Wisconsin: Tens of thousands of ballots that arrived after Election Day were counted, thanks to court decisions | Amy Gardner, Dan Simmons and Robert Barnes/The Washington Post

Early last month, voters in Wisconsin navigated a dizzying number of rule changes governing the state’s spring elections as officials tussled over the risks of the novel coronavirus, prompting a backlog of absentee ballot requests and fears that many would not be able to participate. But in the end, tens of thousands of mail ballots that arrived after the April 7 presidential primaries and spring elections were counted by local officials, a review by The Washington Post has found — the unexpected result of last-minute intervention by the U.S. Supreme Court. In Milwaukee and Madison alone, the state’s two largest cities, more than 10 percent of all votes counted, nearly 21,000 ballots, arrived by mail after April 7, according to data provided by local election officials. The surprising outcome after warnings that many Wisconsinites would be disenfranchised amid the pandemic was the result of a largely unexamined aspect of the court’s decision that temporarily changed which ballots were counted. Because of the order, election officials for the first time tallied absentee ballots postmarked by Election Day, rather than just those received by then — underscoring the power of narrow court decisions to significantly shape which votes are counted.

National: Experts worry US elections even more vulnerable with COVID-19 | Maggie Miller/The Hill

Cybersecurity experts are increasingly worried that U.S. elections are growing even more vulnerable to outside interference because of the coronavirus pandemic. They say funds to prevent interference and ensure people can vote safely are running thin, despite the fact that Congress has passed $825 million in funding for election security since December. The chaos caused by COVID-19, which has forced states to delay or cancel primary elections and move toward allowing residents to vote absentee, has presented a new array of challenges for states that had already been focused on election security. “Certainly we are in an unprecedented time and these are unprecedented challenges, and these are challenges created at the intersection of these two issues,” said Benjamin Hovland, the chairman of the Election Assistance Commission (EAC). “The challenges of disinformation and misinformation is one of the biggest areas of concern.”

National: Pandemic-time elections expected to be much more expensive | Benjamin Freed/StateScoop

The $400 million in election assistance funds that Congress authorized in the March pandemic relief package would not even cover the costs of switching to predominately mail-in balloting in five states, much less all 50, according to a report published Thursday. The report, which was led by New York University’s Brennan Center for Justice, comes as state election officials resolve how to safely conduct elections during the coronavirus pandemic. The crisis has prompted several states where absentee ballots are rare to try converting to all-mail voting, an expensive project that typically takes states multiple election cycles to complete.  According to the report, the election funds received by the five states it examined — Georgia, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio and Pennsylvania — would not even amount to 20 percent of the funds needed by those states to expand mail-in and absentee ballots to all their voters this November. But with state and local budgets plunging as public-health measures wipe out tax revenue, a shortage of federal assistance could lead to more situations like the recent Wisconsin presidential primary, in which hundreds of polling places closed and turnout plunged after state lawmakers and courts refused to postpone in-person voting. At least 52 people who went to polling places during the April 7 primary have tested positive for COVID-19.

National: Report finds states need millions more in federal funding to hold elections this year | Maggie Miller/The Hill

Five key states will need millions more in federal funding in order to move forward with this year’s elections during the COVID-19 pandemic, new research released Thursday found. According to a report spearheaded by New York University’s Brennan Center for Justice, current federal election funds will cover less than 20 percent of the costs required for mail-in voting and other election changes in Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Georgia and Missouri. The report, which was also put together by the Alliance for Securing Democracy, the R Street Institute and the University of Pennsylvania’s Institute for Cyber Law, Policy, and Security, examined the impact of the $400 million in election funds sent to states as part of last month’s $2 trillion coronavirus stimulus bill. Georgia faces the biggest pitfall in funding, with the report finding that the $10.8 million the state received will only address around 10 percent of its election needs. This is primarily because mail-in voting has been historically low in the state, and now the state is funding the mailing of absentee ballot request forms to every registered voter.  The more than $11 million given to Michigan only covers 12 percent of their estimated election costs this year, while the $7.6 million Missouri received will only cover up to 13 percent of costs.  Ohio and Pennsylvania will fare slightly better, with the funding each state received able to cover between 16 and 18 percent of estimated election costs.

National: Election Officials Get Access to Microsoft Security Tools | Phil Goldstein/StateTech Magazine

Although the primary election season calendar has been thrown off-kilter, election cybersecurity concerns are still top of mind, and election security trainings have moved online. The threat landscape has not become any less complex for state and local election officials. In fact, one could argue the attention paid to countering the coronavirus pandemic is taking awareness and resources away from election security, making it even more important they be refocused on the ballot box. “Potential changes to the primary schedules of certain states, and the exploration of further mobile and mail voting options in the midst of coronavirus, has only piqued interest on the topic of election cybersecurity, and we look forward to continuing a bipartisan dialogue, state-by-state,” Justin Griffin, managing director of the University of Southern California’s Election Cybersecurity Initiative, tells Politico.

National: Vote safely by mail in November? Not so fast, say Republicans | Sam Levine/The Guardian

An explosive fight is emerging over whether Americans will be able to vote in November without risking their lives. It’s unclear how safe it will be to gather at the polls during the presidential election, but Donald Trump and other top Republicans have made it clear that they will oppose efforts to make it easier to vote by mail as an alternative. Both Republicans and Democrats have long utilized mail-in voting, and voters on both ends of the political spectrum overwhelmingly favor making it easier to do so in the election. But Trump’s opposition appears based on a thinly veiled political calculus: the fewer Americans who vote, the better the political prospects for the Republican party. “They had things, levels of voting, that if you’d ever agreed to it, you’d never have a Republican elected in this country again,” the president said in March, dismissing Democratic efforts to expand mail-in voting. That Republican estimation has been at the center of many of the hotly contested fights over voting rules in recent years. The party has generally favored restrictions on voting, such as voter ID, while Democrats have pushed to make it easier to cast a ballot.

Arkansas: Counties to get help for election; state to apply federal funds of $4.7M for ballots, machines | Michael R. Wickline/Northwest Arkansas Newspapers

Secretary of State John Thurston said Wednesday that his office is working on a plan to help counties by using $4.7 million in federal funds to help mitigate coronavirus concerns during the Nov. 3 general election. “We are looking at helping counties with maybe larger venues, where they may spread their machines out a little more,” by possibly renting out larger places for polling sites and also purchasing sanitizing products, the East End Republican told the state Board of Election Commissioners that he chairs. “Obviously, absentee voting, we believe, will increase, and we just want to help the counties with those federal dollars and helping purchase all the things that they will need for that,” Thurston said. He said his office hasn’t “totally ironed out all the details” on spending the federal grant obtained through the U.S. Election Assistance Commission under the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act, also known as the CARES Act.

California: As Los Angeles County expands vote by mail due to pandemic, NAACP and CAP warn against eliminating polling places | Kristen Farrah Naee/The Signal Tribune

With many counties across the nation, including Los Angeles County, expanding vote-by-mail options for constituents in order to support voter participation and safety during the coronavirus pandemic, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and Center for American Progress (CAP) have released a joint publication stating that an increase in vote by mail registration should not be used as a reason to eliminate or decrease in person polling places. A proposal to mail ballots to every registered voter in Los Angeles County passed unanimously by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, April 28. Beginning with the General Election in November, all county residents will receive vote-by-mail ballots. The accepted motion also includes instructions to send a five-signature letter to the Los Angeles County State Legislative Delegation asking for emergency state funds to be allocated for the accelerated expansion of vote by mail procedures.

Connecticut: Calls for mail-in voting as city halls remain closed, registrars of voters work remotely amid pandemic | Tina Detelj/WTNH

With city and town hall employees working remotely, and most residents self-isolating during the COVID-19 pandemic, the calls are getting louder for everybody to be able to mail in their votes during the next election or primary if they want to.  The days of long lines at polling places may soon be a thing of the past, at least for now. In New London, city hall remains closed to the public, as registrars of voters across the state continue to work remotely and this pandemic continues to concern many. This could mean more absentee ballots and changes to state law to allow more people to be able to do this. And it could also mean more work for local registrars of voters. A group of forty organizations is calling on Governor Ned Lamont to issue an executive order which would make it easier for anyone to vote through the mail instead of in-person during this pandemic. “People should not have to put their lives on the line in order to be able to vote,” said Tom Swan, Executive Director, CCAG, CT Citizen Action Group.

Florida: Court Hands Blow to Democrats Who Sued Over Florida Ballot Order | Bobby Caina Calvan/NBC 6

The state of Florida does not have to come up with a new way to list candidates on the ballot, a federal appellate court ruled Wednesday, dealing a blow to Democrats who argued that Republicans have an unfair advantage because the current system automatically lists their candidates first. The high-stakes jockeying over name order on Florida’s ballot is hardly inconsequential as Republicans and Democrats grapple for every advantage they can get in elections that are often too close to call on election night. Tossing out a lower court’s ruling, the appellate court found that the lawsuit filed by three Florida voters and several Democratic groups had wrongly targeted the state’s chief elections officer, who the court said isn’t responsible for printing ballots and setting the order in which names appear. In a statement, the groups said they would weigh their options. They also took issue with the court’s finding that Democrats were not harmed. Under Florida law, President Donald Trump would automatically appear at the top of the ballot in November — ahead of former Vice President Joe Biden, the presumed Democratic nominee.

Georgia: Voters Ask Judge to Postpone Primary to Implement COVID-19 Safety Plan | R. Robin McDonald /Law.com Daily Report

An organization dedicated to election integrity and five women voters have asked a federal judge to delay Georgia’s primary for three weeks to implement a detailed COVID-19 safety plan. Plaintiffs lawyers asked District Judge Timothy Batten in a motion filed Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia for an injunction postponing the primary, which also includes nonpartisan elections for the state’s judges, until June 30 in order to implement a comprehensive 18-point plan designed by the plaintiffs. The state already twice postponed the primary, which was originally scheduled for March 24. The pandemic safety plan proposed by the plaintiffs would allow in-person voting with significant safety requirements to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and would correct a number of problems associated with Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s push for a robust use of absentee ballots. But it would also largely replace statewide use of a new computer voting system that includes both a touchscreen and a paper ballot component exclusively with paper ballots. U.S. District Judge Timothy Batten has given the secretary of state until May 12 to respond.

Nevada: Federal court rejects group’s claim that voter fraud would effect Nevada mail-in primary | J. Edward Moreno/The Hill

A federal court has rejected a claim by the Texas-based voter’s rights group True the Vote that said voter fraud would run rampant in the state’s all-mail Republican primary on June 9. The Texas-based group dedicated to the prevention of voter fraud filed a lawsuit against the state on April 21 after the state moved to have an all-mail primary due to fears of the coronavirus. U.S. District Court Judge Mirandu Du, an Obama appointee, said the plaintiff’s arguments were “difficult to track and ail to even minimally meet the first standing prong,” and “their claim of voter fraud is without any factual basis.” Du wrote that the argument that an all-mail election is more susceptible to voter fraud “seems unlikely” given that the steps taken by the Nevada Secretary of State’s office “maintain the material safeguards to preserve election integrity.” She also dismissed claims by members of True to Vote, who alleged that the all-mail election violated state law.

Pennsylvania: Pitt report says Congress needs to step up funding to Pennsylvania for election costs amid pandemic | Julian Routh/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Congress has provided less than a fifth of the funding that Pennsylvania needs to prepare its 2020 elections for the impacts of COVID-19, according to a new report co-authored by the University of Pittsburgh Institute for Cyber Law, Policy and Security. The collaborative report, based on cost analysis and interviews with state and local elections officials in five states, estimated that Pennsylvania will need between $79.1 million and $90.1 million to hold safe, secure and fair elections this year, warning that that the $14.2 million allocated so far by the federal government is nowhere near enough to “ensure a system that is sufficiently resilient against pandemics or other emergencies.” Estimates showed that the cost to prepare for elections in the five states — Pennsylvania, Michigan, Georgia, Missouri and Ohio — already exceeds the $400 million Congress allocated across the entire country in its third stimulus package in March. “What’s clear to me and what’s clear to others is that state and local officials really need more money, and Congress ought to be the one stepping in to do that,” said Christopher Deluzio, policy director for Pitt’s institute.

South Carolina: South Carolina GOP wants to weigh in on coronavirus voting lawsuit | John Munk and Emma Dumain/The State

The South Carolina Republican Party is trying to intervene in a potentially historic legal action in the S.C. Supreme Court where Democrats are seeking a high court ruling to expand absentee voting this year due to the coronavirus pandemic. “The SC GOP simply wants a seat at the table to ensure all stakeholders have a voice in this matter of public interest and importance,” the Republican Party lawyers said in their motion. The Supreme Court has not yet said whether it will hear the case — a move called original jurisdiction —without sending it to a lower court first. Last week, the South Carolina Democratic Party joined the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and two S.C. Democratic candidates in filing a legal action against the State Election Commission in the Supreme Court asking for a ruling that would — because of the “unprecedented” threat posed by the highly communicable and sometimes deadly coronavirus — in effect greatly expand the number of people able to vote by absentee ballot.

Wisconsin: Officials say at least 40 people who voted or worked in Wisconsin elections have coronavirus | Rebecca Klar/The Hill

At least 40 people who voted in person or worked at polls in Wisconsin’s elections earlier this month have tested positive for coronavirus, the state’s health department confirmed to The Hill on Tuesday. “So far, 40 people who tested COVID-19 positive after April 9 have reported that they voted in person or worked the polls on election day,” Elizabeth Goodsitt, a spokeswoman for the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, said in an email. It’s unclear if the people got the coronavirus through taking part in the primary, however, as several reported additional possible exposures, she said. Politico reported earlier Tuesday that the department confirmed at least 36 people who voted in person or worked at the polls had tested positive.

Georgia: ‘This … is real to us’: Poll workers prepare for voters in pandemic | Nicole Sadek, Mary Margaret Stewart and Ada Wood/The Atlanta Journal Constitution

Georgia elections officials face a daunting question as they prepare for early voting in the June 9 primary in the midst of a global pandemic: What do they do if a voter appears ill? “I’ve asked for guidance from the state as to what we’re supposed to do if a manager notices anyone in line with symptoms,” Fulton County Elections Director Richard Barron said at a recent elections board meeting. “I still haven’t heard back.”The Georgia News Lab and GPB News asked dozens of county supervisors how they would handle such a situation. None reported receiving any guidance from state elections officials as of publication, leaving local officials to determine how to balance health and safety concerns due to COVID-19 against the fundamental right to vote.A spokeswoman for Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said the office is actively working with counties to develop best practices for polling locations.“Just like other essential services that have continued to operate during this time, in-person voting will need to incorporate both social distancing and increased cleaning,” Deputy Secretary of State Jordan Fuchs said. “Exact measures will look different depending on the specific polling place but election officials should be prepared to limit the number of people in a polling place at a time.”

National: Partisan Fight Looms Over Voting by Mail | Lindsay Wise and Alexa Corse/Wall Street Journal

Six months out from Election Day, Republicans and Democrats in Congress are headed for a showdown over expanding voting by mail, with Americans set to converge on the polls when experts say the coronavirus could remain a health threat. Democrats point to images of masked voters waiting in long lines to cast ballots in Wisconsin’s April 7 primary to argue that reducing in-person voting is crucial to public health. Wisconsin’s public health department says at least 52 people tested positive for Covid-19 after voting in person or working at a polling location on primary day, though several of those people reported multiple possible exposures. “Voting by mail is central to this in any event, but at the time of the coronavirus, very essential,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) in a recent MSNBC interview. House Democrats are proposing $4 billion to enact a slew of policies that range from requiring states to enable online and same-day voter registration, to mandating prepaid postage on mail-in ballots, to a nationwide minimum of 15 consecutive days of early voting. Senate Democrats have proposed a similar, $3.6 billion plan.

National: Whether the Ballot You Mail Is Counted May Depend on Where You Vote | Ryan McCarthy/ProPublica

The April 6 guidance from the U.S. Supreme Court seemed final: Election officials in Wisconsin should only count absentee ballots postmarked on or before the next day’s voting. Then, in the days after the chaotic primary, thousands of ballots poured in with missing or illegible postmarks — an issue the court had not directly addressed. Throwing up its hands, the Wisconsin Elections Commission left it to local officials to decide if ballots had been mailed on time. The result was a troubling disparity. Janesville, longtime home of former Republican U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan, received 65 ballots without postmarks after primary day, but before an April 13 deadline. “Consistent with the order from the U.S. Supreme Court,” Janesville officials rejected them all, according to City Clerk David Godek. In the village of Cambridge, outside Madison, Barbara Goeckner counted all five such ballots. After talking with postal supervisors, the deputy clerk said, she took into consideration that the U.S. Postal Service had reported widespread delays and delivery problems. “You had 1,854 municipal clerks each determining whether to count or not count,” Goeckner said. “Personally, I believe every vote should count.”

National: Postal Service Funding Shortfall Could Derail Vote-By-Mail Efforts During Pandemic | Paul Blumenthal/HuffPost

If Congress allows the U.S. Postal Service to fail ― as President Donald Trump seems willing to do ― the nation’s ability to hold free, fair elections would be at risk, as would millions of voters who would be forced to go to the polls during a pandemic if they wanted to exercise their rights. In the 2016 election, 33 million Americans voted through the mail, using either absentee, military or mail-in ballots. Every state anticipates a significant increase in mailed ballots due to the coronavirus pandemic, with anywhere from a doubling of vote-by-mail to a near 100% replacement of in-person voting. All of the states rely on the Postal Service to deliver and return those ballots. But the Postal Service projects that the drop in mail volume due to the pandemic could lead it to run out of funds in late summer or early fall. The independent agency is asking Congress for $75 billion in relief funding to keep it afloat, but faces resistance from Trump.

Editorials: Online Voting Is Not the Answer Even in a Pandemic | Hans von Spakovsky/The Daily Signal

What is the best way to conduct elections in a time of epidemic? The simplest and most obvious answer might appear at first glance to be voting over the internet—via email, fax, blockchain, or smartphone apps. While this would certainly seem to fit with our internet-dependent lives as we socially distance, online voting is not a viable or acceptable solution and must not be on the table. No method of casting ballots over the internet is safe, secure, or trustworthy. Period. Votes can be manipulated or changed, recorded and spied on, deleted or cast fraudulently through hacking, viruses, Trojan horses, and other types of malware. The even bigger danger is that these sorts of attacks could succeed and go completely undetected, imperiling the integrity of the election process.
Computer security experts insist that online voting is far too insecure to be used for public elections.

Arizona: Voting-rights advocates call for election changes in Arizona amid virus | Jonathan J. Cooper/Associated Press

Voting rights advocates called on Arizona officials Tuesday to send a ballot to every registered voter for the primary and general elections this year and take other steps to ensure people can safely vote during the coronavirus outbreak. Citing infections linked to Wisconsin’s primary earlier this month, the groups said nobody should risk their health to cast a ballot. They want election officials to send ballots to everyone while preserving in-person voting opportunities for those who prefer it or can’t vote by mail, such as living in remote areas of Native American reservations. They also want extended deadlines for in-person early voting and voter registration. The moves are critical “so we don’t end up in a situation where we’re tracing back new coronavirus cases…to people who were exercising their fundamental right to living in a democracy by voting,” said Aaron Marquez, western states director for Vote Vets, an advocacy organization for progressive veterans.

California: Republicans Sue to Stop Collection of Ballots Amid Pandemic | Nick Cahill/Courthouse News

Though it has used the tactic in recent elections, the California Republican Party on Wednesday sued state officials to ban “ballot harvesting” in the upcoming runoff for the seat of former Democratic Rep. Katie Hill. In a lawsuit filed late Wednesday in state court against Governor Gavin Newsom and other officials, the party claims allowing campaign workers and volunteers to go door-to-door to collect ballots conflicts with the statewide shelter-in-place order caused by the coronavirus pandemic. The lawsuit accuses Newsom of “dodging” the party’s requests for clarity as to whether the practice should be allowed in a pair of May 12 special elections. Party chair Jessica Millan Patterson blasted Newsom in a statement and accused him of “putting Californians’ lives at risk” by not explicitly barring the practice.

Georgia: Elections Officials Grapple With Potential COVID-19 Illness At Polls | Stephen Fowler/WJCT

Georgia elections officials face a daunting question as they prepare for early voting in the June 9 primary in the midst of a global pandemic: What do they do if a voter appears ill? “I’ve asked for guidance from the state as to what we’re supposed to do if a manager notices anyone in line with symptoms,” Fulton County Elections Director Richard Barron said at a recent elections board meeting. “I still haven’t heard back.” GPB News and the Georgia News Lab asked dozens of county supervisors how they would handle such a situation. None reported receiving any guidance from the state elections officials as of publication, leaving local officials to determine how to balance health and safety concerns due to COVID-19 against the fundamental right to vote. A spokeswoman for Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said the office is actively working with counties to develop best practices for polling locations.

Indiana: Lawsuit seeks no-excuse absentee voting for general election | Tribune Star

A dozen people including two members of the nonprofit Indiana Vote by Mail organization on Wednesday filed a federal class-action lawsuit against the Indiana Election Commission and Indiana Secretary of State. The lawsuits seeks to expand no-excuse absentee voting to the November general election. The lawsuit contends the state’s election law allowing some — but not all — registered voters to vote by mail violates the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitutions and the Equal Privileges and Immunities Clause of the Indiana Constitution. The lawsuit includes 12 plaintiffs, including two of whom are members of the Indiana Vote by Mail, which is based in Indianapolis.

Nevada: Judge promises quick ruling in mail-voting case | ill Dentzer/Las Vegas Review-Journal

A federal judge said Wednesday she would rule by the end of the week on a challenge to Nevada’s plan for conducting its June 9 primary almost exclusively by mail to cut down on spreading the coronavirus. Lawyers for state and national Democratic interests and True the Vote, a conservative voting rights group, are challenging the plan from opposing angles: Democrats want more in-person polling places and other protections for ensuring voting opportunities. The conservative group is claiming an all-mail procedure presents a greater potential for ballot fraud. The parties appeared by teleconference before U.S. District Judge Miranda Du on Wednesday for more than 90 minutes on a motion for a preliminary injunction. “The fact that we have this hearing by phone because the court is limiting in-person appearances does demonstrate the unusual circumstance of our time,” Du said as she opened the hearing. “So I don’t need counsel to explain to me how COVID-19 has affected our communities. I’m well aware of that.”

New York: Can the State Run a Safe Primary in June and Accommodate Voters With Disabilities? | Ethan Stark-Miller/City Limits

When Ian Foley goes to the polls on election day he casts his ballot with a piece of assistive technology called a ballot marking device. Foley can’t use traditional paper ballots because he’s legally blind, so the ballot marking device gives him an accessible way to read and mark his ballot. “That machine will basically walk us through the ballot, each step: like ‘column one, line one: here’s the Democrat running for village council,’” Foley, who’s legislative co-chair for the American Council of the Blind New York (ACBNY), said. However, going to polling sites in June for the primaries, and possibly in November for the general election, this year is a far more dangerous proposition amid the COVID-19 crisis. The New York State Board of Elections cancelled its Democratic presidential primary for this year Monday over this very concern, citing the fact that Joe Biden is the only candidate left in the race as the reason. However, the state will still be holding a primary on June 23 for congressional and state offices.

Ohio: The never-ending primary election: it could have been worse, but fixes needed, elections officials say | Andrew J. Tobias/Cleveland Plain Dealer

In talking with people closely involved with Ohio’s finally concluded presidential primary election, here’s the best thing people most had to say about it. It wasn’t good. But it could have been much worse. “I wouldn’t want to do it again in that kind of timeframe, but we did it,” Llyn McCoy, director of the Greene County Board of Elections, said Wednesday. Ohio’s first vote-by-mail election concluded Tuesday, five weeks after Gov. Mike DeWine canceled in-person voting on March 17 due to the coronavirus pandemic. The problems that arose — and the degree to which things worked — will be studied as Ohio considers how to prepare for the possibility of another outbreak before the general election in November. The long Tuesday lines of voters at county boards of election feared by voting rights activists didn’t come to pass. Voter turnout was nowhere near this year’s early-voting states and way below Ohio’s 2016 primary, but similar to the 2012 presidential primary, which maybe isn’t that bad considering the circumstances. Efforts by the U.S. Postal Service to clear a bottleneck of mailed ballots seemed to have an effect, with tens of thousands of ballots arriving at county boards of elections on Tuesday, although it delayed the results well past midnight for larger counties.

Oklahoma: State responds to lawsuit over absentee voting | Carmen Forman/The Oklahoman

A lawsuit against the Oklahoma State Election Board seeking changes to the state’s absentee voting process in light of the COVID-19 crisis “seeks to resolve a temporary problem by inventing a permanent solution,” attorneys for the state wrote. Vice Deputy Attorney General Niki Batt and Assistant Attorney General Thomas Schneider asked the Oklahoma Supreme Court Wednesday to toss a lawsuit filed last week by the League of Women Voters. Attorneys for the state responded to the lawsuit, saying changing absentee voter requirements would upend the will of Oklahoma’s Legislature and voters, according to court documents. With their eyes on the upcoming June 30 primary, the League of Women Voters is asking the state Supreme Court to prevent the State Election Board from enforcing a state law that requires absentee ballots to be notarized. Instead, the voting rights group is asking that voters be able to include on their ballot a signed statement swearing they are qualified to vote and marked their own ballot.

Pennsylvania: Counties struggle to find enough masks, gloves for in-person voting June 2 | Emily Previti/PA Post

Pennsylvania election directors face the unprecedented challenge of staffing voting locations for the June 2 primary while also taking steps to protect workers and voters from the coronavirus (and handling a historic number mailed ballots). Many say they aren’t ready. Personal protective equipment – mask, gloves, hand sanitizers and other materials often referred to collectively by the acronym “PPE” – remains difficult or impossible to acquire, county elections officials said. Berks County officials, for example, said they’ve obtained some items — such as gloves and hand sanitizer — for poll workers to use on June 2. But the county still faces “widespread issues surrounding PPE” acquisition in general, according to Brian A. Gottschall, the county’s director of Emergency Services. “It is really all about what product, what quality, what quantity, and what are you willing to pay. All of those things are coming into play with respect to delivery timing,” Gottschall said.

Pennsylvania: Judge rejects push from Green Party’s Jill Stein to decertify Philly voting machines as ‘daft,’ ‘ill-considered,’ and ‘pointless’ | Jeremy Roebuck/Philadelphia Inquirer

Calling her theories “daft,” “ill-considered,” and “pointless,” a federal judge in Philadelphia on Wednesday rejected a push from former Green Party presidential nominee Jill Stein to decertify Philadelphia’s new voting machines in advance of the June 2 primary over concerns they could be vulnerable to hacking. In an opinion, dripping with disdain for the “failed candidate’s” legal case, U.S. District Judge Paul S. Diamond found there was “no credible evidence” to support Stein’s concerns and that granting her request would effectively disenfranchise Philadelphia voters, as there would be no way to replace the machines with new ones in time for the election. “The Commonwealth and the city have expended considerable resources to demonstrate that Dr. Stein has based her motion on absolutely nothing,” he wrote.