An Election Day dress rehearsal and more news from the states

Good morning. Thanks for joining us this Monday.

Our newsrooms have been reporting on the destruction from Hurricane Isaias and recovery efforts in Florida and Alabama.

President Donald Trump’s moves to bring down fuel prices are being met with skepticism by some in the trucking industry and temporary changes in some states, including Montana and Idaho.

And in the course of a single election cycle, the backlash against data centers has grown from an issue at local planning commission and city council meetings to become a flashpoint in state and federal races across the country, Stateline reports.

We’ll see you back here tomorrow.

Iowa: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin said that the federal agency is processing “updates” on the state’s list of impaired waterways amid a lawsuit challenging the decision to delist seven waterways that had been added due to nitrate pollution.

Rhode Island: Two years after federal monitors found numerous problems with how grant money was tracked and spent by state housing officials, a new audit echoes many of those same problems. 

North Carolina: The State Health Plan has requested a temporary restraining order to halt Atrium Health’s new “affordability program.” The state treasurer said the program could push the plan into bankruptcy.

Ohio: Democratic state lawmakers are introducing bills that would ban children 13 and younger from operating electric bikes and electric scooters, and require all riders wear helmets.

Alaska: The average price of a gallon of heating fuel — No. 1 diesel — in rural areas reached a record $7.97 per gallon in August, according to the latest biannual survey conducted by the state’s Division of Community and Regional Affairs.

North Dakota: A district court judge ruled that state rules on where infrastructure such as pipelines can be built do not automatically trump local zoning ordinances. The ruling comes after landowners and two counties sued the Public Service Commission and pipeline developer Summit Carbon Solutions.

Maryland: The annual heat season ended with a record-breaking year for heat-related illnesses and deaths, with the state reporting 61 deaths. 

South Dakota: Reports of deer deaths from a viral disease have spiked as hunters take to the fields, and state wildlife officials are reducing some hunting opportunities and offering hunting license refunds to protect deer numbers.

See the rest of the news of the day from all 50 states, plus our D.C. Bureau and Stateline, on News From The States.

In a warehouse in Bartow County, Georgia, election director Joseph Kirk stands in the middle of a long aisle of voting machines and starts performing his checks.

Early voting is a week away. This year, one of Georgia’s two U.S. Senate seats and all statewide offices are up for grabs. But before voters start casting their ballots, election officials across the state must conduct a sort of dress rehearsal, known as logic and accuracy testing, to ensure that all equipment is working properly, Georgia Recorder reports.

Kirk, who is also the past president of the Georgia Association of Voter Registration and Election Officials, said the routine testing procedure involves every piece of equipment and every procedure used during the voting process.

Common problems include screen malfunctions and other maintenance issues. But Kirk said during his time as election director, any discrepancy in tallying ballots they found during the testing have been the result of human error, not problems with the machines.

This is likely the last major election that will be conducted primarily on Georgia’s ballot-marking devices, which have been in place since 2020 and use a QR code to tally votes. The equipment has long faced criticism from activists who claim machines are less secure than paper ballots marked by hand, and state lawmakers are currently in the early stages of selecting Georgia’s next voting system.

On ancestral Wabanaki homelands in Maine now known as Freeport, Maulian Bryant, executive director of the Wabanaki Alliance, told a crowd of tribal citizens and supporters of tribal sovereignty that they are on the verge of a historic time, Maine Morning Star reports. 

“No more vetoes of large-scale legislation that restores our tribal rights,” Bryant said earlier this month during the alliance’s annual gathering known as Nihkaniyane, which means going forward together. 

With a new governor on the horizon, Bryant and others are optimistic about the future of the tribal-state relationship. Outgoing Democratic Gov. Janet Mills had opposed sweeping change, though during her two terms she ushered through several piecemeal adjustments. 

The Wabanaki Nations have less sovereignty than other federally recognized tribes because of a 1980 land settlement agreement subjecting them to state laws in a manner more akin to municipalities.

Formed in 2020, the Wabanaki Alliance brought together the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians, Mi’kmaq Nation, Passamaquoddy Tribe, Penobscot Nation and allies to work toward educating the public on tribal communities and push for sovereignty.  

While the latest effort to fully restore sovereignty to the Wabanaki Nations languished earlier this year, lawmakers opted to form a task force to assess tribal access to beneficial federal laws.