Alarmed by cuts already made to federal agencies that help safeguard elections, and fearful that more could be coming, a bipartisan group of the nation’s top state election officials has appealed to Kristi Noem, the secretary of homeland security, for help.
In a rare move, the ordinarily restrained National Association of Secretaries of State wrote to Ms. Noem, the former South Dakota governor, on Friday asking that critical election programs and protections be spared during an upcoming agency review.
Among the programs the group singled out for preservation were those aimed at assessing the physical security of voting locations and election offices, shoring up cybersecurity for election offices, sharing classified intelligence on foreign threats to elections and responding to attacks like ransomware.
“We favor continuity of the core resources,” the secretaries said, while also asking Ms. Noem to discuss with them any “potential changes or impacts to election security-related services before making a final decision.”
Last week, The New York Times reported that the Trump administration had already reassigned several dozen officials working on foreign interference in U.S. elections at the Federal Bureau of Investigation and forced out others at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, part of the Department of Homeland Security.
The letter’s tepid wording was unsurprising: The association, comprising 40 secretaries of state belonging to both parties, is often loath to wade into any debate that could appear political. But election officials nationwide have expressed concern and confusion about the administration’s moves.