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Indiana moving far too slowly to thwart election hacking, lawsuit alleges

Inquire Indiana: Which Counties Don't Have Paper Ballots?

Indiana is not moving nearly assertively enough to upgrade its voting machines so they're less vulnerable to hackers, a nonprofit alleges in a federal lawsuit pressing the state to spend millions more before the presidential election.

At issue is the timetable for eliminating the direct recording electronic, or DRE, voting machines that are in use in 58 of the state's 92 counties. The complaint filed Thursday by Indiana Vote by Mail, which advocates for any array of proposals to give Hoosiers easier access to the ballot box, wants to force the state to replace the paperless devices in the next year with machines that produce a voter-verified paper audit trail.

Indiana for now looks to be among just eight states using paperless balloting in 2020, when President Trump will be counting on its 11 electoral votes. The state last went for the Democratic candidate for president in 2008.


Indiana Secretary of State Connie Lawson announced plans this summer to retrofit 2,000 electronic machines before the primaries in May so they produce a paper record. But that's only 10 percent of the equipment at issue. That's because the state allocated just $6 million to the project. Lawson had sought $75 million for the project but was rebuffed in budget negotiations by the governor, fellow Republican Eric Holcomb.

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The General Assembly enacted a law this year giving counties in the state until 2030 to stop using paperless voting machines at any of the 5,0000 polling places. The DRE machines are widely understood to be more vulnerable to attack than their paper-trail siblings. But Lawson told the Indianapolis Star it is already "virtually impossible" for someone to hack into Indiana elections, because voting machines and tabulation devices aren't connected to the Internet.

Over the summer, volunteer hackers successfully gained access to every voting system they targeted as a test of the nation's election security.

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Ranked Choice, Press Freedom & Legislative Power — This Week’s Expand Democracy 5

Ranked Choice, Press Freedom & Legislative Power — This Week’s Expand Democracy 5

Welcome to the latest edition of The Expand Democracy 5 from Rob Richie and Eveline Dowling. This week they delve into: (1) how better elections could empower legislatures; (2) the 2025 World Press Freedom on disturbing trends; (3) better RCV polling in NYC; (4) Bright Line Watch survey on declining democratic health; and (5) the week’s timely links, including to a new free documentary Majority Rules 101.

In keeping with The Fulcrum’s mission to share ideas that help to repair our democracy and make it live and work in our everyday lives, we intend to publish The Expand Democracy 5 in The Fulcrum each Friday.

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Raising Taxes or Cutting Spending: House Budget Committee Argues Over Debt Crisis Fix

Republican and Democratic representatives discussed the fiscal state of the United State in a House Budget hearing on May 7, 2025

Huiyan Li | Medill News Service

Raising Taxes or Cutting Spending: House Budget Committee Argues Over Debt Crisis Fix

WASHINGTON –– Republicans and Democrats clashed on May 7 at a House Budget Committee hearing over how to address the nation’s mounting federal debt—whether to raise revenue through tax increases or cut spending on federal programs such as Medicaid.

Both parties agreed that the United States was on an unsustainable fiscal path and that urgent action is needed to prevent a debt crisis.

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Defining the Democracy Movement: Francis Johnson
- YouTube

Defining the Democracy Movement: Francis Johnson

The Fulcrum presents The Path Forward: Defining the Democracy Reform Movement. Scott Warren's interview series engages diverse thought leaders to elevate the conversation about building a thriving and healthy democratic republic that fulfills its potential as a national social and political game-changer. This initiative is the start of focused collaborations and dialogue led by The Bridge Alliance and The Fulcrum teams to help the movement find a path forward.

The latest interview of this series took place with Francis Johnson, the founding partner of Communications Resources, a public affairs organization, and the former President of Take Back Our Republic. This non-partisan organization advocates for conservative solutions to campaign finance reform. A veteran of Republican politics, Francis has been at the forefront of structural reform efforts, including initiatives like ranked-choice voting.

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Outside Money, Inside Influence: How National Donors Shaped the 2024 Congressional Elections

An individual voting with money.

Getty Images, Orbon Alija

Outside Money, Inside Influence: How National Donors Shaped the 2024 Congressional Elections

In 2024, campaign fundraising in federal elections was more nationalized than ever. Candidates for both the House and Senate continued a decades-long trend of relying less on donations from the voters they represent and more on contributions from donors across the country. The nationalization of campaign contributions, once a concern among elections experts, is now a defining feature of congressional campaigns.

An analysis of 2024 House and Senate campaign data reveals just how deeply this transformation has taken hold. From candidates in small states with limited donor bases to top congressional leaders with national profiles — and especially in competitive races in battleground states — non-local campaign contributions were ubiquitous.

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