Massachusetts: MassVOTE gives guidance on how Massachusetts can implement voting by mail during the COVID-19 crisis | Jackson Cote/MassLive

Due to the coronavirus outbreak’s impact on ballot-casting last month, one nonprofit is providing guidance on how to vote by mail ahead of this fall’s general election. MassVOTE published a policy brief this week analyzing four issues surrounding voting by mail – including accessibility, cost, infrastructure and security – and highlighted best practices states being used by states across the country. The nonprofit group has sent the eight-page brief to the commonwealth’s 200 state legislators and more than 5,000 of their supporters, according to a statement from the organization. “Our main goal with this policy brief is to not only educate folks, but to dispel many myths around vote-by-mail,” Alex Psilakis, MassVOTE policy and communications manager, said in the statement. “Everyone, from legislators to voters, has heard a lot about vote-by-mail over the past few weeks. Yet what they have actually heard – and what vote-by-mail can actually look like – varies dramatically.” Beacon Hill lawmakers introduced a bill earlier this month that would allow early voting by mail before the September state primary and the November general election if the current state of emergency is still in effect. Ballots would need to be received by one’s town clerk before polls close on Election Day.

Nevada: Federal judge asked to block Nevada’s mail-in primary election | Scott Sonner/Associated Press

A U.S. judge in Reno plans to hear Wednesday from lawyers for Democrats and conservative voting rights activists who are challenging — for different reasons — plans to conduct Nevada’s primary election predominantly by mail because of COVID-19. The conflict involves lawsuits at the state and federal level, both major political parties and voters with divergent political views who argue their constitutional rights will be violated if the primary moves forward as planned June 9. Three voters represented by lawyers for True the Vote Inc. Voters’ Rights Initiative are asking U.S. District Judge Miranda Du for an injunction blocking the existing format. They say it would “require the state to forgo almost all in-person voting” and “all but ensure an election replete with … ballot fraud.” “The plan alters the nature of Nevada’s election, changing it from an in-person election with absentee ballots received by request to a scheme of mailing mail-in ballots to some, but not all, registered voters and highly restricted walk-in voting options,” according to their lawsuit filed last week.

Ohio: Primary marks a major test for mail-in voting | Joseph Marks/The Washington Post

Ohio will today hold its primary election almost entirely by mail  in what could be a model for the rest of the nation in November. The contest is a canary in the coal mine for more than a dozen states still planning presidential and state primaries this year. They’re aiming for either a fully vote-by-mail elections or for far more ballots than usual to be cast by mail. Today’s contest is also likely to guide officials as they plan for November’s presidential election, which could be similarly restricted by the novel coronavirus pandemic. Ohio aims to be a counterpoint to Wisconsin, where the Republican-led legislature blocked Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’s efforts to delay the April 7 primary contest, resulting in thousands of people not receiving absentee ballots and blocks-long lines outside polling places on Election Day. At least 40 Milwaukee residents who stood in line or worked the polls have since tested positive. The primary also takes place as New York, which has been ravaged by the coronavirus, yesterday canceled its primary. “What I saw from the outside looking in in Wisconsin looked very chaotic and candidly dangerous to me,” Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose (R) told me. “I would not want that scenario in Ohio and I think we’ve taken the right steps to prevent it.”

Pennsylvania: As counties look to consolidate polling places, advocates worry about voter disenfranchisement | Ivey DeJesus/PennLive

Elections officials across the state are bracing for a walk-out of sorts. Not technically a walk-out but a no-show.With the current coronavirus pandemic still ratcheting up the count of positive cases and deaths across Pennsylvania, election officials  are worried that poll workers are thinking twice about working on June 2, the newly designated primary date. The prospect is pushing up against the idea of further consolidating polling places. The underlying reason: Poll workers tend to be older individuals – typically retired – and as such, they belong to one of the most COVID-19 vulnerable demographics. Election officials are concerned that with the lethal virus still a threat, poll workers will decide to stay home on election day rather than risk exposure to the deadly virus. I‘m in touch with inspectors and judges to see what their comfort level is and I can tell you right now today I‘m going to be missing 30 percent of poll workers,” said Jerry Feaser, director of the Dauphin County Office of Elections and Voter Registration. “That varies from poll workers not willing to serve given the conditions to precincts where maybe a handful of poll workers would be missing.”

Pennsylvania: Luzerne County manager proposes hand marked paper ballots for in-person voting June 2 | April 28, 2020 Jennifer Andes/Times Leader

Non-disabled Luzerne County voters casting their ballots in person on June 2 would use paper ballots instead of the new electronic touchscreen ballot marking devices under a preliminary coronavirus plan presented Tuesday. Each voter would receive a pen to make their selections on paper so no pens would be shared and then feed the paper into a scanner to be tabulated, plan drafter county Manager C. David Pedri told council in its virtual meeting. Each polling place would still be equipped with an electronic machine for voters with visual impairments or other disabilities that prevent them from using paper ballots, with cleaning after each use, he said. Paper is a better option for this primary because it alleviates coronavirus concerns about touchscreens, Pedri said. A day of repeated screen wiping and drying also could slow up voting and damage the equipment, election workers have said.

Virginia: Absentee Ballots To Be Accepted Without Witness Signatures | Brad Kutner/Courthouse News

Virginia’s attorney general and a leading voting rights group have reached a deal to allow voters to file an absentee ballot without having a witness sign it, removing a hurdle for those most vulnerable to Covid-19. At issue were the health and safety risks involved with the state’s requirement for all absentee voters to open and fill out their ballot in front of another adult. The League of Women Voters of Virginia and three registered voters, represented by attorneys with the American Civil Liberties Union, sued state officials this month, seeking an injunction to block the witness signature requirement in light of the ongoing pandemic. While the complaint was lobbed against the State Board of Elections and its leaders, Democratic Attorney General Mark Herring authored a joint brief with the plaintiffs in support of a consent decree announced Tuesday that allows absentee ballots without witness signatures for those who believe they cannot safely have a witness present. “The fast-paced nature of this case and upcoming elections dictated a particularly short and intense negotiation period,” the brief states. “But the parties’ negotiation was conducted in good faith, involved compromises on both sides leading to a cabined, fair, adequate, and reasonable deal, and resulted in an agreement that serves the public interests of election integrity, access to the ballot, and protecting public health.”

Wisconsin: 52 people with COVID-19 reported participating in spring election | Riley Vetterkind/Wisconsin State Journal

At least 52 Wisconsinites who got COVID-19 reported voting in person or working the polls in the April 7 election, which health experts warned would increase the risk of spreading the disease. But the state Department of Health Services, which released the figures, cautioned it can’t say for certain whether the election was the reason the 52 contracted the virus without more data, such as a comparison group of negative cases. Several of the people who tested positive for COVID-19 and participated in the election also reported other possible exposures to the illness, which so far has infected at least 6,289 people and led to 300 deaths in the state.

National: Few States Are Prepared To Switch To Voting By Mail. That Could Make For A Messy Election. | Nathaniel Rakich/FiveThirtyEight

As with most aspects of our daily lives, the coronavirus pandemic has disrupted the administration of elections. Several states have already postponed primaries that were scheduled for this spring, and the few in-person elections that have taken place were marred by chaos. But with an election date of November 3 more or less set in stone, how can the general election be conducted safely if the pandemic is still raging in the fall? Many officials and voters alike think the solution is to conduct the election predominantly by mail — but that’s easier said than done. Converting to a vote-by-mail system is arduous and expensive, and most states simply aren’t set up to smoothly conduct a mail election with their present resources and laws. Currently, state laws on the use of mail voting are a patchwork quilt. Only five states regularly conduct mail elections by default: Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Utah and Washington. Three more, though, do allow counties to opt into mail voting, and nine more allow certain elections to be conducted by mail — although these are typically low-turnout, local elections, a far cry from the 2020 presidential race.

National: States Expand Internet Voting Experiments Amid Pandemic, Raising Security | Miles Parks/NPR

Election officials nationwide are preparing for what may the highest election turnout in modern history in the middle of a pandemic. In response, several states will be turning to a relatively new and untested form of internet-based voting to aid the voters who may have the most trouble getting to the polls. In the latest demonstration of the technology, Delaware will allow voters with disabilities to return their ballots electronically in its primary election next month, becoming the second U.S. state to do so. The decision comes despite grave warnings from the cybersecurity community that the technology doesn’t offer sufficient safeguards to protect the integrity of an election. NPR is the first to report the development, which has yet to be announced publicly. Both the state, and the Seattle-based company administering the technology, Democracy Live, confirmed the decision, although they dispute the term “internet voting” for the cloud-based system. Earlier this year, West Virginia passed a bill to allow the use of the technology for disabled voters, after becoming the first state to allow overseas and military voters to use an app to vote in the 2018 midterms. Delaware will also allow overseas and military voters to use the technology.

National: Weighing the Risks of Remote Voting Technology | Council on Foreign Relations

The spread of COVID-19 has raised serious questions about how Americans can vote without jeopardizing their health. The controversial Wisconsin primary held in early April, in which the state’s Supreme Court ordered election officials to proceed with in-person voting over the course of a single day, was plagued with long lines and crowding. This is exactly the opposite of the social distancing measures that have been put in place across the country to control the virus. Moreover, poor and minority communities in particular appear to have been confronted with a choice between voting and risking their health, essentially disenfranchising large groups of voters. While the option of voting at polling stations during the pandemic still seems to be on the table, some have suggested allowing people to vote remotely over the internet instead of casting their ballot in person. Policymakers may want to consider some forms of remote voting, such as vote-by-mail, but remote voting technology poses formidable security risks.

National: Infrastructure interdependence a threat to upcoming elections | Nicholas Cunningham/Atlantic Council

Election season approaches and the effects of Russian information operations are once again manifesting in our government. In February 2020, the New York Times reported that both Democrats and Republicans are already suspicious that the other side of the aisle is benefitting from Russian interference. However, we have overlooked other vulnerabilities in our elections amidst the threat of information operations. The numerous sectors of our critical infrastructure, to include the elections process, are interdependent on one another and a failure in one sector could result in the failure of another. For example, a power outage would significantly degrade the ability of a small municipality to conduct an election. Recent developments indicate that Russia could exploit the interdependent nature of our critical infrastructure to disrupt our elections via well-timed cyberattacks. How prepared are we to address election interference that goes beyond information operations?

National: Absentee voting: Voters face potential life-or-death choices in states with limited measures | Abby Phillip/CNN

Elections are a sacred ritual for Jeremy Rutledge and always have been. But for the first time in his life, the 49-year old minister of a historic Circular Congregational Church in Charleston, South Carolina, says that he is being forced to make what could be a life-or-death choice because of the risk Covid-19 poses to him. Rutledge, who lives with his wife and son, says he has for nearly 12 years suffered from a chronic autoimmune disorder that has caused scarring in his lungs. His doctors have warned him that a Covid-19 infection could be a death sentence. “I’ve always voted since I was old enough to vote — in every election,” Rutledge told CNN. “I never imagined that I would have to decide whether I wanted to vote or whether I wanted to live and be healthy.” “We’ve really had serious conversations,” he said. “All of my doctors are worried that if I contract the virus, I could die from it.”

National: Partisan battle erupts over US Postal Service as some look to mail-in ballots amid pandemic | Allison Pecorin/ABC

As some lawmakers have begun to advocate for the use of mail-in ballots as a means of safeguarding voters amid the coronavirus pandemic during the upcoming 2020 elections, a partisan battle has erupted in Washington over the future of the crippled U.S. Postal Service. Lawmakers were already facing challenging decisions about how to rescue the troubled agency, which is on the brink of insolvency in the midst of the global health crisis, but the ongoing debate over mail-in ballots has added a political dimension to an already complex problem. The stakes could not be higher. Rep. Gerry Connolly, a Democrat from Virginia who chairs the House subcommittee that oversees the U.S. Postal Service, told ABC News that if Congress does not approve more money for the agency, efforts to implement a nationwide vote-by-mail measure could be in jeopardy. “The whole point of this is to make it safe and effective, and I believe the post office is well equipped to do both,” Connolly said. “But it has to get an infusion of capital to ensure that that mission is smooth and uninterrupted.”

National: Pelosi says Democrats will push for vote by mail in next coronavirus relief package | Rebecca Shabad/NBC

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said Monday that Democrats will push for a vote-by-mail provision in Congress’ next coronavirus relief package. In an interview on MSNBC’s LIVE with Stephanie Ruhle, Pelosi said that it’s important to protect the “life of our democracy” as the coronavirus crisis continues. “In this next bill, we will be supporting vote by mail in a very important way — we think it’s a health issue at this point,” Pelosi said. Democrats have been for weeks pushing mail-in voting before May and June primary contests— over a dozen of which have been postponed or canceled because of the coronavirus— and as they look ahead to the November election.

Voting Blogs: It’s Crunch Time for 2020 Election Security: Is Arizona Equipped to Face New Threats? | Kristin Palmason/State of Elections

The Help America Vote Act (HAVA) enacted by Congress in 2012 with overwhelming bipartisan support, provides federal funds to states for the purpose of reforming the administration of elections, including upgrading voting equipment and eliminating punch-card and lever voting machines. As HAVA was enacted in response to the 2000 contested election of Bush v. Gore, which hinged on outdated voting equipment and “hanging chads,”  HAVA funds were intended to streamline internal election processes and updating archaic voting systems. Arizona committed to using the funds to replace punch card voting systems, add touch screen equipment and update voter registration, provisional balloting, and grievance processes. By 2015, approximately $3.3 billion in HAVA funds for election assistance was awarded to states nationwide, with approximately $52.5 million awarded to Arizona.

Georgia: Absentee ballots mailed without an inner envelope | Mark Niesse/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Absentee ballots arriving in Georgia voters’ mailboxes now come with just one return envelope instead of two. State election officials eliminated the inner envelope, which secured ballots in another layer of packaging. The inner envelope has been replaced with a white folded piece of paper that says, “Official absentee ballot. Ballot must be enclosed.”The secretary of state’s office confirmed the change Monday — after voters began receiving absentee ballots last week.With just one envelope to open, county election officials will be able to process ballots more quickly, said Deputy Secretary of State Jordan Fuchs. Record numbers of Georgia voters are expected to mail their ballots for the June 9 primary after Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger sent absentee ballot request forms to the state’s 6.9 million active voters. More than 825,000 people had returned their absentee ballot requests through Sunday.

Maine: State may struggle to claim federal pandemic funding for elections | Scott Thistle/Portland Press Herald

Maine may struggle to claim its share of $400 million in federal funding designated to help states conduct elections safely during the coronavirus pandemic. The federal money, included in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act, would help pay for such measures as installing barriers in polling places, training poll workers and covering the costs of casting ballots by mail. But because the law requires states to provide a 20 percent match for the federal funds, Maine may not be able to access the money, according to Maine Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap, who oversees elections. With the Legislature currently adjourned, the state has no way to appropriate the $658,000 needed to match the $3.2 million in federal funds available to Maine. “Things we could use the extra revenue for could include postage for extra absentee ballots, space costs for relocated polling stations, Plexiglass and other spacing barriers for social distancing, to pay for extra or replacement poll workers, and a few other things,” Dunlap said in a written statement. He said Maine’s congressional delegation is trying to amend the CARES act to help make the funding more readily available.

Maryland: Mail-in special election for Cummings seat Tuesday | Jenna Portnoy and Ovetta Wiggins/The Washington Post

The late Maryland congressman Elijah E. Cummings’s 92-year-old mother begged him, as she lay dying, to protect the fundamental right to vote above all else, he told a congressional committee last year. A major test of government’s ability to do just that amid the coronavirus pandemic will play out Tuesday as officials carry out the state’s first mostly mail-in election. There will be only one race on the ballot: the special election to decide who will complete the remaining eight months of Cummings’s term representing the 7th District, which includes parts of Baltimore City, Baltimore County and Howard County. The election will also help officials work out any kinks in the process before the large-scale primary on June 2, which will include the presidential race and crowded contests for Baltimore mayor, City Council seats and congressional offices. In one of his first executive orders in response to the health crisis, Gov. Larry Hogan (R) postponed the April primary election until June, and later called for a mail-in primary with a handful of in-person polling centers.

Michigan: Blind voters sue State for not making absentee ballots accessible during coronavirus | Taylor DesOrmeau/MLive

Absentee ballots aren’t an option for blind Michigan voters who want to vote on their own. And during the coronavirus pandemic – when state officials are encouraging people to stay home and vote absentee instead of congregating at the polls – that’s dangerous, said Jason Turkish, managing partner at Nyman Turkish PC. The firm is suing Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and Director of Elections Jonathan Brater for failing to provide alternatives for blind people to vote absentee. The lawsuit requests a judge to require Michigan to implement an accessible absentee voting alternative by the May 5 election. The federal lawsuit was filed over the weekend, on behalf of blind Michiganders Michael Powell and Fred Wurtzel, the current and former president of the Michigan Affiliate of the National Federation of the Blind.

Missouri: Missouri coalition calls for no-excuse absentee voting | Glenn Minnis/The Center Square

The Missouri Voter Protection Coalition is pushing to make voting easier for residents across the state, recently outlining a set of recommendations that include expanding absentee voting by mail and in-person because of the COVID-19 crisis.  “This is a scary time, and we’re all anxious,” Protection Coalition coordinator Denise Lieberman recently said during a Zoom forum held by Empower Missouri, where state Rep. Trish Gunby (D-St. Louis) also spoke. “We’re anxious about a lot of things, including voting, and we have reason to be because this pandemic is going to affect our ability to access democracy.” While the lingering effects of the deadly virus have made the issue of acceptable forms of voting a red-hot topic, Lieberman stressed there are other reasons the option of absentee voting should be a viable one.  “I want to say this: We can ensure the proper functioning of our democracy in this state in 2020,” she added. “Our leaders may not have the political will to do it, but we have the tools to do it.”

New York: Board of Elections Cancels Democratic Presidential Primary | Stephanie Saul and Nick Corasaniti/The New York Times

New York officials canceled the state’s Democratic presidential primary on Monday, prompting an immediate backlash from the campaign of Senator Bernie Sanders and his legion of progressive supporters who had hoped to amass convention delegates and help shape the party’s platform in August. In making the decision against holding a primary, which had been scheduled for June 23, the Democratic chair of the New York State Board of Elections called the primary “essentially a beauty contest” that the state could ill-afford in the face of the coronavirus pandemic. The vote followed a decision this month by Mr. Sanders to suspend his presidential campaign, effectively conceding the Democratic nomination to former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. Mr. Sanders had expressed a desire to remain on the ballot, however, and his supporters had launched an email, phone and Twitter campaign to persuade the elections board to go forward with the primary, calling its cancellation an affront to Democracy. On Monday, his campaign released a statement, calling the decision “an outrage, a blow to American democracy” and accused the state party of having a “checkered pattern of voter disenfranchisement.”

Ohio: Mail-in primary tests voting during virus outbreak | Will Weisert and Julie Carr Smyth/Associated Pressa

The first major test of an almost completely vote-by-mail election during a pandemic is about to unfold in Ohio, offering lessons to other states about how to conduct one of the most basic acts of democracy amid a health crisis. The process hasn’t been smooth as state officials have navigated election laws and the need to protect citizens and poll workers from the coronavirus. Ohio’s in-person primary was delayed just hours before polls were supposed to open last month, prompting legal challenges and confusion. Tuesday’s election replacing it requires voters to run at least three pieces of mail — an application, a blank ballot and a completed one — through the U.S. Postal Service. With Joe Biden emerging as the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, there’s little suspense in the results. Ohio’s vote is instead being closely watched as a case study for how to proceed with elections if the pandemic doesn’t ease. States have taken drastically different approaches, with Wisconsin proceeding with in-person voting earlier this month and New York saying Monday it would cancel its presidential primary, which was scheduled for June.

Ohio: Election may still draw thousands in person: ‘We don’t know what to expect’ | Chris Stewart/Dayton Daily News

Today’s primary election — postponed and shifted to mail-in voting because of the coronavirus pandemic — may still draw thousands of in-person voters, threatening the health of voters and elections workers. The unprecedented extension of the March primary — compounded by mail delays — has left voters confused and many potentially without ballots in hand to complete before yesterday’s postmark deadline.The result could be what officials hoped to avoid — long lines at county boards of elections, said Brian Sleeth, Warren County’s elections director.“I have to plan for one,” he said. “We’re in uncharted territory. It’s hard to tell. We have no data to compare how many people to expect tomorrow.” At least 36 people in Wisconsin tested positive for COVID-19 after reporting they voted in or worked the polls during that state’s controversial in-person election on April 7, according to news reports.

Pennsylvania: Lawsuit seeks to extend mailed ballot return by a week | Emily Previti/PA Post

Voting rights groups filed a lawsuit late Monday seeking to give voters more time to return their ballots for the upcoming presidential primary. Voters who request absentee and mail-in ballots before the May 26 deadline might receive them at different times due to “factors outside their control, such as variation in mail delivery schedules across the commonwealth or application processing [by] county elections boards,” attorneys from the Public Interest Law Center allege in the 67-page document. Voters could end up getting their ballots late enough that they’d feel compelled to deliver them in person to ensure they’re counted – a health risk given the coronavirus pandemic, the suit contends, also noting about 10,000 voters faced that very scenario in Wisconsin a few weeks ago. Plaintiffs include Disability Rights Pennsylvania, nonprofits SeniorLAW and Southeast Asian Mutual Assistance Associations Coalition, and visually impaired and senior voters. They are asking the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to change the rules so that any absentee and mail-in ballot must be counted so long as the voter sends it by June 2 and counties get it by June 9. Currently, voters have until May 26 to request an absentee or mail-in ballot and must return it by 8 p.m. June 2.

South Carolina: Fear of COVID-19 isn’t a reason to vote by mail now, but South Carolina officials want guidance | Joseph Bustos/The State

State elections officials want to know whether voters can request an absentee ballot because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. It’s a question they have asked the S.C. Attorney General’s Office to answer. In an April 13 letter, the South Carolina State Election Commission sought the opinion on whether voters worried about catching the coronavirus, who prefer not to vote in person in order to limit possible exposure to the virus, are allowed to ask for an absentee ballot. The state also is facing two lawsuits attempting to settle the question. Registered S.C. voters may request absentee ballots if they work in a county other than where they live and vote, or if they are sick, disabled or in the hospital; tending to someone who is sick or disabled; going to be on vacation on the day of the election; or over the age of 65, among other reasons. State law does “not expressly address voters who may not be sick or confirmed as having COVID-19, but must still risk exposure by physically attending a polling place on election day,” Elections Commission Executive Director Marci Andino wrote to the Attorney General Alan Wilson.

Wisconsin: Health department: 36 people positive for coronavirus after primary vote | Nolan D. McCaskill/Politico

At least three dozen Wisconsin voters and poll workers have tested positive for Covid-19, the disease caused by the unique coronavirus, the state health department told POLITICO on Monday. Shortly after the state held an in-person election on April 7, the Wisconsin Department of Health Services announced “new tracing mechanisms” to help local health departments track residents who might have been exposed to the virus while working the polls or casting a ballot. “So far, 36 people who tested Covid-19 positive after April 9 have reported that they voted in person or worked the polls on election day,” said Jennifer Miller, a spokeswoman for the Wisconsin Department of Health Services. Miller said “several” people within that group reported additional possible exposures, making it unclear whether the election itself is responsible for their contraction of the disease. If those people contracted the virus prior to the election, they could have also spread it to others who went to the polls that day.

Wisconsin: State Senators Consider Options For Safer Elections | Elizabeth Dohms-Harter/Wisconsin Public Radio

With elections for Wisconsin’s 7th Congressional District and the U.S. president coming up this year, and with a chaotic April 7 primary still in the rear-view mirror, two Wisconsin senators agree that the threat from COVID-19 will change the way future elections are run. April’s election was beset with problems including voters not receiving requested absentee ballots, mailed absentee ballots getting lost and long voting lines that dragged on as voters tried to social distance to protect themselves during the COVID-19 pandemic. Speaking on WPR’s “Central Time,” state Sen. Kathy Bernier, R-Lake Hallie, who represents Wisconsin’s 23rd state Senate district, said in future elections, she fully expects to see safety measures implemented at polling sites such as the plexiglass barriers that were used in April’s election. But the long lines in cities such as Milwaukee that had five polling places serving 180 wards shouldn’t happen, said Bernier, who’s also chair of the State Senate Committee on Elections, Ethics and Rural Issues.

National: Why a Data-Security Expert Fears U.S. Voting Will Be Hacked lexandra Wolfe/Wall Street Journal

In 2005, a concerned Florida election supervisor asked the Finnish data-security expert Harri Hursti to hack into one of the state’s commonly used voting machines to test its vulnerability. The verdict wasn’t reassuring. By modifying just a few lines of code on the machine’s memory card, Mr. Hursti says, he could change the results of a mock election. That same model, he adds, will be among those used in the 2020 elections. (A spokesperson for the machine’s vendor, Dominion Voting, says that these weaknesses were fixed in 2012, but Mr. Hursti says that he has tested the new version and found the updates insufficient.) Mr. Hursti has spent the past 15 years trying to draw attention to the weaknesses in America’s voting systems. Last month, he was featured in an HBO documentary called “Kill Chain: The Cyber War on America’s Elections,” about far-reaching security breaches in multiple U.S. elections that he says have gone unfixed. He warns that both the American political establishment and the public are far too complacent. “Once you understand how everything works, you understand how fragile everything is and how easy it is to lose this all,” Mr. Hursti says in the film.

National: ‘We’ve got to get going.’ States under pressure to plan for the general election amid a pandemic | Daniel Bush/PBS

The presidential election in November is still more than six months away, but states are already under pressure to start making preparations for holding a general election during a public health crisis, including expanding vote-by-mail systems in time to handle a potential spike in absentee ballots this fall. The primaries have offered a preview of possible problems in November, with court battles over voting rights and public health concerns over in-person voting underscoring the challenges of carrying out an election amid the coronavirus pandemic. Many states delayed primaries scheduled for this spring, but there is no serious discussion about seeking a change in the federal law to allow for the Nov. 3 general election to be moved to a later date. Barring a major unforeseen turn of events, the widespread assumption is that the presidential contest will go forward as planned. But while the general election is more than half a year away, states considering any changes in November need to start preparing now in order to have contingency plans ready in time for the fall, according to interviews with Democratic and Republican Party leaders, current government officials, former state officials in charge of elections, and others.

Kentucky: State to allow mail-in ballots for every registered voter in June 23 primary | Ben Tobin and Phillip M. Bailey/Louisville Courier Journal

Kentucky is allowing all registered voters to mail in their ballots for the state’s rescheduled primary election June 23 — a major bipartisan agreement designed to avoid in-person voting during the coronavirus pandemic. Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear signed the executive order Friday after reaching an agreement with Republican Secretary of State Michael Adams. It comes weeks after a messy fight in Wisconsin that forced voters to go to the polls, leading to at least 19 of them testing positive for COVID-19. Beshear and Adams have been in talks for weeks about the best way for Kentuckians to exercise their right to vote amid the outbreak. “While there will be significant education and work required, we are committed to making sure this election will be held in a safe manner while we are in this worldwide health pandemic,” Beshear said in a statement.