The Trump administration has made further significant cuts to important federal cyber and election security agencies and programs, elevating risks to national and election security and presenting serious challenges for state, county and local officials.
In a recent story by Votebeat about the cuts to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (“CISA”), Kathy Boockvar described the extensive cybersecurity and physical security support and services that CISA has provided to election officials over the last 8 years, noting that “the resources they provide were one of the great successes of the [first] Trump administration. I hope they continue to lead on that.”
Unfortunately, now much of that critical support for state and local governments has alarmingly been discontinued, raising the threat risks across the U.S. The administration’s initial cuts to CISA staff and freezing of security services and support to election officials has been followed by their termination of the Election Infrastructure Information Sharing and Analysis Center (“EI-ISAC,”) and other significant reductions in election security funding. The EI-ISAC had provided critical security tools, incident response, technical support and guidance to election officials on how to strengthen their security protections, and it remains to be seen what support and services will still be available to chronically underfunded and understaffed election officials.
These cuts are taking us in the wrong direction and are putting our national security at risk. Election security is a race without a finish line – we need to keep building and strengthening walls of protection faster than those who are trying to tear them down. This requires constant vigilance. If we care about continuing to provide safe, secure, and accurate elections to citizens of our country, we should be investing more in election security and administration, not less.
For more information: https://www.votebeat.org/2025/02/27/cisa-election-cybersecurity-homeland-kristi-noem/
https://www.votebeat.org/2025/03/13/center-internet-security-memo-election-funding-cut/