Big changes to the agency charged with securing elections lead to
midterm worries
[November 24, 2025]
By STEVE KARNOWSKI and JULIE CARR SMYTH
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Since it was created in 2018, the federal
government's cybersecurity agency has helped warn state and local
election officials about potential threats from foreign governments,
showed officials how to protect polling places from attacks and gamed
out how to respond to the unexpected, such as an Election Day bomb
threat or sudden disinformation campaign
The agency was largely absent from that space for elections this month
in several states, a potential preview for the 2026 midterms. Shifting
priorities of the Trump administration, staffing reductions and budget
cuts have many election officials concerned about how engaged the
Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency will be next year, when
control of Congress will be at stake in those elections.
Some officials say they have begun scrambling to fill the anticipated
gaps.
“We do not have a sense of whether we can rely on CISA for these
services as we approach a big election year in 2026,” said Minnesota
Secretary of State Steve Simon, a Democrat who until recently led the
bipartisan National Association of Secretaries of State.
The association's leaders sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary
Kristi Noem in February asking her to preserve the cybersecurity
agency's core election functions. Noem, whose department oversees the
agency, replied the following month that it was reviewing its “funding,
products, services, and positions” related to election security and that
its services would remain available to election officials.
Simon said secretaries of state are still waiting to hear about the
agency's plans.
“I regret to say that months later, the letter remains very timely and
relevant,” he said.
An agency in transition
CISA, as the agency is known, was formed under the first Trump
administration to help safeguard the nation's critical infrastructure,
from dams and power plants to election systems. It has been undergoing a
major transformation since President Donald Trump's second term began in
January.
Public records suggest that roughly 1,000 CISA employees have lost their
jobs over the past years. The Republican administration in March cut $10
million from two cybersecurity initiatives, including one dedicated to
helping state and local election officials.
That was a few weeks after CISA announced it was conducting a review of
its election-related work, and more than a dozen staffers who have
worked on elections were placed on administrative leave. The FBI also
disbanded a task force on foreign influence operations, including those
that target U.S. elections.
CISA is still without an official director. Trump’s nomination of Sean
Plankey, a cybersecurity expert in the first Trump administration, has
stalled in the Senate.
CISA officials did not answer questions seeking specifics about the
agency's role in the recently completed elections, its plans for the
2026 election cycle or staffing levels. They said the agency remains
ready to help protect election infrastructure.
“Under the leadership of President Trump and Secretary Noem, CISA is
laser-focused on securing America’s critical infrastructure and
strengthening cyber resilience across the government and industry,” said
Marci McCarthy, CISA's director of public affairs.
She said CISA would announce its future organizational plans “at the
appropriate time.”
Christine Serrano Glassner, CISA’s chief external affairs officer, said
the agency's experts are ready to provide election guidance if asked.
"In the event of disruptions or threats to critical infrastructure,
whether Election Day-related or not, CISA swiftly coordinates with the
Office of Emergency Management and the appropriate federal, state and
local authorities,” she said in a statement.
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A sheriff's deputy inspects ballots with the aid of a dog at the
L.A. County Ballot Processing Center Nov. 4, 2025, in City of
Industry, Calif. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope, File)
States left on their own
California's top election security agencies said CISA has played a
“critical role" since 2018 but provided little, if any, help for the
state's Nov. 4 special election, when voters approved a redrawn
congressional redistricting map.
“Over the past year, CISA’s capacity to support elections has been
significantly diminished," the California secretary of state’s
office said in a statement to The Associated Press. "The agency has
experienced major reductions in staffing, funding, and mission focus
— including the elimination of personnel dedicated specifically to
election security and foreign influence mitigation.”
“This shift has left election officials nationwide without the
critical federal partnership they have relied on for several
election cycles,” according to the office.
CISA alerted California officials in September that it would no
longer participate in a task force that brought together federal,
state and local agencies to support county election offices.
California election officials and the governor’s Office of Emergency
Services did what they could to fill the gaps and plan for various
security scenarios.
In Orange County, California, the registrar of voters, Bob Page,
said in an email that the state offices and other county departments
“stepped up” to support his office “to fill the void left by CISA’s
absence.”
Neighboring Los Angeles County had a different experience. The
registrar's office, which oversees elections, said it continues to
get a range of cybersecurity services from CISA, including threat
intelligence, network monitoring and security testing of its
equipment, although local jurisdictions now have to cover the costs
of some services that had been federally funded.
Some other states that held elections this month also said they did
not have coordination with CISA.
Mississippi's secretary of state, who heads the national association
that sent the letter to Noem, did not directly respond to a request
for comment, but his office confirmed that CISA was not involved in
the state’s recent elections.
In Pennsylvania, which held a nationally watched retention election
for three state Supreme Court justices, the Department of State said
it is also relied more on its own partners to ensure the elections
were secure.
In an email, the department said it was “relying much less on CISA
than it had in recent years.” Instead, it has begun collaborating
with the state police, the state's own homeland security department,
local cybersecurity experts and other agencies.
Looking for alternatives
Simon, the former head of the secretary of state's association, said
state and local election officials need answers about CISA’s plans
because officials will have to seek alternatives if the services it
had been providing will not be available next year.
In some cases, such as classified intelligence briefings, there are
no alternatives to the federal government, he said. But there might
be ways to get other services, such as testing of election equipment
to see if it can be penetrated from outside.
In past election years, CISA also would conduct tabletop exercises
with local agencies and election offices to game out various
scenarios that might affecting voting or ballot counting, and how
they would react. Simon said that is something CISA was very good
at.
“We are starting to assume that some of those services are not going
to be available to us, and we are looking elsewhere to fill that
void,” Simon said.
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Smyth reported from Columbus, Ohio.
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