Congress should pass comprehensive federal legislation regulating AI to protect the public from those dangers. Until then, it should keep letting the states move forward on protecting voters and the general public from grave risks posed by reckless developments in AI.

My colleague Yasmin Abusaif explained that the ban threatened laws ranging from prohibitions of deepfakes that could suppress votes, to safety regulations of driverless cars. www.brennancenter.org/our-work/ana...

The provision would have threatened at least 149 state laws passed in 41 states and DC.

When I researched this intimidation, I was touched by the concern legislators on both sides of the aisle expressed for their constituents--not only their supporters, but also those who wished to disagree safely and civilly. www.brennancenter.org/our-work/res...

The threat of malign foreign interference hasn’t gone away, and there’s nothing wasteful about giving election officials targeted assistance in protecting against it. www.votebeat.org/2025/02/27/c...

That’s why Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose (R-OH) had required county election boards and their staff to join the EI-ISAC. www.ohiosos.gov/globalassets...

There are about 10,000 local election jurisdictions, ranging from towns of only a few thousand voters to urban jurisdictions. Local election officials cannot be expected to go it alone, defending our elections against threats from hostile nation-states. www.hsgac.senate.gov/wp-content/u...

The funding cut means that the Center for Internet Security has had to stop its support of the EI-ISAC, critically endangering the crucial national security work that EI-ISAC provides. The DHS funding supporting it was only a tiny, tiny fraction of the agency’s overall budget.

EI-ISAC also developed and shared best practices for election officials procuring voting machines, epollbooks, voter registration databases, and other election equipment. A vitally important task, since these vendors receive almost no federal oversight. www.brennancenter.org/our-work/pol...

EI-ISAC, with CIS’s support, helped facilitate communication between local election officials around the country, and the private sector like election equipment vendors, about the types of cyber threats officials were seeing and the best ways to protect the voting systems and equipment.

The funding was used to support the Election Infrastructure Information Sharing and Analysis Center, an organization that helps state and local election officials prevent and address cyberattacks on election infrastructure. x.com/dhsgov/statu...