doesn’t want to risk equipment failures during busier elections. Even if the garage could be repaired to assure “reasonable dryness,” Kaloger said, that’s not enough to safeguard the ballots and the county’s investment in the machines, which each cost about $250,000. “At this point we had seen enough,” Kaloger said. “You can’t park a Jaguar in a barn.” Read Article

Pennsylvania: What to know about the poll worker positions on the 2025 election ballot | Carter Walker/Votebeat

More than 27,000 poll worker positions will be on ballots across Pennsylvania this November, allowing voters to select who will be in charge of their precincts during the 2026 and 2028 election cycles. Only Pennsylvanians are voting for these positions. No other state still elects its poll workers, and these contests are usually riddled with vacancies. That makes elections for poll workers more complicated than most. Read Article

South Dakota Legislative board approves rules for challenging voting rights based on residency, voting history | Makenzie Huber/South Dakota Searchlight

Legislators finalized rules this week allowing additional grounds for challenging a person’s right to vote in South Dakota. The rules, approved Tuesday by the Interim Rules Review Committee, are a result of Senate Bill 185, which was signed into law in March. It expanded the justifications for challenging voter rights to include claims that a registered voter has died, is not a legal resident of the state or has voted or registered in another state. Previously, state law allowed challenges based on a person’s identity, a felony conviction or mental incompetency. Those challenges are still allowed. Read Article

Washington counties to join multistate election cybersecurity group | Laurel Demkovich/Cascade PBS

The Washington Secretary of State’s Office is funding memberships for all counties to join a multistate election-security program after federal money for election cybersecurity was cut, the Secretary of State Office announced Tuesday. All 39 counties will be members of the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center, a nonprofit that provides cybersecurity threat prevention and response support to 18,000 government organizations across the country. Membership in the organization includes access to cyberthreat intelligence, incident response support and real-time information sharing, according to the Secretary of State’s Office. Read Article

Wisconsin: What to know about the investigations into the Wausau absentee ballot drop box saga | Anna Kleiber/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Nearly a year after Wausau Mayor Doug Diny’s removal of the city’s sole absentee ballot drop box located outside of city hall, investigations into the drop box, its removal and return continue. In its May 27 ruling, the commission found that city officials did not violate the law or abuse their discretion in establishing and operating the drop box. The commission found the drop box acceptable as officials properly secured the box to the ground throughout its use and there were no allegations that ballots deposited in the drop box were not properly accounted for and processed on Election Day. Additionally, the commission rejected allegations related to security measures for the drop box, noting there were clear camera views of the drop box and adequate lighting illuminating the area surrounding it. The ruling also stated the city correctly labeled the drop box with an 8 p.m. deadline on Election Day. Read Article

Election Officials Must Guard Their Systems — Including from Federal Overreach | Pamela Smith/Democracy Docket

State and local officials are the stewards of our democracy. Elections are run by these trusted professionals in our communities, not by the federal government. They register voters, count ballots and certify the results. And when it comes to safeguarding equipment, they simply cannot allow unauthorized access — even if that request comes directly from the White House.Right now, these barriers are being tested. In Colorado, the U.S. Department of Justice recently made a sweeping and unprecedented demand for access to state voter information. A political consultant, claiming to be working on behalf of the White House, also called several county clerks to gain access to their voting equipment. Read Article

 

Trump canceling elections? Democrats increasingly sound alarm bells. | Aaron Blake/CNN

When President Donald Trump sat down with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky last month, the topic was the weighty issue of ending Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But at one point, Trump took a provocative diversion into domestic politics. Zelensky noted that, in his country, the law doesn’t allow for elections during periods of martial law. “So you say during the war, you can’t have elections,” Trump responded. “So let me just say, three and a half years from now – so you mean, if we happen to be in a war with somebody, no more elections? Oh, that’s good.” Laughter ensued. Trump wondered aloud what the “fake news” would do with his comment. Read Article

National: No, Trump Can’t Legally Federalize US Elections | Lily Hay Newman/WIRED

“It’s right there in the Constitution from the very beginning, Article One, that the states set the time, place, and manner of elections. The states run the elections; Congress can add rules, but the president has no role,” says Lawrence Norden of the Brennan Center at New York University School of Law. “Trump makes all these pronouncements that he’s going to end mail voting, that voting machines can’t be trusted, but he can’t do that. He certainly has the bully pulpit, though, to mislead and confuse the public—and the power to intimidate.” Pamela Smith, president of Verified Voting, a nonpartisan nonprofit that promotes election system integrity, emphasizes that it is very difficult to unpack and disentangle the concerns the administration is raising from the inherently inappropriate use of the presidency as a vehicle for attempting to dictate election requirements. “It’s really hard to talk about all of this when the context is just wrong,” Smith says. “It’s not up to the White House to say to the Election Assistance Commission, ‘You should change how you do voting machine certification and decertification.’” Read Article

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