National: 100 days in, Trump’s moves to overhaul election law get pushback from courts, Democrats | Niels Lesniewski/Roll Call

On March 25, the president issued an executive order outlining new federal actions, including making available Social Security database information for states to verify voter eligibility and directing Attorney General Pamela Bondi to “take appropriate action” against states that “fail to comply with the list maintenance requirements of the National Voter Registration Act and the Help America Vote Act.” But as with many of the president’s moves, federal court challenges and constitutional questions abound. On April 25, a federal judge in Washington, D.C., put on hold key provisions of Trump’s order, including a directive to the Election Assistance Commission to make changes to the national mail voter registration form to require proof of citizenship. “The President is free to state his views about what policies he believes that Congress, the EAC, or other federal agencies should consider or adopt,” Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly wrote. “But, in this case, the President has done much more than state his views: He has issued an ‘Order’ directing that an independent commission ‘shall’ act to ‘require’ changes to an important document, the contents of which Congress has tightly regulated.” Read Article

National: Fox’s false claims about 2020 race was an audience strategy, Smartmatic says | Sarah Ellison and Scott Nover/The Washington Post

Smartmatic accused Fox News in a court filing Wednesday of embracing false claims that the voting technology company had helped steal the 2020 election for Joe Biden only after the network endured an audience backlash for calling the race in Arizona for Biden. Smartmatic, which makes voting machines and election management systems, has been engaged in a $2.7 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News and its parent company, Fox Corp., since 2021. The lawsuit stems from on-air comments that Fox News hosts and guests made around the 2020 U.S. presidential election. Smartmatic has alleged that Fox News “decimated” the company’s business and marred its reputation with its false claims of election interference. Read Article

National: Cyber grant uncertainty puts state programs in limbo, GAO report shows | Colin Wood/StateScoop

Some state and local government agencies are unsure how they will continue to fund their cybersecurity initiatives in absence of federal support, according to a report published Tuesday by the Government Accountability Office. Over the past year, the office examined the $1 billion, 4-year State and Local Cybersecurity Grant Program, by randomly sampling state and territorial government agencies that have received funding. It found that most agencies had positive things to say about the program, and some agency representatives selected for interviews by the federal office reported concerns with how they’ll continue their cybersecurity initiatives after the program’s one-time funding runs out, or if it’s prematurely ended. The findings mirror what many technology officials and industry analysts have been saying during the first three months of the Trump administration, which has slashed hundreds of positions at the Department of Homeland Security and its Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, with plans to cut hundreds more. Read Article

Arizona GOP passes ‘impossible’ voting bill requiring 4,000 new polling locations | Caitlin Sievers/Arizona Mirror

Republican lawmakers passed legislation that would cost Arizona counties tens of millions of dollars every election year and would force them to attempt to find 4,000 new voting locations, something that county election officials described as impossible. House Bill 2017 passed through the Senate by a 17-12 party line vote on Tuesday. Sponsored by Rep. Rachel Keshel, a Tucson Republican and member of the far-right Arizona Freedom Caucus, the proposal would ban in-person early voting and the use of vote centers where any registered voter within a county can cast a ballot. Instead, it would require the use of precincts capped at 1,000 registered voters apiece. Most counties use voting centers, which allow any registered voter to show up and cast a ballot at any polling site in the county. Under the precinct model, only voters assigned to a precinct can vote there, and if they vote at the wrong location, their ballot won’t be counted. Read Article

Arizona: American-made voting equipment might not be ready by 2029 | Howard Fischer/Arizona Capitol Times

On party-line votes, both the Republican controlled House and Senate have approved legislation spelling out that, beginning that year, the Secretary of State’s Office cannot certify vote-recording and vote-tabulating equipment unless each and every part of the machine, including all components and software, are “sourced from the United States.” House Bill 2651 also says the equipment must be assembled in the United States. The measure now goes to Gov. Katie Hobbs. The only thing is, there are no voting tabulation machines available that meet those conditions according to Jenn Marson, a lobbyist for the Arizona Association of Counties. And it is her organization’s members who would have to comply. She told lawmakers there are probably companies that could meet the deadline. But the problem, Marson said, comes down to this: What if they can’t? Read Article

Arizona: As Cochise County trial approaches, a judge throws out rules for certifying elections | Jen Fifield/Votebeat

When two Republican Cochise County supervisors delayed their certification of the county’s 2022 election results, a judge forced them to certify, pointing to language in Arizona’s election manual that says they have no choice. A state grand jury later charged the two supervisors with two felonies — conspiracy, and interference with the secretary of state’s duty to certify the election. And two secretaries of state have sought to make the rules about supervisors’ duties more explicit. A recent court ruling, though, challenges the long-held presumption in Arizona that supervisors have no discretion when certifying election results. The court threw out that section of the Elections Procedures Manual entirely, saying it goes further than the statute supports. Read Article

Colorado lawmakers approve voting rights bill, despite pushback from election officials | Chas Sisk/Aspen Public Radio

Colorado lawmakers are sending the governor a measure meant to shore up voting rights. The move is part of a national effort to write protections established by the federal Voting Rights Act into state laws. But it comes despite opposition from local officials, who have argued the law could upend decades-old practices. Backers cite the gradual weakening of the Voting Rights Act and recent attacks from the Trump administration on state voting laws to argue that there’s a need for state legislation. But pushback has come from local officials, including some representing progressive parts of the state. They say the measure could reopen settled legal questions about voting practices that some could argue are discriminatory. Those include electing officials at large, which can keep minority candidates out of office, and holding local elections in the spring or summer, when turnout tends to be lower. Read Article

Michigan voter proof-of-citizenship effort fails on first House vote | Hayley Harding/Votebeat

An attempt to get a proof-of-citizenship requirement for would-be voters onto the 2026 ballot failed along party lines Thursday in the Michigan House — a blow to the GOP-backed effort, but likely not the final word. The measure would require new Michigan voters — and almost certainly some current ones — to provide documents proving they are U.S. citizens before they can cast a ballot in the state. The measure’s sponsor, state Rep. Bryan Posthumus, a Republican from Rockford, said the resolution “is a common-sense way to close a massive loophole in our current system.” Read Article

Mississippi appealing mail-in absentee ballot ruling to U.S. Supreme Court  | Taylor Vance/Mississippi Today

Mississippi officials are appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court a federal court ruling that struck down Mississippi’s five-day grace period for mail-in absentee ballots to arrive after Election Day. Attorneys for the state filed court documents stating their intention to petition the nation’s highest court to overturn a decision from an appellate court that found a state election law conflicted with federal election laws. U.S. District Judge Louis Guirrola halted all lower court action until the proceedings with the Supreme Court are completed. Read Article

North Carolina: Court of Appeals clears path for Republicans to take over Board of Elections. Stein to appeal | Will Doran/WRAL

Control over elections administration in North Carolina could flip from Democratic to Republican control within hours, following a decision late Wednesday from the state Court of Appeals. Elections decisions in North Carolina are made by political appointees, who make calls on issues such as where and when to open early voting sites, which allegations of campaign finance violations or voter fraud to refer to prosecutors, and whether to confirm election results. Last week, a trial court ruled that Republican state lawmakers violated the constitution when they tried taking control of the elections board away from Democratic Gov. Josh Stein. Read Article

North Carolina: Griffin’s case could open an ‘Pandora’s Box’ for election law | Ned Barnett/Raleigh News & Observer

The legal effort to overturn the results of North Carolina’s 2024 state Supreme Court race is an affront to all of the state’s voters, but it potentially also could provide a blueprint for overturning election results in other states. At issue is a lawsuit by Court of Appeals Judge Jefferson Griffin, who lost his bid to unseat Justice Allison Riggs by 734 votes out of 5,540,090 votes cast. Griffin asked that more than 65,000 votes be tossed because of flaws in the voters’ registration, the lack of photo ID on military and overseas absentee ballots and a lack of state residency by some voters. The Griffin lawsuit has ping-ponged between state and federal courts for nearly six months and is currently pending in federal court. Ultimately, this case could endure all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, where the 6-3 Republican majority might uphold Griffin’s attempt to change the rules that govern an election after the election. Read Article

Ohio: Security concern forces half of state’s counties to use paper pollbooks for May election | Anna Staver/The Cleveland Plain Dealer

A security violation involving an electronic pollbook in Perry County is prompting half of Ohio counties to check voters in using paper pollbooks for the May 6 election. The device–a tablet-style electronic similar to an iPad–was intended to check voters in on Election Day. Perry County never used it for an election. Instead, local officials reported irregularities that “violated Ohio’s election security standards. I’ve directed our Election Integrity Unit and cybersecurity team to work with the Perry County Board of Elections to analyze the equipment purchased by the board… ,” Secretary of State Frank LaRose said in a statement. “As an added precaution, I’m directing the boards of elections who use this specific style of pollbook to use paper pollbooks for the May election.” Read Article

Texas attempts to revive voter assistance restrictions | Gabriel Tynes/Courthouse News Service

Parties on opposite sides of Texas’ strict new election access law appeared before a three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday, attempting to resolve claims the measure violates Section 208 of the Voting Rights Act. After presiding over a six-week bench trial in October 2024, U.S. District Judge Xavier Rodriguez determined that it does, declaring that Texas’ restrictions on voting assistance unlawfully narrow voters’ federally protected rights. As a result, several provisions of Senate Bill 1 were struck down or enjoined. On Wednesday, three attorneys for state defendants argued the lower court wrongfully struck down the rules by misinterpreting Section 208, which they say permits reasonable, generally applicable regulations and does not preempt Texas’ safeguards against fraud, coercion and abuse in the voting process. Read Article

Wisconsin clerk who failed to count November votes violated multiple policies, investigators say | Todd Richmond/Associated Press

The former clerk who somehow failed to count nearly 200 ballots in Wisconsin’s capital city didn’t break any laws but did violate multiple policies and her contractual duty to supervise elections and maintain professional standards, the results of a city-led investigation released Tuesday show. Madison City Clerk Maribeth Witzel-Behl resigned earlier this month amid city and state investigations into her conduct during the November elections. She said in a message to The Associated Press that she hadn’t seen the investigation’s findings and declined to comment. According to the investigation, Dane County canvassers discovered 68 uncounted absentee ballots in a tabulator bin on Nov. 12, a week after the election, and another 125 uncounted ballots in a courier bag the first week of December. Read Article

Wyoming lawmakers, Gray still harping on election integrity | Legislature | Jasmine Hall/Jackson Hole News and Guide

Election integrity will continue to be an issue for the Wyoming Legislature this year. The Joint Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions Committee will kick off its first meeting of the legislative interim with an election demonstration from the county clerks and a presentation from Secretary of State Chuck Gray. As clerks work throughout the year with the committee, the County Clerks Association has four priorities: testing and auditing, security of election officials, voter list maintenance and absentee ballot security. Ervin also expects clerks to take on more of an active role than in the past and be “a little bit more outspoken.” The county clerks pushed back against assertions from the secretary of state and other critics about how they run elections.The association has set a standard of only testifying on whether the clerks could implement a bill, not whether they agreed or disagreed with a policy. Resad Article

National: Trump’s Executive Order on Proof of Citizenship for Elections Is Partly Blocked by Judge | Nick Corasaniti/The New York Times

A federal judge blocked part of an expansive executive order signed last month seeking to overhaul election laws, writing on Thursday that President Trump did not have the authority to require documentary proof of citizenship for all voters. “Our Constitution entrusts Congress and the states — not the president — with the authority to regulate federal elections,” wrote Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly of the Federal District Court in Washington. She pointed to federal voting legislation being considered in Congress, adding that the president could not “short-circuit Congress’s deliberative process by executive order.” But the judge did not block another key part of the executive order that sought to force a deadline for mail ballots in federal elections by withholding federal funding from states that failed to comply with the deadline. She found that the Democrats who brought the legal challenge did not have standing to do so. The legal concerns with this provision, Judge Kollar-Kotelly wrote, are being considered in other cases brought by state attorneys general. Read Article

A little-known federal agency is at the center of Trump’s executive order to overhaul US elections | Christina A. Cassidy/Associated Press

Florida’s “hanging chads” ballot controversy riveted the nation during the 2000 presidential contest and later prompted Congress to create an independent commission to help states update their voting equipment. The U.S. Election Assistance Commission has operated in relative anonymity since, but is now central to President Donald Trump’s executive order seeking to overhaul elections. One of the commission’s boards will meet Thursday in North Carolina, the first commission-related meeting since the directives were announced. Among other things, Trump directed the agency to update the national voter registration form to add a proof of citizenship requirement. But whether the president can order an independent agency to act and whether the commission has the authority to do what Trump wants will likely be settled in court. Read Article

National: Trump is shifting cybersecurity to the states, but many aren’t prepared | Madyson Fitzgerald/Stateline

For the first half of his career in law enforcement, working as a police officer in South Florida, Chase Fopiano did not think cyberattacks on police agencies were a serious threat. Many of his law enforcement colleagues were under the same impression — that since they were the most likely to investigate the attacks, there was no way cybercriminals would go after them. By about 2015, as technology advanced and hackers became more creative, that changed, Fopiano said. Now, from the U.S. Secret Service to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, there are thousands of attempts to compromise networks or organizations every day, he said. “A lot of those [attempts] are toward government or even police, especially because they know that we’re not as prepared as we should be,” said Fopiano, who now oversees cybersecurity as part of a regional task force. Read Article

National: Election officials question agency about Trump’s order overhauling election operations | Christina A. Cassidy/Associated Press

State and local election officials from around the country on Thursday questioned the leaders of a federal agency directed by President Donald Trump to implement parts of his sweeping election overhaul executive order, with some expressing concerns about the consequences for voters and the people in charge of voting. The U.S. Election Assistance Commission, an independent and bipartisan federal agency, is at the center of Trump’s March 25 order that directs the commission to update the national voter registration form to include a proof-of-citizenship requirement and revise guidelines for voting systems. Trump also wants it to withhold federal money from any state that continues to accept ballots after Election Day even if they are postmarked by then. Whether the Republican president can order an independent agency to act and whether the commission has the authority to do what Trump wants will likely be settled in court. Read Article

National: NSF cancels over 400 grants covering disinformation, deepfakes and STEM education | Alexandra Kelley and David DiMolfetta/Nextgov/FCW

Around 430 federally-funded research grants covering topics like deepfake detection, artificial intelligence advancement and the empowerment of marginalized groups in scientific fields were among several projects terminated in recent days following a major realignment in research priorities at the National Science Foundation. Other cancelled grants included nearly two dozen projects devoted to disinformation research, election security, cyber-physical systems protection and the CyberCorps scholarship program. In total, around $328 million worth of grants, many of them issued to major American universities, were canceled. The mass cancellation and realignment of NSF’s grant priorities coincided with the arrival of officials from the Department of Government Efficiency, who have been present at the agency since April 14, according to six people familiar with the matter. Read Article

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