The Top Ten Election Threats

The current administration, its allies, and federal lawmakers continue with efforts to advance interference in free and fair elections in the United States. From the President’s executive order on elections signed in March 2025 to federal agency requests for state voter files to targeting election officials and nonprofit organizations that protect voters and elections, these efforts create permission structures to ultimately silence voters and to take away power from the election officials who can effectively and safely administer elections.

Requiring voters to obtain and produce birth certificates, passports, and other specific documents to prove their U.S. citizenship when they register or update registration information to vote creates unnecessary barriers for eligible Americans, including older voters, rural voters, military and overseas voters, college students, trans and nonbinary voters, and voters of color. Millions of Americans don’t have access to the specific documents that the Trump administration is demanding as proof of citizenship. Voters should be able to register and vote without having to repeatedly locate, obtain, and produce documents proving eligibility—especially when they are already required to swear under penalty of perjury that they are U.S. citizens before registering and voting. States, not the president, set and communicate rules about voter eligibility that are subject to federal civil rights laws and the U.S. Constitution.

The federal government’s unprecedented collection of state voter registration data poses major data security and privacy risks for voters and election administration. Relying on incompatible, unreliable, and/or out-of-date federal databases to try and “verify” voters’ eligibility risks disenfranchising eligible voters. Voters’ data privacy and the security and reliability of our voter registration records are paramount. The administration’s attempt to quickly and irresponsibly cobble together a national citizenship database for purposes of voting poses major risks to both voters and our elections. Instead of taking shortcuts, we should continue to have voter rolls managed by trusted state and local officials using best practices—not federal agencies pushing partisan agendas.

Eliminating accessible opportunities to vote early in person or by mail intentionally creates barriers to voting. Voters need accessible, well-resourced polling places, protections for voters with disabilities, and multiple voting options, including secure mail ballots. These elements ensure voters can cast their ballots in a manner and method convenient and safe for them.

Threats to tested, reliable, efficient, and accessible voting machines harm voters with disabilities, introduce unnecessary delays in the election administration process, and undermine confidence in our elections. Voting machines are the preferred means of tabulating votes in elections. Voting machines currently used by state and local election officials undergo extensive testing before each election to guarantee reliability and accuracy. These machines are only accessed and administered by state and local officials who are responsible for auditing the voting machines at every step to make sure votes are recorded correctly.

All voters should be able to vote by mail to ensure they have ample opportunity to vote in a manner that is safe and accessible. Harmful changes to mail-in voting policies, such as reduced dropboxes, limit options for voters, particularly those who rely on this method for accessibility or safety.

Calls to mandate hand counts, driven by conspiracy theories and extremist arguments, as the primary method of counting ballots, ignore the fact that hand-counting votes is neither efficient nor accurate. Voting machines are more efficient and accurate than counting by hand. Hand counting is more error-prone and costly than counting by machine and should be limited to audits or testing, not standard ballot counting practice.

Every vote by every eligible voter should be counted, with opportunities to correct minor mistakes such as a missing signature or a signature that doesn’t match the one in the voter’s record. Best election practices require that voters must be notified of their ballot status and allowed to “cure” these mistakes in time for the ballot to be counted. Robust notice and cure programs should provide voters with adequate time after notification of a rejected ballot to correct any issues, reducing voter disenfranchisement and increasing public trust in our elections.

Attempts to block or delay certification for the benefit of a candidate or party create chaos, sow distrust in our election systems, and silence the voices of voters. Refusal to certify an election is also not legal in many states. Certification should be timely, transparent, and respected as the legal conclusion of an election. State and local officials should take priority action to ensure elections are certified.

Across the nation, academics, historians, legal experts, and pro-democracy advocates are sounding the alarm about America’s slide towards authoritarianism as we head into 2026. Some scholars specifically point to the deployment of domestic military forces and federal agents into cities in response to peaceful protests, as well as the erosion of checks and balances.