Florida Takes Its Election Playbook National
By Justin Riemer, President, USGI
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Secretary of State Cord Byrd want other states to copy Florida’s election policies.
On September 24, DeSantis and Byrd announced the Association of State and Local Election Officials (ASLEO), a new organization that will train election administrators and promote policies based on Florida’s approach. Byrd, who plans to lead the group after November’s election, said, “We want to take the Florida blueprint and take it nationwide.” The announcement was made in conjunction with news that state prosecutors had indicted 20 individuals for election crimes, most of whom are noncitizens charged with registering and voting illegally.
The governor highlighted various Florida policies as a blueprint ASLEO will work to enact outside the state, particularly those that speed up ballot counting. The governor also highlighted the state’s Office of Election Crimes and Security, an agency dedicated to investigating fraud and irregularities in coordination with state prosecutors and its efforts to rein in ballot petition fraud. The latest indictments bring the office’s total to more than 100 arrests and prosecutions since its creation in 2022.
It remains to be seen the extent to which ASLEO will compete with organizations like the National Association of State Election Directors (NASED) and the Election Center that offer training and credentialing or just primarily focus on lobbying and policy advocacy.
Regarding policy, ASLEO has a compelling story to tell about how Florida transformed its elections in the last quarter-century since its embarrassing time under the microscope in the 2000 recount. Lack of clear and uniform ballot counting and recount standards, problems with ballot design and voting systems, and local election official incompetence dominated headlines for years, but Florida eventually started figuring things out. Now, even critics of Florida’s efforts to tighten its voting processes must at least begrudgingly acknowledge its emergence as a national leader in mastering the nuts and bolts of election administration and the professionalism of its election officials.
Even setting aside disputed list maintenance, proof of citizenship, or voter ID policies, Florida sets the standard for efficient ballot counting, leaving even the New York Times to note that “Florida Counts Its Election Ballots Fast,” and asking, “Why Can’t California Keep Up?” Despite ranking third in state population and spanning two time zones, Florida reports its results faster than any other state, thanks to its Election Day ballot receipt deadline, generous pre-election processing allowances, and statutory deadlines for completing the count. In the 2024 General Election, Florida had counted more than 81 percent of its vote by about 8 p.m. Eastern when the AP called the race, roughly an hour after polls closed across most of the state. California, by contrast, took nearly a month to finish counting its 2024 general election ballots.
Good policy only means so much if you don’t have effective administrators to implement it. And even as the legislature hammered away at fixing pervasive weaknesses in state election law, Florida was still held back by pockets of incompetent local election administration, particularly in Palm Beach and Broward counties. So the state stepped in: Governor Rick Scott suspended Broward Supervisor of Elections Brenda Snipes in 2018, and Governor DeSantis suspended Palm Beach Supervisor Susan Bucher in 2019, sidelining the officials in those continuously poor performing counties. And even though Florida’s county Supervisors of Elections are elected, voters have generally chosen competent, serious administrators.
Whether progressive states like California, Illinois, or New York will be receptive to ASLEO outreach remains to be seen. But it could be impactful by directing its efforts in those types of states to less controversial reforms including those that would speed up ballot counting.
As far as more contentious policy changes, Florida has been sued as much as any state over its election reforms, but those challenges have been largely unsuccessful. For those states looking to model Florida policy on absentee voting verification, registration safeguards, and others, ASLEO can offer them a battle-tested blueprint. It’s also important to note that Florida has improved its elections and tightened its processes while keeping voting easy. It continues to offer no-excuse absentee voting, a generous early voting period, and smooth Election Day voting all while delivering quick, accurate, and trustworthy election results. If ASLEO can sell that combination of speed, security, and access, it may attract a more diverse array of states that are willing to listen than some may anticipate.
Arizona
The Maricopa County Attorney reported that of 60 voters the County Recorder referred as possible noncitizens after SAVE checks, 52 were citizens and eight were not, and that seven of the eight had been registered while renewing driver’s licenses. No charges were announced.
Runbeck Election Services mailed 3,126 Maricopa County early ballots six days ahead of schedule after a separately processed pallet was released with other outgoing mail. The Recorder’s Office said the ballots went to the correct voters and remain valid.
California
The Riverside County Registrar of Voters received the roughly 650,000 ballots and election materials the sheriff’s office had seized, following the Supreme Court of California’s order to return them.
Shasta County Clerk Clint Curtis oversaw the shredding of the county’s roughly 50,000 November 2024 ballots. The shredding came weeks after the 22-month retention period ended September 5, and after Curtis had twice delayed destruction amid warnings from the county and the Secretary of State’s office.
Connecticut
Former state Senator Dennis Bradley was charged with absentee ballot violations after investigators said he opened a Bridgeport voter’s completed absentee ballot and told her to change her vote in the August Democratic probate primary, in which his brother was a candidate.
Florida
Governor Ron DeSantis and Attorney General James Uthmeier announced indictments of 20 people on election-fraud charges brought by the Statewide Prosecutor. At least three-quarters of those charged are noncitizens, and the rest are felons who had not had their voting rights restored and voters who cast ballots in more than one jurisdiction.
Georgia
The Georgia State Election Board asked the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate concerns about the state’s voting system ahead of the November election. In a letter to U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche, State Election Board Executive Director James Mills asked the DOJ to require a software update and prohibit QR-code tabulation.
The State Election Board adjourned without voting on a Georgia Republican Party and Republican National Committee proposal to require poll workers to shuffle ballots before they are cast. Days earlier, the Board had passed a resolution urging Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to update voting-system software to close a flaw that can allow ballots to be matched to the voters who cast them.
Illinois
DuPage County suspended early voting at all five sites on its first day after the voter-registration system pulled registration dates in place of birth dates and a candidate was left off ballots. The county also held back mail ballots until the following week.
Champaign County suspended early voting at its only early voting site from Friday through the weekend over an unspecified technical issue before reopening.
Kane County sent about 2,000 voters duplicate mail ballots after its ballot-printing system could not confirm which ballots had printed. The clerk told recipients to disregard the duplicate.
Kansas
Attorney General Kobach ordered the League of Women Voters of Kansas and its Leavenworth chapter to stop giving $5 gift cards to students who registered to vote at two high school drives in May, citing federal and state bans on paying people to register. The Attorney General referred the matter to the U.S. Attorney for the District of Kansas.
Kentucky
Campbell County’s online sample ballot omitted the Fourth Congressional District race, an error the county clerk traced to the ballot vendor’s files. The error did not affect printed ballots or voting equipment.
Louisiana
The Secretary of State’s office misclassified about 67,000 voters as inactive during routine database maintenance and said it was restoring their status and had added safeguards.
Michigan
A Park Township woman was charged with felony absentee ballot tampering after township election workers found that she had signed and returned her two adult children’s ballots in the August primary.
Antrim County and at least one Presque Isle County township missed the September 24 statutory deadline to mail absentee ballots 40 days before the election, with clerks citing a shortage of approved ballot printers and a compressed primary-to-general calendar.
Wayne County arranged to mail corrected absentee ballots to about 10,000 voters in Belleville, Sumpter Township, and Van Buren Township after a printing error left the Belleville Area District Library Board races off the ballot.
Blind voters and disability advocates raised concerns that Detroit’s accessible voter terminals frequently malfunction and that poll workers are not trained to set them up, and the City Council president pledged to address the problems before November.
Minnesota
Pine County told more than 200 City of Finlayson voters that votes in a township hospital district write-in race, which the vendor mistakenly printed on their mail ballots, will not be counted.
Nevada
Secretary of State Aguilar’s office said its registration records gave no indication that any of the 185 voters the Department of Homeland Security flagged as noncitizens were ineligible. The Secretary’s office asked the DHS for names, dates of birth, and addresses to confirm the matches.
Washoe County warned voters enrolled in ballot tracking that a Secretary of State vendor had sent them notices in error saying their mail ballots had gone out, when in-state ballots were not scheduled to mail until October 5.
New Jersey
The Ocean County Board of Elections sent domicile questionnaires to about 37 Bay Head voters flagged by the local Republican chairman because their tax bills go to out-of-town addresses. The ACLU of New Jersey threatened to sue the board if it does not issue corrective notices confirming the active registration of the recipients.
North Carolina
The State Board of Elections announced it would send letters to 1,599 registrants flagged as potential noncitizens by the federal SAVE system, asking them to verify their citizenship or request removal if they registered by mistake. The State Board said no one will be removed automatically.
Pennsylvania
Bradford County warned that some voters’ mail ballots would arrive late because its printing vendor failed to mail ballot packets it had prepared the previous week.
State lawmakers proposed HB 2758 to expressly extend Pennsylvania’s existing prohibition on police officers coming within 100 feet of a polling place to federal, state, and local law enforcement officers and agents, subject to existing exceptions for voting, serving a warrant, or responding to a request to preserve the peace. The bill would also allow individuals harmed by a convicted officer’s violation to seek damages and attorney fees.
South Dakota
Yankton County resumed absentee voting with corrected ballots after a week-long pause over a road and bridge levy question that read “referendum” where it should have read “resolution.” Voters who had already cast absentee ballots must vote again.
Tennessee
No candidate’s name will appear on the November ballot for the Memphis-area 93rd State House district. The late Rep. G.A. Hardaway, the only person to petition for either primary, fell one signature short of the 25 valid signatures required.
Texas
The Secretary of State’s office offered counties reimbursement grants to process at least 200,000 online voter-registration applications and updates that the Department of Public Safety failed to transmit after an October 2025 vendor software update. The Texas Association of County Election Officials attributed continuing problems in the state’s voter registration system to “fundamental system architecture failures” by its vendor.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals declined to reinstate Crystal Mason’s illegal-voting conviction, leaving in place the appellate acquittal that turned on whether prosecutors proved she knew she was ineligible.
Virginia
The Department of Elections notified 234,852 people that their felony convictions should not have kept them from voting, after the state narrowed disqualifying felonies to murder and voluntary and involuntary manslaughter.
Alex Nguyen pleaded guilty in federal court to impersonating an FBI agent at a Falls Church polling place during the November 2024 election, where he showed election officers a fake badge while carrying an air pistol.
The Chesterfield County registrar attributed to human error the cancellation of a voter’s registration for a felony conviction she did not have, restored the registration, and began a procedures review with the State Board of Elections.
Wisconsin
A Green Bay man was charged with attempted election fraud for removing the security seal on the City Hall ballot drop box and pulling on its door. The city said no ballots were accessed. A Fond du Lac man was sentenced to 30 days in jail for voting in the November 2020 election while on felony probation.
Florida
Statewide Uniform Voter Registration Application
The Division of Elections noticed development of Rule 1S-2.040, Fla. Admin. Code, and its incorporated form DS-DE 39, under §§ 20.10, 97.012(1)–(2), and 97.052(1), Fla. Stat., to conform the statewide voter registration application to section 2 of chapter 2026-26, Laws of Florida. The rule is at the development stage, with no notice of proposed rule yet published.
Oregon
Procedure for Reporting Election Results
Adopted (temporary): September 28, 2026, effective through March 19, 2027 The Secretary of State amended OAR 165-007-0550 by temporary rule. The amendment allows counties to point the state’s unofficial-results website to county sites for ranked-choice contests, which the state system cannot display round by round. It also requires counties to report ballots with timely postmarks that arrived too late to be counted. The rule is adopted in temporary form.
California
Cervantes v. Bianco, No. S295866 (Cal.)
On September 24, the state Supreme Court ordered Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco to return the approximately 650,000 ballots his office seized from the registrar of voters under a search warrant, holding that the Elections Code bars removing ballots from an elections official’s custody notwithstanding a warrant.
Bonta v. Bianco, No. S295901 (Cal.)
On September 24, in a companion case, the state Supreme Court held that the Attorney General may issue binding directions to sheriffs in criminal investigations and that Sheriff Bianco acted unlawfully in disregarding the Attorney General’s March directive to halt execution of the warrant.
California Council of the Blind v. Weber, No. 3:24-cv-01447 (N.D. Cal.)
On October 2, a federal court ruled that California’s vote-by-mail program denies voters with print disabilities meaningful access by requiring them to print, sign, and return paper ballots after marking them electronically, and directed the Secretary of State to propose a revised protocol by October 19.
District of Columbia
League of Women Voters v. U.S. Department of Homeland Security, No. 1:25-cv-03501 (D.D.C.)
On September 25, the U.S. Supreme Court stayed a federal court’s injunction against the Department of Homeland Security’s expanded SAVE citizenship-verification system, allowing the DHS to resume using it pending appeal.
Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County v. U.S. Department of Homeland Security, No. 1:26-cv-02886 (D.D.C.)
On September 28, a federal court held that FEMA lacked authority to condition Homeland Security counterterrorism grants on election-administration requirements, including citizenship verification of all registered voters and plans to move from barcode-tabulated ballots to hand-marked paper ballots.
Democratic National Committee v. U.S. Department of Defense, No. 1:26-cv-03431 (D.D.C.)
On October 1, the Democratic National Committee filed suit in federal court against the Defense Department and the Office of Management and Budget over its revision of the Federal Post Card Application, which removed the checkbox for U.S. citizens abroad who have never lived in the United States. The DNC claims the change violated the Administrative Procedure Act.
Florida
United States v. Cox, No. 0:25-cr-60249 (S.D. Fla.)
On October 1, a federal court dismissed a charge against a Jamaican national accused of voting in the 2020 election, holding that Congress lacked constitutional authority to enact the federal ban on noncitizen voting because voter qualifications are set by the states.
Florida Rising Together, Inc. v. Byrd, No. 6:24-cv-01682 (M.D. Fla.)
On September 29, a federal court dismissed for lack of standing a challenge to Florida’s requirement that registration applicants whose driver’s license or Social Security numbers do not match state records verify their identity. The court gave the plaintiffs until October 15 to amend.
Georgia
United States v. Raffensperger, No. 1:26-cv-00485 (N.D. Ga.)
On September 30, a federal court dismissed the Justice Department’s suit for Georgia’s unredacted voter file, holding that Title III of the Civil Rights Act, the National Voter Registration Act, and the Help America Vote Act do not preempt Georgia’s voter privacy law.
Republican National Committee v. Allen, No. 26CV008750 (Ga. Super. Ct., Fulton Cnty.)
On October 1, a state court dismissed as moot a suit by the Republican National Committee, the Fulton County Republican Party, and secretary of state candidate Tim Fleming challenging a Fulton County policy that let voters return absentee ballots at 22 advance voting sites, because the county board ended the policy in May.
Louisiana
League of Women Voters of Louisiana v. Landry, No. 3:25-cv-00413 (M.D. La.)
On September 29, a federal court granted in part Louisiana officials’ motion to dismiss a challenge to Act 500, the state’s documentary proof-of-citizenship requirement for voter registration. The court dismissed the National Voter Registration Act claims without prejudice for deficient pre-suit notice but allowed vagueness and equal protection claims to proceed.
Maryland
Electronic Privacy Information Center v. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, No. 8:26-cv-03457 (D. Md.)
The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) challenged a federal initiative to compile and provide state election officials with state-specific lists of adult U.S. citizens, alleging violations of the Privacy Act, Social Security Act, Administrative Procedure Act, and constitutional limits on executive branch authority over elections.
Missouri
Onder v. State of Missouri, No. 4:26-cv-01424 (E.D. Mo.)
On September 25, the U.S. Supreme Court stayed the Eighth Circuit’s mandate and order and the federal court’s September 21 and 22 injunctions, directing that no court bar use of the 2022 congressional map or require use of the 2025 map in the 2026 election.
Montana
Disability Rights Montana v. Jacobsen, No. ADV-2025-293 (Mont. Dist. Ct., Lewis & Clark Cnty.)
On October 5, a state court struck down HB 719’s requirement that voters write their birth year on absentee ballot return envelopes as a violation of the Montana Constitution. As a result, general election ballots missing the birth year will not be rejected.
New Hampshire
Coalition for Open Democracy v. Scanlan, No. 1:26-cv-00647 (D.N.H.)
On October 2, a federal court enjoined Secretary of State David Scanlan’s April directive to the extent it bars election officials from considering student IDs as evidence of identity under the voter ID law’s safety-valve provision. The court declined to block HB 323’s removal of student IDs from the list of accepted IDs.
Ohio
Red Wine & Blue v. LaRose, No. 1:25-cv-01760 (N.D. Ohio)
On September 23, the Sixth Circuit stayed a federal court’s preliminary injunction against Ohio’s requirement that people registering to vote at motor vehicle offices show documentary proof of citizenship, finding the challengers likely lacked standing and the injunction came too close to the election.
South Carolina
NAACP South Carolina State Conference v. Wilson, No. 3:25-cv-13754 (D.S.C.)
On September 30, a federal court dismissed without prejudice the NAACP South Carolina State Conference’s challenge to state limits on who may assist voters with absentee ballots and how many absentee applications and return envelopes one person may handle, holding that the plaintiffs lacked standing.
Tennessee
Reeves v. Grandy, No. 26-CV-0405 (Tenn. Ch. Ct., Washington Cnty.)
On September 30, a state court dismissed a defeated candidate’s contest of the August 6 Washington County mayoral election and denied his request to inspect voting machines, holding that the complaint did not allege fraud or illegality with enough specificity. The ruling freed the machines for use in November.
Texas
Peoples v. Tarrant County, No. 096-384401-26 (Tex. Dist. Ct., Tarrant Cnty.)
On October 2, four Tarrant County voters, including Fort Worth City Council member Deborah Peoples, sued County Judge Tim O’Hare, the two other Republican commissioners, and the county elections administrator in state court to restore 92 Election Day polling sites dropped from the 2022 list. They allege that the cuts intentionally and disproportionately burden minority voters and seek an injunction before early voting begins October 19.
Washington
Soto Palmer v. Hobbs, No. 3:22-cv-05035 (W.D. Wash.); Garcia v. Hobbs, No. 3:22-cv-05152 (W.D. Wash.)
On October 5, the U.S. Supreme Court vacated the Ninth Circuit’s judgments in the Section 2 Voting Rights Act and Equal Protection Clause challenges to Washington’s Yakima Valley legislative district and remanded both for further consideration in light of Louisiana v. Callais.
Wyoming
Malcom v. Gray, No. S-26-0029 (Wyo.)
On October 1, the state Supreme Court affirmed a ruling upholding the state’s requirement that voters declare or change party affiliation at least 96 days before a primary, holding that the deadline imposes only a slight burden and does not violate the state constitution’s election or equal protection guarantees.
International
On October 5, the Supreme Court of India ordered the national government and the Election Commission of India to respond to petitions challenging the commission’s special intensive revision of voter rolls. The commission says the revision targets fraudulent and noncitizen registrations, while opposition parties say it improperly removed millions of names.
The Justice Department announced charges or guilty pleas against 12 people in Florida, Hawaii, Kansas, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Utah. Eleven are noncitizens accused of illegal voting or fraudulent registration, and the twelfth is a former Utah letter carrier accused of discarding about 300 mail ballots.
The DOJ subsequently announced charges against 16 lawful permanent residents in Florida, Louisiana, Minnesota, and Wisconsin for voting as noncitizens, falsely claiming citizenship to register or vote, or related offenses, most of them tied to the 2024 general election.
The Senate voted 53–47 on the House-passed Stop Insider Trading Act, short of the 60 votes needed to advance it, after Democrats objected to a provision requiring photo identification to vote in federal elections.
The Department of Homeland Security said that states must meet unspecified new election-security requirements before receiving their full Homeland Security Grant Program awards, two days after a federal court struck the department’s earlier election conditions from the counterterrorism grants.
The U.S. Postal Service issued a memo directing extended retail hours, dedicated ballot-postmark lines, expedited handling, and extra pickups of ballot mail through the November 3 election.
The Census Bureau proposed residence criteria for the 2030 census that would count citizens and lawful permanent residents in the apportionment base while excluding noncitizens without lawful status and those whose status is less durable than permanent residence. It also proposed a new rule restricting race and other demographic questions on the short-form questionnaire. Comments are due October 13.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin released CISA’s 2026 Election Infrastructure Security Plan, which designates the agency’s regional directors as election security advisers and sets up an information-sharing platform linking election officials, state intelligence centers, and federal partners.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced a September 22 memo directing the National Security Agency and other defense intelligence and cyber components to defend election infrastructure against foreign malign influence through the midterms.
In late August, the Pentagon revised the Federal Post Card Application and Federal Write-In Absentee Ballot through emergency requests that bypassed the usual form-approval process. The revisions removed the checkbox used since 2013 by overseas citizens who have never lived in the United States.
On September 15, the Election Assistance Commission requested comment on the manufacturer registration form and application for testing for its Election Supporting Technology Evaluation Program, which evaluates the functionality, security, and accessibility of electronic poll books, voter registration systems, electronic ballot delivery systems, and election-night reporting systems. Comments are due November 16.
A pending Office of Management and Budget revision of the federal grant rules, proposed in May, would bar the use of federal award funds for voter registration drives and related activities. The rule would not take effect until after the midterms.
Hans von Spakovsky of Advancing American Freedom contends that the Qualifications Clauses leave voter eligibility to the states, so the Election Assistance Commission’s refusal to add Louisiana’s proof-of-citizenship instructions to the federal registration form is arbitrary and capricious. He also argues that the Supreme Court should clarify that Arizona v. Inter Tribal Council of Arizona does not bar states from verifying applicants’ citizenship.
In the Washington Examiner, von Spakovsky argues that the Supreme Court’s SAVE order correctly read 8 U.S.C. § 1373 to let DHS obtain citizenship information from other agencies notwithstanding the Privacy Act and Social Security Act. He adds that the Help America Vote Act’s provisional-ballot requirement protects any voter wrongly flagged from losing the vote.
On C-SPAN’s Washington Journal, Don Palmer of the Heritage Foundation discussed the foundation’s Election Integrity Scorecard, which compares each state’s election laws and regulations.
Stephen Richer of the Cato Institute argues that the Supreme Court’s SAVE order matters less than either side claims, because the National Voter Registration Act’s 90-day bar on systematic removals limits officials to one-off citizenship checks before November. He urges officials to treat SAVE results as a starting point for review.
In an interview with Fred Lucas of The Daily Signal, Maine Senate Minority Leader Trey Stewart argues that the state should tighten ballot chain-of-custody before more voters receive absentee ballots automatically under ongoing absentee status, pointing to the 250 blank Ellsworth ballots a Newburgh resident found in an Amazon package last year. In National Review, John Gustavsson argues that allegations of vote-buying and coached voting in Sweden’s September 13 parliamentary election, including a police investigation of a newly elected Left Party member accused of distributing pre-marked ballots, show that Swedish electoral safeguards have not kept pace with the country’s demographic change.
Matthew Cooper and Steven Huefner of the Election Law Program at Ohio State’s Moritz College of Law reported that their team has cataloged roughly 300 state and federal cases since 2003 involving how election officials build, update, and use voter registration databases. The catalog is the first phase of an MIT Election Data and Science Lab project that will next examine the evidence and expert reports offered in those cases.
Michael Morley of the Florida State University Election Law Center examines the Postal Service ballot-mail litigation as a timing problem for election plaintiffs, who under Trump v. California cannot challenge a rule until it is final but who risk the Purcell principle if relief comes too close to an election. He argues that the rule’s ultimate validity will turn on whether the Supreme Court sees it as regulating federal elections or as regulating how election mail enters the postal system. Jack Friedman and Wren Orey of the Bipartisan Policy Center reported early progress on an MIT Election Data and Science Lab–funded study of how the SAVE system performs in election offices, based on records requests to 24 jurisdictions in six states.
The Grant Institute has potential openings for junior-level attorneys and others interested in the study of election administration and voting issues. Interested candidates should please email their resumes to info@grantdemocracy.org.