Florida: Supervisors want DeSantis to take CARES Act money | Alex Daugherty and David Smiley/Miami Herald

Florida is one of just four states that have yet to accept federal funds to prepare for elections during the coronavirus pandemic, and the state’s election supervisors are urging Gov. Ron DeSantis to take the money now. The Florida State Association of Supervisors of Elections, a bipartisan group that represents county-level election supervisors across the state, sent a letter to DeSantis on Wednesday urging him to take $20 million in funds awarded to Florida as part of the $2 trillion coronavirus relief bill that became law in March. The letter is a follow-up to one the group sent a month ago, asking DeSantis to help supervisors prepare for the coming August and November elections by granting them some flexibility under the law — a request that has gone unanswered. “I … want to express my concern that Florida is lagging behind nearly every other state in securing CARES Act funding for elections,” Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections Craig Latimer wrote Wednesday. “While we wait, the goods and services we need are becoming scarce.”

Illinois: Lawmakers Debate Vote-By-Mail Ballots for 2020 Election Amidst Pandemic | Katie Kim and Lisa Capitanini/NBC Chicago

With less than six months to go until the general election and with concerns over social distancing at polling places, some Illinois leaders are pushing to significantly expand the use of vote-by-mail ballots. State Sen. Julie Morrison, a Democrat from Lake Forest, plans to introduce a bill that would allow the state to mail a ballot to every registered voter in Illinois. Under the provisions of the bill, select polling places would remain open for early voting and on Election Day for those who don’t feel comfortable casting ballots by mail. “I’ve heard of a lot of interest in having a vote by mail program so that people do feel comfortable and safe on Election Day,” said. Sen. Morrison. Current law allows Illinoisans to request a vote-by-mail ballot as early as Aug. 5. Sen. Morrison said her bill would only apply to the 2020 Election as a direct response to the coronavirus pandemic, so voters don’t have to choose between their right to vote and their health and to protect poll workers.

Maryland: About 1 in 10 ballots went undelivered to Baltimore City voters during 7th Congressional District special election | Emily Opilo/Baltimore Sun

Nearly 1 in 10 ballots could not be delivered to Baltimore City voters during the special election in April, raising concerns for the June 2 primary, which is also being conducted by mail. The data, released by the Maryland Board of Elections late Tuesday, shows that 20,367 of the more than 230,500 ballots sent to Baltimore City voters could not be delivered before the April 28 special election. An additional 4,355 ballots were undeliverable to Baltimore County voters, while 3,886 were not delivered to Howard County voters — about 3% of all ballots in those two jurisdictions. The figures are being calculated as state election officials take stock of the lessons learned from Maryland’s first election held primarily by mail. The special election, which was held to choose a successor for the late U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings, a Democrat, was conducted by mail by order of Republican Gov. Larry Hogan in response to the new coronavirus pandemic. The rapidly spreading virus has killed nearly 1,700 Marylanders and sickened more than 34,000 others, forcing the closure of businesses and a stay-at-home order that has been in place for Maryland residents since March. More than 480,000 ballots were mailed for the special election, which included only voters in Maryland’s 7th Congressional District. The district includes parts of Baltimore City, Baltimore County and Howard County. Voters were strongly encouraged to return the ballots via mail using postage-paid envelopes or by placing them in drop boxes offered in each of the three jurisdictions in the district.

Minnesota: Older voters file suit to change absentee voting rules Stephen Montemayor/Star Tribune

A group of older Minnesota voters is suing the secretary of state over concerns that the state’s absentee voting rules could put their vote — and their health — at risk this year. Part of a broader movement to change absentee rules across at least five states, the Minnesota challenge argues that many older voters who are self-quarantining to avoid contracting the COVID-19 virus won’t be able to get the required witness signatures on their mail-in ballots. The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in Ramsey County District Court by the Minnesota Alliance for Retired Americans Educational Fund, looks to stop the state from enforcing that requirement and also to adopt a postmark deadline on mail-in ballots. State law requires absentee ballots to be hand-delivered to county elections offices by 3 p.m. on Election Day or received by mail by 8 p.m. in order to be counted. Anticipating a dramatic uptick in mail voting because of an expected spike this fall in COVID-19 cases, the plaintiffs worry a cash-strapped U.S. Postal Service may not be able to deliver such ballots in time. Secretary of State Steve Simon’s office declined to comment on the litigation.

Missouri: State moving to allow mail-in voting during pandemic | Kurt Erickson/St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Missouri could offer “no excuse” mail-in ballots to all voters this year in an effort to ward off the spread of the coronavirus. The proposal, adopted by the House on Wednesday, would work like an absentee ballot, but it would not require voters to state a reason why they can’t go to the polls on Election Day. It would only be available in the August and November statewide elections. Voters would still have to get the ballot envelope notarized before it could be submitted. Rep. Dan Shaul, R-Imperial, who sponsored the provision, said voters would be able to request a mail-in ballot in person or by mail. The proposed change, which still needs Senate approval, comes after county clerks and voting rights groups have said people shouldn’t have to risk going to polling places during a global pandemic.

Nebraska: Thanks to vote-by-mail option, more Nebraskans than ever cast their primary ballots | Martha Stoddard/Omaha World-Herald

Only 1 in 7 voters actually showed up at the polls for Tuesday’s primary, but total participation blew past all previous records. Secretary of State Bob Evnen reported Wednesday that more than 471,000 Nebraskans cast ballots in this year’s primary election. That’s well over the previous record of 413,015 voters, set in the 1972 primary. Of those, about 60,000 to 65,000 people voted in person, he said. About 80% or so took advantage of Nebraska’s early voting option to cast their ballots by mail. The remainder live in sparsely populated areas where all voting is by mail. “Nebraska voters refused to allow the terrible pandemic in our midst to stop them from exercising their right to vote, which is so precious to us all,” Evnen said. Voting by mail shot up this year after state leaders encouraged voters to use that option to help slow the spread of the coronavirus. Toward that end, county election officials or the Secretary of State’s office sent early voting request forms to all registered voters.

Pennsylvania: Philadelphia Looks to Slash Polling Places in June 2 Primary | Associated Press

Philadelphia’s election commissioners voted Wednesday to reduce polling places by nearly 80% in the state’s June 2 primary election as local officials try to adapt to problems finding polling locations and recruiting poll workers amid fears of the coronavirus. The plan, which still requires state approval, would reduce the number of polling places in the nation’s sixth-most populous city from 831 to 190 locations. Election commissioners cited the difficulty of finding polling workers and the need to find sites that can safely accommodate the disabled and voters practicing social distancing. A state law that passed in March delayed the primary election from April 28 to June 2 and allowed counties to consolidate polling places in the primary election by up to 60%, without court approval. Several counties, including Allegheny County, the state’s second-most populous after Philadelphia, have contacted the state about reducing their polling locations by more than 60%, according to state officials. Allegheny County voted last month to reduce its polling places from more than 1,300 to 200 to 300 locations, or by almost 80% at least.

South Carolina: State expands absentee voting for June primaries due to coronavirus pandemic | Jamie Lovegrove/The Post and Courier

All South Carolina voters will be able to request a mail-in absentee ballot for the upcoming June 9 primaries due to the coronavirus pandemic after state lawmakers approved a short-term bill Tuesday that added the ongoing state of emergency as a legal justification. The unexpected move came just hours after a state Supreme Court hearing over the same issue, as South Carolina Democrats argued that the state’s limited absentee voting law would force many voters to risk their health in order to vote next month. Under South Carolina law, voters need to cite one of several reasons for voting absentee, such as physical disabilities, having to go to work or being out of town on election day. The list does not include fears about contracting a virus during a pandemic. But under the change passed Tuesday, South Carolinians can now vote absentee if a state of emergency is in effect within 46 days of the election. The June 9 primaries are 28 days away and any runoff elections would be on June 23, which is 42 days away. The change will expire on July 1, meaning it will only apply to the primaries. Some Democratic lawmakers argued that they should extend the measure for the November general election, but Republican leaders said they could consider that later in the year if the state of emergency is still in effect.

Tennessee: Welcome to the Machine: Fight Over Shelby County Voting System Raises Issues of Integrity and Nepotism | Jackson Baker/Memphis Flyer

Are the citizens of Memphis and Shelby County — troubled with decades of problematic and even botched election results — really about to acquire a new, improved means of expressing their will in the forthcoming August and November election rounds? That question may be answered this week, as the Shelby County Commission decides whether to accept or overrule the judgment last week of Election Administrator Linda Phillips and the Shelby County Election Commission (SCEC) — apparently in favor of ballot-marking devices marketed by the ES&S Company, a monolith of the election-machine industry. The name of the chosen manufacturer was not explicitly revealed last week — “Company 1,” was how it was called in discussion — but several references by Phillips to the “thermal paper” uniquely employed by ES&S for production of machine receipts, were something of a giveaway. The Shelby County Commission, which has the responsibility of paying for the machines (or not), had voted twice previously in favor of hand-marked ballots instead, on several grounds, including cost, transparency, and invulnerability to ballot-hacking. And an aroused contingent of local activists, abetted by a network of nationally known election adepts, is prepared to insist on that choice.

Texas: Attorney General asks state Supreme Court to step into fight over voting by mail | Alexa Ura/The Texas Tribune

In a bit of judicial leapfrog, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is asking the Texas Supreme Court to weigh in on his interpretation of how voters can qualify for absentee ballots during the coronavirus pandemic. Various lawsuits are pending over whether eligibility for mail-in ballots can be expanded to voters who risk contracting the virus by voting in person. Paxton believes it can’t, and he asked the state’s highest civil court Wednesday to issue a relatively rare writ of mandamus preventing local election officials from doing so. In a motion filed Wednesday, the Republican attorney general asked the Texas Supreme Court to order election officials in some of the biggest, largely Democratic counties in the state to follow his reading of existing eligibility requirements for absentee voting, arguing the court must step in quickly because those county officials intend to apply an “incorrect reading” of state law. Federal and state courts are considering legal challenges to the state’s rules for voting by mail that seek to extend eligibility to voters who lack immunity to the new coronavirus. Primary runoff elections are set for July, and new ground rules could also come into play for the November general election.

Wisconsin: Nine lessons from Wisconsin’s chaotic spring election | Susan Benkelman/American Press Institute

Wisconsin’s election on April 7 was a test of how a democracy functions in a pandemic. Democracy held on, but at a price. The election offered a window into the logistical challenges of trying to forge ahead with voting at a time of social distancing, and it was a closely watched battleground in the larger war over voting rights. It also holds lessons for journalists, who in Wisconsin had to report on plans that were changing by the hour, then consider how much risk they were willing to take to their own health and safety to cover the voting. Two legal battles in state and federal court pitted Democratic Gov. Tony Evers against Republican legislators. In both cases, the governor lost, requiring the state to hold the vote as scheduled on April 7 and to count the absentee ballots postmarked by Election Day. These battles were fought in the last few days and hours before the election, creating uncertainty and chaos both for people who wanted to vote by absentee ballot and for the local elections officials who were trying to keep up with the on-again-off-again scheduling.

South Korea: Democracy can be hacked | Kang Hyun-kyung/Korea Times

The Colorado secretary of state announced in September last year that the U.S. state would remove QR codes from ballots to prevent possible election meddling by outsiders.  “I am proud that Colorado continues to lead the nation in election cybersecurity,” Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold said in a press release on Sept. 16. One of her duties is ensuring the integrity of elections. “Voters should have the utmost confidence that their vote will count. Removing QR codes from ballots will enable voters to see for themselves that their ballots are correct and helps guard against cyber meddling,” Griswold went on to say.  Once QR code-less ballots are introduced, votes will be tabulated using marked ovals on the ballot. In South Korea, QR codes have been at the center of a controversy following the April 15 National Assembly elections in which 300 lawmakers were elected and the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) clinched a landslide victory. The two-dimensional bar codes were used twice over the course of the election; once on ballots for early and postal voting and again on voter-completed tabulation sheets printed from counting machines. About a month has passed since the elections but some people, still scratching their heads over the results, have raised suspicions about the tabulation.

Verified Voting Blog: Verified Voting supports election funding, security measures in proposed HEROES Act

The following is a statement from Marian K. Schneider, president of Verified Voting in response to the House Democrats’ proposed coronavirus response package, the HEROES Act HR 6800. For additional media inquiries, please contact Aurora Matthews, aurora@newheightscommunications.com Download PDF May 13, 2020 — “COVID-19 created a new landscape for conducting elections and election officials need…

West Virginia: Online Voting Has Worked So Far. That Doesn’t Mean It’s Safe | Lily Hay Newman/WIRED

West Virginia state delegate Eric Porterfield is blind and usually votes at a polling place using an accessible voting machine. He would need assistance to fill out a regular mail-in paper ballot, reducing his ability to keep his votes private. But thanks to a state law passed in January to address accessible remote voting, Porterfield has a new alternative for his state’s June 9 primary. For the first time, he plans to submit his absentee ballot online. “The gold standard for you or me or anyone is to be able to fulfill our constitutional right to vote by private ballot,” Porterfield says. The Covid-19 pandemic has made internet voting options more tempting than ever for election officials across the US. But election integrity advocates and security experts continue to warn that remote digital voting systems, whether mobile apps or cloud portals, do not have strong enough security guarantees for prime time. On Friday, a group of federal agencies including the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the Election Assistance Commission sent a risk assessment to states, warning that “electronic ballot return technologies are high-risk even with controls in place.”

National: Vote.org founder launches VoteAmerica, a nonprofit using tech tools to help Americans vote by mail | Taylor Hatmaker/TechCrunch

With November looming, the scramble to protect the 2020 U.S. election from coronavirus chaos is on. To that end, a small, skilled cluster of voting rights advocates are launching a new voter mobilization project. Called VoteAmerica, the new non-profit shares DNA with Vote.org, the esteemed nonpartisan voter mobilization site VoteAmerica founder Debra Cleaver first launched in 2008. VoteAmerica’s goal is to boost voter turnout by helping people vote by mail. In a normal year that might mean striving to drive record turnout. But in the midst of the pandemic, the team is working to ensure that 2020’s presidential election turnout doesn’t slump like it would in a midterm election year. “It seems at this point that Americans are either going to be unable or unwilling to vote in person in the November election, which could lead to catastrophically low turnout,” Cleaver said in an interview with TechCrunch. “But if we have our way, there will be no perceivable dip in turnout in November.”

National: House Democrats include $3.6 billion for mail-in voting in new stimulus bill | Maggie Miller/The Hill

House Democrats have included $3.6 billion in election funding as part of the $3 trillion coronavirus stimulus bill they rolled out on Tuesday. The funding is meant to assist states in addressing new challenges posed by holding elections during the COVID-19 pandemic, such as expanding mail-in and early in-person voting. At least 50 percent of the funds would be required to go to local governments to help administer elections, and states would have until late next year to access the funds. The House is expected to vote on the stimulus package on Friday, but the outlook for the election funds passing in the GOP-led Senate remains unclear. Senate Republicans have broadly pushed back on calls to immediately approve more stimulus money, saying lawmakers should weigh the impact of the trillions in spending already approved by Congress. The coronavirus stimulus package signed into law by President Trump in March included $400 million for elections. Democrats have pushed for a total of $4 billion to be allocated for elections, with the addition of the new funds proposed Tuesday totaling to this amount.

National: Ignoring Trump and Right-Wing Think Tanks, Red States Expand Vote by Mail | Jessica Huseman and Mike Spies/ProPublica

On April 23, during the same week that Kentucky’s Republican secretary of state said he was contemplating a “significant expansion” of vote by mail, the Public Interest Legal Foundation emailed one of his employees under the subject line “28 MILLION ballots lost.” “Putting the election in the hands of the United States Postal Service would be a catastrophe,” wrote J. Christian Adams, president of PILF, a conservative organization that has long complained about voter fraud. His missive contended, with scant evidence, that “twice as many” mailed ballots “disappeared” in the 2016 presidential election than made up the margin of votes between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. The state worker forwarded the message to his supervisor, who ignored it, according to emails obtained through a public records request. Only days later, Kentucky finalized its plan for the biggest increase in vote by mail in the state’s history. Secretary of State Mike Adams (no relation to J. Christian) said he had little trouble persuading legislators to pass the measure. “I’ve been pleasantly surprised on social media and elsewhere,” he said. “Republicans and Democrats both have been supportive of what we did.”

National: There Is No Evidence That Voting By Mail Gives One Party An Advantage | Lee Drutman/FiveThirtyEight

If the coronavirus pandemic rages on, most Americans will probably vote by mail in November. But like most political issues in the U.S., voting by mail is an increasingly partisan affair, with Democrats more likely to support it than Republicans. The fight over voting by mail isn’t new. But if the political cues around voting by mail weren’t firmly set before, they are now, with President Trump calling voting by mail “corrupt” and pushing Republicans to fight efforts to expand it. And this has many election experts concerned as the partisan fighting, last-minute scrambles and inevitable litigation could make 2020 an even more uncertain election. But before the political fighting gets too ugly, lawmakers really ought to look at the evidence. Numerous studies have arrived at the same conclusion: Voting by mail doesn’t provide any clear partisan advantage. In fact, as states have expanded their use of mailed ballots over the last decade — including five states that conduct all-mail elections by default — both parties have enjoyed a small but equal increase in turnout.

National: Jared Kushner Won’t Rule Out That Trump Could Try to Delay the Election | Alison Durkee/Vanity Fair

As the coronavirus crisis has crippled the U.S., a nagging fear has emerged among Democrats: that President Donald Trump, seeing his lagging poll numbers, will use the public health crisis as a reason for delaying the presidential election. With the virus delaying—and, in New York, briefly canceling—state primary elections, the thinking goes that if the coronavirus lockdowns continue, or a new wave emerges in the fall, Trump or other Republican leaders could seize the opportunity and use the postponed primaries as a precedent to keep Trump in the White House a bit longer. “Mark my words,” Trump’s Democratic opponent Joe Biden said in April. “I think he is gonna try to kick back the election somehow, come up with some rationale why it can’t be held.” And while Trump himself hasn’t called for any delay to the election yet, one of his top advisers signaled Tuesday that the idea, at the very least, isn’t a total nonstarter.

California: ‘It’s all rigged’: Trump foreshadows how he could undermine presidential election | Sam Levine/The Guardian

Donald Trump falsely accused Democrats of trying to “steal” Tuesday’s special election in California amid the Covid-19 pandemic by adding a polling place in one of the most diverse sections of a district. But the county actually added the polling location at the request of the area’s Republican mayor. In a move that could foreshadow his approach to November’s presidential election, Trump said Democrats were deliberately adding one of the few polling locations over the weekend in Lancaster, a city North of Los Angeles, where it was likely to benefit Democratic voters. “They are trying to steal another election. It’s all rigged out there. These votes must not count. SCAM!,” he tweeted. The election is expected to take place largely by mail, common in California, and the state mailed a ballot to all registered voters in the district. Still, there will be some opportunity for in-person voting. But though Democrats complained that the lack of a polling location in Lancaster would harm minority voters, officials added the additional location after R Rex Parris, the city’s Republican mayor, requested it.

Florida: Florida becomes hot spot in the election security wars | Joseph Marks/The Washington Post

Florida, which is a perennial swing state in presidential elections, is now shaping up as a battleground over election security efforts during the pandemic. Officials there have yet to say whether they’ll accept $20 million in federal money that lawmakers and experts say is vital to manage a surge in voting by mail and other changes brought on by the novel coronavirus. The money is Florida’s share of $400 million in election security funding Congress included in the coronavirus stimulus bill in March. But Congress also mandated states match that money with 20 percent of their own funds and it’s not clear whether Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) and the state legislature are prepared to foot the $4 million bill. “Florida doesn’t have a great record of administering elections during normal times, so during a pandemic the lack of planning and the lack of additional resources could be catastrophic,” Rep. Stephanie Murphy (D-Fla.), told me. Florida is the only remaining state that hasn’t signaled its intentions regarding the federal money. If officials there don’t accept it, lawmakers fear that could lead to a dramatic failure on Election Day that throws the winner of the presidential election or control of Congress into question and plays into the hands of U.S. adversaries that want to undermine confidence in democracy.

Kentucky: Voters to get free postage for absentee ballots | The Herald Ledger

Kentuckians choosing to vote by absentee mail-in balloting in next month’s primary won’t have to pay for postage under a decision by state elections officials last week. The State Board of Elections (SBE) adopted the free postage at a special meeting conducted online, the Lexington Herald-Leader reported. The board also said county clerks will be able to hire temporary help to manage the election during the coronavirus pandemic. The board’s emergency regulations follow Gov. Andy Beshear’s executive order last week that calls on all voters to use absentee voting by mail if they can in the June 23 primary election. But in-person voting will still be made available. Every eligible registered voter will receive a postcard with instructions on how to apply for an absentee ballot, which will be delivered by mail. A secure online portal for all voters to request the ballots is being created. All eligible voters who apply for an absentee ballot will qualify to receive one. “The SBE is working on the portal, but hasn’t given us a firm date as to when it will be ready,” said Lyon County Clerk Lori Duff. Once the ballot is completed, it can be mailed free of charge or can be dropped off at a secure county-government location.

Missouri: State Pushes Back on Absentee Voting for All Residents | Joe Harris/Courthouse News

A lawyer for Missouri argued Tuesday that a lawsuit seeking to allow all eligible voters in the state to cast absentee ballots in light of Covid-19 pandemic is overly broad and would fundamentally change how those ballots are issued. In a hearing Tuesday afternoon in Cole County Circuit Court, Missouri Solicitor General John Sauer argued the case should be dismissed. “The relief plaintiffs are asking for would make absentee voting the dominant form of voting in Missouri,” Sauer argued before Circuit Judge Jon Beetem. “Traditionally, absentee voting has been considered the exception to the rule rather than the rule.” The American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of Missouri and Missouri Voter Protection Coalition filed the lawsuit on April 17 seeking to make absentee mail-in balloting available to all eligible voters in Missouri. It was filed on behalf of the NAACP of Missouri, the League of Women Voters of Missouri and several individual voters. Missouri law requires voters to provide an excuse in order to vote absentee. One of the allowable reasons is “incapacity or confinement due to illness or physical disability.”

Nebraska: Primary voters avoid polls, shatter mail-in record | Grant Schulte/Associated Press

Nebraska’s primary voters mostly steered clear of polling sites Tuesday while shattering the state record for absentee voting with nearly 400,000 mail-in ballots in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. Republican President Donald Trump and presumptive Democratic challenger Joe Biden sailed to easy victories in the election, the first in-person primary since a heavily criticized election in Wisconsin five weeks ago in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic. So did Republican U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse, who faced a GOP primary challenge because of his previous criticism of Trump. Sasse will face Chris Janicek, the owner of an Omaha cake-baking company, who won a nine-way Democratic primary Tuesday night. In a closely watched Democratic primary for an Omaha-based congressional district, voters chose progressive Kara Eastman over a more conservative candidate. Eastman will once again face Republican Rep. Don Bacon, as she did in 2018.

New York: Appeals court urged to OK June 23 presidential primary | Larry Neumeister/Associated Press

A federal appeals court should let New York’s Democratic presidential primary proceed on June 23 over the objections of the state, a lawyer for delegates said Monday. Attorney Jeffrey Kurzon filed written arguments with the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which will hear the case Friday as lawyers for the state seek to overturn a lower-court decision that concluded the cancellation of the presidential primary was unconstitutional. “To take the extraordinary action of cancelling an election, no doubt an election now in progress, would cause extreme harm to the belief in democracy in our country and that we are a republic,” Kurzon wrote. Last week, U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres in Manhattan ordered the primary to take place on the same day other New York elections will occur, nullifying a decision by the Democratic members of the State’s Board of Elections to cancel the primary because of concerns about the coronavirus.

South Carolina: Lawmakers OK absentee voting expansion in June 9 primary out of COVID-19 fears | Maayan Schechter/The StateThe State

Any South Carolinian registered to vote in the upcoming June 9 primary who feared voting in-person due to the COVID-19 outbreak will be able to request an absentee ballot from the State Election Commission. State lawmakers on Tuesday fast-tracked legislation allowing registered primary voters to request an absentee ballot while the state is under an emergency order. The legislation — which Gov. Henry McMaster will sign, his spokesman said — sunsets on July 1, meaning it will not apply to the November general election. State Sen. Brad Hutto, D-Orangeburg, said Tuesday that South Carolina voters were likely already asking for an absentee ballot for unrelated reasons than being concerned over catching the coronavirus. The State Election Commission does not police voters, for instance asking for a doctor’s note or airlines receipts to check if they traveled. “Quite frankly, people were probably doing it,” Hutto said.

Tennessee: State election official: Fear of virus not reason to vote by mail | Jonathan Mattise/The Associated Press

Fear of contracting the coronavirus doesn’t meet the criteria to vote by mail due to illness in Tennessee, state officials said Tuesday, as they recommended preparing as though all 1.4 million registered voters who are at least 60 will cast ballots by mail in the August primary election. “In consultation with the Attorney General’s office the fear of getting ill does not fall under the definition of ill,” Coordinator of Elections Mark Goins told The Associated Press in a statement Tuesday. The guidance comes after the release of Tennessee’s COVID-19 election contingency plan, which was prepared by the state Division of Elections, dated April 23, and provided this week to the AP. The plan doesn’t contemplate a shift to allow all voters to cast ballots by mail due to fears of contracting or unknowingly spreading COVID-19 at the polls. Republican Secretary of State Tre Hargett has contended that would be a huge change in a short time frame for a state accustomed to voting in person. The GOP-led Legislature this year also brushed aside attempts to expand absentee voting in the midst of a pandemic. Several states, including Tennessee, have faced lawsuits to expand absentee voting.

Texas: Complaint filed over Attorney General’s tactics to limit mail-in voting | Stacy Fernández/The Texas Tribune

Two Dallas men have accused Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton of felony election fraud and formally asked the Dallas County district attorney’s office Monday to investigate a tweet and a letter Paxton sent regarding which Texans are eligible to cast mail-in ballots in upcoming elections. The Dallas County district attorney’s office confirmed Tuesday that it received the complaint. Kendall Scudder, a businessman who ran as a Democrat for a Texas Senate seat in 2018, and Dallas lawyer Woot Lervisit contend that Paxton knowingly misled county election officials and the public. In a May 1 letter, Paxton told local election officials that eligibility for absentee voting has not been expanded and that voters can’t legally ask for absentee ballots because they fear contracting the new coronavirus if they vote in person. Paxton’s claim was at odds with a state court ruling by Travis County District Judge Tim Sulak, who found last month that voters who lack immunity to the new coronavirus can qualify for mail-in ballots under a provision of the Texas election code that allows for absentee voting based on a disability. In his letter, Paxton indicated that ruling was put on hold when his office appealed it.

Wisconsin: Voters Brave Pandemic Again for Special Election | Andy Monserud/Courthouse News

Voters in northern Wisconsin braved the coronavirus pandemic Tuesday to cast their ballots in a special election to fill the vacant 7th Congressional District seat, just a month after the state saw record absentee voting in a virus-stricken presidential primary. Polling places in the towns of Hudson and Somerset near the state’s western border saw a steady trickle of voters choose between Republican state Senator Tom Tiffany of Minocqua and Tricia Zunker, a Democrat who is president of the Wausau School Board and justice on the Ho-Chunk Nation Supreme Court. Lines were rare and short at polling places in the two border towns despite Wisconsin’s consolidation of polling locations to save personal protective equipment. With two polling places each, local officials in Hudson noted that the in-person turnout was much lower than it had been during the state’s presidential primary and Supreme Court election on April 7.  The mood at Hudson’s firehouse, which hosted voting for two-thirds of the city’s voters, was easygoing early in the morning, with Police Chief Geoff Willems and Finance Director Alison Egger making casual conversation with voters in the parking lot.

Verified Voting Blog: Verified Voting praises federal guidance issued opposing internet voting

The following is a statement from Marian K. Schneider, president of Verified Voting in response to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the Election Assistance Commission (EAC), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)’s guidance to states warning about security concerns with any voting system that…