Georgia: Elections chief asks 1M voters to return absentee ballots | Mark Niesse/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on Monday urged voters to return their absentee ballots in time for the June 9 primary, even as thousands of Fulton County voters are waiting for their ballots to arrive and the coronavirus forced some early voting locations to close. About 1 million voters who requested absentee ballots haven’t yet turned them in, according to state election data through Sunday. “Vote from the convenience of your own kitchen table. Take your time to do it, but get it done as soon as you can,” Raffensperger said in an interview. “Sooner better than later, because it has to be received by June 9, no later than 7 p.m., to be counted.” So far, over 551,000 voters have returned their absentee ballots, and another 77,000 voted in person during the first week of early voting. Meanwhile, Fulton County reported Monday that it had nearly cleared a large backlog of absentee ballot requests that had piled up in election office inboxes, including some requests made more than seven weeks ago.

Idaho: Federal Court rules voters have more time to request their absentee ballot | Ximena Bustillo/Idaho Statesman

Idaho voters will now have until Tuesday to request their absentee ballots, according to a new Idaho federal court ruling Friday night. All voters who submitted a request that arrived at Ada County Elections after the previous May 19 deadline will be issued a ballot, along with any additional requests received before May 26 at 8 p.m, according to a press release from the Ada County Clerk’s office. The ruling is a response to a series of problems the Idaho Votes website encountered in processing last-minute requests on Tuesday. Chief Deputy Secretary of State Chad Houck said voters had two options: download and email the form or drive it down to their county clerk’s office by 8 p.m. that night. That afternoon, the Idaho Secretary of State’s Office announced it did not have plans to extend the deadline to request a ballot.

Indiana: Virus stings county election budgets | Dave Gong/The Journal Gazette

Voting in a pandemic presents unique challenges for county election officials who anticipate cost increases, especially in postage expenses, as many voters turn to mailed-in absentee ballots for Indiana’s June 2 primary. The Allen County Election Board estimates it received about 38,000 applications for absentee ballots, Beth Dlug, the county’s director of elections, said Friday. About 2,800 people requested ballots during the 2016 presidential primary, Dlug said. The deadline to request an absentee ballot was 11:59 p.m. Thursday. More than 20,000 ballots have been returned to the Election Board; the deadline for their return to local election boards is noon on Election Day. That has meant a drastic increase in the cost to run the election in Allen County, Dlug said. “We have already gone through our year’s budget for postage and so we’re moving funds around from one line-item to the other,” she said. “This election will be overall much more expensive than an election that would be mainly electronic.”

Michigan: With Trump threatening Michigan, lawsuit filed to expand rights of absentee voters | Todd Spangler/Detroit Free Press

Michigan’s statutory requirement that all absentee ballots be returned by 8 p.m. on Election Day in order to be counted is being challenged in court. The League of Women Voters, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union and former state Democratic Party Chairman Mark Brewer, filed the lawsuit Friday in the Court of Appeals against Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson in her official capacity as Michigan’s top elections official. It claims that a law in place since at least 1929 in Michigan that requires absentee ballots be received by a local clerk’s office by 8 p.m. on Election Day to be counted runs counter to what the lawsuit says is an “unqualified, unconditional state constitutional right for registered voters to vote in all elections by absentee ballot.” In 2018, no-reason absentee voting passed by state referendum, giving voters the right to cast absentee ballots by mail or in person beginning 40 days before an election. Since regular mail can often take days, the lawsuit says the old rule conflicts with the intention of the state referendum to expand absentee voting.

Editorials: Vote by mail works in Oregon. It will work in Michigan, too. | Bill Bradbury and Tim Palmer/Detroit Free Press

Voting by mail works. We know. We’ve been doing it in Oregon for 20 years. As Michigan’s Secretary of State endeavors to make it easier for Michigan voters to apply for absentee ballots and ensure safe voting in August and November, let us tell you why we vote entirely by mail. More people get to vote. Data proves this in Oregon, Colorado and elsewhere. This makes voting more democratic, addressing a fundamental American value, enshrined in the Constitution. It’s safer. No exposure to COVID-19, or even the common cold. It’s easier, especially for the elderly. No one leaves home. None of us have to skip work, find a baby sitter, or cram another commitment into the day. There’s no need to drive or catch a bus to the polls.

Montana: Attorney general challenges mail-in ballot deadline | Associated Press

A court ruling that allows election ballots to be counted as long as they are postmarked by June 2 is being challenged by Montana Attorney General Tim Fox. Previously only ballots that arrived by the date of the election could be counted. State District Court Judge Donald Harris on Friday temporarily suspended the state law that said ballots must be received in a county election office by 8 p.m. on election day. Now, ballots that are postmarked by June 2 can still be counted as long as they arrive by the following Monday, the judge said. That Monday, June 8, also is the deadline for receipt of federal write-in ballots for military and overseas voters. The primary is being held by mail because of the coronavirus. Fox, who is running for governor in the Republican primary, said the last-minute suspension could have a negative impact on Montana voters, Lee Newspapers of Montana reporte d. He asked in a court filing for the ruling to be put on hold and for the dispute to be decided by the Supreme Court.

North Carolina: Expand vote-by-mail for 2020, says a bipartisan group of lawmakers | Will Dorna/Raleigh News & Observer

With uncertainty looming over how serious coronavirus will be this fall, a bipartisan push at the state legislature would make it easier for North Carolinians to vote by mail this year. State officials are expecting a massive increase in people wanting to vote by mail in November. The legislature wants to make sure that goes smoothly, said Rep. Pricey Harrison, who has co-sponsored a new elections bill along with one fellow Democrat and two Republicans. Usually, Harrison said, fewer than 5% of North Carolina voters choose to vote by mail — but for 2020, “they’re expecting a surge of up to 40%.” Republican Rep. Holly Grange, the lead sponsor of House Bill 1169, said they wanted to give both state and local elections officials “the flexibility and resources needed to accommodate the expected increase in absentee ballot requests due to the pandemic.” People who vote by mail now have to find two people to serve as witnesses while they vote. But the bill filed Friday would drop that requirement to just one witness. Voters are currently not allowed to request absentee ballots by email or fax, but this bill would lift those restrictions.

Pennsylvania: Blind voters sue Pennsylvania, say they risk COVID-19 exposure without online voting option for June 2 primary | Matt Miller/PennLive

The National Federation of the Blind has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against Pennsylvania, claiming the state isn’t taking steps to adequately protect blind voters from the coronavirus during the delayed June 2 primary election. A virus-prompted provision that will give sighted voters the option of casting their ballots by mail to avoid possible contagion is useless to blind electors, the federation claims in suit filed in U.S. Middle District Court. It is asking the court to order the state to develop a system where blind voters can select their candidates online. Otherwise, the federation contends, many of those voters will have to either pass up the election or risk their health by going to the polls to seek help in voting from poll workers. “The once-in-a-century impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has indelibly changed Pennsylvania. For example, for the upcoming…primary election, most Pennsylvanians will choose to safely vote via absentee or mail-in ballot instead of going to the polls, where they risk their health,” the suit states. “But this safer, vote-at-home option is not available to blind1 Pennsylvanians, because the commonwealth’s absentee and mail-in ballots are inaccessible to the blind,” it adds. “Pennsylvania’s reliance on exclusively paper ballots keeps blind Pennsylvanians from participating in absentee and mail-in voting.”

Pennsylvania: Election fraud case sparks renewed accusations about ballot security in Philadelphia | Chris Brennan/Philadelphia Inquirer

An election fraud case in Philadelphia has reignited a long-smoldering partisan political issue and stirred up the 2020 presidential race with less than two weeks before the state’s primary. A South Philadelphia election judge’s March guilty plea to taking bribes to inflate votes for Democratic candidates was kept quiet by federal prosecutors until Thursday, a day after President Donald Trump was again making broad claims about Democratic voter fraud. He offered no evidence to back them up, and threatened to withhold money from states that make it easier to vote by mail. Trump’s campaign and the Republican National Committee seized on Domenick J. DeMuro’s plea Friday, calling it proof that “voter fraud exists” despite what they said was the news media’s reluctance to report on the issue. “Democrats have a clear and blatant history of committing voter fraud in Pennsylvania,” Melissa Reed, a spokesperson for the RNC and Trump’s campaign, said in a statement. She said the GOP “continues to fight back against the Democrats’ nationwide vote-by-mail push to destroy the integrity of elections.” But Trump’s campaign, along with the RNC and the Pennsylvania Republican Party, also have been urging voters to sign up for the very vote-by-mail ballots that the president keeps declaring instruments for voter fraud.

South Carolina: Absentee voters won’t need a witness due to coronavirus, court rules | Sara Coello/Post and Courier

A federal court ruled Monday that South Carolina must allow all voters to use absentee ballots without the signature of a witness to keep coronavirus from spreading at the polls in the June primary election. “Were it not for the current pandemic, then this element may have cut the other way,” U.S. District Court Judge Michelle Childs wrote in the finding. “Strikingly, the witness requirement would still apply to voters who have already contracted COVID-19, therefore affirmatively mandating that an infected individual … risk exposing the witness.” The state had required a witness signature for absentee voters, which several plaintiffs argued in two separate lawsuits would pose an unnecessary risk and could disenfranchise swaths of voters adhering to social distancing measures. “The court’s decision protects the safety and well-being of those voters who are most at risk from COVID-19,” said Deuel Ross, an attorney with the NAACP. “The temporary suspension of the witness signature requirement for absentee ballots removes a needless barrier that required people to violate social distancing protocols to vote.”

Texas: For some voters, being able to vote by mail is life or death matter; others just see fraud potential | James Barragán/Dalla Morning News

For the past two months, the state of Texas has been in a legal battle with the Texas Democratic Party and voting rights groups over a push to expand mail voting during the coronavirus pandemic. In state and federal courts, the parties have argued and gotten orders from judges to allow more people to vote by mail. Those orders have been appealed and fought over. Expanded mail voting has been on in the state, then off; then on again, then off again. Most of the fighting has involved legalistic procedural challenges. Shellie McCullough, a sixth-generation Texan, has no use for such ticky-tacky procedural arguments. But the outcome may determine whether she has to place her life in danger come July when she plans to vote in the state’s primary runoffs. McCullough, 47, who lives just outside of Midlothian, was diagnosed with hypertension 12 years ago. That condition, which she shares with nearly half of all adults in the United States, puts her at high risk for severe illness if she develops COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.

Wisconsin: Election officials vow changes to absentee ballot system | Daphne Chen/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Election officials vow major changes to the state’s absentee voting system after ballots failed to reach thousands of citizens in Wisconsin’s spring election, throwing an already chaotic vote into further disarray amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The fixes “will save so much work for the clerk and hopefully save work for the voters,” Wisconsin Elections Commission spokesperson Reid Magney said. The changes follow an investigation by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the PBS series FRONTLINE and Columbia Journalism Investigations that revealed numerous breakdowns in the state’s absentee ballot system, including inadequate computer systems and misleading ballot information. The investigation found that voters may have been misled by the state-run election website MyVote, where they could track the progress of their ballot, including the date their ballot was “sent.” That date actually reflects the date the mailing label was generated, the investigation found, not the date a ballot was mailed.

France: Prime Minister announces new date for second round of elections, delayed due to coronavirus | Lauren Chadwick/Euronews

French Prime Minister Édouard Philippe says the second round of the country’s municipal elections will take place on June 28. The first round was held on March 15th two days before France entered a nationwide coronavirus lockdown. The second round, scheduled for March 22, was postponed. Around 5,000 cities or towns will need to hold a second round due to an inconclusive first round. That means that 16 million voters in France will head to the polls on June 28. Philippe said it was necessary to continue democratic processes “with the virus and despite the virus”, adding that the law requires that the election occurs in June. Otherwise, the French government would have to reschedule both the first and second rounds at a later date. Philippe said that there was no way to know if the situation would be better in September. The scientific body advising the government was not against the decision though not all politicians agreed within the government.

Indonesia: Election commission investigates data breach on over two million voters | AFP

Indonesia is probing how 2.3 million voters’ personal information was leaked online, the election commission said on Friday (May 22). The data breach, which included names, home addresses and national identification numbers, appeared to be from the 2014 election voter list, according to the General Election Commission. Agency commissioner Viryan Azis said an investigation had been launched into the source of the leak earlier this week.

Russia: Putin changes Russia’s electoral law to allow remote vote | Elena Pavlovska/New Europe

Russia’s president Vladimir Putin on Saturday approved changes to the country’s electoral law, allowing the public to vote electronically or by mail in future polls, the Kremlin said. The new law allows the Central Election Commission to organise voting by mail or via the Internet. The gathering of signatures needed to qualify for elections can be conducted through a special government website. Supporters of the new system say it will help stop the spread of the coronavirus. Critics complain that an electronic system will be easier to manipulate and that Russians will not be able to protest against the changes because of the coronavirus lockdown. In January, Putin proposed changes to the constitution that could pave the way for his indefinite rule, and remained secretive about the reforms he proposed, saying that they were intended to strengthen government bodies.

Voting Blogs: Why Online Voting Isn’t the Answer to Running Elections During Covid-19 | Lawrence Norden/Brennan Center for Justice

There has been growing buzz around the potential for internet voting as states struggle with preparing to conduct safe and fair elections during the Covid-19 pandemic. Companies selling online voting systems promise a “silver bullet” to deal with voting during the pandemic: a new technology that will allow people to vote from their homes, a safe distance from others. Unfortunately, there is no magical solution for running elections during a pandemic. Ensuring voters and election workers can be safe will require money, work, and time. States and localities need substantial resources to ensure they can handle more mail balloting and keep polling places safe. Indeed, given all the other changes election officials and voters are facing this year, there couldn’t be a worse time to try to add a risky, unproven technology like internet voting into our elections, particularly when we know that hostile actors have not given up on disrupting our democracy.

National: States Cannot Waver in Election Security Efforts | Matt Parnofiello/StateTech Magazine

Election security concerns for state and local governments have not gone away during the coronavirus pandemic. In fact, they’ve only grown more urgent. Those concerns are mounting as states argue they do not have enough leeway to use the $400 million Congress appropriated for election security this spring, and “a coalition of more than 200 public-interest groups are pushing hard for Congress to include $3.6 billion for the 2020 election cycle in the next coronavirus relief bill,” as The New York Times Magazine reports. Some states are considering moving to online voting because of concerns about having residents congregate at polling places. However, that move is something security experts are strongly cautioning against because of cybersecurity vulnerabilities. The Guardian reports the Department of Homeland Security opposed such moves in a draft guidance, warning that casting ballots over the internet is “a ‘high-risk’ endeavor that would allow attackers to alter votes and results ‘at scale’ and compromise the integrity of elections.”  The challenges posed by the pandemic are making a complicated security picture even more complex for state and local election officials. They need to remember all of the election security concerns that existed in January are still out there and are now more difficult to tackle — and they include malicious actors spreading disinformation and attackers targeting voting databases. All of those concerns need to be addressed between now and November.

National: States push millions of people toward absentee voting amid pandemic | Reid Wilson/The Hill

State and local election administrators are pushing millions of voters to cast their ballots by mail in upcoming elections amidst a pandemic that could spread widely where people gather. The applications raise the prospect of a massive surge of ballots pouring into election administration offices in the days leading up to the presidential election. They have also raised the ire of President Trump, who on Wednesday accused two states of acting illegally and raised the prospects of punishing those states by withholding funding. At least 32 million people have already received or will soon receive absentee ballot applications in the mail, either for upcoming primary elections or November’s general elections. Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson (D) said Tuesday her office would mail an absentee ballot application to all 7.7 million registered voters in her state. Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) and Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate (R) said last month they would send applications to every active voter in their states, too. “The safety of voters while casting their ballots is our top priority,” Pate said when he announced the mailings. “The safest way to vote will be by mail.”

National: The mail voting debate gets more confounding | David Weigel/The Washington Post

On Tuesday, as he celebrated the arrival of two new Republican colleagues, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) was asked whether he really had a problem with mail-in voting. Rep. Mike Garcia of California had won an election that relied heavily on mail-in ballots, and so had Rep. Tom Tiffany of Wisconsin. So, what was the problem? “We don’t have a problem if someone votes by mail,” McCarthy said. “The problem we have is if you try to federalize the election.” One day later, President Trump attacked Democrats in Nevada and Michigan for expanding vote-by-mail. In one tweet, he threatened to “hold up funding to Michigan if they want to go down this Voter Fraud path,” and in another he threatened the same if Nevada sent out “illegal vote by mail ballots, creating a great Voter Fraud scenario.” Since the start of the pandemic, vote-by-mail has been expanded in multiple states. The debate over that expansion has grown increasingly surreal and politically contradictory. As they ramp up their own absentee ballot programs, aimed at their base, state and national Republican committees have sued to stop states from making vote-by-mail easier, conducted polling to suggest that voters want limits on the process, and highlighted stories about the difficulty of quickly implementing all-mail elections.

National: Trump threatens funding for Michigan, Nevada over absentee, mail-in voting plans | Amy Gardner, Josh Dawsey, Jeff Stein and John Wagner/The Washington Post

President Trump on Wednesday escalated his campaign to discredit the integrity of mail balloting, threatening to “hold up” federal funding to Michigan and Nevada in response to the states’ plans to increase voting by mail to reduce the public’s exposure to the coronavirus. Without evidence, Trump called the two states’ plans “illegal,” and he incorrectly claimed that Michigan’s “rogue” secretary of state is planning to mail ballots to all voters. The state is planning to send applications for mail-in ballots to all voters — not ballots themselves. “This was done illegally and without authorization by a rogue Secretary of State,” Trump tweeted about Michigan. “I will ask to hold up funding to Michigan if they want to go down this Voter Fraud path!” Trump later corrected the error and suggested he would not need to withhold federal money, but he did not retreat from his claim that both states are taking steps that will encourage voter fraud. A spokesman for the Trump campaign asserted that the Michigan secretary of state did not have legal authority to send ballot applications to all voters, a claim that she disputed.

National: Trump’s mail voting attacks put him at odds with GOP election officials | Joseph Marks/The Washington Post

President Trump’s attacks on voting by mail during the pandemic are putting him increasingly at odds with Republican election officials. The president’s harshest salvo to date threatened in a pair of tweets to withhold federal funding from Michigan and Nevada over their efforts to increase voting by mail. He falsely claimed the states, which have Democratic governors, were violating the law by sending absentee ballot applications to all registered voters. But the president’s attacks come as Republican officeholders in at least 16 states that don’t have all-mail elections have encouraged residents to vote absentee due to coronavirus. Republican-led states – including Georgia, Iowa, Nebraska and West Virginia – have also implemented the same system that Trump just attacked in Michigan and Nevada. And Nevada’s own secretary of state, who runs the elections there, is a Republican. The attacks are increasingly leaving Trump — who voted by mail himself in Florida this year — exposed as Republican election officials ignore his warnings given the anticipated public health risks of in-person voting during a pandemic.

National: As Trump Rails Against Voting by Mail, States Open the Door for It | Michael Wines/The New York Times

By threatening on Wednesday to withhold federal grants to Michigan and Nevada if those states send absentee ballots or applications to voters, President Trump has taken his latest stand against what is increasingly viewed as a necessary option for voting amid a pandemic. What he has not done is stop anyone from getting an absentee ballot. In the face of a pandemic, what was already limited opposition to letting voters mail in their ballots has withered. Eleven of the 16 states that limit who can vote absentee have eased their election rules this spring to let anyone cast an absentee ballot in upcoming primary elections — and in some cases, in November as well. Another state, Texas, is fighting a court order to do so. Four of those 11 states are mailing ballot applications to registered voters, just as Michigan and Nevada are doing. And that does not count 34 other states and the District of Columbia that already allow anyone to cast an absentee ballot, including five states in which voting by mail is the preferred method by law. “Every once in a while you get the president of the United States popping up and screaming against vote-by-mail, but states and both political parties are organizing their people for it,” said Michael Waldman, the president of the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University. “It’s a bizarre cognitive dissonance.”

National: Here’s the problem with mail-in ballots: They might not be counted. | Enrijeta Shino, Mara Suttmann-Lea and Daniel A. Smith/The Washington Post

State and local officials across the country are making difficult decisions about how to enable citizens to vote without jeopardizing their health. One widely discussed approach involves allowing more people to vote by mail, lowering the risk of spreading the novel coronavirus. Most Americans support that option for this November’s election. And for good reason: Those of us who study mail voting agree that it has little effect on election results because it has a marginal impact on turnout and doesn’t give either party an advantage. But voting by mail increases the number of ballots that are rejected — and not counted in the final tally. And ballots from younger, minority and first-time voters are most likely to be thrown out. Here’s how we know.

Verified Voting Blog: Election Security and an Accessible Vote By Mail Option

Guidance by Common Cause and Verified Voting published today outlines that remote accessible vote by mail options that keep voters choices private and secure already exist and should be made available to voters with disabilities as states increase access to vote by mail. Download PDF

During the COVID 19 pandemic, policymakers and elections officials are working to make voting safe, secure and accessible. As many jurisdictions expand vote by mail options, members of the disability community have pointed out that traditional vote by mail programs are not accessible to all voters. Some have urged that Congress adopt options for online voting to accommodate people with disabilities.

It is paramount that jurisdictions accommodate all voters with a secure and safe voting option during the pandemic, including voters with disabilities. Online voting is not secure. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) and the Department of Homeland Security all agree that no practically proven method exists to securely, verifiably, or privately return voted materials over the internet. In a recently released document entitled Risk Management for Electronic Ballot Delivery, Marking and Return, all four agencies stated, “Electronic ballot return faces significant security risks to the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of voted ballots. These risks can ultimately affect the tabulation and results and can occur at scale.” In other words, the security risk is high. Despite what vendors may say, voting by email or via web portals jeopardizes the integrity of the election results; votes can be manipulated or deleted without the voter’s knowledge and the voter’s selections could be traced back to the individual voter.

Florida: GOP enters legal fray over Florida vote-by-mail | Gary Fineout/Politico

Republicans are seeking to join a high-stakes voting rights battle in Florida, claiming that Democrat-aligned groups are using the coronavirus outbreak as an excuse to strike down voting laws. The Republican National Committee, the Republican Party of Florida and the National Republican Congressional Committee on Thursday asked a federal judge for permission to intervene in a lawsuit brought against Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, and state and local election officials. “Democrats never let a crisis go to waste, and they are using a pandemic to completely destroy the integrity of our elections,” RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said in a written statement. The case, she said, “exposes Florida to potential fraud.” A group of Florida voters, Democratic super PAC Priorities USA and other Democratic-leaning organizations filed the lawsuit in U.S. district court in Tallahassee in early May. The case seeks to throw out state ballot-return deadlines and laws limiting who is allowed to collect vote-by-mail ballots and return them to local election offices.

Florida: No charges filed in Florida Democrats’ mail vote fraud probe | Ana Ceballos/Miami Herald

State law-enforcement officials found “no evidence of fraudulent intent” by the Florida Democratic Party after more than a yearlong investigation into alleged vote-by-mail fraud, records show. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement on Wednesday released records tied to an investigation into Democratic Party members altering election forms at the tail end of the 2018 election cycle, which was dominated by three statewide recounts. Investigators found “no evidence of fraudulent intent to use the altered forms” on April 20 and handed the case over to the Florida Office of Statewide Prosecution to determine if there was enough evidence and information to file charges. “It is closed now, so prosecutors have determined no charges,” Jessica Cary, a spokeswoman for FDLE, wrote in an email Wednesday to The News Service of Florida. Florida Statewide Prosecutor Nick Cox said Wednesday there was a “lack of sufficient evidence to support prosecution” in the case.

Florida: A Trump election conspiracy collapses | Marc Caputo/Politico

A Trump election conspiracy theory has fallen apart after Florida’s law enforcement agency said it had found no widespread voter fraud in the 2018 races for Senate and governor. President Donald Trump had complained repeatedly about election “fraud” and theft in heavily populated, Democrat-rich Broward and Palm Beach counties, which had slowly but erratically updated their vote totals after polls closed on Election Day. With each updated tally, Republican candidates Rick Scott, who was running for U.S. Senate, and Ron DeSantis, in a bid for the governor’s mansion, saw their margins of victory narrow. Both races ultimately went to recounts. It’s common for election margins to change as more ballots are counted, but Scott, who was governor at the time, claimed without evidence that the counts reeked of Democratic fraud, a conspiracy theory Trump amplified on Twitter. Scott called for an investigation. Trump backed him up. “Law Enforcement is looking into another big corruption scandal having to do with Election Fraud in #Broward and Palm Beach. Florida voted for Rick Scott!” wrote Trump on Nov. 8, 2018.  In a tweet the next day, the president falsely accused Democrats of sending “their best Election stealing lawyer, Marc Elias, to Broward County they miraculously started finding Democrat votes. Don’t worry, Florida – I am sending much better lawyers to expose the FRAUD!” But neither Trump’s unnamed “lawyers” nor the Florida Department of Law Enforcement found evidence of a “big corruption scandal.” The state took more than 17 months to wrap up its investigation Wednesday, and found none of the wrongdoing alleged by Trump and Scott.

Illinois: House approves legislation to expand vote-by-mail program after hours of questions from GOP | Jamie Munks/Chicago Tribune

The Illinois House on Thursday passed legislation to significantly expand Illinois’ vote-by-mail program in advance of November’s general election after hours of debate during which Republicans took issue with various facets of the plan. The legislation would direct election authorities to mail or email official vote-by-mail applications for the Nov. 3 general election to any voters who applied for an official ballot in the 2018 general election, the 2019 municipal elections or the March 2020 primary. Voters who submit their application for a mail-in ballot before Oct. 1 would receive their ballot no later than Oct. 6. Sponsoring Rep. Kelly Burke, an Evergreen Park Democrat, said its aim is to “try to make vote-by-mail more user-friendly, efficient, secure and accessible.” The House voted 72-43 in favor Thursday evening. Rep. Brad Stephens of Rosemont was the lone Republican to vote in favor of the measure, which now moves to the Senate.

Kentucky: Election officials scramble to conduct mail-in primary | Daniel Desrochers/Lexington Herald Leader

Kentucky’s primary election is on June 23. Sort of. By then, though, almost everyone will have already cast their vote. Some people have already started voting by absentee ballot, and those will become widely available in coming days. Every county in the state is supposed to offer in-person voting by appointment only starting June 8. The last day to mail in your ballot is June 23. The last day for county election officials to transmit vote totals to the Secretary of State’s office is June 30th. Welcome to voting in the middle of a global pandemic. “A regular election is super hard,” said Gabrielle Summe, the Kentucky County Clerk. “There’s a lot of moving pieces, there’s a lot of logistics. This election, no one really knows what to expect.” This April, as COVID-19 spread through the state, Gov. Andy Beshear and Secretary of State Michael Adams came to an agreement: they would let Kentuckians vote by mail. The reasons were simple: the coronavirus spreads easily in large crowds and most poll workers are older than 65, making them particularly vulnerable to deadly complications from the virus.

Michigan: Trump misstates Michigan mail-in ballot policy, threatens federal funding | Zach Montellaro and Quint Forgey/Politico

President Donald Trump mischaracterized Michigan’s absentee ballot policies on Wednesday while threatening federal funding to the state if election officials there do not retreat from measures meant to facilitate mail-in voting. The ultimatum from the White House, which Trump tried to downplay later in the day, comes as Michigan, a state crucial to Trump’s reelection chances, combats the fallout from a particularly severe coronavirus outbreak. “Breaking: Michigan sends absentee ballots to 7.7 million people ahead of Primaries and the General Election,” Trump tweeted. “This was done illegally and without authorization by a rogue Secretary of State. I will ask to hold up funding to Michigan if they want to go down this Voter Fraud path!” He then followed up with another message mentioning the official Twitter accounts for acting White House budget director Russ Vought, White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and the Treasury Department. Hours later, the president deleted his original tweet and re-sent a similar tweet that said “absentee ballot applications” without noting his original mistake. The president’s tweets inaccurately described a recent policy change in Michigan, where Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat, announced Tuesday that all of the state’s registered voters would be mailed absentee ballot applications for the August down-ballot primaries and November general election — not a ballot directly.