National: GOP laws aimed at very rare noncitizen voting could hit eligible voters | Patrick Marley and Yvonne Wingett Sanchez/The Washington Post

Republicans in Congress and state legislatures are charging forward with plans to require Americans to prove they are citizens as they say they seek to crack down on noncitizen voting — an almost nonexistent problem. Voting by noncitizens is already illegal in all state and federal elections, and requiring voters to provide proof of citizenship could make it harder for millions of legitimate voters to cast ballots. Driver’s licenses and other state IDs can be used only for people who provided proof of citizenship to get those IDs, so some people will need to track down other documents. Many people do not have ready access to birth certificates or passports, including women who changed their names when they got married, rural residents who live far from government offices where birth records are kept, and people who lost documents in fires or floods. Read Article

National: With firings and lax enforcement, Trump moving to dismantle government’s public integrity guardrails | Eric Tucker, Michelle L. Price and Zeke Miller/Associated Press

In the first three weeks of his administration, President Donald Trump has moved with brazen haste to dismantle the federal government’s public integrity guardrails that he frequently tested during his first term but now seems intent on removing entirely. In a span of hours on Monday, word came that he had forced out leaders of offices responsible for government ethics and whistleblower complaints. And in a boon to corporations, he ordered a pause to enforcement of a decades-old law that prohibits American companies from bribing foreign governments to win business. All of that came on top of the earlier late-night purge of more than a dozen inspectors general who are tasked with rooting out waste, fraud and abuse at government agencies. It’s all being done with a stop-me-if-you-dare defiance by a president who the first time around felt hemmed in by watchdogs, lawyers and judges tasked with affirming good government and fair play. Now, he seems determined to break those constraints once and for all in a historically unprecedented flex of executive power. Read Article

National: Voting Rights Claims Plunge in Wake of Supreme Court Decision | Diana Dombrowski, Alex Ebert, and Kimberly Robinson/Bloomberg Law

After the Supreme Court weakened a key piece of the Voting Rights Act, voting discrimination cases are not just harder to bring to court but dramatically so, according to a Bloomberg Law analysis and experts who examined the findings. Section 2 of the act, which prohibits racial discrimination in voting practices, was nearly 60% less likely to be cited following the court’s ruling in Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee. The decision changed how courts consider whether a law or practice limits someone’s right to vote based on race. That finding aligns with voting rights groups and some attorneys’ concerns: Brnovich debilitated the most direct avenue to challenge voting discrimination and will have a lasting impact on voting rights. Read Article

Opinion: The New Authoritarianism – This isn’t single-party rule, but it’s not democracy either. | Steven Levitsky/The Atlantic

With the leader of a failed coup back in the White House and pursuing an unprecedented assault on the constitutional order, many Americans are starting to wrap their mind around what authoritarianism could look like in America. If they have a hard time imagining something like the single-party or military regimes of the Soviet Union or Nazi Germany, or more modern regimes like those in China or Russia, that is with good reason. A full-scale dictatorship in which elections are meaningless and regime opponents are locked up, exiled, or killed remains highly unlikely in America. But that doesn’t mean the country won’t experience authoritarianism in some form. Read Article

Arizona proposal to speed up election results faces Hobbs veto threat | Jen Fifield/Votebeat

Republican lawmakers in Arizona pledged after the November election to find a way to speed up election results, but it appears unlikely this year that they’ll send Gov. Katie Hobbs a bill that she would actually sign. The most likely alternative: Voters will see a related question on their ballot in 2026. Republicans have been moving ahead on the conventional legislative route. The Arizona House voted Tuesday to advance a bill, HB2703, that would rein in one major cause of vote-counting delays: the ability of voters to drop off their mail ballot at polling places on Election Day. That’s how nearly 1 in 10 Arizona voters cast their ballots last November, which meant election officials had to spend days afterward checking voter signatures on hundreds of thousands of ballot envelopes before they could be counted. The bill is likely to move to the Senate soon and the Senate president has introduced an identical bill, signaling this is likely to reach Hobbs’ desk soon. Read Article

Georgia: Removing QR codes from ballots could cost taxpayers $66 million | Mark Niesse/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Georgia lawmakers are deciding whether to spend as much as $66 million to remove computer QR codes from ballots or abandon the idea in favor of a $15 million software update. Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger asked a Senate budget committee Wednesday to consider the less expensive option for the state’s 6-year-old voting equipment, manufactured by Dominion Voting Systems. “This change would help ensure continued voter confidence without drastically changing the voting system,” Raffensperger said. “There had been some reports that said if we could update the software, that any potential vulnerabilities could then be sealed.” Read Article

Indiana: VR Systems’ exit from state leaves voting center plans up in the air | Dave Stafford/Brown County Democrat

Brown County’s plans to adopt voting centers for the 2026 election appears to be in jeopardy as one of the county’s suppliers of election equipment has given notice that it intends to cease doing business in Indiana. County officials said the supplier of electronic poll books for elections in Brown County and several other counties in the state, VR Systems, has informed them that they are discontinuing service in Indiana because it was no longer profitable. The Brown County Election Board discussed the situation Tuesday, and chairman Mark Williams said he plans to brief the Brown County Council at their meeting on Feb. 17. “We had a knuckleball thrown at us,” Williams said. Read Article

North Carolina: Like Trump, Jefferson Griffin May Be One Vote Away From Overturning a State’s Election Result | Billy Corriher/Democracy Docket

North Carolina’s highest court recently rejected Judge Jefferson Griffin’s request to bypass the lower courts and declare him the winner of last year’s state Supreme Court election, even though Democratic incumbent Justice Allison Riggs received 734 more votes. But three of the seven justices signed on to a misleading concurring opinion implying — with zero evidence — that election fraud impacted the outcome. Like President Donald Trump in 2020, Griffin is seeking to overturn the results of an election that he lost. Trump’s election denialism was rejected by courts across the country — but in Wisconsin, Trump lost his baseless appeal to the state Supreme Court by just one vote. Judge Brian Hagedorn, a Republican appointee, voted with the liberals and authored a narrow 4-3 ruling to reject the conspiracy theories that formed the basis of Trump’s appeal. Read Article

Pennsylvania: It’s not illegal — and not uncommon – for voters to be registered in two states | Carter Walker/Votebeat

A conservative activist is claiming that Pennsylvania has “tens of thousands” of voters improperly registered, but state officials say he’s misrepresenting a normal, legal part of the voter registration system. The commonwealth regularly cleans its voter rolls to eliminate names of people who have moved out of the state or otherwise become ineligible. This process isn’t immediate. It can take several years, as counties are required to send voters notices to make sure they’re not improperly disenfranchised. All of this is regulated by federal and state law. But that hasn’t stopped Scott Presler from using these routine lags to suggest that something is wrong with voter registrations, Democratic ones in particular. Read Article

South Dakota: Bill banning tabulator machines fails in Senate panel | Gracie Terrall/KELO

South Dakota will still continue to use tabulator machines for election counting. In a 5-4 vote, the Senate State Affairs Committee deferred Senate Bill 217 to the 41st Day, effectively killing it. If passed, the bill would have prohibited all South Dakota counties from using automatic tabulator machines or electronic ballot marking systems when counting ballots during an election. The bill would have also suspended post election audits for counties. Read Article

Virginia: Bill would protect overseas service members from voter roll removal | Dean Mirshahi/VPM

The Virginia House of Delegates passed a bill that would keep state election officials from removing active-duty military members serving overseas from voter rolls. The proposal, introduced by Del. Amy Laufer (D–Charlottesville), would allow general registrars to only cancel voter registrations through a written request from the voter or data from an approved source. Laufer told a House subcommittee on Jan. 27 that the bill aims to protect military families overseas and other potential “vulnerable” voters from being improperly removed from the rolls. Read Article

Washington: Secretaries of State past and present question federal criticism of election integrity efforts: ‘The threats continue’ | Mitchell Roland/The Spokane Spokesman-Review

Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs has written to the state’s congressional delegation expressing concerns about “federal support and efforts to counter election disinformation” state officials across the country can expect going forward. Hobbs’ letter, which he sent to members of Congress Wednesday, comes after the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency reportedly placed 17 election officials on leave last week pending review. According to Hobbs, the election security advisor for Alaska, Idaho, Oregon and Washington was among those placed on leave. “This abrupt move has left state and local election officials wondering: Who can we depend on to support election security now? Especially in light of the growing threats from cybercriminals and nation-state actors,” Hobbs said Wednesday. Read Article

Wisconsin’s top election official heads off Republican attempt to oust her | Alexander Shur/Votebeat

What happened? The Wisconsin Supreme Court unanimously ruled last week that the state’s chief election official, Meagan Wolfe, can stay in her job even though her term has expired, heading off a yearslong effort by some Republicans to oust her. The court found that although Wolfe’s term expired in 2023, the Wisconsin Elections Commission had no duty to reappoint or replace her, because her position isn’t vacant. What’s the dispute? Wolfe became the Wisconsin Elections Commission’s administrator in 2018 after working for the agency and its predecessor in other roles, and has been a holdover appointee since the summer of 2023. She is considered one of the most respected — and scrutinized — election officials nationwide, but she became a Republican target after President Donald Trump lost Wisconsin in the 2020 election and took heat for the commission’s decisions in administering that election. Read Article

Wyoming: Bill requiring voters to use a pen-and-paper ballot passes House | Hannah Shields/Wyoming Tribune Eagle

Laramie County voters have used touch-screen voting machines in their local elections for years, but a bill passed by the Wyoming House of Representatives on Friday would require voters to use a paper ballot. House 245, “Pen and paper ballots,” requires all county clerks to set the default voting method to paper ballots, with an exception provided to voters who have a disability. Laramie County is the only one of Wyoming’s 23 counties to use touch-screen voting machines. Rep. Christopher Knapp, R-Gillette, the sponsor of the bill, said the state needs to have uniform election laws across all 23 counties. Secretary of State Chuck Gray previously expressed support for Knapp’s bill during a House Appropriations Committee meeting, saying he found Laramie County’s elections “unsatisfying.” Read Article

National: State and local governments should prepare for changes to CISA, cyber experts say | Sophia Fox-Sowell/StateScoop

Cybersecurity experts told StateScoop that state and local governments should brace themselves for changes to the Cybersecurity Infrastructure and Security Agency under Kristi Noem, former governor of South Dakota, who was sworn in last weekend as the 8th secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. Pamela Smith, CEO of Verified Voting, an organization that studies how technology impacts the administration of U.S. elections, said the loss of verified information monitoring may impact election security, which is managed by local government agencies. “CISA has a coordinating function. Their ability to monitor for mis- and disinformation campaigns that may be coming from outside the country, is probably greater than other agencies,” Smith told StateScoop in a recent interview. “It puts more pressure on the entities that have to deal with this, the election officials themselves, to monitor and quickly provide information.” Read Article

National: Attorney General Bondi ends FBI effort to combat foreign influence in U.S. politics | Ken Dilanian/NBC

In a little-noticed directive on her first day in office, Attorney General Pam Bondi ordered a halt to a years-old federal law enforcement effort to combat secret influence campaigns by China, Russia and other adversaries that try to curry favor and sow chaos in American politics. Buried on the fourth page of one of 14 policy memos Bondi issued Wednesday, the order disbands the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force and pares back enforcement of the Foreign Agents Registration Act, despite years of warnings by U.S. intelligence agencies that foreign malign influence operations involving disinformation were a growing and dangerous threat. Read Article

National: Federal Election Commission Chair Says Trump Has Moved to Fire Her | Chris Cameron/The New York Times

Ellen L. Weintraub, the chairwoman of the Federal Election Commission, said on Thursday that President Trump had moved to fire her. Ms. Weintraub, who has served as a Democratic commissioner on the bipartisan panel since 2002, posted a short letter signed by Mr. Trump on social media that said she was “hereby removed” from the commission effective immediately. She said in an interview that she did not see the president’s move as legally valid, and that she was considering her options on how to respond. “There’s a perfectly legal way for him to replace me,” Ms. Weintraub said on Thursday evening. “But just flat-out firing me, that is not it.” Read Article

National: Alarmed by Chinese hacks, Republicans mute attacks on cybersecurity agency | Joseph Menn/The Washington Post

President Donald Trump named the first director of the new Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency in 2018 and fired him two years later, after he declared that Trump’s loss in the 2020 election wasn’t down to fraud. Ever since, Republicans have targeted the top U.S. cyberdefense agency for downgrades or deep cuts. In November, Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, who now leads the Senate committee overseeing CISA, even mused about killing it altogether. But with Trump back in office, the direst fates appear off the table. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem, who oversees the agency, and other Republicans now say they see an essential mission in CISA protecting critical infrastructure from mounting ransomware and nation-state hacking attacks, especially those from the Chinese military and spies. Read Article

National: DOJ disbands foreign influence task force, limits scope of FARA prosecutions  | Derek B. Johnson/CyberScoop

One of the first acts taken by Pam Bondi after being sworn in as attorney general was to disband an FBI task force that countered the influence of adversarial foreign governments on American politics. In a memo issued Wednesday, Bondi wrote that the Department of Justice would be shifting resources in its National Security Division, including disbanding the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force, “to free resources to address more pressing priorities, and end risks of further weaponization and abuses of prosecutorial discretion.” Bondi’s memo also states that the Department of Justice will now only refer criminal charges under the Foreign Agents Registration Act if they “alleged conduct similar to more traditional espionage by foreign government actors.” Read Article

National: Key Trump Cabinet members refuse to acknowledge Trump lost in 2020 | Patrick Marley and Colby Itkowitz/The Washington Post

Two of President Donald Trump’s top law enforcement nominees have been taking a new tack when talking about the 2020 presidential election: They’re not claiming Trump won that year, but they’re not saying he lost, either. Joe Biden was “duly sworn in” after the 2020 election, Trump’s nominee for attorney general, Pam Bondi, told senators at her confirmation hearing. “President Joe Biden’s election was certified, he was sworn in, and he served as the president of the United States,” Kash Patel, who has been tapped to lead the FBI, said at his confirmation hearing. Neither would say that Biden defeated Trump, despite dozens of court rulings that upheld the results. Read Article

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