States Say They Can't Count on the Federal Government to Warn Them About Election Threats

State election officials across the country say they can no longer count on the federal government to warn them about threats to elections. An internal document from the National Association of Secretaries of State, obtained by USA TODAY, says federal agencies are not seen as reliable options for sharing election threat information. The document was written on March 27 and was signed off on by both Republican and Democratic leaders of the group. This means that as the 2026 midterm elections get closer, states are trying to find other ways to protect voting systems on their own.

For years, a federal agency called the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency — known as CISA — was the main source of election security help for states. It shared information about cyberattacks, gave briefings about foreign countries trying to interfere with elections, and watched over election websites for signs of trouble. Since it was created in 2018, states relied on CISA as a safety net when threats appeared. But recently, that safety net has been weakening fast.

In 2025, the Department of Homeland Security let go of about one-third of CISA's workers through layoffs and early retirements. It also cut millions of dollars in funding for programs that helped states share security information with each other. These cuts made it much harder for CISA to do its job of keeping elections safe. CISA still does not have a Senate-confirmed director leading the agency.

Arizona's Secretary of State, Adrian Fontes, said the drop in support has been severe. He still believes states will get through the 2026 elections, but he worries problems could be missed. 'You're talking about the real potential that something might be able to slip through the cracks. There's a lot more cracks than there used to be,' he said. His concern is shared by election officials in both political parties.

Because of these changes, state officials have been building their own networks to share security information. They are working with nonprofits and with big technology companies like Microsoft, Google, and Cloudflare. These companies track threats to elections both in the United States and around the world. They have offered to give regular briefings to state officials throughout the year.

Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs shared a story that shows how important federal support used to be. In 2023, he got a phone call in the middle of the night from the head of CISA. The agency had spotted unusual activity from a foreign internet address on a county election website in Washington state. Hobbs disconnected the voter database from the site, sent a team to fix the problem, and the website was back up within 100 hours.

Hobbs said that if the same thing happened before the 2026 elections, there would be no such warning call. Private tech companies are helpful, but they do not have the same intelligence-gathering power as the FBI or the National Security Agency. Federal agencies could often warn states about threats before an attack even happened. That kind of early warning is something private companies usually cannot provide.

David Becker, who runs a nonprofit that helps election officials, said officials from both parties have lost trust in the federal government as a partner. 'I don't know of a single jurisdiction that is looking to the federal government as a leader or an expert, or a partner. If anything, they're preparing for the opposite,' he said. His words show just how big the shift has been in how states think about election security.

State officials say they are doing their best to work together and fill the gaps left by the federal government. Maine's Secretary of State, Shenna Bellows, said states are now paying for security services that the federal government used to cover. She said states often find out about cyberattacks from news reports instead of from federal agencies. 'They've continued to send the message that the states are on their own,' Bellows said.

Foreign countries are spending enormous resources trying to interfere with U.S. elections, and officials worry that states cannot match that threat alone. 'Fifty states and territories are going to fight separately. We try to get unified as much as possible. We're doing the best we can, but it would be nice to have the government there with another added layer of protection,' Hobbs said. For now, states are hoping their new partnerships will be enough to keep the 2026 elections safe.