Elections and Voting

Why Republican-led states keep leaving a group that verifies voter rolls

Some cite ‘election integrity’ in their decision to depart.

  • By Matt Vasilogambros, Stateline

Ohio Senate approves DATA Act standardizing elections information statewide

The proposal, known as the DATA Act, grew out of a report commissioned by the Trump-aligned America First Policy Institute.

  • By Nick Evans, Ohio Capital Journal

Voting machines must be test hacked for certification, under proposed bill

The new law would require cybersecurity penetration testing as part of voting systems’ approval process.

  • By Kirsten Errick

Virginia joins Republican states pulling out of multi-state voter list program

Once a founding member of the Electronic Registration Information Center, a nationwide data-sharing initiative to maintain voter roll accuracy, Virginia plans to leave the organization and establish its own maintenance system.

  • By Graham Moomaw, Virginia Mercury

‘Tide is going out’ on election deniers, scrutinized Georgia official says

While conspiracy theories about the 2020 presidential election are waning, they’re still shaping policies about election administration in many parts of the country.

  • By Daniel C. Vock

Are people getting better at avoiding misinformation?

Research shows people may be avoiding unreliable websites more often, but older adults are still targets of malicious misinformation.

  • By Melissa De Witte, Futurity

Virginia election officials change process for removing dead people from voter rolls

A computer coding error in Virginia's Department of Elections voting system failed to flag less obvious death records, leading to deceased people remaining on voter lists. But now registrars can submit obituaries to clean up voter rolls.

  • By Graham Moomaw, Virginia Mercury

Texas legislators pursue fix to costly law that requires nonexistent election equipment

The mandate they approved in 2021 will force counties to replace their election machines at a cost of more than $100 million — and to keep replacing them. One Senate bill to address the problem is moving ahead.

  • By Natalia Contreras, Votebeat

Estonia’s e-governance revolution is hailed as a voting success – so why are some US states pulling in the opposite direction?

Some U.S. states are withdrawing from the Electronic Registration Information Center, a multistate data-sharing effort to improve voter roll accuracy—a move one expert says undermines election security and integrity.

  • By Erik S. Herron, The Conversation

How to build a trustworthy election system

Data frameworks, poll books and audit trails can help election offices maintain election security, integrity and accuracy.

  • By Kaitlyn Levinson

How states integrate GIS and elections

Despite accelerated timelines and lack of GIS-trained staff, states have geocoded voter addresses, assigned voters to newly redrawn precincts and improved transparency for voters and elections officials.

  • By Stephanie Kanowitz

How GIS fortifies election information

Geographic information systems can help election directors speed up voter information verification processes and expand data collection capacities.

  • By Kaitlyn Levinson

Cybersecurity front and center in voting innovation

Ensuring votes have a paper trail is a far better solution than relying on emerging, unproven technologies, election security experts say.

  • By Chris Teale

Virginia election officials find 149K more unprocessed voter changes from DMV

Voter registration data was blocked from being transferred to local election offices due to computer coding issues, officials said.

  • By Graham Moomaw, Virginia Mercury
Featured eBooks

A scientist’s quest for an accessible, unhackable voting machine

After 19 years of work, Juan Gilbert says he has invented the most secure voting machine. Will anyone prove him wrong?

  • By Spenser Mestel, Undark

Malicious emails surged for election workers in 2 battleground states ahead of primaries

Research conducted by cybersecurity firm Trellix found that county election workers in Arizona and Pennsylvania saw an increase in phishing schemes ahead of their primary elections.

  • By Edward Graham

Malicious cyber activity is unlikely to compromise election infrastructure

"Extensive safeguards in place” will make it difficult for bad actors to interfere in upcoming midterm elections, according to a joint public service announcement from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the FBI.

  • By Edward Graham

How simple claims of election interference can be enough to prompt real-world threats

Officials remain on guard against foreign meddling in U.S. elections, as CISA and other agencies work to strengthen partnerships and intelligence sharing efforts with state and local election administrators.

  • By Edward Graham

Election officials have been largely successful in deterring cyber threats, CISA official says

Public-private partnerships and enhanced resource sharing activities have been key to defending against outside threats to voting systems, according to the head of CISA’s National Risk Management Center.

  • By Edward Graham

Getting the word out on election security

Between rigorous testing and certification, risk-limiting audits and assistance from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, state and local elections are vastly more secure – even if the public doesn’t know it.

  • By Susan Miller

CISA hosts election security exercise ahead of 2022 midterm elections

State and local officials, along with representatives from federal agencies and election industry companies, participated in the “Tabletop the Vote” exercise to prepare for a range of hypothetical risks to election operations.

  • By Edward Graham