Paper ballots, manual audits, and continuous cyber monitoring are among the key recommendations in a sweeping new federal blueprint designed to protect American elections from both digital attacks and physical threats ahead of the 2026 midterms.
The Trump administration on Thursday released its 2026 Election Infrastructure Security Plan, a 13-page document offering state and local election officials a comprehensive toolkit to safeguard voting systems. The plan, produced by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency under the Department of Homeland Security, comes at no cost to participating jurisdictions.
“Election security is national security,” DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin said in a statement. “This plan, which will be implemented in full, is crucial to the security, freeness, and fairness of choosing the leaders of our country. Making America safe again isn’t just done at the border, in our streets, and on the coast. It’s also done in protecting the integrity of American elections.”
The guidance arrives as election officials across the country prepare for a midterm cycle that could see attempts to compromise voter registration databases and even bomb threats targeting election offices, according to the threat analysis contained in the report.
Among the plan’s most significant recommendations: election officials should consider using paper ballots “that can be easily reviewed to ensure transparency, auditability, and resilience against software failures or manipulation.” The document also calls for post-election manual audits of those paper ballots to verify voting systems functioned properly and catch any errors before final certification.
The administration is making several free services available to state and local election administrators. Risk and Vulnerability Assessments will provide what the plan describes as “a comprehensive evaluation of an entity’s security posture, covering internal and external systems, authentication weaknesses, network architecture, and exploitable pathways.” Each assessment produces a detailed report outlining specific risks and steps to address them.
A Vulnerability Scanning service offers continuous monitoring of internet-accessible network assets for security weaknesses. Election offices that participate will receive weekly reports covering all findings, plus immediate alerts when urgent problems arise, such as unsafe services or known exploited vulnerabilities.
The blueprint also connects election officials with CISA’s 10 regional directors, who serve as Election Security Advisors for states within their territories. These advisors coordinate support aligned with national cybersecurity priorities.
The 13-page document opens with an overview of existing election infrastructure, including voting facilities, voting hardware, voter registration systems, and tabulation systems. It then analyzes the range of cyber and physical threats officials may face during the upcoming contest.
The comprehensive nature of the guidance suggests the administration views election security as extending well beyond any single vulnerability. From network architecture weaknesses to bomb threats against physical facilities, the plan attempts to anticipate and counter threats across the full spectrum of election operations.
