Liberia: Liberia’s Supreme Court to Rule Monday on Delaying Election | Bloomberg

Liberia’s Supreme Court will rule Monday on a petition asking to delay the runoff presidential election after a complaint said the National Election Commission failed to investigate claims of irregularities in the first round of the vote to replace Africa’s first elected female president. All activity to prepare for Tuesday’s runoff has been halted until the court’s decision. A delay of the vote is almost certain, as the electoral commission has said it would be hard to meet deadlines now. The court heard arguments Friday. Charles Brumskine, the Liberty Party candidate who placed third, has asked the court to grant an Oct. 27 petition to halt the runoff vote until the claims of irregularities are investigated. He argued before the packed court that the Oct. 10 first round was marked by fraud. His party petitioned the court to compel the election commission to investigate the complaints.

Spain: Ousted Catalan leader agrees to election, summoned to Madrid court | Reuters

Catalonia’s ousted leader Carles Puigdemont agreed on Tuesday to a snap election called by Spain’s central government when it took control of the region to stop it breaking away, but he said the fight for independence would go on. Spain’s High Court issued a summons for Puigdemont and 13 members of his sacked administration to testify in Madrid on Thursday and Friday as the court starts processing charges of rebellion, sedition and breach of trust against them. Under Spain’s legal system, a judge will then decide whether Puigdemont should go to jail pending a comprehensive investigation and potential trial.

National: Lawyers’ Committee spearheading election protection efforts in communities across U.S. | Wisconsin Gazette

With Election Day in many states less a week away, Election Protection, the nation’s largest nonpartisan voter protection coalition, is ramping up its efforts to safeguard voting rights across the country. Multiple states have attempted to impose severe restrictions on the right to vote. While courts have batted down many of these efforts to limit the franchise, the confusion surrounding recent rulings and the lack of accurate information could disrupt voting this election cycle. The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law is spearheading Election Protection’s efforts to protect voters this election cycle, using hotlines, field monitors and voter education, as well as its expansive network of national partners and state advocates, to respond to any questions or concerns voters may have.

Alabama: Montgomery Probate Judge questions focus on crossover voters | Montgomery Advertiser

Montgomery County Probate Judge Steven Reed Thursday said just 34 of over 15,000 votes were flagged as possible crossover voters in last month’s Republican Senate runoff, and that the actual numbers might be far lower. “To say this is much ado about nothing would be a dramatic understatement,” Reed said in a phone interview. “I’m not even sure why this is being discussed. That’s not a major issue at all.” The Alabama Legislature earlier this year banned voters who cast ballots in one party’s primary from voting in another party’s runoff. The new law made such crossover voting a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a $15,000 fine. The law only applies to primaries and runoffs. All registered voters can cast ballots in the Dec. 12 general election for Alabama’s junior U.S. Senate seat.

National: SAVE Act attempts to bolster election security | TechTarget

Two senators introduced a new election security bill with the aim of providing assistance to states in order to protect against cyberattacks on voting infrastructure. The bipartisan bill — the Securing America’s Voting Equipment (SAVE) Act — was put forward by Senators Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.). The aim of the bill, according to Collins, is to “assist states in protecting the integrity of their voting systems. “Our bill seeks to facilitate the information sharing of the threats posed to state election systems by foreign adversaries, to provide guidance to states on how to protect their systems against nefarious activity and, for states who choose to do so, to allow them to access some federal grant money to implement best practices to protect their systems,” Collins said on the Senate floor. Collins said that she knew of “no evidence to date that actual vote tabulations were manipulated in any state” during the 2016 U.S. election, but noted that the FBI and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) found 21 states had election systems probed by Russian hackers.

National: Report: Many 2016 voting sites lacked full disability access | Associated Press

Fewer than one in five polling places were fully accessible to voters with disabilities during the 2016 general election, a government report shows — a finding that has prompted federal officials to recommend the Justice Department adopt stricter compliance rules. The report released Thursday by the non-partisan Government Accountability Office comes less than a week before mayoral elections in Atlanta and New York, elections for governor in New Jersey and Virginia and a special U.S. House election in Utah, and gives a window of only a year to address problems before the 2018 congressional elections. The bottom line in the report, provided to The Associated Press in advance of its publication, is that accessibility for voters with disabilities has not kept pace with the increase in early voting that has occurred in many states since the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act and the 2002 Help America Vote Act. Both early voting and the disabilities access improvements are top goals in making it easier to vote.

Read the GAO Report

National: Trump and Sessions Denied Knowing About Russian Contacts. Records Suggest Otherwise. | The New York Times

Standing before reporters in February, President Trump said unequivocally that he knew of nobody from his campaign who was in contact with Russians during the election. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has told the Senate the same thing. Court documents unsealed this week cast doubt on both statements and raised the possibility that Mr. Sessions could be called back to Congress for further questioning. The special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, unsealed his first charges Monday in a wide-ranging investigation into Russian attempts to disrupt the presidential election and whether anyone close to Mr. Trump was involved. Records in that case show that George Papadopoulos, a foreign policy adviser, had frequent discussions with Russians in 2016 and trumpeted his connections in front of Mr. Trump and Mr. Sessions. For months, journalists have revealed evidence that associates of Mr. Trump met with Russians during the campaign and the presidential transition. But the court documents represent the first concrete evidence that Mr. Trump was personally told about ties between a campaign adviser and Russian officials.

National: Researcher discovers over 250 of Trump’s web domains are communicating with Russian servers, sharing weird files | BGR

The US Presidential election is almost a full year in the rear view mirror, but many are still working diligently to determine whether or not everything that happened during the course of the campaigns and voting process was above board. A new report from researchers at Unhack The Vote alleges that Donald Trump’s various web properties could hold a clue as to the President’s communication ties with Russia, and the evidence is quite substantial.

Editorials: Florida should help protect Puerto Ricans’ voting rights | Katherine Culliton-González/Miami Herald

Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico 2 weeks ago, creating devastating damage and a humanitarian crisis for 3.5 million U.S. citizens. Today, 88 percent of Puerto Rico’s residents lack electricity, 43 percent lack water, the health care and school systems are in shambles, and over 58 citizens have died, while the president has been throwing paper towels at people and tweeting racist diatribes. All this is exacerbated by 100 percent of Puerto Ricans lacking equal access to voting rights. Under the 1917 Jones Act, Puerto Rico’s 3.5 million U.S. citizens do not have voting representatives in Congress, and cannot cast votes for president. The Jones Act was in the news recently, as it restricted non-U.S. ships from docking in Puerto Rico. After being temporarily lifted, the Act’s colonialist shipping restrictions are back in place, limiting access to life-saving supplies.

Georgia: Attorney General Won’t Defend State In Voting Machine Case | Courthouse News

Georgia’s attorney general announced Wednesday his office will not defend the state against claims it knowingly used antiquated voting technology in recent elections despite knowing it was vulnerable to being hacked. The Coalition for Good Governance and Georgians for Verified Voting, both of which advocate for voting transparency, sued Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp in Fulton County Superior Court on July 3. The case was removed to federal court in August. The proceedings are pending. However, it was recently revealed that a computer server crucial to the lawsuit was erased four days after the suit was filed in state court, according to Marilyn Marks, executive director of the Coalition for Good Governance, “there’s conflicting information between what the attorney general has stated and what defendants have stated regarding the destruction of records.” “It suggests there’s something very troubling and serious happening,” Marks said. Earlier this week the state attorney general’s office notified U.S. District Judge Amy Totenberg that Georgia Attorney General Christopher Carr is stepping down from the case.

Louisiana: State looks to slay its gerrymanders with redistricting summit | Associated Press

Seizing on a national spotlight about the drawing of political maps, Louisiana residents trying to rework the state’s system for divvying up electoral districts on Wednesday (Nov. 1) announced a January summit they hope will bring about changes. “We have a problem with the current structure,” said Stephen Kearny, chairman of the event and co-founder of a grassroots, bipartisan group called Fair Districts Louisiana. “No matter how virtuous our politicians are, the conflict of interest in being able to choose your own voters in itself provokes bad behavior.” Fair Districts Louisiana is working with LSU’s Reilly Center for Media and Public Affairs on the daylong summit on Jan. 19. The event aims to start talks about revamping Louisiana’s current map-drawing method ahead of the next redistricting cycle tied to the 2020 Census.

Maine: Senator Collins says states need federal help to protect elections | Portland Press Herald

Concerned that Russian efforts to interfere with American elections “continue to this very day,” Sen. Susan Collins said Thursday that the nation must beef up security to fend off cyberattacks by foreign hackers. The Maine Republican said if an adversary succeeded in compromising a U.S. election, it would “undermine public confidence in free and fair elections, a bedrock of our democracy.” Collins and Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-New Mexico, introduced legislation this week they hope can stave off foreign meddling with American election systems. Collins told colleagues on the Senate floor Thursday that foreign hackers with ties to Russia were probing voter databases during last year’s presidential election in many states and succeeded in accessing them twice.

Pennsylvania: GOP leaders seek stay of redistricting lawsuit | Associated Press

Republican leaders in Pennsylvania’s General Assembly on Wednesday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to put on ice a federal lawsuit challenging the state’s congressional districts approved after the 2010 census. House Speaker Mike Turzai and Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati asked Justice Samuel Alito in a filing for a stay of the lawsuit by five Pennsylvania voters against the governor and elections officials. The request said a trial in the case could occur in about a month, as the justices are considering a Wisconsin gerrymandering case with what they call “substantively identical claims.” A lawyer for the plaintiffs said Wednesday they oppose the request to Alito and said they were prepared to respond.

Wisconsin: Report: Robin Vos confronted John Kasich over Wisconsin redistricting position | Wisconsin State Journal

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos confronted 2016 presidential candidate and Ohio Gov. John Kasich in September over his stance on partisan redistricting in Wisconsin, according to a report published Sunday in New York magazine. During a meeting of national statehouse leaders in Columbus, Ohio, Kasich “got into a tussle” with Vos after the Republican from Rochester brought up the U.S. Supreme Court case involving redistricting in Wisconsin, the report said. According to the report, Vos “amicably” approached Kasich, who is also a Republican, during the meeting and then swore at him for supporting the challenge to Wisconsin’s legislative districts, which opponents say unfairly benefit GOP candidates.

Estonia: Government orders online ID lock-down to fix security flaw | Reuters

Estonia plans to block access to the country’s vaunted online services for 760,000 people from midnight on Friday to fix a security flaw in some of the Baltic country’s identity smartcards that was identified earlier this year. Estonia is seen as a leader in providing government services online and has championed the issue within the European Union in recent years, and the security issue leaves it with its much-touted digital IDs in an awkward position. A nation-wide online identity system allows citizens access to most government and private company services via the web, including banking, school reports, health and pension records, medical prescriptions and voting in government elections. But Estonia’s online ID service ran afoul of an encryption vulnerability identified by researchers earlier this year that exposes smartcards, security tokens and other secure hardware chips made by the German company Infineon.

Estonia: A test case for Russian hacking threat – e-voting grows despite tampering concerns | Global Journalist

Tiny Estonia might seem an unlikely place to see the future of technology. With just 1.3 million people, the country has fewer people than San Diego and is just three decades removed from Soviet rule. But “E-stonia,” as its known, has also brought the world Skype as well as up-and-coming startups like robotics firm Starship Technologies and payments provider TransferWise.  Yet Estonia’s technology prowess has also made it something of a laboratory for the dangers of the threats posed by hackers backed by neighboring Russia. In a country where 90 percent use online banking, 95 percent file taxes online and 30 percent cast their ballots from a computer, Estonia is a target-rich environment for cyberattacks. Indeed the NATO-member country is the site of what may have been the world’s first politically-motivated digital attack in 2007. In that year, Estonia angered Russia by relocating a World War II era memorial to Soviet troops. Soon, the networks of government ministries, banks and leading Estonian newspapers went down, the result of a massive and sophisticated botnet attack. 

India: In a first, Tibetans to vote in Himachal Pradesh polls | Times of India

Some 1,000 Tibetan in India have registered themselves with the Election Commission ahead of the assembly elections in Himachal Pradesh. This has left many in the Tibetan community apprehensive about how this will affect their ongoing struggle for a free Tibet.
Information accessed by TOI from Tibetan settlements in McLeodganj, which is the capital of Tibetan government-in-exile, the Nanchen Tibetan division, Bir Tibetan division and Dege division in Bir Billing area of the state has seen most of the Tibetan voters registered for the upcoming polls. The total population of Tibetan refugees in this area is around 22,000, which is second highest in India after Karnataka’s Bylakuppe town. “Our only aim is to struggle for regaining our country. If we mingle with local political systems, there are chances that our people may be diverted from the main aim. There is no doubt that India has done more than enough for us but we can’t afford to deviate from our purpose”, says Sonam, head of Nangchen division of Tibetan settlement in Bir Billing.

Liberia: Supreme Court delays vote hearing till Friday | AFP

Liberia’s supreme court has delayed until Friday a hearing on the country’s disputed presidential election, increasing the likelihood that an impending runoff vote will be delayed. A court spokesman told AFP late Wednesday that the hearing, which will challenge the electoral commission’s handling of the first round of the elections on October 10, would not take place on Thursday as planned for procedural reasons. It will now take place on Friday at 2pm (1400 GMT), the spokesman said on Thursday. Former international footballer George Weah and incumbent Vice President Joseph Boakai face each other in the November 7 runoff. Neither gained more than 50 percent of votes in the first round.

Russia: Russia Hackers Pursued Putin Foes, Not Just US Democrats | Associated Press

It wasn’t just Hillary Clinton’s emails they went after. The hackers who disrupted the U.S. presidential election last year had ambitions that stretched across the globe, targeting the emails of Ukrainian officers, Russian opposition figures, U.S. defense contractors and thousands of others of interest to the Kremlin, according to a previously unpublished digital hit list obtained by The Associated Press. The list provides the most detailed forensic evidence yet of the close alignment between the hackers and the Russian government, exposing an operation that went back years and tried to break into the inboxes of 4,700 Gmail users — from the pope’s representative in Kiev to the punk band Pussy Riot in Moscow. The targets were spread among 116 countries. “It’s a wish list of who you’d want to target to further Russian interests,” said Keir Giles, director of the Conflict Studies Research Center in Cambridge, England, and one of five outside experts who reviewed the AP’s findings. He said the data was “a master list of individuals whom Russia would like to spy on, embarrass, discredit or silence.”

United Kingdom: MPs to debate bill to reduce voting age to 16 | The Guardian

MPs are to debate a bill aiming to reduce the voting age to 16, with the cross-party supporters of the measure arguing it is a long-overdue idea which would boost involvement in politics. The proposal is a private member’s bill, introduced by Labour MP Jim McMahon, and thus has relatively little chance of finding enough parliamentary time to become law, not least as the government does not back the idea. But it has not just official support from Labour, but also backing from the Liberal Democrats, SNP, Plaid Cymru and Greens, with the hope that McMahon’s bill could further push the idea on to the political landscape. The bill, officially titled the representation of the people (young people’s enfranchisement and education) bill, will receive its second reading on Friday, the initial opportunity for MPs to debate an idea.

National: Russia Hackers Had Targets Worldwide, Beyond US Election | Associated Press

The hackers who upended the U.S. presidential election had ambitions well beyond Hillary Clinton’s campaign, targeting the emails of Ukrainian officers, Russian opposition figures, U.S. defense contractors and thousands of others of interest to the Kremlin, according to a previously unpublished digital hit list obtained by The Associated Press. The list provides the most detailed forensic evidence yet of the close alignment between the hackers and the Russian government, exposing an operation that stretched back years and tried to break into the inboxes of 4,700 Gmail users across the globe – from the pope’s representative in Kiev to the punk band Pussy Riot in Moscow. “It’s a wish list of who you’d want to target to further Russian interests,” said Keir Giles, director of the Conflict Studies Research Center in Cambridge, England, and one of five outside experts who reviewed the AP’s findings. He said the data was “a master list of individuals whom Russia would like to spy on, embarrass, discredit or silence.”

National: Senators say ‘cyber war’ with Russia continues far beyond ’16 election | St. Louis Post-Dispatch

U.S. Senators privy to the nation’s secrets declared Wednesday that the United States faces what one called a “cataclysmic” cyberwar with Russia and other hostile entities, and these senators were highly critical of the American-based but global social media platforms on which that struggle is taking place. Capping two days of hearings in which executives from Facebook, Twitter and Google were hauled before various congressional committees probing Russian influence on the 2016 election, Senate Intelligence Committee members debunked as simplistic the narrative that Russian efforts in cyberspace were aimed solely at getting Donald Trump elected president. Instead, senators in both parties described a complex and ongoing effort to undermine western democracies as a continuation of the Cold War on platforms that barely existed a decade ago. The intent is to “sow conflict and discontent over this country,” said Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., who represents the Silicon Valley where the companies are headquartered.

Editorials: The real fraud is Trump and Kobach’s Voter Integrity Commission | St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, the vice chairman and driving force behind President Donald Trump’s bogus Commission on Election Integrity, has gone silent. This could be because court documents unsealed last week, after he misled a federal judge, show his real agenda is amending the national Voting Rights Act to suppress votes. The commission hasn’t met since Sept. 12, when it was embarrassed by Kobach’s claim that 5,500 people may have committed fraud by registering to vote in New Hampshire without having a state driver’s license. It turns out that voting without a state ID is not illegal as long as someone — like a college student — is legally “domiciled” in the state. Reputable studies have shown fraud by voter impersonation is all but non-existent. But Kobach appears deeply worried about brown people. He’s the one who inspired the president-elect’s startling claim last November that Trump would have “won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally.”

Alabama: Even sponsors of the crossover voting law disagree on prosecuting cases as voter fraud | WHNT

One sponsor of the new crossover voting law says it’s “ludicrous and laughable on its face” to prosecute crossover voters on felony charges, saying that puts crossover voting on the same level as some kinds of drug trafficking. However, other sponsors of the law supported Secretary of State John Merrill’s efforts to see through the prosecutions. The law in question prevents people from voting in one party’s primary and then crossing over to vote in another party’s primary runoff. The Alabama Legislature`s measure blocking crossover voting, passed this year, didn`t spell out particular penalties, so the Secretary of State`s office is handling potential cases as vote fraud. One of the law’s sponsors, State Senator Bill Holtzclaw (R-Madison), stands behind that interpretation, “I support the law that we passed; I support that there has to be a bite to the bark. If not what`s the value in passing particular legislation like this?” But not all the bill sponsors agree with enforcing it as a Class C Felony, which carries up to 10 years in prison.

Arizona: Maricopa County’s Recorder Apologizes for His Online Tirade | Associated Press

Maricopa County Recorder Adrian Fontes apologized Wednesday for recent inflammatory online comments made to a candidate for the Arizona Legislature who had criticized the design of election ballots. In a five-minute video on his Facebook page, Fontes said he was sorry for his “inappropriate and rude comments” to State House District 13 candidate Nathan Schneider and apologized to all county voters and residents and the elections department. Schneider complained on his own Facebook page Sunday that the county’s Nov. 7 election date was hard for him and his mother to find on the mail-in ballot and ballot inserts and wasn’t printed on the envelope.

Connecticut: UConn’s Center for Voting Technology Research supports fair and free elections | The Daily Campus

The University of Connecticut’s Center for Voting Technology Research (VoTeR Center) is working to keep state elections fair and fraud free, a topic recently brought to light by Secretary of State Denise Merrill in a statement released Friday. “(On Oct. 26th), along with representatives from the state’s information technology and public safety departments, I met with regional officials from the United States Department of Homeland Security to discuss how we can work together to ensure that Connecticut elections are safe from outside interference or manipulation,” Merrill said. The center aids this mission by advising state agencies in the use of electronic voting equipment and investigating voting solutions, according to its website. “We’ve been in existence since 2006 and we’ve been working with the Secretary of the State’s Office since then,” said Dr. Alexander Schwarzmann, professor and head of the UConn computer science and engineering department. “Our work was motivated by the nationwide change in the way that elections are conducted with the help of technology.”

Florida: Voting restoration amendment has 750,000 signatures | Florida Politics

The main backer of a proposed constitutional amendment that would automatically restore some felons’ voting rights after they complete their sentences says his group now has collected over 750,000 signatures. Desmond Meade, president of the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, also said on Wednesday that he’s confident the amendment will have a million signatures by year’s end. “The needle is moving,” he said in a phone interview. The Florida Division of Elections website showed as of the end of Wednesday that the citizen ballot initiative, known as “The Voting Restoration Amendment,” has 301,064 verified signatures. Initiatives need 766,200 valid signatures for ballot placement. Signatures must be spread across Florida’s 27 congressional districts, with the total number due pegged to voter turnout in the most recent presidential election.

Georgia: Latest development in elections suit just makes whole thing curiouser and curiouser | Columbus Ledger-Enquirer

There have been some rather sudden and noteworthy changes regarding the Georgia secretary of state’s office and the lawsuit over the reliability and integrity of the state’s voting system. The casual version is that Secretary of State Brian Kemp has changed lawyers, edited his Facebook page, and revised his account of how and why data on a server at the heart of the suit quickly and quietly vanished. Headline detail: The reason the secretary of state has new legal counsel is that the Georgia attorney general’s office announced Wednesday it will no longer represent Kemp and other election officials in the suit. As reported by the Associated Press, Cristina Correia, the assistant AG handling the case, notified the court, the secretary of state’s office and other attorneys Wednesday by email that the attorney general’s office is withdrawing. A spokesperson for the department would not comment, and Correia’s email did not say whether the private firm that will represent Kemp and the other defendants will be paid at state expense, AP reported.

Georgia: Former Gov. Roy Barnes’ firm to represent Georgia in lawsuit | Atlanta Journal Constitution

Former Gov. Roy Barnes’ law firm will represent Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp in a lawsuit that a national election transparency advocacy group filed to force the state to overhaul its election system. The Department of Administrative Services has replaced Attorney General Christopher Carr with Barnes Law Group to represent Kemp, the state Election Board and others named in the case, Kemp spokeswoman Candice Broce said. The Charlotte-based Coalition for Good Governance, led by Executive Director Marilyn Marks, has said that reported security lapses show the state’s system is “vulnerable and unreliable” and should not have been used for the 6th Congressional District runoff race in June — nor should it be used in next week’s election. Kennesaw State University runs the Center for Elections Systems and is also a defendant in the lawsuit. …  KSU said the server that had been examined by the FBI was wiped so it could be repurposed, and that the FBI had a copy of the data that were on the server.

Indiana: State Sued Over Its Aggressive New Voter Purge Program | Mother Jones

A lawsuit is seeking to block an aggressive new effort by the state of Indiana to purge voters from its rolls. If it succeeds, it would deter other states from following suit. But if it fails, these states could be emboldened to begin purging more voters—and particularly minority voters. Indiana is one of 30 states that participate in Crosscheck, a program administered by Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach. A Republican known for pursuing policies that make it harder to register to vote and cast a ballot, Kobach is the vice chair of President Donald Trump’s controversial election fraud commission, and he seems eager to nationalize his controversial priorities such as Crosscheck. The program compares registration lists for participating states and alerts states if registrations in two states appear to match, suggesting that someone might have moved and neglected to cancel his or her earlier voter registration. Because it compares only first names, last names, and birthdates, it generates a high rate of false positives—one study found that its error rate is more than 99 percent—and has prompted some states, including Florida, to withdraw from the program.