Election Certification – Stronger safeguards can ensure that the process cannot be exploited to disrupt elections | Lauren Miller Karalunas/Brennan Center for Justice

Since the 2020 election, the election denial movement has led rogue local officials to refuse to fulfill their mandatory duty to certify election results. Efforts to interfere with certification persisted throughout the 2024 election cycle, becoming untethered from the presidential election outcome and focused instead on local disagreements over downballot races. States should strengthen their statutory frameworks ahead of the 2026 midterms to prevent and more efficiently resolve future certification disputes. Read Article

Arizona lawsuit centers on power struggle over elections in Maricopa County | Sejal Govindarao/Associated Press

The top elections official in one of the nation’s most pivotal swing counties is suing the Maricopa County governing board over allegations that it’s attempting to gain more control over how elections are administered. County Recorder Justin Heap filed a lawsuit Thursday in state court with the backing of America First Legal, a conservative public interest group founded by Stephen Miller, who is now the White House deputy chief of staff. Heap, a former GOP state lawmaker who has questioned election administration in Arizona’s most populous county, has been at odds with the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors for months over an agreement that would divide election operations between the two offices. Read Article

Colorado election officials react to federal request for voter data, eye political motives | Tom Hesse and Anthony Cotton/Colorado Public Radio

An expansive request for Colorado’s election records by the U.S. Department of Justice has leading election officials in the state wondering if the ask might be the latest chapter in the ongoing saga of a former Mesa County Clerk now incarcerated at La Vista Correctional Facility. The letter, first reported by NPR, was sent to Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold in May and requested all election records relating to the state’s 2024 federal contests, under a provision of the Voting Rights Act. Griswold told Colorado Public Radio she thinks this has less to do with the events of November and more to do with October, when former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters was sentenced to nine years incarceration for her role in allowing unauthorized access to county voting equipment. Read Article

Kansas analysis, national report urges more funding for local election administration | Tim Carpente/Kansas Reflector

The co-author of a national assessment of challenges faced by local election administrators focused on the failure of some Kansas counties to match rising costs of voting technology and election staff with budgets heavily reliant on property tax revenue. The joint report from the Robert Dole Institute of Politics in Lawrence and the Edward Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate in Boston provided election policymakers and administrators with data and research useful in arguing for more sustainable funding of local elections. Zach Mohr, associate professor of public affairs and administration at University of Kansas and a co-author of the report, said 92% of funding for local elections in Kansas’ smallest population counties was derived from property taxes. He said the property tax was a steady source of money, but it didn’t keep pace with escalating costs. Read Article

New Hampshire jury acquits consultant behind AI robocalls mimicking Biden on all charges | Holly Ramer/Associated Press

A political consultant who sent artificial intelligence-generated robocalls mimicking former President Joe Biden to New Hampshire Democrats last year was acquitted Friday of voter suppression and impersonating a candidate. Steven Kramer, 56, of New Orleans, admitted orchestrating a message sent to thousands of voters two days before the state’s Jan. 23, 2024, presidential primary. Recipients heard an AI-generated voice similar to the Democratic president’s that used his catchphrase “What a bunch of malarkey” and, as prosecutors alleged, suggested that voting in the primary would preclude voters from casting ballots in November. “It’s important that you save your vote for the November election,” voters were told. “Your votes make a difference in November, not this Tuesday.” Read Article

New Jersey bill to allow machine election audits clears committee | Zach Blackburn/New Jersey Globe

A Senate panel on Thursday unanimously approved a bill that would reform how post-election audits are undertaken. The Senate State Government, Wagering, Tourism, & Historic Preservation Committee voted to pass state Sen. Andrew Zwicker’s (D-South Brunswick) bill through the committee. The legislation would allow post-election audits to be conducted with independent, third-party ballot machines in addition to a hand count. Audits are currently conducted exclusively through hand counts, and Zwicker, the Senate bill’s sole sponsor, stated that the reform would enable more efficient auditing. The Democrat says reform to the system is further needed due to the increased embrace of early voting and vote-by-mail in the state’s elections. Read Article

Nevada: New law will make it easier to vote on reservations | Jimmy Romo-Buenrostro/NPR

Tribes will soon be able to run their own polling locations for federal and state elections on reservations in Nevada. The change came from Gov. Joe Lombardo’s approval of Senate Bill 421 in the recently concluded legislative session. This bill was developed in response to barriers Tribal members in the state faced when trying to participate in elections. For instance, members of the Walker River Paiute Tribe, one of the two largest tribes in the state by population, had to travel over 60 miles to cast a ballot. Read Article

North Dakota: “A Law Without a Way to Enforce It” – Native groups face a triple threat on voting rights | Pascal Sabino/Bolts

The water system that provides for the entire Spirit Lake Reservation in North Dakota has been contaminated with dangerous levels of manganese that have made the water undrinkable since May. For Lonna Jackson-Street, chair of the Spirit Lake Tribal Council, which is now scrambling to provide bottled water to residents and install a filtration system, the crisis underscores the need for Native voices in government. The federal government fails to properly maintain infrastructure it’s supposed to be managing, and state leaders don’t dedicate enough resources to reservations they see as outside their jurisdiction. “Native representation is so important,” she said, “because they understand the gaps in these services and how they are administered to our tribal nations.” Read Article

Pennsylvania election officials bring wish lists to Duquesne forum | Carter Walker/Votebeat

Yes, counties still need more time before Election Day to process mail ballots. And while you’re at it, Harrisburg, please adjust the deadlines for voters applying for mail ballots. County election officials brought their wish lists to a panel moderated by Votebeat Pennsylvania reporter Carter Walker at the Thomas R. Kline School of Law of Duquesne University Monday. The event was hosted by Keep Our Republic, a nonpartisan nonprofit whose mission is strengthening elections. The panelists were Chet Harhut, deputy manager of the Allegheny County Elections Division; Sherene Hess, Indiana County commissioner and board president of the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania; and Melanie Ostrander, Washington County elections director. Read Article

Wisconsin proposal would require simple explanation of ballot questions | Alexander Shur/Votebeat

Wisconsin Republicans want to require that all proposed constitutional amendments come with a plain-language explanation, a move that they say would help voters better understand complex ballot questions. The proposal has drawn broad support. But some lawmakers are concerned about whether the measure as proposed would leave the interpretation of ballot questions vulnerable to partisanship. And even some supporters say the bill should have more specific standards for what constitutes plain language. In its current version, the bill calls for the Legislature to pass a plain-language explanation along with any proposed constitutional amendment. The explanation would be drafted by the Legislative Reference Bureau, a nonpartisan legislative agency that helps draft bills, but legislators would be able to revise it. Neither the explanation nor the amendment would be subject to a governor’s veto. Read Article

A US territory’s colonial history emerges in state disputes over voting and citizenship | Mark Thiessen, Becky Bohrer and Gene Johnson/Associated Press

Squeezed between glacier-packed mountains and Alaska’s Prince William Sound, the cruise-ship stop of Whittier is isolated enough that it’s reachable by just a single road, through a long, one-lane tunnel that vehicles share with trains. It’s so small that nearly all its 260 residents live in the same 14-story condo building. But Whittier also is the unlikely crossroads of two major currents in American politics: fighting over what it means to be born on U.S. soil and false claims by President Donald Trump and others that noncitizen voter fraud is widespread. In what experts describe as an unprecedented case, Alaska prosecutors are pursuing felony charges against 11 residents of Whittier, most of them related to one another, saying they falsely claimed U.S. citizenship when registering or trying to vote. The defendants were all born in American Samoa, an island cluster in the South Pacific roughly halfway between Hawaii and New Zealand. It’s the only U.S. territory where residents are not automatically granted citizenship by virtue of having been born on American soil, as the Constitution dictates. Read Article

How Arizona is lining up the next generation of election workers, as more people leave the field | Jen Fifield/Votebeat

In Arizona, where each election is closely watched, officials are under such intense pressure to conduct elections perfectly, that some counties hire a person whose sole duty is ensuring that all laws are followed. Filling that compliance officer spot isn’t easy. It needs to be someone who knows the complex, technical side of conducting elections, and also is well-versed in all the rules officials must follow. This year, though, Pima County had a candidate who not only had the right skills and interests, but also had been trained already. Constance Hargrove, elections director in the state’s second-largest county, said she was thrilled when a young law student named Carly Morrison came to her and said she wanted the job. “I’m like, ‘Yes!’” Hargrove said, pumping both of her fists. “That was awesome.” Read Article

National: Federal judge appears open to blocking Trump’s election overhaul order | Nate Raymond/Reuters

A federal judge appeared open to blocking enforcement of U.S. President Donald Trump’s sweeping executive order overhauling elections that calls for requiring voters to prove they are U.S. citizens and barring states from counting mail-in ballots received after Election Day. At a hearing in Boston before U.S. District Judge Denise Casper, a lawyer for the Trump administration argued the Republican president’s order was lawful and that any request by 19 Democratic-led states challenging it was premature. But Casper said those states were under pressure to comply with Trump’s order before voting begins in the 2026 federal election cycle and that 13 of them that accept mail-in ballots postmarked by Election Day say they could be sued by the U.S. Department of Justice unless she issues an injunction. Read Article

National: House committee sets CISA budget cut at $135M, not Trump’s $495M | Tim Starks/CyberScoop

A House panel approved a fiscal 2026 funding bill Monday that would cut the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency by $135 million from fiscal 2025, significantly less than the Trump administration’s proposed $495 million. The chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security, Rep. Mark Amodei, said the annual Department of Homeland Security funding measure “responsibly trimmed” the CISA budget. But Illinois Rep. Lauren Underwood, the top Democrat on his panel, said the legislation “fails to address the catastrophic cybersecurity threats facing our critical infrastructure.” The subcommittee approved the bill by a vote of 8-4. CISA would get $2.7 billion under the measure, according to a committee fact sheet, or $134.8 million less than the prior year. Read Article

National: How Trump Upended Biden’s Successful Push For Federal Agencies to Register Voters | Matt Cohen/Democracy Docket

In March, 2021, then-President Joe Biden became the first president to make it clear: Federal agencies should be registering voters. An executive order issued by Biden that month led to unprecedented voter registration efforts by federal agencies that were lauded by voting rights advocates: The Department of the Interior worked with several states to make Tribal institutions voter registration centers. The Department of Veterans Affairs created a pilot voter registration program with Kentucky, Michigan and Pennsylvania. And the Small Business Administration started registering voters at local entrepreneur events in Michigan. That was just the start. But Republicans went ballistic, filing lawsuits and launching congressional probes into the order. They described the move as federal overreach, and warned, without evidence, that it would lead to non-citizens getting on the rolls. Read Article

National: Trump executive order takes steps to protect domestic hackers from blowback | Maggie Miller and John Sakellariadis/Politico

The Trump administration announced Friday it is amending “problematic elements” of two landmark cybersecurity executive orders — though the extent of the changes in many cases appears modest. The modifications are part of a new executive order signed Friday by President Donald Trump. The full text of the EO was released Friday afternoon, and the Trump administration first outlined details of the order in a White House fact sheet. The order outlines a potentially weighty change: the new EO would change the Obama-era order — which allows for sanctions on individuals behind cyberattacks on U.S. critical infrastructure — by limiting it “only to foreign malicious actors” and clarifying “that sanctions do not apply to election-related activities. Read Article

National: States are picking sides as competing election integrity efforts move ahead | Colin Wood/StateScoop

Two events last week offered a glimpse of the growing weight of politics in the nation’s elections process. Alabama’s secretary of state, Wes Allen, announced that Virginia had become the tenth state to join his voter integrity database, called AVID, an increasingly popular alternative to a larger bipartisan voter integrity coalition used by half of the nation’s state governments. And the New York State Assembly approved legislation permitting the state to join the more popular bipartisan system, called the Electronic Registration Information Center. With 26 members, ERIC is still the most popular way for states of all political persuasions to verify the accuracy of their voter rolls, but the Alabama Voter Integrity Database is proving an enticing, if less sophisticated, option for some secretaries of state, particularly in conservative regions where claims of noncitizen voting and a multitude of unfounded conspiracies of ERIC’s shadowy dealings abound. Read Article

National: Federal vs. state power at issue in a hearing over Trump’s election overhaul executive order | AP News

Democratic state attorneys general and government lawyers argued Friday over the implications of President Donald Trump’s proposed overhaul of U.S. elections and whether the changes could be made in time for next year’s midterm elections, how much it would cost the states and, more broadly, whether the president has a right to do any of it in the first place. The top law enforcement officials from 19 states filed a federal lawsuit after the Republican president signed the executive order in March, saying its provisions would step on states’ power to set their own election rules. During a hearing in U.S. District Court in Boston, lawyers for the states told Judge Denise J. Casper that the changes outlined in the order would be costly and could not be implemented quickly. Updating the voter registration database just in California would cost the state more than $1 million and take up to a year, said the states’ lead attorney, Kevin Quade, a deputy attorney general with the California Department of Justice. Read Article

National: CISA’s executive director is leaving the agency | Natalie Alms/Nextgov/FCW

Bridget Bean, the executive director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, is retiring, the agency confirmed with Nextgov/FCW Tuesday evening. Bean had been serving as the acting director of the government’s cybersecurity agency as of early May when she testified before Congress, although currently, the agency lists its deputy director, Madhu Gottumukkala, as its acting director. Gottumukkala joined CISA in late April. “I am honored to represent CISA’s work supporting our mission to understand, manage and reduce risk to our nation’s cyber and physical infrastructure,” Bean told lawmakers in early May. “The risks we face are complex, geographically dispersed and affect a diverse array of our stakeholders and, ultimately, the American people.” Read Article

Arizona: Maricopa County Recorder sues county supervisors over election powers | Jen Fifield/Votebeat

Maricopa County Recorder Justin Heap is suing the county’s supervisors, claiming they are illegally trying to seize control of the county’s elections. The lawsuit, which Trump-aligned group America First Legal filed Thursday on Heap’s behalf, claims that the supervisors “engaged in an unlawful attempt to seize near-total control over the administration of elections.” It specifically states that Heap wants control over the information technology staff that manages the county’s voter registration system, and that the board has prohibited him from accessing certain areas of the elections building that he needs entry to for early voting purposes. The legal action comes after a months-long feud over control of elections between Heap, a Republican who took office in January, and the Republican-controlled board. The dissension has cast doubt on the officials’ ability to work together to run the elections in the closely scrutinized swing county. Read Article

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