With less than 100 days until the 2026 midterm elections and mail-in ballots soon to be dispatched, the Trump administration is scrambling to rebuild the federal election security infrastructure it dismantled over the past year.
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is reportedly gearing up for a reboot of its election security program; however, state officials and security experts caution that the move comes much too late.
Having pushed out its experienced election security personnel, CISA is now planning to redeploy the few employees left to establish “trusted relationships” with state and local government officials through a security model used during the World Cup. CISA had previously assured a plan within 30 days, but a confidential meeting showed that the manpower available is simply too little to support regular pre-election assistance.
States now have to patch together their independent security measures, contracting private cybersecurity vendors and paying for information-sharing platforms once offered free by the federal government.
Vermont Secretary of State Sarah Copeland Hanzad said: “This was all supported by federal agencies. Now we’ve got to figure out how we can share that, with some duct tape.”
“The time is too late,” said Francisco Aguilar, the Nevada Secretary of State. But experts have warned about the 18-month time window when coordination of intelligence will be lacking. In spite of the situation, some Republican politicians are trying to defend the federal approach. For example, Iowa’s Paul Pate says that states have adjusted using previous knowledge.
But the Nevada Secretary of State Francisco Aguilar complained about the financial burden on taxpayers. On the other hand, more and more Republican congressmen, among others Rep. Andrew Garbarino and Don Bacon, call for additional funding of CISA due to new concerns about AI-powered cyberattacks. Although the House has increased funding for CISA to $2.4 billion, it is still less than during the Biden era.
2026-07-31 21:25:00
