Virginia: Fairfax Democrats’ online primary crashes, forcing voting to extend after system failure | Princess Harrell/WJLA

What was supposed to be a test of modern voting technology turned into a weekend of frustration for some Fairfax County voters. The Fairfax County Democratic Committee’s first all-digital primary election experienced a major technical failure that temporarily shut down the online voting system and forced organizers to extend voting into Sunday. The three-day primary, held to select the Democratic nominee for the Braddock District seat on the Board of Supervisors, used the platform Election Buddy and introduced ranked-choice voting for the first time. There were no paper ballots. Read Article

Washington: USPS rule changes may complicate mail-in voting, risking late ballots in November election | Joel Moreno/KOMO

Ballots go out starting next week for the November general election but people who mail them back through the United States Postal Service (USPS) could risk not having their votes counted. It all has to do with a rule change regarding postmarking and the point at which voters mail their ballots back. “We encourage all voters to return their ballot as early as possible but that is especially true if you plan to return your ballot by mail,” said Halei Watkins, the communications manager for King County Elections. The rule change involves added language around how the USPS postmarks mail. The postmark will now confirm the Postal Service’s possession of the letter or parcel on the date that is printed, but the postmark date “does not inherently or necessarily align with the date on which the Postal Service first accepted possession of a mail piece,” according to a recent news release. Read Article

Wisconsin Elections Commission challenges order on citizenship verification | Alexander Shur/Votebeat

Wisconsin state agencies on Monday asked a Waukesha County Circuit Court judge to stay his ruling requiring election officials to verify the citizenship of existing voters and those seeking to register. The Wisconsin Department of Justice filed the motion on behalf of the Wisconsin Elections Commission, the Department of Transportation, and related state officials. In it, the respondents called Judge Michael Maxwell’s Friday ruling “impermissively vague,” because the order bars election officials from processing new registrations without “verification” of applicants’ citizenship but doesn’t define the verification process. The filing says that any new citizenship verification process for online voter registration would require months of testing and development, and that disabling the electronic registration system in the meantime would conflict with state law requiring that system to exist. Read Article

America’s underfunded elections: a national security risk we can’t ignore | Adam Hinds/CommonWealth Beacon

Imagine the US government declared part of our critical national security infrastructure at risk — then offered barely $1 million per state last year to protect it. That’s not a hypothetical. That’s the reality of how we fund elections in America. Our elections are the backbone of our democracy. They’ve been formally designated as critical infrastructure, alongside our power grid and water supply. Yet we treat them as an afterthought in our budgets. The system we rely on to uphold the will of the people — to choose presidents, governors, mayors — operates on shoestring funding, especially at the local level where the work of democracy actually happens. American elections are intentionally decentralized, with local governments playing the central role. This design keeps elections close to voters and makes large-scale interference harder. But decentralized doesn’t need to mean underfunded. We can have locally run elections and provide the consistent, predictable funding needed to ensure they are free, fair, and secure. Read Article

National: CISA confirms it’s ending MS-ISAC support | Colin Wood/StateScoop

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency on Monday announced that its cooperative agreement with the Center for Internet Security, the Upstate New York nonprofit that runs the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center, will conclude Tuesday. The federal cybersecurity agency said that the end of the agreement, which had been planned for the end of the fiscal year at the close of the month Tuesday, marks a transition to “a new model” of supporting state and local government agencies in protecting their systems against digital threats. “CISA is supporting our SLTT partners with access to grant funding, no-cost tools, and cybersecurity expertise to be resilient and lead at the local level,” CISA’s announcement reads. Read Article

National: GOP push to restrict overseas and military voting continues | Hansi Lo Wang/NPR

For many American citizens living abroad, making sure their ballots are returned correctly and on time hundreds or thousands of miles away, back in the United States, can be tough. But with the 2026 midterm election approaching, U.S. expatriates and their advocates say voting faces more uncertainty than usual, as Republican officials continue a push for more restrictions on overseas voters, including U.S. military members stationed abroad. Some 2.8 million U.S. adult citizens living abroad were eligible to vote in 2022, the latest year for federal estimates. And with turnout for overseas voters long trailing that of domestic voters (3.4% compared to 62.5% in 2022), voting rights advocates fear GOP-led lawsuits and proposals could drive down participation even further. Read Article

National: In Dangerous Attack on Left-Leaning Nonprofits, Trump Orders Government to Go After ‘Domestic Terrorism Networks’  | Jacob Knutson/Democracy Docket

President Donald Trump signed a memorandum Thursday directing the federal government to investigate and dismantle “domestic terrorism networks.” The move appears targeted at left-leaning progressive nonprofit groups, which Trump days ago vowed to dismantle, falsely claiming they fund and support political violence and terrorism in the U.S. The memo directs the FBI’s National Joint Terrorism Task Force, the Department of Justice, the Department of the Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to go after “anti-fascist” movements in the U.S. Read Article

National: Lawsuit seeks to block Trump’s personal data merging | Jude Joffe-Block/NPR

The Trump administration’s unprecedented efforts to aggregate the personal data of Americans are facing a new legal challenge. A class action federal lawsuit filed Tuesday argues the Trump administration’s actions that aggregated personal data on hundreds of millions of Americans from various federal agencies violated federal privacy laws and the U.S. Constitution, put sensitive data at risk of security breaches, and could lead to the disenfranchisement of eligible voters. The suit argues that the Department of Homeland Security, along with the Department of Government Efficiency team, is “working rapidly to create precisely the type of ‘national data banks’ the American people and Congress have consistently resisted, and the Privacy Act was designed to prevent.” –read Article

National: MyPillow founder Mike Lindell defamed Smartmatic, federal judge rules | Steve Karnowski/Associated Press

MyPillow founder Mike Lindell, an ally of President Trump, defamed the election technology company Smartmatic with false statements that its voting machines helped rig the 2020 presidential election, a federal judge in Minnesota ruled last week. But U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Bryan deferred until future proceedings the question of whether Lindell — one of the country’s most prominent propagators of false claims that the 2020 election was a fraud — acted with the “actual malice” that Smartmatic still needs to prove to collect any damages. The judge said there are “genuine fact disputes” as to whether Lindell’s statements were made “with knowledge that they were false or made with reckless disregard to their falsity.” He noted that the defense says Lindell has an “unwavering belief” that his statements were truthful. Read Article

National: Rudy Giuliani and Dominion settle $1.3bn defamation suit over election lies | Rudy Giuliani | Richard Luscombe/The Guardian

Rudy Giuliani and Dominion settle $1.3bn defamation suit over election lies. Rudy Giuliani, the former New York mayor and personal lawyer to Donald Trump, has settled a long-running defamation lawsuit with Dominion Voting Systems over lies he told about the result of the 2020 presidential election. Details of the settlement, revealed in federal court in Washington DC in a filing late on Friday, are confidential. The Colorado-based voting machine manufacturer sued Giuliani for $1.3bn in 2021, citing more than 50 instances in which he made false or defamatory statements insisting the election was rigged against Trump, with the integrity of Dominion’s machinery at the heart of the conspiracy theory. Representatives for Giuliani and Dominion confirmed the resolution on Saturday but declined further comment when approached by CBS News. “The parties have agreed to a confidential settlement to this matter,” a Dominion spokesperson said in a short statement. Read Article

National: How House Republicans plan to rewrite history of Jan. 6 | Hailey Fuchs and Kyle Cheney/Politico

A new House panel will re-investigate the Jan. 6 Capitol attack with an eye toward recasting the narrative about the events in Washington that day. It’s the latest sign that the deadly riot remains a wound on Congress that might never fully heal amid ferocious partisan sparring. Retribution, not reconciliation, appears to be the prime motivation behind the new probe, with the Republicans behind it still bitter over the work of the panel’s previous iteration, which was largely led by Democrats and concluded President Donald Trump was singularly to blame for the violence inflicted by his supporters. One GOP member of the new panel, Louisiana Rep. Clay Higgins, did not rule out questioning members of the prior committee. Read Article

Arizona Election rulebook submitted for approval despite threatened GOP lawsuit | Jerod MacDonald-Evoy/Arizona Mirror

The Election Procedures Manual, which must be revised and approved every two years, has undergone changes after previous Republican lawsuits challenged provisions in it. Some of those changes included deleted examples of what constitutes voter intimidation and deleting a paragraph saying that the secretary of state could finalize the state’s election results without a particular county’s results if the officials missed the state deadline. “Every voter, in every corner of Arizona, should have the same fair and secure election process,” Fontes said in a statement Wednesday about the submission. “The EPM makes that possible.” The manual also aims to try to alleviate ballot printing errors that have plagued election officials in recent years. Both Hobbs and Mayes must sign off on the EPM by December for it to take effect. Read Article

Colorado attorney general says Tina Peters’ First Amendment appeals claims are wrong | Bente Birkeland/Colorado Public Radio

The Colorado Attorney General’s office has formally responded to claims from former Republican Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters that the state court is trying to keep her from speaking out on election security, in violation of her First Amendment rights, and has unjustly denied her bond while she appeals her conviction on charges related to handling election equipment. Peters is currently incarcerated at the La Vista Correctional Facility, a medium-security facility for women located in Pueblo. In 2024, a state judge in Grand Junction sentenced Peters to nine years in prison when she was found guilty of several felony charges stemming from her efforts to help a man gain unauthorized access to Mesa County’s Dominion voting machines in 2021. Read Article

Georgia: A squabbling State Election Board struggles after State Supreme Court ruling | Mark Niesse/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

When it’s not busy bickering, the State Election Board keeps trying to insert itself into Georgia’s voting process even after the state Supreme Court reduced its power this spring. The board’s two-day meeting last week was marked by arguments over manhood, attempts to subpoena ballots from the 2020 election and efforts to end no-excuse absentee voting. The Republican-controlled board also debated a rule that would give itself the power to eliminate Georgia’s voting touchscreens, fought over the chair’s authority, and proposed that lawmakers shorten voting deadlines for military and overseas voters. All these squabbles came after the Georgia Supreme Court ruled that the board lacks the ability to create new election rules — such as statewide hand ballot counts and inquiries before certifying results — that go further than state laws. The high court said only legislators elected by the people can make those kinds of laws. Read Article

Idaho’s quiet success story is absentee voting is | Becky Funk/Idaho Capital Sun

Absentee voting has quietly served Idaho for decades. It gives seniors, rural residents, working families, and military members a trusted way to cast their ballots. For many, it’s not just convenient but essential. And for our active-duty service members in the U.S. and abroad, absentee voting isn’t simply a matter of convenience it is the only way their voices can be heard. A soldier serving away from home should never lose the right to vote for the leaders who shape the policies that affect their service. All veterans should always have a voice in the very democracy they helped defend. Absentee voting ensures that the men and women who have given so much for our country continue to have a say in its future. Absentee voting isn’t mail-in voting. One common misunderstanding is confusing absentee voting with universal mail-in voting. They are not the same. Read Article

Michigan proposal could force school board candidates into partisan primary | Hayley Harding/Votebeat

A proposed bill from House Republicans would make Michigan’s school board candidates declare a party affiliation, a change that’s drawing criticism from local election officials and school board members. Under state law, school board positions are explicitly nonpartisan. House Bill 4588, introduced by Rep. Jason Woolford, would tweak the law to require candidates for local school boards to declare a party affiliation. That requirement could force the races to have primary elections in August, in addition to the November general election when school board seats are typically voted on, officials said. Read Article

Pennsylvania Supreme Court rule that soters must be told if mail ballot is rejected, | Carter Walker/Votebeat

Voters must be notified if election officials are going to reject their mail ballots because of an error such as an incorrect date or missing signature on the return envelope, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled Friday. In a 4-3 decision, the court ruled that Washington County erred in not notifying 2024 presidential primary voters that their mail ballots would be rejected, leaving them unaware their votes would go uncounted. “We must interpret the Election Code and its statutory procedures in a way that ‘favors the fundamental right to vote and enfranchises, rather than disenfranchises, the electorate,’ Justice Kevin Dougherty said, writing for the majority. “Reading the Code as allowing county boards to withhold readily available information from voters does not serve that goal.” V–read Article

South Carolina: Judge sides with release of voter data despite privacy argument | Nick Reynolds/Post and Courier

A state judge has rejected the effort to prevent the S.C. Election Commission from sharing its database of 3.3 million voters’ sensitive information with the U.S. Department of Justice. In a 12-page decision Oct. 1, Circuit Judge Daniel Coble said he believed the federal government’s right to the information took precedent. Additionally, he said he believed plaintiff Anne Crook failed to prove she will suffer an irreparable harm from the release of the data which she said would run afoul of her state-sanctioned right to privacy. While Crook’s attorneys argued the federal government had a poor track record in protecting voters’ information, Coble said they failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that South Carolinians’ information would not be protected. Read Article

Wisconsin lawyer Michael Gableman faces suspension over 2020 election probe | Tom Kertscher/Wisconsin Watch

A formal recommendation of punishment for Michael Gableman, whose career rise and fall set him apart in Wisconsin legal and political history, signals the end of a case that has been humiliating for the former state Supreme Court justice and the court itself. In a report issued Friday, a referee in a state Office of Lawyer Regulation case against Gableman found that Gableman committed 10 lawyer misconduct violations in his probe of the 2020 presidential election in Wisconsin. The partisan probe was authorized at the behest of then-citizen Donald Trump, who lost that election to Joe Biden. The referee, Milwaukee attorney James Winiarski, recommended that the state Supreme Court suspend Gableman’s law license for three years. Read Article

Wyoming: Weston County election snafu renews calls for hand counting election results | Maggie MullenWyoFile

A miscount in Weston County’s 2024 general election and the ensuing fallout over the last year have refueled calls for banning electronic election equipment in Wyoming. The state already relies on paper ballots in all but one county, but such a move would make Wyoming the only state in the country to count all its ballots by hand. “I’m so thankful that I work with legislators that are serious about making sure that we get good answers for what happened, and we don’t blow this off,” Speaker of the House Chip Neiman, R-Hulett, told the Wyoming Legislature’s Weston County Clerk 2024 General Election Subcommittee as it met Monday in Casper. Reade Article

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