The County Landscape Project: An Overview of County-Level Election Administration

Counties are vital to the foundation of our communities, helping shape the places where we live, work and thrive. From maintaining critical infrastructure and delivering essential public services to fostering economic growth and ensuring public safety, county governments play a pivotal role in the daily lives of millions of Americans.

An in-depth look into the history of counties, our authority and structure, key county services and responsibilities and the intergovernmental partnership

Counties are vital to the foundation of our communities, helping shape the places where we live, work and thrive. From maintaining critical infrastructure and delivering essential public services to fostering economic growth and ensuring public safety, county governments play a pivotal role in the daily lives of millions of Americans.

Counties are vital to the foundation of our communities, helping shape the places where we live, work and thrive. From maintaining critical infrastructure and delivering essential public services to fostering economic growth and ensuring public safety, county governments play a pivotal role in the daily lives of millions of Americans.

On Sept. 25, the U.S. Supreme Court granted an emergency appeal from the White House to pause a lower court’s ruling blocking its use of a new SAVE system ahead of the midterms.

With the rapidly evolving federal legislative landscape, counties can get caught in the middle of policy changes with little guidance.   

The Supreme Court ruled in a 6-3 decision to allow the Trump administration to move forward with its Executive Order 14399 directing the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to compile official U.S. citizenship lists to be used in voter citizenship verification and the U.S. Postal Service to impose new mail-in ballot restrictions.

The USPS released its final rule imposing new requirements on how state and local governments must administer mail-in voting, including new ballot envelope requirements and the creation of a national portal of mail-in voter data.

NACo urges counties to reach out to Senators opposing immediate and unfunded changes to election administration in the SAVE America Act (H.R. 7296/S. 1383), which the House passed as part the National Defense Authorization Act (H.R. 8800).