National: SolarWinds breach raises stakes for NDAA Trump still threatens to veto | Jory Heckman/Federal News Network

Agencies are still unraveling the full extent of a massive cybersecurity breach that has affected wide swaths of government and industry. But two of the leading voices on cybersecurity issues in Congress have called the discovery of the breach, made possible through malware embedded in SolarWinds network management software, a warning shot to agencies of how vulnerable they are to cyber intrusions. Amid bipartisan calls to double down on cybersecurity within government, the leadership of the Cyberspace Solarium Commission said Thursday that the SolarWinds breach has further raised the stakes for the National Defense Authorization Act that President Donald Trump has threatened to veto. Congress included a third of the solarium’s final recommendations into the 2021 NDAA, chief among them provisions that would elevate and empower the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and put a Senate-confirmed national cyber director position back in the White House. Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) said the breach makes a clear case for the work of the Cyberspace Solarium Commission and the cyber provisions that made it into the annual defense policy bill passed by the House and Senate.

Full Article: SolarWinds breach raises stakes for NDAA Trump still threatens to veto | Federal News Network

National: Despite Trump’s intense hunt for voter fraud, officials in key states have so far identified just a small number of possible cases | Rosalind S. Helderman, Jon Swaine and Michelle Ye Hee Lee/The Washington Post

In Pittsburgh, the local police department this year received 10 complaints of possible fraudulent voting in the November election. Eight of those cases have already been closed without charges or findings of wrongdoing. Wisconsin officials have charged one woman with voter fraud — a resident of suburban Milwaukee accused of attempting to cast a ballot in the name of her partner, who died in July. In Michigan, two people have been charged with fraud, both accused of forging the names of their own daughters to obtain or cast a ballot. After an intense hunt by President Trump’s allies to surface voting irregularities in this year’s election, law enforcement agencies in six key swing states targeted by the president have found just a modest number of complaints that have merited investigation, according to cases tracked by state officials.

Full Article: Despite Trump’s intense hunt for voter fraud, officials in key states have so far identified just a small number of possible cases – The Washington Post

National: Republicans plunge into open battle over attempts to overturn Trump’s loss to Biden | Seung Min Kim, Josh Dawsey and Toluse Olorunnipa/The Washington Post

The GOP is plunging into open warfare over President-elect Joe Biden’s election victory — with President Trump taunting Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and threatening primary challenges against other Republicans, House lawmakers egging on senators to contest the counting of electoral college votes next month, and senior GOP senators rebuffing that effort as a pointless political exercise. And while the internal Republican Party conflict festers, White House officials are scrambling in private to rein in Trump’s increasing embrace of conspiracy theorists as the defeated president and his most ardent allies continue to plot efforts to subvert the outcome of the Nov. 3 election. But it all appears to have hardened Trump, who — having been out of sight for more than a week — is continuing to push baseless claims of election fraud, while those closest to him are unwilling to challenge him publicly and are instead only bolstering his efforts.

Full Article: Republicans plunge into open battle over attempts to overturn Trump?s loss to Biden – The Washington Post

National: Giuliani told to preserve all records as lawyers for Dominion warn legal action is ‘imminent’ | Kaitlan Collins/CNN

Since he lost the election, Trump, his attorneys and his supporters have baselessly alleged that machines made by the voting machine manufacturer were manipulated to change votes from Trump to President-elect Joe Biden or delete votes for Trump. Dominion’s CEO has defended the company’s work repeatedly, and now appears prepared to take legal action against those in the President’s inner circle. There is no evidence that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump, and his administration and election officials have called it the “most secure” election in US history. Biden won the popular vote by more than 7 million votes and the electoral map 306 to 232. Dominion is being represented by Tom Clare and Megan Meier from Clare Locke LLP, a law firm that specializes in defamation cases. In the letter to Giuliani, which was shown to CNN, the attorneys caution Giuliani that “litigation regarding these issues is imminent.” “With this letter you are on notice of your ongoing obligations to preserve documents related to Dominion’s claims for defamation based on allegations that the company acted improperly during the November 2020 presidential election and somehow rigged the election in favor of President-Elect Joe Biden,” the letter to Giuliani reads.

Full Atyicle: Giuliani told to preserve all records as lawyers for Dominion warn legal action is ‘imminent’ – CNNPolitics

National: Former CIA chief says Trump knows Russia helped him so he gives them a pass | Gino Spocchi/The Independent

Donald Trump cannot denounce Russia’s alleged cyber attack on US government agencies because “he realises that Russia has helped him” in the past, a former CIA director has claimed. John Brennan, who was head of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) between 2013 and 2017, said on Monday that the US president’s comments on Russia were against “reality,” and always have been. And that, said Mr Brennan, was because the country had helped his one-time election win. “He refuses to accept reality. I think it’s because he doesn’t see Russia as a threat to him personally,” said Mr Brennan, as he appeared on CNN’s Out Front. “In fact, I think he realises that Russia has helped him prior to the 2016 election and even afterward, which is why he’s given them a pass”.

Full Article: Former CIA chief says Trump knows Russia helped him so he gives them a pass | The Independent

Editorial: It’s time for Mike Pence to choose: Trump, or the truth | Edward B. Foley/The Washington Post

Mike Pence’s conduct on Jan. 6 matters. Not to the outcome of the presidential election, but to the process of its resolution. The vice president can either facilitate President-elect Joe Biden’s victory, or he can resist it. Which he chooses will either help or hinder the Republican Party’s recovery from the electoral denialism that afflicts three-fourths of its voters. The Constitution directs states to send their electoral college votes to Congress to be counted in a special joint session. An 1887 statute requires Pence, as president of the Senate, to chair this joint session. Typically, the session is a formality, but this year, a group of House Republicans, led by Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.), are planning to use the event to try to force Congress to vote on whether to accept or reject the electoral college results. If they can get just one senator to object to the electoral votes of a state, then both congressional chambers will have to debate and vote on whether to accept that state’s submission. This is a fool’s errand. Even if they find a senator to go along with them, both chambers will certainly affirm Biden’s victory. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) knows this, so he has made clear that he hopes no senator will join Brooks, to avoid forcing his GOP caucus to go on record as to whether they are with Trump or against him.

Full Article: Opinion | It’s time for Mike Pence to choose: Trump, or the truth – The Washington Post

National: The Postal Service Delivered On Election Day. But the Agency Remains in Peril | Alana Abramson/Time

In early November, after news organizations called the Presidential race for Joe Biden, throngs of revelers poured into the streets, where they cheered not only for the new President-elect, but for the United States Postal Service (USPS), which had overcome enormous obstacles to deliver mail-in ballots largely on time amidst a raging global pandemic. Shouts of “USPS” erupted in New York City and a child dressed as a USPS mailbox danced in the streets of Oakland, California. In the weeks leading up to the election, U.S. Postal workers had worked around the clock, often risking their personal safety, to sift through mail-in ballots, trying to reassure voters that, despite President Trump’s attacks on their agency, voting by mail was safe, secure, and wouldn’t lead to accidental disenfranchisement. When those fears never materialized, the Postal Service’s performance was saluted, with relief. But as the Presidential election has faded in the rearview mirror, the underlying issues that stoked anxiety about the efficacy of the USPS remain—even as the public and the news cycle has largely moved on. The agency’s finances are still precarious; its 644,000 person workforce remains exhausted and depleted as thousands quarantine after exposure to COVID-19; and with Christmas fast approaching, USPS facilities are, as one Postal union representative put it in a text message to TIME, “buried and short staffed.”

Full Article: The Postal Service Remains in Peril Even After Election Day | Time

Editorial: Trump must stop denying Russia’s complicity and respond forcefully to this massive cyberattack | The Washington Post

Both Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Attorney General William P. Barr say Russia was behind the massive cyberattack that compromised 18,000 U.S. companies and government agencies, but President Trump isn’t buying it. “Russia, Russia, Russia is the priority chant when anything happens” Trump tweeted, adding “it may” be China or “a hit on our ridiculous voting machines during the election, which is now obvious that I won big.” No, it wasn’t either of these things. And by tweeting this nonsense, Trump is not only failing to respond forcefully and restore deterrence in cyberspace — he is missing an opportunity to claim vindication concerning Washington’s obsession with Russian electoral interference. Were U.S. intelligence officials so focused on detecting and deterring Moscow’s election interference that they missed the Kremlin’s real target — a massive cyber penetration of U.S. businesses and government agencies? That’s the case Trump should be making. Undetected, Russian hackers penetrated SolarWinds, a company that produces network management software used by many Fortune 500 companies and government agencies, in October 2019, and began attaching a computer virus to the software updates the company pushed out to its clients. SolarWinds updates acted like a superspreader, allowing Russia to create “back doors” in targeted networks that, according to the New York Times, gave Moscow the ability “to come and go, steal data and — though it apparently has not happened yet — alter data or conduct destructive attacks.” Russia penetrated not only thousands of businesses but also the U.S. Departments of State, Homeland Security, Treasury, Commerce and Energy — including the National Nuclear Security Administration, which maintains the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile. We still do not know the full extent of the damage. Some national security experts have suggested that this attack could actually be a subset of a much larger operation.

Full Article: Opinion | Trump must stop denying Russia’s complicity and respond forcefully to this massive cyberattack – The Washington Post

Arizona Judge will not force Maricopa County to obey subpoena on voting machines | Associated Press

A judge in Phoenix on Wednesday rejected an effort by legislative Republicans to force the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors to comply with a sweeping subpoena demanding access to voting machines, copies of all mail ballots and other materials from the election that saw President-elect Joe Biden win Arizona’s 11 electoral votes. Superior Court Judge Randall Warner said lawmakers did not follow the appropriate procedures to enforce a legislative subpoena, but he invited them to refile their case. However, the ruling is a setback to the effort by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Eddie Farnsworth and Senate President Karen Fann to get access to materials in time to audit them and send a report to Congress before Electoral College votes are counted on Jan. 6. The dispute is another chapter in efforts by President Donald Trump and his supporters to cast doubt on the legitimacy of the election in Arizona and several other states he lost. The GOP lawmakers say they want the county to turn over voting machines and records so the Legislature can audit Maricopa County’s handling of the election. No evidence of widespread voter or election fraud has emerged in Arizona, which has seen eight lawsuits challenging the results of the state’s presidential vote fail. Claims of sweeping voting irregularities made by Trump backers in Arizona and several other battleground states have mainly been rejected.

Full Article: Judge will not force county to obey subpoena on Arizona vote

Arizona: Maricopa County supervisors sue rather than comply with senator’s subpoenas for election materials | Howard Fischer/Arizona Daily Star

Maricopa County supervisors voted Friday to not comply with subpoenas for election materials issued by the chairman of the state Senate Judiciary Committee. The subpoenas demanded access to copies of the more than 2 million ballots cast by Maricopa County voters in the Nov. 3 election, and for access to the equipment used to tabulate those ballots and the software that ran the equipment. The 4-1 vote to refuse, following a nearly three-hour executive session with attorneys, came amid concerns that at least some of what is being demanded by Sen. Eddie Farnsworth, R-Gilbert, would expose private information on voters. There also were questions about whether the county has the legal right to give that information to outsiders. Instead, the board members in the majority on the vote — three Republicans and one Democrat — directed their attorneys to file suit and have a judge determine whether the subpoenas are legally valid. The legal papers, filed late Friday, said the subpoenas are not authorized by any law. Legislative panels can subpoena people to testify, but these seek actual materials, said attorney Steve Tully, hired by the county, who is himself a former lawmaker. More significant, Tully said the subpoenas “serve no valid legislative purpose.”

Full Article: Maricopa County supervisors sue rather than comply with senator’s subpoenas for election materials | Local news | tucson.com

California: Voting Issues in Alameda County Raise Questions About Election Management | Guy Marzorati/KQED

It was mid-morning on Election Day when Julie Mendel, a poll worker at a voting location at Mills College in Oakland, realized that something had gone horribly wrong. A voter had approached her with a printout from a ballot-marking device, a machine that spits out a voter’s choices onto a piece of paper (the voter’s ballot) after they have made their selections on a touchscreen. The voter then submits the ballot into a collection bag. For more than three days of voting, Mendel and her fellow poll workers had told voters that the piece of paper was a receipt, with the actual votes submitted electronically though the machine. She had heard the guidance from a higher-ranking poll worker at the location, and never questioned it until she looked closely at the piece of paper the man was showing her. It read ‘Official Ballot.’ “We felt really awful just about the possibility that we had told these people to walk away with their votes uncast,” said Mendel. For the rest of the day, Mendel and other poll workers scrambled to contact the Alameda County Registrar of Voters Office, trying in vain to get clear guidance and help correcting their error.

Full Article: Voting Issues in Alameda County Raise Questions About Election Management | KQED

Georgia Senate Runoff Targeted by Misinformation ‘Superspreaders’ | Sheera Frenkel and Davey Alba/The New York Times

Two weeks ago, the conservative media personalities Diamond and Silk falsely claimed on their Facebook page that people who were not eligible to vote were receiving ballots in Georgia’s special elections next month. Their post was shared more than 300 times. A week later, the right-wing commentator Mark Levin shared a post on his Facebook page falsely suggesting that the Rev. Raphael Warnock, one of the two Democrats running in the Georgia Senate runoffs, once welcomed Fidel Castro to his church. The misleading claim was shared more than 3,000 times. At the same time, a drumbeat of misinformation about the presidential election count in Georgia droned on. Lara Trump, President Trump’s daughter-in-law, and the Hodgetwins, a bodybuilding duo who have turned to pro-Trump political comedy, shared several false stories on their Instagram and Facebook pages that claimed suitcases filled with ballots were pulled out from under tables during the November vote count. Tens of thousands of people shared their posts. As Georgia prepares to hold special elections that will determine which party will control the U.S. Senate, the state has become the focus of a misinformation campaign that is aimed at discrediting the results of the November elections and convincing voters that Democrats are trying to steal the upcoming vote. A small group of “superspreaders” is responsible for the vast majority of that misinformation, according to new research by Avaaz, a global human rights group. Not only are those accounts responsible for most of the misinformation swirling around the vote, they are drowning out accurate reporting by mainstream media outlets on Facebook and Instagram.

Full Article: Georgia Senate Runoff Targeted by Misinformation ‘Superspreaders’ – The New York Times

Georgia: Eligibility of 364,000 voters challenged before Senate runoff by Texas-based True the Vote | Mark Niesse/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A Texas-based organization is working with Georgia Republican Party members to challenge the eligibility of over 364,000 Georgia voters who might have moved, an attempt to disqualify their ballots in the U.S. Senate runoffs. The effort questions voters’ residency and leaves decisions over whose ballots should count to county election boards. The election watchdog group True the Vote targeted voters whose names showed up on U.S. Postal Service lists showing their addresses had changed. The organization enlisted Republicans in dozens of counties to file voter challenges with their local election boards. The effort has gained traction in at least two counties, Forsyth and Muscogee, questioning the eligibility of over 9,000 voters who will be forced to use provisional ballots if they show up at the polls. Election boards in many other counties have rejected similar objections to voters, including in Athens-Clarke, Cobb, DeKalb, Fulton and Gwinnett counties. Requiring voters to use provisional ballots would prevent their ballots from being counted until election officials verify residency. The burden of proof is on the challenger, but voters might be asked to provide information that shows their votes are valid. Voting rights groups say True the Vote is trying to disenfranchise voters, using inexact and unverified change-of-address lists to cancel ballots in a major election that will decide control of the U.S. Senate. It’s “one of the oldest tricks in the voter suppression playbook,” said Sean Young, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia. He called it an example of “voter caging,” the practice of using mail lists to seek large cancellations of registrations. “It’s unsurprising that political operatives would pull this out in the middle of a contentious election,” Young said. “There’s no shortage of conspiracy theories in this election. Mass voter challenges attempt to make those conspiracies real and disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of voters in the process.”

Full Article: Texas-based True the Vote contests residency of 364K Georgia voters

Georgia: Government report warns of potential violence and foreign interference during Senate runoffs | Crystal Hill/Yahoo News

With the Georgia Senate runoff races just two weeks away, the Department of Homeland Security is warning of the possibility of “ideologically motivated violence” and even a foreign influence campaign as voters prepare to go to the polls, according to a new internal report obtained by Yahoo News. The Dec. 22 report, marked for official use only, says Georgia faces a “potentially heightened physical threat environment” that could drive violence or threats of violence similar to those seen nationwide during the 2020 presidential and state election season. Incidents of violence in or near the state capitol in Atlanta, courts and other “symbolic political institutions” could also negatively affect elected officials or election workers in Georgia, the report says. “We further judge that violent extremists or other actors could quickly mobilize to violence or generate violent disruptions of otherwise lawful protests in response to a range of issues,” the report says, including possible disputes over the results of the Nov. 3 presidential election. The agency based its judgments on a review of national and local media coverage, relevant social media postings, state law enforcement officials detailing “ideologically motivated violence or threats of violence” and its other election violence assessments made over the past six months.

DHS Georgia Warning

Full Article: Government report warns of potential violence and foreign interference during Georgia Senate runoffs

Iowa Democrat asks House to review 6-vote race, cites errors | Ryan J. Foley/Associated Press

Democrat Rita Hart asked the U.S. House on Tuesday to investigate and overturn the race that Iowa says she lost by six votes, arguing that 22 ballots were wrongly excluded and others weren’t examined during the recount. In a notice of contest, Hart argued that she would have netted 15 votes and defeated Republican Mariannette Miller-Meeks had the 22 ballots been tallied in Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District. Hart’s filing asks the Democratic-led House to nullify the state-certified results, count the excluded ballots and conduct a uniform hand recount in the district’s 24 counties. She expressed confidence she will be the winner after that process. “Although it is admittedly tempting to close the curtain on the 2020 election cycle, prematurely ending this contest would disenfranchise Iowa voters and award the congressional seat to the candidate who received fewer lawful votes,” Hart lawyer Marc Elias wrote in the 176-page filing. Elias, a veteran of election contests nationwide, called it “an exceptionally unlikely scenario” for a candidate to be able to identify enough specific wrongly-rejected ballots that could change an election’s outcome. But Miller-Meeks and other Republicans accused Hart of seeking to be installed through a partisan power grab after losing a close election involving nearly 400,000 voters.

Full Article: Iowa Democrat asks House to review 6-vote race, cites errors

Michigan: Threat against Wayne County canvasser leads to federal charges for New Hampshire woman | Robert Snell/The Detroit News

Federal prosecutors Wednesday filed charges against a New Hampshire woman accused of texting threats to the chairwoman of the Wayne County Board of Canvassers following the presidential election and sending photos of a bloody mutilated female body. Katelyn Jones, 23, a former Olivet resident who lives in Epping, was charged with threatening violence through interstate commerce following an FBI investigation that probed lingering fallout from President Donald Trump’s defeat and baseless allegations about voting irregularities. The criminal complaint and an FBI affidavit filed in federal court describe threats made against Monica Palmer, chairwoman of the Wayne County Board of Canvassers, after the Republican canvasser voted against certifying the election results. Palmer faced intense scrutiny over her decision to decline certification, then certify and then attempt to rescind her vote on the final certification of roughly 878,000 votes in Michigan’s largest county. “The allegations in this case should make all of us disgusted,” U.S. Attorney Matthew Schneider said in a statement. “There is simply no place in Michigan, or in the United States, for chilling threats like this to people who are simply doing what they believe is correct.” Palmer declined to comment Wednesday.

Full Article: Threat against Wayne Co. canvasser leads to federal charges for N.H. woman

Michigan is conducting postelection audits. Here’s how that works | Mikhayla Dunaj/Detroit Free Press

In early December, the Michigan Bureau of Elections announced and commenced the first stages of the state’s postelection audits. According the Secretary of State’s Office, these are the most comprehensive postelection audits in Michigan’s history with a statewide risk-limiting audit in addition to procedural audits. Each of these audits ensures election protocol, procedures and results are sound in Michigan. Here are some answers to questions about the postelection auditing process. According to Michigan’s Post-Election Audit Manual, the process verifies that Michigan law and election procedures were followed correctly before, during and after Election Day. This includes reviewing voted ballots by hand to make sure tabulation equipment worked and gave correct results. The Michigan Election Security Advisory Commission published an October 2020 report that details the two types of postelection audits: procedural and tabulation audits. Procedural audits verify that election procedures are followed by reviewing election processes, machines and ballots in a jurisdiction. Procedural audits seek to examine clerical errors made on or before Election Day. For instance, they review poll books and ballots to determine why numbers didn’t match. This gives local clerks a chance to prevent similar errors in future elections with updated protocol, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said in a guest column published last month. Tabulation audits randomly select precincts in a jurisdiction and recount all of their paper ballots by hand to confirm the accuracy of ballot tabulation machines.

Full Article: Michigan’s post-election audit: What’s involved, how it works

Michigan Attorney General to seek sanctions against some lawyers challenging vote results | Beth LeBlanc/The Detroit News

Attorney General Dana Nessel said she plans to seek sanctions against lawyers who filed lawsuits against the state’s election results that contained “intentional misrepresentations” regarding Michigan’s elections. The Democratic attorney general also plans to pursue court costs and fees and, along with Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, to file complaints with the attorney grievance commission, Nessel told reporters Tuesday. The requests will likely be made after the cases have been closed out, she said. “Some of these cases where we know for a fact there were intentional misrepresentations made — the kind of misrepresentation that there is no question of fact that these were inaccurate statements that were presented to the court — yes, myself and also Secretary Benson, will be filing complaints to the attorney grievance commission,” Nessel said.

Full Article: Nessel to seek sanctions against some lawyers challenging vote results

Michigan: Sanctions sought for lawyers who aimed to overturn election | Beth LeBlanc and Craig Mauger/The Detroit News

Attorney General Dana Nessel said she plans to seek sanctions against lawyers who filed lawsuits against the state’s election results with claims that featured “intentional misrepresentations.” The Democratic attorney general also plans to pursue court costs and fees and to file complaints with the attorney grievance commission, Nessel told reporters Tuesday. Her remarks came as the City of Detroit and an attorney for Wayne County voter Robert Davis took their own steps in search of sanctions against lawyers involved in one of the cases to overturn the state’s presidential election. Davis and his attorney, Andrew Paterson, filed a motion Tuesday afternoon in U.S. District Court for Michigan’s Eastern District for sanctions against the lawyers who represented six Michigan Republicans in asking a judge to require that President Donald Trump be named the state’s winner. The Republican’s case, which is known as King v. Whitmer, relied on conspiracy theories and discredited claims of wrongdoing. Trump lost Michigan to President-elect Joe Biden by 154,000 votes, according to the certified results, and no proof of widespread fraud has been presented. The court needs to sanction “the egregious conduct of the plaintiffs and their attorneys for making clearly frivolous arguments and using the judicial system to obtain unprecedented relief, to satisfy plaintiffs’ selfish and destructive political agendas,” said the filing from Davis, who had intervened in the case.

Full Article: Sanctions sought for lawyers who aimed to overturn Michigan’s election

New York: Affidavit ballot issues take center stage in NY22 judicial review | Steve Howe/Utica Observer-Dispatch

Despite another full day in court, the judicial review in New York’s 22nd Congressional District will continue, and results may not be certified until next year. The unofficial results remain unchanged as of Tuesday afternoon, with Republican Claudia Tenney leading U.S. Rep. Anthony Brindisi, D-Utica, by 19 votes. State Supreme Court Justice Scott DelConte requested an update in Oneida County, which is in the process of canvassing 1,797 ballots under review. So far, the county board of elections has canvassed 689 ballots in two days this week, 253 on Monday and 436 on Tuesday. Of those ballots, 90 affidavit ballots were counted yesterday. The court was not supplied with the results of the recently canvassed ballots or how many ballots would be added to the count by the end of Tuesday’s session.

Full Article: Tenney-Brindisi NY22: Affidavit ballots take center stage

Pennsylvania: As he seeks to overturn election, Trump invites state’s GOP senators to White House lunch | Angela Coloumbis/Spotlight PA

As he seeks to overturn Pennsylvania’s election results in the courts, President Donald Trump invited Republican members of the GOP-controlled state Senate to a Wednesday lunch at the White House. The invitation for the luncheon was sent to all GOP lawmakers in the chamber, said Jennifer Kocher, a spokesperson for the caucus. No agenda was included, she said, and it was not immediately known how many senators were attending. The top Republican in the state Senate, Jake Corman of Centre County, had other commitments, Kocher said, and was not planning to go. Aides to newly elected Majority Leader Kim Ward, R-Hempfield, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. At least one Republican senator, Doug Mastriano of Franklin County, had made arrangements to attend, a legislative source said. Mastriano organized a hearing last month in Gettysburg on unfounded claims of widespread election fraud. Mere hours after the hearing, Mastriano, one of the chamber’s most conservative members, tested positive for covid-19. He received his results when he and a small group of people traveled to the White House that day to meet with Trump, the Associated Press reported. Guests are tested for the virus and Mastriano was forced to leave after testing positive that day. Mastriano could not be reached for comment Wednesday. The White House luncheon comes two days after Corman announced that he will push a measure to create a special committee to “conduct an exhaustive review” of all aspects of last month’s election. “Far too many residents of Pennsylvania are questioning the validity of their votes or have doubt that the process was conducted fairly, securely, and produced accurate results,” he said in a statement.

Full Article: As he seeks to overturn Pa.’s election, Trump invites state’s GOP senators to White House lunch | TribLIVE.com

Texas Attorney General Paxton urged White House to revoke Harris County COVID relief funds over mail ballots | St. John Barned-Smith and Benjamin Wermund/Houston Chronicle

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton tried to get the Trump administration to revoke millions in federal COVID relief funding that Harris County budgeted for expanded mail-in voting earlier this year, newly revealed records show. Paxton wrote in a May 21 letter to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin that Harris County’s plan was an “abuse” of the county’s authority and an “egregious” violation of state law. The letter was obtained and published by the Citizens For Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. “We respectfully ask the department to scrutinize its award of CARES Act funding to Harris County in light of the county’s stated intent to use federal funding in violation of state law, and to the extent possible, seek return of any amounts improperly spent on efforts to promote illegal mail-in voting,” Paxton wrote. “Without implementing adequate protections against unlawful abuse of mail-in ballots, the department could be cast in a position of involuntarily facilitating election fraud.” The letter to Mnuchin illustrates the lengths Paxton went in his efforts to stop Harris and other counties from making it easier to vote by mail during the pandemic, which included later suing Harris County to block its plan to send mail ballot applications to all 2.4 million of its registered voters. Under Texas law, voting by mail is only an option for people who are 65 and older, disabled, incarcerated or out of the county on election day.

Full Article: Texas AG Paxton urged White House to revoke Harris County COVID relief funds over mail ballots – HoustonChronicle.com

Texas: Pennsylvania Lt. Governor Fetterman relentlessly trolls Dan Patrick seeking $3M voter fraud bounty | Benjamin Wermund/Houston Chronicle

All John Fetterman wants for Christmas is the $3 million he says Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick owes him. The Democratic lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania has been trolling his Republican counterpart for weeks to collect on the $1 million Patrick offered in November for evidence of fraud in the Nov. 3 election. Three supporters of President Donald Trump have now been charged in separate voter fraud schemes in Pennsylvania. Fetterman says they should all count for bounty purposes. The most recent charges came this week — against the second Pennsylvania man to be accused of casting a ballot for Trump in the name of his deceased mother. “We hit the jackpot with this last one,” Fetterman said. “There are three documented cases — three.” “All I want for Christmas is my handsome reward from Dan Patrick,” Fetterman tweeted on Dec. 18 with a Christmas tree and pleading face emoji. Fetterman says he’ll donate the proceeds to food banks in the form of gift cards to Sheetz and Wawa, competing Pennsylvania convenience stores with die-hard followings. Patrick has responded to Fetterman just once, in a tweet in November that read: “Faith in the electoral process is a serious issue. Transparency is critical. PA Dems brought this on themselves w/ last minute changes to election laws and counting ballots behind closed doors. Respond to the reports. Answer the questions. Stop the snide put-downs and #getserious” Fetterman says he is serious — about debunking the false allegations being thrown at his state. He has taken the lead in Pennsylvania pushing back on bogus claims of voter fraud circulated by Trump and his allies. Patrick — honorary chairman of Trump’s campaign in Texas — and his million-dollar reward are helping to disprove those claims, Fetterman says.

Full Article: Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. Fetterman relentlessly trolls Dan Patrick seeking $1M voter fraud bounty – HoustonChronicle.com

Wisconsin: Milwaukee, Dane counties presidential recounts come in about $355,000 less than projected | Alison Dirr Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The presidential recounts in Milwaukee and Dane counties came in about $355,000 below the $3 million projected cost, according to figures provided by the counties to the state Tuesday. Dane County’s recount came in about $11,000 below budget while Milwaukee County’s was about $343,600 lower than expected. The county clerks who oversaw the recounts credited the lower price tag to finishing days before the Dec. 1 deadline. “I’m glad, I’m happy,” Milwaukee County Clerk George Christenson said of coming in under budget. “We always want to be as accurate as possible, and I felt that because of the efficiency at which we operated and the fact that we put into service more tabulators and we had such dedicated election workers, that we were able to get the job done a few days ahead of schedule.” President Donald Trump requested the recount only in the state’s two most populous and most liberal counties after losing the state by about 21,000 votes out of about 3 million total to Democratic President-elect Joe Biden.

Full Article: Trump recounts in Milwaukee, Dane counties cost less than projected

Wisconsin: Biggest expenses in Dane County’s $700k presidential recount: workers, scanners | Abigail Becker and Briana Reilly/The Capital Times

Dane County incurred over $729,700 in costs to administer the presidential recount election, coming in about $11,000 under Clerk Scott McDonell’s original estimate to the Wisconsin Elections Commission. The total cost of the recount, $729,733, included expenses for recount staff, security, room rental at Madison’s Monona Terrace, tabulator machines and election software. McDonell’s original estimate for the cost of the recount was $740,808. Among the most expensive items: the county paid $243,122 for temporary workers who tabulated the ballots during the week-and-a-half long process and $129,530 for high speed scanners. Security costs included $104,306 for the Madison Police Department and $8,694 for a private security company. The partial recount of the November election, requested and paid for by President Donald Trump, targeted liberal Dane and Milwaukee counties and served as a vehicle for the president and his allies to mount a series of legal challenges in the state that President-elect Joe Biden won by fewer than 21,000 votes. Milwaukee County officials haven’t responded to requests in recent days seeking the costs of administering the recount there. The county had previously estimated doing so would amount to just over $2 million.

Full Article: Biggest expenses in Dane County’s $700k presidential recount: workers, scanners | Local Government | madison.com

National: Trump assembles a ragtag crew of conspiracy-minded allies in flailing bid to reverse election loss | Toluse Olorunnipa, Josh Dawsey, Rosalind S. Helderman and Emma Brown/The Washington Post

With his baseless claims of widespread voter fraud rejected by dozens of judges and GOP leaders, President Trump has turned to a ragtag group of conspiracy theorists, media-hungry lawyers and other political misfits in a desperate attempt to hold on to power after his election loss. The president’s orbit has grown more extreme as his more mainstream allies, including Attorney General William P. Barr, have declined to endorse his increasingly radical plans to overturn the will of the voters. Trump’s unofficial election advisory council now includes a pardoned felon, adherents of the QAnon conspiracy theory, a White House trade adviser and a Russian agent’s former lover. Members of the group assembled­ in the Oval Office on Friday for a marathon meeting that lasted more than four hours and included discussion of tactics ranging from imposing martial law in swing states to seizing voting machines through executive fiat. The meeting exploded into shouting matches as outside advisers and White House aides clashed over the lack of a cohesive strategy and disagreed about the constitutionality of some of the proposed solutions. Trump’s desire to remain in power was dampened further Monday as Barr said that he saw no basis for the federal government to seize voting machines and that he did not intend to appoint a special counsel to investigate allegations of voter fraud. “If I thought a special counsel at this stage was the right tool and was appropriate, I would name one, but I haven’t, and I’m not going to,” Barr said during a news conference.

Full Article: Trump assembles a ragtag crew of conspiracy-minded allies in flailing bid to reverse election loss – The Washington Post

Pennsylvania election officials are burnt out and leaving their jobs after 2020 ‘nightmare’ | Spotlight PA

In the weeks before the general election, Sara May-Silfee’s office was overwhelmed. Phone calls from voters were incessant. Lines of people formed outside the building to apply for and cast mail ballots. In one instance, she said, impatient voters began chants outside her office that the waiting times amounted to voter suppression. The Monroe County elections director even got in the habit of closing her office’s shades at night, she said, because voters would knock on the windows, as late as 9, looking for assistance. “It was a nightmare,” May-Silfee said. “Everything was a nightmare.” Even before the pandemic emerged this spring, county election directors said they warned lawmakers and state officials that huge changes to Pennsylvania’s voting system were too much, too fast. Other states took years to implement statewide no-excuse mail voting. They had a few months.Since the passage of Act 77, the 2019 law that made sweeping changes to voting in Pennsylvania, at least 21 election directors and deputy directors from more than a dozen of the state’s 67 counties have left or will soon leave their posts, according to an analysis by Spotlight PA and Votebeat. A dozen current and former election officials said that’s no coincidence. “Mail-in voting has become like a second election that we have to run, that we never had to run before,” Lycoming County Elections Director Forrest Lehman said. “It has almost doubled the workload, and you know, nobody’s salaries have doubled at the same time.” Despite these challenges, Election Day went smoothly, with officials reporting few problems. Still, the people tasked with running elections are drained from dealing with regular verbal attacks from angry voters, confused or suspicious of the process this year.

Full Article: Pa. election officials are burnt out and leaving their jobs after 2020 ‘nightmare’ – pennlive.com

National: William Barr: No need for special counsels to investigate election fraud, Hunter Biden | Matt Zapotosky/The Washington Post

Outgoing Attorney General William P. Barr said Monday that he saw no basis for the federal government seizing voting machines and that he did not intend to appoint a special counsel to investigate allegations of voter fraud — again breaking with President Trump as the commander in chief entertains increasingly desperate measures to overturn the election. At a news conference to announce charges in a decades-old terrorism case, Barr — who has just two days left in office — was peppered with questions about whether he would consider steps proposed by allies of the president to advance Trump’s claims of massive voter fraud. Barr said that while he was “sure there was fraud in this election,” he had not seen evidence that it was so “systemic or broad-based” that it would change the result. He asserted he saw “no basis now for seizing machines by the federal government,” and he would not name a special counsel to explore the allegations of Trump and his allies. “If I thought a special counsel at this stage was the right tool and was appropriate, I would name one, but I haven’t, and I’m not going to,” Barr said. Similarly, Barr said he would not name a special counsel to investigate Hunter Biden, President-elect Joe Biden’s son, who revealed earlier this month he was under investigation for possible tax crimes. Barr said the investigation was “being handled responsibly and professionally” by regular Justice Department prosecutors, and he hoped that would continue in the next administration. “To this point, I have not seen a reason to appoint a special counsel, and I have no plan to do so before I leave,” Barr said.

Full Article: William Barr: no need for special counsels to investigate election fraud, Hunter Biden – The Washington Post

National: Fox News, Newsmax shoot down aired election claims after voting machine companies threaten legal action | David Bauder/Associated Press

Two election technology companies whose names have come up in President Donald Trump’s false charges of widespread voter fraud in the presidential election are fighting back, prompting unusual public statements from Fox News and Newsmax. The statements, over the weekend and on Monday, came after the companies Smartmatic and Dominion raised the prospect of legal action for reporting what they said was false information about them. Both companies were referenced in the campaign’s suggestion that vote counts in swing states were manipulated to the advantage of President-elect Joe Biden. The companies deny several statements made about them, and there is no evidence any voting system switched or deleted votes in the 2020 election. A nearly two-minute pre-taped segment was aired over the weekend on a Fox Business Network program hosted by Lou Dobbs and Fox News Channel shows with Maria Bartiromo and Jeanine Pirro. That came days after Smartmatic sent a letter threatening legal action to Fox and two other networks popular with Trump supporters, Newsmax and One America News Network. The two-minute Fox segments aired in the form of a question-and-answer session between an offscreen voice and Eddie Perez, a voting technology expert at the nonpartisan Open Source Election Technology Institute. “I have not seen any evidence that Smartmatic software was used to delete, change or alter anything related to vote tabulations,” Perez said. The company says its only work that involved the 2020 U.S. election came in Los Angeles. Trump lawyer Rudolph Giuliani has falsely claimed that Smartmatic was founded in Venezuela by former dictator Hugo Chavez for the goal of fixing elections. Smartmatic was started in Florida in 2000. Its founder is Venezuelan, but the company said Chavez was never involved, and its last work in Venezuela came in 2017 when its software found the government had reported false turnout numbers.

Full Article: Fox News, Newsmax shoot down aired election claims after voting machine companies threaten legal action – Chicago Tribune

National: Republicans desperate to avoid floor fight over Electoral College vote | Jonathan Easley/TheHill

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has intervened, asking his members not to join Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) or any other House members looking to object to the results on Jan. 6, when Congress meets to certify the Electoral College count. President Trump is waging a pressure campaign to get senators to revolt. Incoming Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), who will be sworn in Jan. 3, has said he’ll join the floor fight and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who has said he believes the election was “stolen” from Trump, is always a wild card. Republican strategists are hoping McConnell can quash the insurgency, believing the debate over Trump’s refusal to accept the outcome of the 2020 election is tearing the party apart ahead of the Jan. 5 runoff elections in Georgia that will determine the balance of power in the Senate. They say it’s bad for the GOP’s efforts to win back swing suburban voters if the party is associated with erratic flamethrowers, such as pro-Trump attorneys Sidney Powell, Lin Wood and Rudy Giuliani. And after an election in which the GOP became more diverse, Republican strategists are furious over the harm they say is being done with Black voters, as the Trump campaign seeks to have the vote totals thrown out in Atlanta, Milwaukee, Detroit and elsewhere.

Full Article: Republicans desperate to avoid floor fight over Electoral College vote | TheHill