National: Congress hears pleas for more election funding. Will it respond? | Carrie Levine/Votebeat

On the eve of a government shutdown Tuesday, dozens of local election officials from around the country wandered the labyrinth of office buildings adjacent to the U.S. Capitol, lobbying members of Congress for more federal funding of elections. In some ways, the local election officials were among the only people in the Capitol complex who didn’t really have to worry about the pending shutdown: The $15 million in election security grants that Congress appropriated for the states this year has already been doled out. But that amount helps explain why they were on Capitol Hill. States and local jurisdictions are primarily responsible for running elections, and bear most of the costs. But elections have become increasingly complex and expensive, because of changes to state laws and cybersecurity concerns, and they’re under unprecedented scrutiny, from ordinary voters right up to the president. Read Article

National: Voting groups ask court for immediate halt to Trump admin’s SAVE database overhaul | Derek B. Johnson/CyberScoop

Voting rights groups are asking a court to block an ongoing Trump administration effort to merge disparate federal and state voter data into a massive citizenship and voter fraud database. Last week, the League of Women Voters, the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) and five individuals sued the federal government in D.C. District Court, saying it was ignoring decades of federal privacy law to create enormous “national data banks” of personal information on Americans. On Tuesday, the coalition, represented by Democracy Forward Foundation, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), and Fair Elections Center, asked the court for an emergency injunction to halt the Trump administration’s efforts to transform the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements into an immense technological tool to track potential noncitizens registered to vote. Until this year, SAVE was an incomplete and limited federal database meant to track immigrants seeking federal benefits. Read Article

National: Supreme court appears open to Republican challenge over Illinois mail-in ballot law | George Chidi/The Guardian

The US supreme court appeared sympathetic on Wednesday to a challenge brought by a Republican congressman to an Illinois law governing how the state counts mail-in absentee ballots received after election day. The lawsuit challenging Illinois’ election law from Mike Bost, a Republican representative from Illinois, is viewed by Trump-aligned conservatives as an avenue to continue attacks on mail-in voting. Bost filed the suit to argue that the Illinois law allowing ballots to be counted up to two weeks after election day if they are postmarked by the deadline unconstitutionally allows an extension of the election period. Arguments center on whether a federal candidate has standing to challenge the law, not whether the practice itself is constitutionally valid. Justices asked questions about whether they should view a political candidate as an “object” of the law – an entity for whom a regulation bears a direct consequence, and whether the odds of mail-in ballots tipping an election had bearing on whether a candidate had a right to challenge the law. Read Article

National: Smartmatic scores win against Fox in election machine defamation case  | Nina Pullano/Courthouse News Service

A New York judge said court documents from a Murdoch family trust dispute are fair game for discovery in election technology company Smartmatic’s defamation case against Fox News. Ruling from the bench at a two-hour hearing on a slate of motions from both parties, Judge David Cohen tossed a judicial hearing officer’s finding that the material from court proceedings in Nevada was not relevant to Smartmatic’s case. Smartmatic sued Fox Corporation and its right-wing news network in early 2021 over broadcasts that falsely claimed the company interfered in the 2020 election. Read Article

National: Does Donald Trump really believe he can be president again? | obin Abcarian/Los Angeles Times

On Tuesday, in the middle of a meeting between President Trump and Democratic leaders over the impending government shutdown, red “Trump 2028” baseball caps suddenly appeared on the Resolute Desk. “It was the strangest thing ever,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told CNN. Not really. Trump teasing a third term is getting to be, well, old hat at this point. Last March, he told Kristen Welker, host of NBC’s “Meet the Press,” that he would not rule out pursuing an unconstitutional third White House stint. But is he serious? “Some of this is trolling,” said Stanford law professor Pamela Karlan. “But the man has the largest ego of any person out there and he will do whatever it takes to be the center of attention.” Read Article

California Governor Newsom warns of possible Trump interference in California election | Sophia Bollag, Alexei Koseff/San Francisco Chronicle

As Election Day approaches, Gov. Gavin Newsom is raising concerns that President Donald Trump may try to interfere in California’s special election to redraw congressional districts. In an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle editorial board, Newsom pointed to Trump’s federalization of National Guard troops, the government shutdown and the president’s past criticisms of mail voting. Trump first federalized thousands of California National Guard troops in June over Newsom’s objections and deployed them to Los Angeles to quell protests over his mass deportation campaign. On Aug. 15, the same day Democrats released proposed new congressional maps, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth sent Newsom and the head of the California National Guard a letter saying most soldiers would be released from the L.A. mission but that 300 would remain under federal control through Nov. 4. Read Article

Georgia: Judge extends deadline for naming new prosecutor in election interference case | Olivia Rubin/ABC News

A judge on Wednesday extended the deadline for a replacement to be named in place of District Attorney Fani Willis in the Georgia election interference case against President Donald Trump and others. Fulton County Judge Scott McAfee extended the deadline to Nov. 14, after the group tasked with finding the replacement said they needed additional time, in part due to the case’s complexity. McAfee’s original order gave the Prosecuting Attorneys Council of Georgia just 14 days to appoint a replacement. Read Article

Maine: Amid ongoing investigation into found ballots, Secretary of State Bellows underscores election security | AnnMarie Hilton/Maine Morning Star

Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows is confident law enforcement will ultimately uncover why 250 official ballots were allegedly delivered to a Newburgh home in an Amazon package. She also said the incident underscored that Maine’s processes work and that the state’s elections are safe and secure. “Even if the most enterprising criminal were able to fabricate Maine ballots or Maine absentee ballot envelopes or if that chain of custody were broken, our elections would remain free, safe and secure because of the checks and balances in absentee voting itself,” Bellows said at a news conference at the State House Monday afternoon. Monday also marked the first day of in-person absentee voting throughout the state for the November election. In order to vote absentee, lawfully registered Maine voters must specifically request a ballot, Bellows explained. Those requests are tracked in the central voter registration system. Additionally, the Secretary of State’s office uploads public files in the lead up to the election that list absentee ballot requests. Read Article

Michigan: Prosecutors begin laying out evidence in high-profile tabulator cases | Craig Mauger/The Detroit News

A voting machine company determined tabulators that were obtained and inspected by supporters of President Donald Trump after Michigan’s 2020 election had been “tampered” with and should not be reused, an executive with the company testified in court Thursday. Guy Riner, vice president of account management for Election Systems & Software, was the first witness presented by prosecutors on the opening day of preliminary examinations for Matt DePerno, the 2022 GOP nominee for attorney general, and Daire Rendon, a Republican former state representative from Lake City. DePerno and Rendon — two vocal purveyors of unproven claims of fraud in Trump’s 2020 loss to Democrat Joe Biden — are facing felony charges for allegedly participating in a conspiracy to gain unauthorized access to five voting machines that were transported to Oakland County for analysis by a group of so-called cybersecurity experts. Read Article

Nebraska secretary of state wants to hand over voter data to feds, but says lawsuit blocks it | Juan Salinas II/Nebraska Examiner

Nebraska Secretary of State Bob Evnen last week weighed in on the latest request from the U.S. Department of Justice for the state’s voter registration data — showing a willingness to fulfill the request. Federal officials have asked states for detailed information from their voter rolls, including names, dates of birth, driver’s license numbers and the last four digits of voters’ Social Security numbers, saying they want the information to ensure accurate voter registrations. Democratic-led states and some led by Republicans have declined or are pushing back against federal efforts to gather the data over state laws protecting data and privacy concerns. Critics have questioned the safety and potential national security risks of letting any administration consolidate such voter data in one place. Read Article

Pennsylvania counties erroneously issue dozens of duplicate ballots | Carter Walker/Votebeat

A handful of Pennsylvania counties mistakenly issued duplicate mail ballots to a few of their voters in recent weeks. Why that happened is unclear — state and county officials gave different explanations — but they cautioned that the error would have not resulted in anyone being able to have their vote counted twice. State and county officials said they have found that a total of 68 potential duplicate mail ballots were mistakenly issued. In some of these cases, they said, the ballots may not have reached voters, as the mistake may have been caught after a second ballot label was generated but before a duplicate ballot was actually mailed to the voter. Read Article

Pennsylvania: Luzerne County, state disagree on cause of ballot release error | Michael P. Buffer/The Citizens’ Voice

Luzerne County and the Pennsylvania Department of State offered different assessments of what caused the release of two mail ballots to 31 voters for the Nov. 4 general election. According to a statement from the Department of State, Luzerne County “inadvertently and incorrectly generated duplicate mailing labels.” Luzerne County Director of Elections Emily Cook noted “an apparent error with the state’s SURE system” in a news release on Tuesday that disclosed the inadvertent and “isolated” release of two mail ballots to 31 voters. The Statewide Uniform Registry of Electors (SURE) system serves as the database for the state’s 67 counties to ensure the accuracy and integrity of voter registration rolls. It allows counties to update voters’ registration information statewide, eliminate verified duplicates and deceased voters from the rolls and transfer records electronically between counties. Read Article

South Carolina: Judge Diane Goodstein’s home burns to ground after ruling against Trump | Alia Shoaib/Newsweek

The home of a South Carolina judge was destroyed after it went up in flames on Saturday. A fire engulfed the home of Judge Diane Goodstein, who serves on the state Circuit Court, and led to three people being hospitalized with injuries, including her husband, according to a report from The Post and Courier. The fire comes weeks after Goodstein issued a ruling against the Trump administration. Authorities have not yet determined the cause of the blaze, and there is currently no evidence to suggest it was an act of arson. The incident quickly sparked online conversation hostility toward members of the judiciary who rule against Trump and his allies. Read Article

Texas: Dallas County GOP’s push to hand-count 2026 ballots could upend voting for Democrats | Natalia Contreras/The Texas Tribune

Republicans in Dallas County, one of Texas’ largest voting jurisdictions, say they want to count ballots in their coming March primary by hand, if they can afford to, a change that could delay the reporting of election results and have far-reaching consequences for all of the county’s 1.5 million voters. The decision could force Dallas Democrats, as well as Republicans, to return to casting ballots at their assigned local precincts, rather than countywide vote centers, which would require finding scores of additional polling locations and hundreds more workers. It could also vastly increase the cost of holding both primaries, an increase that the parties would have to be prepared to cover on their own. Cost is one reason why Dallas County Republicans decided in 2023 against hand-counting ballots. At the time, Jennifer Stoddard Hajdu, then the county GOP chair, estimated the party would need more than $1 million to hand-count the more than 70,000 ballots cast in the 2024 primary. Read Article

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

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