Rep. Joe Morelle (D-NY), the top House Administration Committee Democrat, is pushing states to accelerate their ballot counting processes before November’s midterm elections.
Morelle warned that slow vote counting risks casting doubt on election results at a politically volatile moment for American democracy.
“We are, I think, nicely trying to encourage people to do their balloting as quickly as possible, and that means hiring additional staff so that it doesn’t call into question results,” Morelle said.
Democrats have been working behind the scenes to identify and address potential disruptions to the 2026 midterm elections and their certification process.
Morelle said his team has wargamed over 150 scenarios in which the Trump administration could attempt to interfere with or complicate the November elections.
He described identifying “probably 150 different threats” to the midterms, a figure that has shaped a comprehensive election security toolkit developed for House Democrats.
The toolkit is designed to prepare Democratic candidates and officials for a wide range of scenarios they may face heading into the fall election season.
At the center of Democratic anxieties is President Trump, whom Morelle argued is “emotionally unable to get over 2020.”
Morelle said he is coordinating with outside groups and former federal employees to shield candidates and election systems from cyber threats.
Sen. Alex Padilla of California joined Morelle in authoring a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin and acting CISA head Nick Anderson, demanding the restoration of over $39.6 million in election security funding.
The letter stated: “With the midterm elections occurring in two months, we write with grave concern that time is running out … to assist state and local election officials in protecting our elections from cyber and mis-and disinformation threats.”
The funding request targets a range of specific election security efforts that lawmakers say have been left dangerously under-resourced ahead of November.
Morelle expressed confidence in local election officials across party lines but stressed that additional support is needed given the political environment surrounding this election cycle.
“I have enormous confidence in election officials at the local level, Democrats and Republicans,” Morelle said. “But we’re trying to take the burden off them because some of them recognize that the president is going to try to be disruptive in the final weeks leading up to the election.”
