This play was published for the first time in Slate.
In its crusade against federal agencies, the Trump administration targets our electoral system, carrying out potentially dangerous reductions in protections that help maintain free, fair and safe elections. Friday, the acting director of Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency sent a memo To all agency staff members by informing them that “all election safety activities” would be interrupted while waiting for the results of an internal investigation. The memo also said that the administration cut all funds Center for the sharing and analysis of information on electoral infrastructure—A organization funded by the Ministry of Internal Security which helps the state and local authorities to monitor, analyze and respond to cyber attacks targeting the country’s hardware and electoral software.
The work of the CISA and the IS-ISAC was at the heart of election security in the United States for most of the last decade, offering state officials of the State and the local critical tools and assistance To defend yourself against cyber and physical threats to electoral systems. These stages and other recent strokes at the railing of the federal elections were predicted in 2025 project. Understanding the game book will help us be ready to push back when the next shoes fall.
The changes to the CISA began shortly after Kristi Noem was sworn in as an interior security secretary, who supervises the agency. Beyond the break and financing of the security of the announced elections of IS-ISAC, the agency also put Critical Electoral Safety Staff on leave and targeted them for potential termination. These staff members include regional CISA electoral security advisers, who are former state and premises electoral officials who provide ground security support to front -line workers, and members of the agency’s electoral resilience team, which would have been Targeted because they had already been involved in the agency’s efforts to communicate precise information on elections security to electoral managers and to the public.
Although the electoral officials of the states and premises on both sides of the alley congratulated the CISA for having provided such support, President Donald Trump and Several other preservatives criticized the agency since Trump’s first named to direct the CISA, Christopher Krebs, promoted precise information on the 2020 elections, including that the The election was secure. (The president continues to arrogate that the 2020 elections were faked.)
Depending on reportsThe leaders of the Ministry of Internal Security will decide on the next steps of the CISA electoral security initiatives when its examination is completed on March 6. But given the president’s attacks on the work of the CISA, it is not difficult to imagine that the administration definitively prohibits the electoral security of the agency of the Role Agency, as recommended in the 2025 project.
Even if the CISA continues to provide limited support for electoral security, the reduction of its staff and the deprivation of its work can mean that the nearly 10,000 local electoral officials on the ground are not very little beneficial to the group.
The attacks of the new administration against federal aid on election security extend beyond the CISA or the IS-ISAC. Almost immediately after taking oath as a general prosecutor, Pam Bondi dissolved The working group on the influence of FBI foreigners – another Project target 2025. The working group was created during Trump’s first mandate, following the attempts of Russian actors to interfere in the 2016 elections by hacking the emails of the campaign, by influencing public opinion through social media and by surveying the Weak points of cybersecurity in voter registration systems. Interference of Russia and other countries continues to threaten the American elections. In 2024, bomb threats that seemed to come Russian email Areas have been sent to the voting locations, Videos related to Russia Electoral employees wrongly destroying the ballots, and Hackers linked to Iran successfully obtained and tried to disclose documents from the Trump campaign. Now a Critical defense line Against these attacks has disappeared.
The Trump administration also adopted this month earlier at the Federal Electoral Commission, the Bipartite agency which regulates campaign financing in the federal elections. The 2025 project called for a lower FEC, arguing that the independent agency should do less to regulate political spending. In a Unprecedented displacementTrump tried to dismiss the chairman of the committee. This decision came at a time when the FEC should rule on financing complaints of the 2024 election campaign, many of which involved the contribution and expenditure of the billionaire Elon Musk on behalf of the Trump campaign.
Each of these maneuvers weakens the railing that maintained the secure and equitable American elections. And again, they may only be the start, given other recommendations related to the elections in the 2025 project.
The plan also further Targets of defenders Public and private institutions such as working groups and university researchers who study the elections and try to communicate precise electoral information to the public. Project 2025 even suggests Armament The laws on civil rights To go after the electoral officials, the voting registration groups and non -partisan policies adapted to voters.
Fortunately, repression against at least some of these efforts already has a plan in decrees against decrees to target other government functions. Dozens of prosecution have already been filed in response to Trump’s executive orders. Public pressure campaigns also seem to have had some success, with leaders of the Trump administration reversal on political decisions as the freezing of federal funding. Any effort of the Trump administration to use the Ministry of Justice or the Federal Communications Commission–As was suggested by 2025 project– To prevent Americans from voting or exercising their first amendment rights to tell the truth about the elections, can also be conducted in court and public opinion.
But even if such battles make some of the worst abuses go back, it is clear that the federal government will play, at best, a much smaller role in protecting elections. This means that state and local governments need to get up even more To guarantee our elections in 2026 and 2028. Legislators, governors and other public leaders, as well as civil society, must enter the space canceled by the federal government by providing support, resources and protections to guarantee infrastructure local electorals and defend the voters’ rights.
