An MRI machine in Lee County Community Hospital in Southwest Virginia, a once-shuttered facility that Ballad Health reopened in 2021. (Photo by Charlotte Rene Woods/Virginia Mercury)
A new report by Virginia’s Joint Commission on Health Care found 13 of Virginia’s 36 rural hospitals are at distant or immediate risk of closure, as state lawmakers and their constituents work to close healthcare access gaps in the commonwealth’s farthest-flung regions.
The commission based its analysis on patients’ socioeconomic demographics and insurance types as well as hospitals’ financial information to determine risk levels for closure.
King William resident Celeste Garrett’s go-to facility, VCU Health Tappahannock Hospital, is on the list. It takes her about 20 minutes to get there and she worries about an emergency if it were to close. That would make VCU’s Richmond location her closest resource, an hour or more away “depending on the traffic.”
“Minutes matter. Seconds matter,” Franklin County resident Penny Blue said as she joined Garrett on a press call with the state’s health committee chairs Tuesday.
After a brain aneurysm in 2021, Blue was taken 15 minutes to her nearest hospital and then air-lifted to another one in Roanoke (which otherwise would have been an hour commute).
With rural hospitals already shoring up access in Southwest and South Side Virginia, the women expressed concern about themselves and their neighbors.
Some hospitals’ struggles can be traced back years and include demographics and economic regional shifts. But, the current strains are attributed to recent Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement rate cuts, a reconciliation bill Congress passed last summer that makes thousands of Virginians vulnerable to losing health insurance, and Congress’ failure to renew expired Affordable Care Act credits.
Screenshot from a June 2026 Virginia Joint Commission on Health Care presentation.
“(Rural hospitals) have always been living on the edge, but with H.R. 1 kicking in our hospitals across Virginia will lose about $2 billion dollars a year,” said Sen. Barbara Favola, D-Arlington, who chairs the Senate’s Education and Health Committee.
Uninsured people are more likely to delay care until dire situations, so hospital ERs are bracing for surges of patients. Free clinics, long considered public health safety nets, are also preparing for people to rely on them more.
“We have yet to feel the pain (of the bill) but it’s coming,” King William resident Garrett said on Tuesday’s call.
After absorbing unpaid or under-paid care from uninsured patients, health systems will eventually negotiate insurance rates with private insurers. This may lead to higher premiums for people with private insurance down the line, health systems have warned.
Sentara chief administrative operator Aubrey Layne said in a recent phone call that the hospital chain has become “more purposeful lately about getting the public to understand” the challenges.
That chain has facilities around the state, with its Sentara Halifax Regional Hospital on the new at-risk list.
Still, Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association spokesman Julian Walker said hospitals will continue to adapt rather than close overnight or forever.
“We will see what other measures might have to be taken to continue to sustain hospitals longterm,” he said.
Those efforts are already playing out in some cases. Citing Congress’ bill as a contributing factor, Valley Health changed staffing contracts and trimmed services this spring. Last winter, Centra closed its labor and delivery unit at a hospital in Farmville. Last fall, Shenandoah Valley’s Augusta Health closed three clinics.
House Health and Human Services chair Del. Rodney Willett, D-Henrico, emphasized that the federal government placed heavy burdens on state and local governments, calling it a “situation no one wants to be in.”
The state’s pending budget has proposals to help the state comply with additional requirements for Medicaid and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program verifications and could support a state-level ACA subsidy to plug some holes.
Favola and Willett said the efforts cannot fully heal what federal actions have created but are a reflection of bipartisan assistance.
As both lawmakers have served on bipartisan health-focused committees and commissions, Willett said Congressional Republicans should be held accountable for pushing through the reconciliation bill but that going forward, both parties will have to work together to create lasting solutions.
“This report is a nonpartisan report done by the joint commission, we all sit on that — Republicans and Democrats,” Willett said. “The facts are the facts and what’s being done to us by Washington is unconscionable.”
U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Virginia, seen here speaking at a rally in Norfolk for Democratic gubernatorial nominee Abigail Spanberger in 2025., said the Better Education Through Mentoring Act would support teacher and school leader induction programs in K-12 schools. (Photo by Charlotte Rene Woods/ Virginia Mercury)
One of Virginia’s federal lawmakers on Wednesday introduced a bill in Congress that would establish a grant program to address the national teacher shortage and better support early-career educators.
U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., is leading the proposal with support from U.S. Rep. Jahana Hayes of Connecticut. Kaine told reporters on Thursday that the Better Education Through Mentoring Act would support teacher and school leader induction programs in K-12 schools.
Kaine, who has introduced similar proposals to address teacher induction and retention in past years, said this bill is designed to reduce turnover rates.
“It’s one solution, not the only solution, but one solution that will lead to filling up the ranks of classroom teachers,” said Kaine to reporters last week. “We have shortages virtually everywhere in the country and also a retirement bubble that’s likely to hit in the next few years that will make those shortages even more acute.”
Teachers with the fewest years of experience have the highest turnover rate, with some moving to another school or leaving the profession, the bill reads. This can negatively impact student learning, disrupt school stability and detract from collegial relationships, collaboration and institutional knowledge.
Schools also incur high costs to replace teachers who leave.
Research cited in the bill text shows that comprehensive two-year mentoring and induction programs improve outcomes for educators and students, and boost teacher effectiveness, student achievement and retention.
Students of color and those in rural areas are also likely to be taught by inexperienced teachers,the proposal highlighted, further illuminating why targeted mentoring and induction support are needed.
Virginia’s legislature has appropriated millions in state funds to support such students, specifically in math and reading, due to low test scores.
The proposed measure also pointed to research showing rural schools face unique barriers, including limited access to qualified mentors and greater professional isolation. Studies show induction programs for school leaders improve teacher retention and student outcomes, particularly in disadvantaged schools.
If enacted, the proposal will promote mentorship, pairing early-career teachers with experienced mentors to help them become effective quickly. It will also include new support for teachers early in their careers and will offer new and expanded induction programs.
“It’s both an educational effectiveness program, but also a teacher retention program,” Kaine said.
The program will require funding, to help offset the cost of mentors’ time spent assisting other teachers. The proposal did not include an estimated amount.
The funding will first go to the committee level for consideration before being put to a vote for approval.
President Donald Trump looks on prior to a game between the San Antonio Spurs and the New York Knicks in Game Three of the 2026 NBA Finals at Madison Square Garden on June 8, 2026 in New York City. (Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON — U.S. forces launched renewed strikes on Iran late Tuesday, in response to the downing of a U.S. Apache helicopter a day earlier, according to U.S. Central Command.
President Donald Trump ordered the operation, which began at 5 p.m. Eastern and was “a proportional response to unjustified Iranian aggression,” a social media account for U.S. Central Command posted Tuesday evening.
Trump said earlier Tuesday the United States would retaliate after Iran shot down the helicopter late Monday over the Strait of Hormuz, and that the two American pilots aboard were unharmed.
Trump announced the cause of the helicopter’s downing in a Truth Social post just before 1 p.m. Eastern. As of early Tuesday morning, the incident had still been under investigation, according to U.S. Central Command.
“I have just been informed by our Great Military that last night the Iranians shot down one of our highly sophisticated Apache Helicopters while patrolling over the Strait of Hormuz. There were two pilots involved, both are safe and uninjured. Nevertheless, the United States must, of necessity, respond to this attack. Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DONALD J. TRUMP,” the president wrote.
Despite recent exchanges of fire, the administration maintains the war, named by the Pentagon as Operation Epic Fury, is over and that an April 7 ceasefire agreement between the U.S. and Iran remains in place.
On Sunday’s “Meet the Press” with moderator Kristen Welker of NBC News, Trump said, before abruptly walking out of the interview a short time later, “I call it a military exercise because people would rather have it called that. It’s not a big war for us.”
The two military pilots were rescued at 7:33 p.m. Eastern time after the AH-64 Apache went down off the coast of Oman while the military was patrolling regional waters, according to U.S. Central Command.
“The Soldiers were safely rescued within approximately two hours and are in stable condition. The cause of the incident is under investigation.
“Rescue efforts were led by U.S. Naval Forces Central Command and the 82nd Airborne Division, with support from U.S. Air Force and Navy units including U.S. 5th Fleet’s Task Force 59,” according to the command’s statement posted on social media just after 6 a.m. Eastern.
The U.S. continues to block traffic to and from Iranian ports, and as recently as Monday fired on an empty oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman the military said was breaking the blockade just southeast of the Strait of Hormuz.
According to U.S. Central Command, American forces have disabled seven non-compliant vessels, redirected 134 ships that complied, and allowed 42 vessels supporting humanitarian aid to pass since initiating the blockade on April 13.
Iran has all but choked off international shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, where one-fifth of the world’s petroleum supply traveled before the war.
War status
Thirteen U.S. service members have died in the conflict, which began on Feb. 28.
The Pentagon’s tally for service members injured stands at 411 as of Tuesday. Despite the administration’s stance that the war is over, the Defense Casualty Analysis System lists one U.S. sailor as “wounded in action” in June as part of Operation Epic Fury.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio testified last week before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs that the U.S. war in Iran was “over.”
In response to a question from Rep. Sara Jacobs, D-Calif., about who won the war, Rubio answered, “Epic Fury is over, which is what you would consider the war.”
The U.S. launched the conflict in conjunction with Israel, and the Israeli government’s continued bombardment of southern Lebanon has stymied further peace talks — though Trump has repeatedly claimed Iran wants to make a deal.
Iran and Israel exchanged rocket fire Sunday into Monday for the first time since April.
Despite a U.S.-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon in mid-April, Israel’s bombing campaign has continued in southern Lebanon, as Iran-backed Hezbollah fighters refuse to recognize the agreement.
Stickers in Arlington County in June 2025. (Photo by Nathaniel Cline/Virginia Mercury)
A federal judge has approved a consent decree requiring Virginia election officials to accept certain voter registration applications submitted by college students, resolving a lawsuit that alleged students were being improperly denied registration over missing dormitory-related details.
The agreement, approved last week by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, bars election officials from rejecting otherwise eligible student voter registration applications solely because they omit information such as dorm room numbers, dorm names or campus mailbox numbers when those details are not necessary to determine voting precincts.
The lawsuit was filed in October by the NAACP Virginia State Conference and the Advancement Project against Virginia election officials shortly before the November 2025 general election.
The civil rights groups alleged that election officials in multiple Virginia jurisdictions had rejected or delayed voter registration applications submitted by college students living on campus because the forms lacked dormitory-specific information not required under Virginia law.
The plaintiffs argued the practice disproportionately affected students attending historically Black colleges and universities, including Norfolk State University and Virginia State University, along with students at schools including George Mason University, James Madison University, Old Dominion University, University of Richmond and Virginia Commonwealth University.
What the settlement requires
The lawsuit — titled NAACP Virginia State Conference v. John O’Bannon et al. — alleged that rejecting applications over missing dormitory details violated the Materiality Provision of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 as well as the First and Fourteenth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution.
Under the consent decree, Virginia election officials must provide guidance and training to local registrars on how to handle student voter registration applications and amend the state voter registration form to clarify what address information is required for people living in dormitories and other group housing.
The agreement also requires state officials to begin rulemaking efforts to formally incorporate the new standards in the Virginia Administrative Code.
Andrea Gaines, a spokeswoman for the Virginia Department of Elections, said the State Board of Elections and the department approved the consent decree to promote “uniform processing” of voter registration applications and ensure people living in group housing such as college dormitories provide enough information to be assigned to the correct voting precinct.
Gaines said additional guidance will be provided to local election officials before Virginia’s Aug. 4 primary election.
John Powers, legal director for the Advancement Project, said the agreement removes barriers that had prevented some students from successfully registering to vote.
“This consent decree is a major win for Virginia voters,” Powers said in a statement.
“For too long, too many Virginia college students have been disenfranchised due to unnecessary and burdensome restrictions. This agreement removes those barriers and mandates important reforms that will allow more students to register successfully and cast ballots that count.”
Anthony Ashton, senior associate general counsel for the NAACP, said the agreement makes clear that eligible voters cannot be denied registration over technical omissions unrelated to eligibility.
“College students in Virginia — particularly those at historically Black colleges and universities — have faced unnecessary and unlawful barriers to voter registration,” Ashton said. “This consent decree sends a strong message that those practices will not stand.”
Case reflects broader fights over student voter access
The lawsuit was filed amid broader national debates over student voting access and efforts by voting-rights organizations to challenge policies they say place additional hurdles on younger voters.
An analysis by the Brennan Center for Justice found that college students have long encountered voting obstacles involving residence verification and campus mailing addresses.
In Indiana, a federal judge last year declined to dismiss a challenge to a law restricting student voter identification, ruling that students had plausibly alleged violations of the First, Fourteenth and Twenty-Sixth Amendments.
Virginia voting rights advocates had also previously raised concerns that some local registrars were rejecting voter registration applications submitted by students listing university housing addresses without additional proof of residence.
Supporters of last year’s lawsuit argued that the timing was particularly significant because the complaint was filed shortly before Virginia’s November 2025 statewide elections, which included races for governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general and all 100 seats in the House of Delegates.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include a statement from the Virginia Department of Elections.
Back view of Wren building at William and Mary college in Williamsburg, Va. (Photo by Getty Images)
Governor Abigail Spanberger appointed 32 new members to governing boards at Virginia’s colleges and universities, continuing her effort to reshape higher education leadership across the commonwealth.
On Friday evening, Spanberger announced 52 appointments, including 20 reappointments. The move furthers her efforts to remake university leadership amid concerns about the politicization of public college boards.
“I am proud to appoint this talented group of individuals to serve on our higher education boards,” said Spanberger in a statement.
“I have full confidence that their leadership will strengthen our world class institutions while upholding the values that make our commonwealth’s colleges and universities the envy of the world. I look forward to their service as they advance opportunities for every student who walks onto our campuses.”
Among the new appointees are several well-known education figures, including James Dyke, former secretary of education; Cristin Grigos, senior vice president at the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges; and Ann Cherry, longtime Hampton school board member.
Other appointments, while not education experts, are widely recognized. They include former lawmaker Jeff Bourne; longtime NBA official Tony Brothers; Victor Branch, a regional bank executive; and Angela Reddix, founder and president of a healthcare company.
The appointments come shortly after Spanberger removed John Rocovich from Virginia Tech’s Board of Visitors after 16 years of service for what she described as “misconduct.” Spanberger’s letter did not specify the details of the alleged violations, stating only that the findings provided “sufficient cause” for his removal.
The General Assembly is responsible for confirming all appointments, which typically occurs during the legislature’s regular session at the start of each year.
Cannabis flower rests on a rolling tray, surrounded by a pack of rolling papers, a grinder and a lighter. Lawmakers in a handful of states this year have introduced legislation to impose stricter THC limits on certain cannabis products. Photo by Amanda Watford/Stateline)
When her son was a teenager, Connecticut mom Amy Wadsworth said, he was the type of kid parents rarely worry about.
He played sports, cared about his health and stayed away from drugs. In 2018, when he left West Hartford to start his freshman year at American University in Washington, D.C., she expected his biggest challenge would be adjusting to college life.
Instead, she said, he began using cannabis to cope with social anxiety and as a sleep aid.
Within months, Wadsworth’s son was calling home in the middle of the night, terrified and disoriented.
Over the next several years, his behavior became increasingly erratic, he had psychotic episodes and he was eventually diagnosed with severe cannabis use disorder. That’s when a person’s marijuana use becomes difficult to control and begins interfering with daily life.
Now 25, Wadsworth’s son has spent much of the past several years cycling through hospitals and treatment programs across the country.
“It’s definitely changed the trajectory of his life,” Wadsworth said. “It did nothing but harm him, literally harm every facet of his life — every facet, physical, mental, everything.”
States have spent the past several decades debating whether to legalize cannabis. Now, they are debating how intoxicating legal products should be.
A growing body of research suggests that frequent use of high-THC cannabis increases the risk of cannabis use disorder, psychosis and other mental health problems for users, particularly adolescents and young adults. In response, lawmakers in some states this year have moved to impose stricter potency caps, while others have scaled back or rejected such measures amid industry opposition and uncertainty over research findings.
While cannabis flower once commonly contained THC levels in the single digits, many products sold legally today contain 15% to 20% THC or more. Concentrates — such as waxes, oils and shatter — can exceed 80%.
About 15% of Americans ages 12 and older reported using marijuana in the past month in 2024, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. And about 3 in 10 people who use cannabis have cannabis use disorder, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Some public health researchers and addiction specialists argue that public perceptions of marijuana have not kept pace with the growing availability of high potency products. They say broader legalization efforts — including the federal government’s recent move to reclassify medical marijuana as a less restrictive drug under the Controlled Substances Act — may reinforce the belief that cannabis is harmless.
“Moving cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III doesn’t help me save lives by decreasing the perception of that risk,” said Dr. Alta DeRoo, the chief medical officer of the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation, one of the largest nonprofit treatment providers for addiction and mental health. DeRoo also is a board-certified addiction medicine physician and OB-GYN.
Some state efforts to impose potency limits have been stalled by resistance from the cannabis industry and questions about how far governments should go in regulating a legal product.
In Connecticut, lawmakers this year reinstated a 35% THC cap on flower just weeks after voting to eliminate it. Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle said they were concerned about the potential public health effects of increasingly potent marijuana products.
At the same time, the legislation moved forward with other cannabis market expansions. Lawmakers removed a 70% THC cap on concentrates, increased the amount of THC allowed in certain cannabis-infused beverages and expanded the market to include products such as topicals, tablets and capsules.
Proposals to cap THC potency have surfaced in statehouses across the country for years. This year, lawmakers in California, Georgia, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Oregon and South Dakota introduced similar measures, though most did not advance.
Georgia Republican Gov. Brian Kemp signed a law in May that removes the state’s previous 5% THC potency cap starting July 1. The new law will also add a 12,000 mg possession limit for registered medical cannabis patients and allow patients over 21 to vaporize medical marijuana.
‘A perennial debate’
Lawmakers across the country have proposed a range of measures aimed at limiting the potency of cannabis products.
In Washington state, Democratic state Rep. Lauren Davis has spent years trying to place guardrails on high-potency cannabis products. Since 2020, she has introduced at least five bills that would have capped THC levels in concentrates or imposed safeguards, including age restrictions, warning labels and a higher tax rate on products with elevated THC levels.
Most of those measures were thwarted by opposition from the cannabis industry, Davis told Stateline.
Industry groups and cannabis businesses argued that Washington’s existing regulations already protected consumers and kept cannabis away from minors. Opponents also warned that limiting high-THC products would drive consumers to the illicit market, hurting legal businesses and exposing users to unregulated, possibly contaminated products.
“(The industry) then went on to basically rain down all fire and brimstone and crush every bill that I’ve ever attempted in this area,” Davis said.
The only proposal to become law was a 2024 measure that requires retailers to warn customers about the association between high-potency THC products and psychotic disorders.
Washington state does not currently impose THC caps on flower or concentrates, but it does set limits on edibles and beverages.
Nearly all states have some form of medical-only or hybrid medical and recreational cannabis program, but just eight states, Connecticut, Mississippi, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island and Vermont, have potency caps on some products, including flower, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Potency limits on edibles are far more common.
“This is a perennial debate that comes up in Vermont and elsewhere around higher potency products,” said James Pepper, who chairs the Vermont Cannabis Control Board, the agency that regulates the state’s market.
“I feel like the concerns are certainly real,” he added.
In Oklahoma, a recent incident in which a 4-year-old boy was hospitalized and remained unconscious for more than a day after his parents said he ingested a 1,000 mg edible found at a playground has added to growing debate over high-potency cannabis products in the state.
“We know that some of our medical patients truly do need higher potency products, but do we really need a 2,000 milligram gummy available for anyone with a patient license to purchase in an Oklahoma dispensary?” said Adria Berry, the executive director of the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority, which oversees the state’s medical market.
Oklahoma Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt also signed a measure into law last month that will take effect in November, adding stricter packaging and labeling requirements, including restrictions intended to prevent products from resembling candy or appealing to children.
While some industry experts acknowledge the potential harms, they say the focus should be on consumer education and clear information about potency and effects, rather than new restrictions.
An official with Trulieve, a cannabis company that operates dispensaries in eight states, told Stateline that its products are independently tested and that potency information is available for customers to review and ask questions about, including a product’s effects.
“We believe that that piece of information is critical for a consumer to make an educated decision on what type and what potency of product they are looking to consume,” said Lauren Niehaus, Trulieve’s executive director of government relations.
Some advocacy and trade groups, such as the National Cannabis Industry Association and the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), argue that policymakers should steer consumers into tightly regulated legal markets rather than imposing blanket THC caps that could push some users back to illicit sellers. They say that accurate labeling, child-resistant packaging and public education campaigns are the best strategies to protect public health and prevent youth access.
“It’s undoubtedly safer and better for public health outcomes to regulate these products,” said Adam Rosenberg, who chairs the board of the National Cannabis Industry Association.
Paul Armentano, NORML’s deputy director, said potency caps oversimplify the risks of cannabis products and fail to account for how consumers actually use them. Consumers view ultra-potent products as a novelty, he said, and ultimately gravitate toward lower-potency options.
“When you look at state-tracked sales in legal states, cannabis flower or botanical cannabis still outsells every other product, and I would dare say it’s because that is the most moderate to low potency product available on the shelf, and that’s what most people want,” Armentano said.
Armentano also argued that some of the strongest calls for THC limits come from opponents of legalization, who see potency restrictions as a way to gradually roll back access to legal cannabis.
What the research says
A study published earlier this year in JAMA Health Forum found that adolescents who use cannabis, including products with higher potencies, had a significantly increased risk of developing psychotic and bipolar disorders, along with higher risks of depression and anxiety. The research followed about 463,000 adolescents in Northern California between ages 13 and 17 and tracked outcomes into early adulthood. The study did not, however examine whether the use of higher-potency products is more likely to cause psychotic and bipolar disorders.
But other research has linked frequent use of high-potency cannabis to a greater risk of psychosis and psychotic disorders, particularly among heavy users. Several studies have found a dose-response relationship, meaning the risk tends to rise as THC concentration and frequency of use increase. Experts caution, however, that many studies cannot definitively prove that cannabis causes psychosis and that individual risk varies widely.
Other research suggests the risk of developing psychosis may be higher for adolescents and young adults, whose brains are still developing, as well as people with existing mental health conditions or a family history of psychotic disorders.
“I’ve seen patients come through our facilities where they haven’t done any other drugs other than just high-potency marijuana, and their psychosis is remarkable,” said DeRoo, of the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation. “They don’t have a grasp of reality. They come in seeing things, they come in believing things, alternate realities.”
John Puls, a psychotherapist and addiction specialist in Florida, has seen similar patterns in his practice at Full Life Comprehensive Care, particularly among adolescents and young adults using high-potency products.
He said families often don’t believe cannabis alone could be driving such dramatic changes. Beyond psychosis, he added, cannabis can chip away at more ordinary parts of life: Motivation drops, executive functioning suffers, patients miss appointments or forget obligations, and short‑term memory and relationships start to fray.
Some medical and industry experts say that cannabis can provide meaningful relief for some people, including those undergoing cancer treatment or who have chronic pain. But there is very little consensus on appropriate medical uses, dosing and long-term effects, particularly as products vary widely in potency.
“If there’s no standardized testing of products, or if there’s no enforcement of potency limits, then we might be putting people at more risk,” said Dr. Smita Das, an adult addiction psychiatrist and a clinical professor at Stanford University School of Medicine.
Stateline reporter Amanda Watford can be reached at [email protected].
This story was originally produced by Stateline, which is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network which includes Virginia Mercury, and is supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity.
An official ballot drop box for Maryland voters, in Wheaton, Maryland, on June 7, 2026. (Photo by Jane Norman/States Newsroom)
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security will allow states to access federal citizenship data by June 30 and plans to monitor the flow of mail ballots for signs of voter fraud, according to a court document.
Amid a series of lawsuits, President Donald Trump’s administration is now moving to carry out a March 31 executive order restricting voting by mail ahead of the November midterm elections.
Democrats and voting rights advocates oppose the directive as unconstitutional election meddling by Trump and have sued to stop him. The president, who has long attacked mail ballots but votes by mail himself, says the additional rules will fight noncitizen voting, a rare phenomenon.
“No president has the authority to unilaterally rewrite election rules or dictate how states administer their elections,” Marcia Johnson, chief of activation and justice at the League of Women Voters, said in a statement last week. The League of Women Voters filed one of at least five lawsuits challenging the order.
Potential disruptions
The order could carry major consequences for the midterm elections. Any new restrictions on mail ballots would risk disrupting how tens of millions of voters cast their ballots. About 30% of voters cast mail ballots in 2024, according to data gathered by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission.
But despite several legal challenges, the order remains in effect.
A federal judge in Washington, D.C., in late May ruled against a request by Democratic groups to pause the order, finding that it was too soon to weigh in because federal officials hadn’t taken enough action yet. A second judge in Massachusetts held a hearing last week, but didn’t immediately issue a decision.
“The Trump Administration will continue fighting for the safety and security of American elections,” White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said in a statement shortly after the D.C. judge’s decision.
One portion of the order demands the postmaster general enact new restrictions on mailed ballots and not transmit ballots from states that refuse to provide the names of absentee voters. The U.S. Postal Service, despite its status as an independent corporation, has put forward a proposal in line with the order to require states to submit lists of voters before mailing ballots.
Now, Homeland Security is responding to another part of the order that requires the creation of lists of voting-age citizens in every state, which the Trump administration calls “state citizenship lists.” State election officials would receive the lists, which they could compare to their voter rolls in a search for noncitizen voters.
Homeland Security’s plans for the citizenship lists came into focus on June 5, when the U.S. Department of Justice filed a notice in federal court that briefly outlines the administration’s plans. The notice describes a two-part effort by Homeland Security and its subsidiary agency, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, to comply with the order.
First, Homeland Security will implement a “State Voter Roll Verification” that allows state election officials to submit their voter rolls to the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, or SAVE, system.
SAVE is a powerful computer program that checks names against citizenship information held in a variety of government databases. It can flag registered voters as possible noncitizens, but faces criticism for incorrect identifications.
For the past year, states have already had the option to upload their voter rolls into SAVE. Some Republican-led states, such as Indiana, Texas and Wyoming, have used the system, while Democratic states have declined. It’s unclear how the State Voter Roll Verification would be different, if at all, from states’ current SAVE access.
Homeland Security and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services didn’t respond to questions from States Newsroom.
Second, the Justice Department notice says Homeland Security will set up a registry for state election officials to securely access “citizenship-related data” from USCIS, the Social Security Administration and the State Department.
According to the notice, the “underlying data would remain in each agency’s respective system.” No other details were provided.
The notice also outlines Homeland Security’s intention to use the lists of voters that states provide to the Postal Service for investigations. It says DHS wants to “integrate” data on those voters “to monitor mail-in and absentee ballot flows, identify anomalies that may suggest voter fraud or misuse, and generate authorized investigative leads.”
California elections
The notice comes as Trump renews his attacks on mail-in voting. Last week he alleged, without evidence, voter fraud in California, which held primary elections last week. California relies heavily on mail ballots and often counts votes at a slow pace — meaning final results sometimes don’t match election night vote totals.
“Do you know why they’re doing that? Because they’re cheating on the election,” Trump said in an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
While the executive order already faces a slew of lawsuits, the NAACP on June 3 filed a motion in federal court seeking to specifically block the Postal Service’s proposed regulations of mail ballots. The NAACP alleges the regulations violate a 2021 settlement agreement that requires timely delivery of election mail to all voters.
The Postal Service has until Thursday to respond.
The American Postal Workers Union in a statement on June 5 denounced the executive order, saying the Postal Service serves all Americans. It is “not a tool for politicians” to pick which Americans receive which benefits, the union said.
“The Executive Order is an unconstitutional attack on the millions of Americans who vote by mail,” the union said, “and another front in an ongoing assault on voting rights in the United States of America.”
A view from outside Stonewall Jackson High School in Shenandoah County. (Photo by Nathaniel Cline/Virginia Mercury)
Shenandoah County is awaiting a closely watched court decision over whether the names of Confederate figures should remain on several school buildings, a dispute that has reignited debate over history, race and educational equity in Virginia schools.
Some residents view honoring Confederate generals, including Turner Ashby, Robert E. Lee, and Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, as an important part of local heritage and history. Others see them as symbols of slavery and racism that deepen racial tensions.
At the center of the case is whether the Shenandoah County School Board’s decision to restore the Confederate names violates federal law and undermines efforts to provide equal educational opportunities in Virginia.
“I think the central theme that really kind of reverberates through this case is the overall educational equity,” said Marja Plater, senior counsel at the Washington Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs, representing the NAACP Virginia State Conference and five students.
“Having students who are subjected to the harmful impacts of having to attend school aimed at Confederate generals, and the entire culture that it establishes, is not what we want students to be subjected to now, and it really hinders achieving educational equity.”
Plater said she believes the U.S. is still working toward fully fully achieving the goals of the Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education, which sought to ensure equal education for students regardless of race.
Because of that focus on equal educational opportunity, Plater said the names schools carry a— including those honoring Confederate generals — matter because they can affect fairness and equal treatment in education.
A view from outside Ashby-Lee Elementary School in Shenandoah County. (Nathaniel Cline/Virginia Mercury)
After the Shenandoah County School Board voted in May 2024 to restore the name, the NAACP state conference and several students filed a lawsuit the following month challenging the decision, including the restoration of the name Stonewall Jackson High School.
The lawsuit alleges the board violated students’ First Amendment rights by forcing them to endorse a viewpoint they disagree with through the promotion of Confederate figures.
Last September, U.S. District Court Judge Michael F. Urbanski sided with the students, writing that the board violated students’ First Amendment rights and that Jackson’s name “is expressive as a symbol of racial exclusion in public schools.”
Both sides presented final arguments on March 31, and the court is now considering its ruling.
Asked whether the case should be viewed through the lens of educational equity, Jim Guynn, an attorney representing the school board, said no evidence of inequity was presented during the trial and that the plaintiffs are thriving academically and socially while serving as leaders among their peers.
Looking ahead, Guynn said an adverse ruling could set a precedent for challenges to school names beyond those tied to the Confederacy.
In the board’s view, such challenges could eventually expand to a broad range of historical figures and institutions.
“At some point, we have to stop focusing on the negative and start assessing historical figures in their time and not by our current standards,” Guynn said. “I might add that I hope not to be judged by the standards in place 50 or 100 years from now. We can’t predict what those standards will be.”
Potential consequences
It remains unclear what the remedies the court would impose after finding that the Shenandoah County School Board violated students’ rights, but the consequences could be significant, potentially including federal investigations, loss of federal funding and federal oversight.
The board is also awaiting a decision on whether it illegally discriminated against students based on race through Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bars discrimination in federally funded programs, and the Equal Educational Opportunity Act, which requires equal access to education regardless of race, color, sex or national origin.
Guynn said the board is concerned that an adverse ruling could mean “a school board acting with the overwhelming support of the public could never name a school after a person if some students claim that the name is discriminatory.”
A view outside the U.S. Courthouse in Virginia’s Western District. (Nathaniel Cline/Virginia Mercury)
“Names are not discriminatory, especially when the facts in the case show that there has been no discrimination against any students,” he added.
As the court weighs its decision, Urbanski has not yet ruled on the NAACP’s and students’ request to remove Confederate names, mascots, and other vestiges before the 2026-2027 school year. They also asked the court to bar the school board from using Confederate leaders’ names or references in future naming decisions.
If the court orders the names changed, the ruling would further spotlight the community’s long-running divide over Confederate recognition, symbolizing a deeper conflict between heritage and educational equity.
Public support for restoring the names helped reshape the school board. Only three current members served on the board before the reinstatement vote, and all three voted to restore the names.
“The name of the school is important to county residents because Stonewall Jackson was an important figure in the history of the county and because it is the name of the high school that many residents attended and graduated from, and it has a sentimental place in their hearts,” Guynn said.
Trust at the center of the case
Trust emerged as a central theme for both the students challenging the names and the 2024 school board that restored them.
The 2020 school board, which initially removed the Confederate names, argued its decision was intended to condemn racism and begin a renaming process. The 2024 school board argued restoring the names was necessary to “restore the public’s trust” after the earlier board’s actions.
“This was not an innocent mistake by some inexperienced school board. No, this was carefully choreographed machinations of a school board colluding to ignore the people they represented,” Board member Gloria Carlineo said during a 2024 meeting. “This is what political indoctrination in our schools looks like.”
Other board members described the 2020 name changes as a “slap in the face” to residents near the southern campus, where the three schools are located, saying they felt their heritage was being erased.
On the plaintiffs’ side, one student testified that she no longer knows which adults at the school she can trust because many staff members wear clothing bearing the Stonewall Jackson name.
Other students testified that the Confederate names made their academic experience more difficult and left them feeling “closed off” from classmates after the names were restored, fearing some peers might support segregation or not want them at the school.
Final Ruling
It is unclear when Urbanski will issue a final ruling. Court records show the parties met with the judge shortly after the March 31 hearing concluded.
Urbanski previously announced he would take senior status beginning July 4, 2024, allowing him to remain a federal judge while potentially carrying a reduced caseload. His successor, Jasmine H. Yoon, was nominated and confirmed before the transition.
The outcome of this case will not only affect Shenandoah County and the names of its schools, but also broader debates about history, equity, and trust in public education.
Balloons, fresh and artificial flowers and a sign extolling “Family” dot an apartment complex lawn near where landscaper Guadalupe Rivera was struck by a car on May 29 in Chesapeake. The 60-year-old Suffolk man a father of eight and grandfather and great-grandfather of 33. (Photo by Roger Chesley/Virginia Mercury)
Guadalupe Rivera – landscaping supervisor, family man, helper – suffered a needless, ghastly death because, police said, a speeding car collided with an SUV before striking Rivera on a Chesapeake sidewalk, where the 60-year-old Suffolk man was working.
Police said the male driver of the sedanat the center of the mayhem May 29 was racing so fast that he also dislodged the engine of the SUV he struck first and damaged a nearby utility pole. The speed limit along that stretch is just 35 mph.
Speed has been the key factor cited by authorities in several recent fatalities along Virginia roadways, including the killing of Rivera that is still under investigation. Both drivers in that incident suffered minor injuries. On Thursday, police said they charged Synclair Tyrone Mayes, 19, with involuntary manslaughter.
Guadalupe Rivera. (Photo courtesy of Rivera family)
Excessive speed joins distracted driving and driving under the influence among the causes often cited by authorities for the deaths and injuries that happen too often, here in Virginia and elsewhere.
There’s also a lack of concern for fellow human beings when folks get behind the wheel. So we scoff at posted speed limits. We text,though it’s illegal while driving in Virginia and nearly every other state. We eat. We fiddle with the gadgets on the dashboard.
In other words, we don’t care about anyone but ourselves, our desires, our schedule.
“Reckless driving isn’t new,” Brad Lehmann, assistant professor of criminal justice at Virginia Commonwealth University and a former sergeant with the Henrico County Police Department, told me in an interview. “But we have an interesting kind of storm where a generational change is happening, and our driving behaviors have changed. There’s distraction from devices and electronics in the vehicle.”
Meanwhile, he added, pedestrians and bicyclists can be so focused on their own phones or earplugs that they might not recognize nearby cars and trucks. The 4,000-pound missiles are a threat to their safety.
“It’s a mixture of instant gratification and risky behaviors,” Lehmann noted.
Sadly, the death of Rivera wasn’t the only traffic fatality across Virginia in recent days. Others have been just as gut wrenching:
Four members of a Massachusetts family and another person were killed May 29, when a passenger bus speeding south on Interstate 95 struck a vehicle that had slowed down for a work zone in Stafford County.
The crash caused a chain reaction. Dozens of passengers were injured.Jing S. Dong, 48, the bus driver, faces involuntary manslaughter charges and reckless driving charges.
Later reports said Dong, of Staten Island, New York, had been scheduled to stand trial June 2 in Annapolis, Maryland, for a previous arrest on speeding while driving a coach bus. Virginia court records revealed he’d earlier been cited for speeding, too, in the commonwealth.
A day later,a crash on I-95 in Caroline County killed two people and injured another person. Witnesses told wtvr.com a SUV was speeding down the left shoulder before striking debris and losing control.
The SUV then flew across the median into oncoming traffic headed northbound. What was so important that the driver tried something so illegal and risky by racing along the shoulder?
An 86-year-old male pedestrian in Norfolk died after a hit-and-run crash, Norfolk police said, late the night of June 1. Police said they later located the suspected driver,Malik Alea-Ngongo, 24, of Norfolk, and arrested him near the scene of the accident. Investigators didn’t immediately know whether speed or alcohol were factors.
Yusuke Yamani, an associate professor in the departments of psychology and civil and environmental engineering at Old Dominion University, said traffic fatalities have been declining nationwide and in the commonwealth since a post-COVID spike.
What’s going on nowadays? Bad behavior obviously isn’t new, but it seems to be more lethal on our roads.
“Speeding, impaired driving, red-light running, and road rage are all forms of reckless driving that have existed for decades,” Yamani said, by email. “However, today’s driving environment is different.
“New information technologies (e.g., smartphones and infotainment systems), reduced traffic enforcement in some areas, attitudinal shifts among younger drivers, and behavioral changes following the pandemic have all contributed to a changing landscape of driver behavior.”
The professor cited a AAA Foundation for Traffic Study culture index for more information. He noted the 2024 report found fewer drivers perceived speeding as dangerous, “suggesting that speeding may be becoming increasingly normalized. Notably, speeding tends to draw less social condemnation than many other risky driving behaviors, despite contributing to roughly one-third of all fatal crashes.”
Lehmann, the VCU professor, notedRichmond has suffered a number of pedestrian deaths in recent months, some involving well-known victims. He wondered whether people think it’s OK to fiddle with a device while driving, or to go 25 mph above the speed limit even if they have passengers.
“I don’t know that we are prioritizing the humanity in front of us,” he said.
Rivera’s relatives wish we would. His brother Joe told a newscast that Guadalupe Rivera “would talk to anybody, try to help anybody he could.”
His 33-year-old daughter Andrea Magallan, in her comments to me, called him “our protector, our biggest supporter, and our hero.”
Folks, put the phone down or turn it off when behind the wheel. Pay attention to the road, not the radio. Don’t imbibe and drive.
Voters cast ballots at the Northwest Community Center in Des Moines, Iowa, on Nov. 3, 2020. (Photo by Jim Obradovich for Iowa Capital Dispatch)
Ahead of the November midterm elections, President Donald Trump and his Republican allies have demanded Congress pass sweeping voting restrictions, including showing proof of citizenship to register — all in the name of election security.
At the same time, the only federal agency dedicated solely to helping states and localities run smooth and secure elections operates on a meager budget. It provides grants for election security far smaller than in the past. And U.S. House Republicans have signaled they want sizable further cuts.
The agency, the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, sits at the center of a fight playing out in Congress over how to best ensure secure elections. The debate has thrown into sharp relief a yawning gap between GOP rhetoric over election tampering and actual congressional support for election security efforts.
“If my colleagues truly cared about protecting our elections from foreign interference, they’d put the resources behind it,” Rep. Sanford Bishop, a Georgia Democrat, said at a House Appropriations Committee meeting this spring. “Instead, we get empty rhetoric, zero urgency, while putting the right of citizens to vote at risk.”
Congressional support of the EAC’s election security grant program has fluctuated over time, but has generally trended downward.
Congress has approved election security grant funding at much lower levels than the program’s early years. (Credit: U.S. Election Assistance Commission 2025 Annual Report)
Lawmakers approved $380 million in 2018 and $425 million in 2020, along with an additional $400 million in election-related pandemic aid that year.
Since then, grant funding has slowed to a trickle. Congress appropriated $75 million in 2022 and again in 2023. That was followed by $55 million in 2024 and $15 million in 2025.
This year’s amount, $45 million, is an increase from the previous year — consistent with enhanced needs in an election year — but substantially lower than other recent years and a far cry from the program’s early years.
Trump and many GOP lawmakers support the SAVE America Act, which would impose new restrictions on voting. It would require voters to show a photo ID at the polls, as well as require them to bring documents proving their citizenship, such as a passport or birth certificate, with them when they register to vote.
The requirements are needed, the bill’s supporters say, to combat noncitizen voting, an extremely rare occurrence.
“The cheating is rampant in our elections,” Trump asserted without evidence in his 2026 State of the Union address. He has called the SAVE America Act “commonsense, country-saving legislation.”
The House passed the bill in February but it has floundered in the Senate amid opposition from Democrats and a handful of Republicans. Trump continues to seek new avenues to advance the measure, including urging lawmakers to attach it to housing legislation.
President Donald Trump delivers his State of the Union address on Feb. 24, 2026. During the address, Trump claimed, without evidence, “cheating is rampant” in U.S. elections. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
Cuts to election security agency
The Trump-led push for voting restrictions has largely ignored concrete election security needs in favor of chasing the phantom specter of noncitizen voting, Democrats and experts on election administration say. The result, they say, has been the possibility of sharp cuts at the EAC.
The House Appropriations Committee in April approved a bill that would cut the EAC’s salaries and expenses from $23.86 million to $17 million. It would mark the first time in four years the agency’s budget has dropped below $20 million.
The bill would also sharply cut the EAC’s election security grant program from $45 million to $15 million, the same as the last non-election year.
Since 2018, the agency has distributed the grants to election officials for technology upgrades, including cybersecurity, physical security improvements at election sites and efforts to combat voter misinformation. Lawmakers created the election security grants in response to foreign interference in the 2016 election.
U.S. Rep. Steny Hoyer, a Maryland Democrat, at a Democratic rally in 2022. (Photo by Danielle E. Gaines/Maryland Matters)
“Republicans claim falsely that our elections are plagued by fraud and that more needs to be done to secure the vote,” Rep. Steny Hoyer, a Maryland Democrat, said in a statement to States Newsroom.
“Yet, they have consistently undermined the security of our elections, including by proposing to cut election-security grants by two-thirds and the Election Assistance Commission’s (EAC) overall budget by almost 30% in Fiscal Year 2027,” Hoyer said. “This will leave states without critical resources to secure their voting systems and adopt the latest in voting technology and best practices.”
Hoyer, who helped spearhead the 2002 legislation creating the EAC and is the ranking Democrat on the Appropriations subcommittee that oversees the agency’s budget, said it has been a tremendous benefit to state and local election officials and to the integrity of the vote.
“I will continue to oppose Republican efforts to cut its funding,” he said.
Congressional GOP embraces Trump
The bill represents only one, early step in the appropriations process. The House hasn’t voted on it and the Senate could eliminate or alter the cuts, with any differences eventually worked out in a conference committee.
The House Appropriations Committee, which is not burdened with the Senate’s need for bipartisan approval of most legislation, in past years has also put forward cuts to election security grant funding that have been abandoned later.
Still, the measure this year demonstrates how House Republicans have embraced Trump’s focus on noncitizen voting.
While cutting the EAC and election security funding, the bill includes a provision prohibiting the use of funds to register noncitizens to vote. Noncitizens are already prohibited from voting in federal elections and only a very small number of municipalities allow noncitizens to vote in local contests.
Oklahoma Republican Rep. Tom Cole speaks with reporters at the U.S. Capitol in January 2024. (Photo by Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom)
“The people demanded a new mandate, we’re carrying it forward. That includes reinforcing President Trump’s work to … ensure that only citizens vote in our elections,” Rep. Tom Cole, an Oklahoma Republican and the Appropriations Committee chairman, said at an April meeting.
A spokesperson for Rep. Dave Joyce, an Ohio Republican who chairs the Appropriations subcommittee that developed the bill, didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Funding ebb
Congress created the EAC in the 2002 Help America Vote Act, passed in the wake of the 2000 presidential election and the Florida recount.
A bipartisan commission leads the agency, which has about 70 employees, according to its 2025 annual report. It focuses on aiding state and local election officials with training and other resources, certifying voting equipment and overseeing grant programs.
Gideon Cohn-Postar, director of federal affairs at the Institute for Responsive Government, said election officials generally want Congress to provide about $400 million a year, a figure that reflects lawmakers’ initial commitment to the grant program in 2018 and would allow states to make significant strides in bolstering their election infrastructure.
Each year’s grants are split between states and territories based on a formula. In practice, most receive the minimum amount. The $45 million grant for 2026 translated into $819,000 for most states, with a mandatory 20% match.
“It’s absolutely insufficient,” Cohn-Postar said.
State spending
A December 2024 report from the Bipartisan Policy Center measuring the impact of the grant program found that cybersecurity constituted the single largest category of grant spending, at over $200 million, followed by nearly $150 million on voting equipment.
Some states save up their grant money over several years to help pay for larger purchases, like voter registration systems, with the money earning interest in the meantime. As of March 2025, states had collectively spent 69% of their grant dollars, according to the latest data available from the EAC.
Two states — Nevada and Ohio — have spent 100% of their funds. Only Louisiana has spent none, ahead of a future elections system overhaul.
In Connecticut, election officials have spent 95% of the $13.8 million it has received in election security grants over the years, according to the EAC data. The funds have helped towns conduct security audits, Connecticut Democratic Secretary of State Stephanie Thomas said in an interview.
As an example, Thomas said when she took office in 2023 not all of the town’s systems were on a government online domain but most have now adopted one.
“Someting like that, it never gets the headlines but hugely important from a security perspective,” Thomas said.
Commission warns against cuts
EAC commissioners have been warning Congress that unstable funding and budget cuts would harm their agency’s work. All three current commissioners and a recent former commissioner testified at a House Administration Committee hearing on election security in May, where they cautioned lawmakers against reduced and unpredictable resources.
Commissioner Benjamin Hovland, a Democratic appointee of Trump, noted that while Congress has provided “significant” funding since the 2002 law, federal dollars have covered less than 5% of the total cost of running elections during that time.
Election officials today face challenges that would have been unimaginable when the law was passed, he said, adding that commissioners heard enthusiasm for the EAC’s work in recent meetings with officials.
“But the agency is nearing a point where funding cuts will impact what we can accomplish, and the support we can provide election officials, especially related to election security,” Hovland said.
States frequently tell the EAC they want federal funding that is “predictable, consistent, and sufficient” to support long-term planning, said Christy McCormick, a Republican commissioner appointed by President Barack Obama.
U.S. Election Assistance Commissioner Christy McCormick spoke at the Iowa State Association of County Auditors summer conference in Des Moines in June 2024 about federal resources available to local election officials. (Photo by Robin Opsahl/Iowa Capital Dispatch)
The EAC’s adoption of newer, more rigorous standards for election equipment illustrates the importance of funding for state and local election officials.
In 2021, the EAC adopted the Voluntary Voting System Guidelines 2.0, or VVSG 2.0, replacing the earlier 1.0 guidelines. The technical standards are designed to enhance security, such as requiring air gapped systems, and greater accessibility for voters with disabilities.
While states are not required to use VVSG-certified machines, many states have followed the EAC’s lead and mandated the use of machines that meet these standards. Upgrading is expensive, however.
In the meantime, election technology continues to age. By 2028, the average age of modern voting equipment will rise to 9.3 years old, up from just 4.9 years old in 2020, according to a report from the Bipartisan Policy Center released in late May. The report identified “episodic and unpredictable” federal funding as one obstacle to states purchasing VVSG 2.0 equipment.
“Federal support is absolutely key to making sure that election infrastructure is functioning well at the state and local levels,” Will Adler, a co-author of the report, said in an interview.
‘Don’t give me any more money’
To be sure, some state election officials are skeptical of accepting grant funding. Kansas Republican Secretary of State Scott Schwab told a congressional hearing in April that elections are best run and funded locally.
He said he previously accepted grant dollars but that state lawmakers then didn’t approve the required matching funds, leaving his office in a bind.
“I would rather, because of the strings attached, just don’t give me any more money,” Schwab said. “If we need more money, we can handle it locally.”
But since the House Appropriations Committee advanced cuts to the EAC and the election security grants in April, numerous election officials and voting rights groups have urged lawmakers to reconsider.
On May 12, the Project for Election Infrastructure sent a letter signed by several dozen local election officials asking senators for $400 million in election security grants, with at least two-thirds directed to localities. The true cost of modernizing and fully securing American election systems will run billions of dollars, the letter warned.
Bollards surround a ballot drop box at the Salt Lake County Government Center in Salt Lake City on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024. (Photo by Spenser Heaps for Utah News Dispatch)
The National Association of Counties on June 2 asked House and Senate appropriations leaders to not cut funding. The years between presidential elections are when “critical groundwork is laid,” the association’s CEO and executive director, Matt Chase, wrote in a letter.
Chase ticked through typical security expenses that can quickly add up. Bollards to protect remote drop boxes can cost $500 to $4,000 per bollard. Key card access at election facilities can cost $1,500 to $5,000 per door. Video surveillance cameras can run hundreds to thousands of dollars.
“Federal investment scaled only to presidential cycles leaves counties without the resources needed to be ready when turnout surges,” Chase wrote.
Thomas, the Connecticut secretary of state, echoed the sentiment.
“I feel that many people use the term election security almost like a slogan,” Thomas said. “But election security is actually year-round work.”
