Trump Admin Releases Plan To Protect 2026 Election Infrastructure

The Trump administration released a “comprehensive” plan on Thursday that U.S. election officials can use to safeguard the integrity of the voting process during the upcoming midterms, The Federalist has learned.

“Election security is national security,” Department of Homeland 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.”

Obtained by The Federalist, the 2026 Election Infrastructure Security Plan includes numerous tools and services that election officials can use to protect election infrastructure from physical and cyber threats in the midterms. The extensive report was produced by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), which falls under DHS.

The 13-page document begins by providing a comprehensive overview of existing election infrastructure (voting and processing facilities, voting hardware, etc.) and the core technological components (voter registration systems, tabulation systems, etc.) that define a typical election process. It also includes an analysis of potential cyber and physical threats to this infrastructure that officials may encounter during the 2026 contest, such as attempted cyber hacks of state voter registration databases and bomb threats directed at election offices.

The report provides guidance on how best to confront these prospective issues. For instance, to mitigate potential cyber vulnerabilities, the plan advises election officials to consider using paper ballots “that can be easily reviewed to ensure transparency, auditability, and resilience against software failures or manipulation,” and to “[c]onduct post-election manual audits of paper ballots to verify that voting systems function properly and to identify errors before certifying the final results.”

CISA’s plan also lists numerous “no-cost products and services” that election officials may use to enhance the security of their state or locality’s election infrastructure.

This includes Risk & Vulnerability Assessments (RVAs) to “mature critical infrastructure organizations.” As described by the report, RVAs “provide a comprehensive evaluation of an entity’s security posture, covering internal and external systems, authentication weaknesses, network architecture, and exploitable pathways,” with each RVA producing “a detailed, actionable report outlining risks and mitigation steps.”

Another listed service is “Vulnerability Scanning,” which “continuously monitors internet-accessible network assets (public, static IPv4 addresses) for vulnerabilities and risky configurations.” Participating election offices “receive weekly reports detailing all findings, along with ad-hoc alerts for urgent issues such as unsafe services and known exploited vulnerabilities,” according to the plan.

The 2026 guidance furthermore provides election officials access to CISA’s 10 regional directors, which serve as “Election Security Advisors” for their respective cadre of states across the country. These advisors “play a critical role in ensuring [state, local, tribal, and territorial] partners receive timely, expert support aligned with national cybersecurity risk-reduction priorities.”

The last major resource flagged in the 2026 plan is that of fusion centers, which CISA noted “serve as a key channel for sharing threat intelligence and risk-assessment data, strengthening the security and resilience of election operations.” The purported goal of these state-owned and operated centers is to “integrate” election officials across all levels of government to “address both cyber and physical risks to election infrastructure” as they appear, and to “serve as a channel for threat reporting, analysis, and information sharing.”

“In conclusion, the CISA 2026 Election Infrastructure Security Plan represents a comprehensive commitment to safeguarding the integrity of the United States electoral process,” the report reads. “By leveraging collaborative partnerships, robust cyber defenses, and ongoing threat intelligence, the plan ensures that all stakeholders are prepared to address evolving risks.”

The Trump administration’s election security plan is a notable pivot for CISA, which previously operated as the “nerve center” of the censorship-industrial complex.

While created in 2018 to safeguard critical U.S. infrastructure and guard against cybersecurity threats, a 2023 House GOP report found that CISA had “metastasized” into a weapon used in the federal government’s “domestic surveillance and censorship operations on social media.” A separate House report released later that year showed that CISA colluded with Stanford University to pressure Big Tech companies into censoring prominent conservative voices leading up to the 2020 election — including The Federalist’s Mollie Hemingway and Sean Davis.

For more election news and updates, visit electionbriefing.com.

Shawn Fleetwood is a staff writer for The Federalist and a graduate of the University of Mary Washington. He is a co-recipient of the 2025 Dao Prize for Excellence in Investigative Journalism. His work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics and RealClearHealth. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood