National: Supply Chain Issues, Poll Worker Shortages Worry States Ahead of Elections | Andrea Noble/Route Fifty

Poll worker shortages and supply chain issues are among the problems state and local elections officials are contending with as they prepare for the upcoming Nov. 2 elections. Ohio recruited and trained a record number of poll workers ahead of last year’s presidential election, despite concern that the coronavirus pandemic had made it harder to find people for the job. But recruiting enough people to staff voting sites across the state has proven more difficult this year. Ohio is short about 17,000 workers from its 42,000-person goal, according to Secretary of State Frank LaRose. “As this year’s important November election approaches, we’re still a long way away from ensuring a full complement of poll workers to staff our thousands of polling locations across the state,” LaRose said in a public service announcement released this month to drum up support. “If you volunteered to serve as a poll worker last year or have ever wondered what it’s like to serve your community and perform an important patriotic duty in a time of need, Ohio voters need you.” Ohio took several steps last year to increase recruitment, including implementation of a rule change that allows attorneys to earn continuing education credits by working the polls. The state also created an online poll tracker that shows the number of vacancies in each county that need to be staffed. Poll worker recruitment has also been a challenge in states, including New Jersey. To help, Gov. Phil Murphy signed an executive order boosting poll worker pay from $200 to $300 on Election Day. Lawmakers approved $400-a-day payments for poll workers to staff the primary election earlier this year.

Source: Supply Chain Issues, Poll Worker Shortages Worry States Ahead of Elections – Route Fifty

National: Plan to let troops cast ballots over the internet draws opposition from security experts | Leo Shane III/Air Force Times

A group of election security experts is urging lawmakers to drop plans in the annual defense authorization bill which would allow online ballot casting for troops serving overseas, saying the security concerns outweigh the potential benefits. “There are solutions to improve military and overseas voting without expanding dangerously insecure voting technology,” the group wrote in a letter to members of the Senate Armed Services Committee this week. “We believe that servicemembers deserve the highest standard of safe and verifiable voting. For the foreseeable future, internet voting cannot meet that standard, and places military voters’ votes — and the trustworthiness of elections themselves — at risk.” The effort, which includes groups like Protect Democracy and the U.S. Vote Foundation as well as 27 former state election officials and academics, comes as the Senate is preparing to complete its draft of the massic defense policy bill in the next few weeks.

Full Article: Plan to let troops cast ballots over the internet draws opposition from security experts

National: Senate Democrats ask for details on threats against election workers | Jordain Carney/The Hill

Senate Democrats are pushing the Department of Justice (DOJ) for details on threats against election workers and any related probes. Senate Rules Committee Chairwoman Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and 19 other Democratic senators sent a letter to the Justice Department on Monday asking for updates from the Election Threats Task Force, which the DOJ formed earlier this year to combat threats against election workers.  "We must ensure that election workers are able to do their jobs free from threats, intimidation, or other improper influence. While Congress must pass stronger protections for election workers ... we also urge the Justice Department to take additional action under existing law," the senators wrote in the letter, which was obtained exclusively by The Hill ahead of its release. "It is for this reason that we respectfully request an update on the actions that the Department’s Task Force has taken so far and on its plans to facilitate the reporting, investigation, and prosecution of threats against election officials and election workers," they added. The Democratic senators are asking for details on the number of threats against election workers, volunteers or their family members and how many completed or ongoing investigations those threats have spawned.

Full Article: Senate Democrats ask for details on threats against election workers | TheHill

National: Advocates worry democracy is eroding on Biden’s watch | shley Parker, Tyler Pager and Amy Gardner/The Washington Post

Voting rights advocates meet once every week or two with White House officials via video conference, and in almost every session, an advocate speaks up to say that President Biden must do more, that American democracy is under threat and the president is not meeting the challenge. At one such meeting earlier this year, a Biden aide responded that Democrats would simply have to “out-organize” the other side, according to multiple advocates familiar with the exchange who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe a private meeting. The comment infuriated advocates, who believe they are watching former president Donald Trump actively and perhaps permanently undermine faith in U.S. elections. “There’s been a lot of anger and frustration with that line from the White House, which was communicated as a response to advocates wanting the White House to do more,” said Aaron Scherb, legislative director of Common Cause, a longtime pro-democracy group. Scherb conceded that the White House’s urgency has significantly amped up in recent days, as voting rights legislation comes up for debate on Capitol Hill, and White House officials denied the activists’ account of the meeting. But the ongoing frustration is widespread among activists and many Democrats who fear Biden is missing the urgency of the moment. In the nine months since Biden took office, GOP officials throughout the country have baselessly challenged the 2020 results, conducting elaborate and clumsy audits. States have restricted voting, often in ways activists say will hurt disadvantaged communities, and have changed their procedures to allow political influence over future elections.

Full Article: Advocates worry democracy is eroding on Biden's watch - The Washington Post

National: Biden: Fight for voting rights ‘far from over,’ a day after third bill fails in the Senate | Rebecca Morin/USA Today

“At the end of the day, if we don’t make this happen, it’s going to rest at the feet of not only the president but members of the Senate,” Derrick Johnson, president and CEO of the NAACP, said in an interview with USA TODAY. “Democrats need to stand up and protect our democracy, and anything less is a failure.” Senate Republicans this week blocked advancement and debate of the Freedom to Vote Act , which would have created federal rules to protect mail-in voting, expand early voting, ensure same-day voting registration and make Election Day a federal holiday. The bill failed by a 49-51 vote.It was the third time this year Republicans voted unanimously to block voting-rights legislation. “They’re afraid to even just debate the bills in the U.S. Senate, as they did again yesterday, even on a bill that includes provisions as they’ve traditionally supported,” Biden said Thursday. “It’s unfair. It’s unconscionable. It’s un-American.” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said this week that Democrats will have to determine an “alternative path forward” after the defeat of the latest legislation, but did not offer any details as to what the path could be.

Full Article: Biden highlights voting rights during Martin Luther King ceremony

National: DOJ: ‘Lionizing’ Jan. 6 rioters fueling future political violence | Kyle Cheney/Politico

The Justice Department said Monday that people “lionizing” the Jan. 6 rioters are heightening the risk of future political violence. “Indeed, the risk of future violence is fueled by a segment of the population that seems intent on lionizing the January 6 rioters and treating them as political prisoners, heroes, or martyrs instead of what they are: criminals,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Roman wrote in a court filing, “many of whom committed extremely serious crimes of violence, and all of whom attacked the democratic values which all of us should share.” The statement came as part of a 28-page argument supporting the pretrial detention of Cody Mattice, a defendant charged with ripping down metal barricades and assaulting police during the attack on the Capitol. It’s an indirect broadside at Republicans who have sought to whitewash the violence committed by supporters of former President Donald Trump during the assault on the Capitol. Trump himself has argued alternately that his supporters were “hugging and kissing” police — rather than committing the approximately 1,000 assaults prosecutors say occurred — and has baselessly claimed that left-wing agitators caused the violence.

Full Article: DOJ: ‘Lionizing' Jan. 6 rioters fueling future political violence - POLITICO

Editorial: John Eastman’s legal theory created for Trump is still alive. The Jan. 6 committee should kill it. | Greg Sargent/The Washington Post

As the Jan. 6 select committee kicks into high gear, one big thing it will examine is the role played by Mike Pence in the final days of Donald Trump’s effort to overturn his presidential reelection loss and remain in power illegitimately. As vice president, Pence ultimately rebuffed Trump’s pressure on him to halt the congressional count of electors and declare Trump winner. Whether he did so after seriously entertaining this scheme, and what other bad actors pressured him to execute it, are things we need to learn about. But we also need to do something else: We must kill off the dangerous legal theory that Trump and his co-conspirators hatched to justify that scheme, so it never rises again. Some new reporting on Pence’s role, combined with a new analysis of that legal theory, should give us the hook for this. It’s important, because there are new signs this legal theory remains alive, though in staggering zombie form. The theory is the one in the now-notorious Trump coup memo. Lawyer John Eastman outlined a scheme for Pence to ignore federal law and refuse to count President-elect Joe Biden’s electors, making Trump winner. Eastman discussed the theory with Trump and Pence a couple days before Jan. 6. Pence was unpersuaded. A new book by reporter David M. Drucker adds more detail to Pence’s handling of Trump’s pressure. As Drucker reports, Pence’s top advisers — counsel Greg Jacob and chief of staff Marc Short — deeply researched the theory and decided Pence should disavow it, which he did on Jan. 6.

Full Article: Opinion | John Eastman’s legal theory created for Trump is still alive. The Jan. 6 committee should kill it. - The Washington Post

Arizona: Trump now claims voter fraud in Pima County; officials say he’s wrong | Sam Kmack/Arizona Daily Star

Former President Donald Trump released a statement on Friday claiming there was voter fraud in Pima County’s 2020 election, which county officials have denied. The claim follows the nearly year-long audit in Maricopa County that found President Joe Biden had won by slightly more votes than previously thought. Trump and Arizona Republicans had said for months that the taxpayer-funded audit would flip the election results in favor of Trump. Trump’s new statement points to an influx of mail-in votes that gained the lead for Biden in Pima County, which Trump asserts were fraudulent. He’s made similar claims about other states and counties since last November. Friday’s note also claims that “publicly available data” shows two Pima voting precincts had a ballot return rate greater than 100%, and says that a new election should be called or Trump should be declared the winner in Arizona’s 2020 election. County officials have outright denied the claims of voter fraud. They point out that both Republicans and Democrats were involved in counting Pima County’s ballots multiple times and the results were certified by officials representing both parties in the state.
Full Article: Trump now claims voter fraud in Pima County; officials say he's wrong | Local news | tucson.com

Colorado: Trumpist county clerk barred after leak of voting-system passwords to QAnon | Jon Brodkin/Ars Technica

A Colorado judge on Wednesday barred Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters from supervising elections due to the leak of voting-system BIOS passwords to QAnon conspiracy theorist Ron Watkins. Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold and Mesa County registered elector Heidi Jeanne Hess had petitioned the court for a ruling that Peters and Deputy Clerk Belinda Knisley are unable to perform the functions of the Designated Election Official for the November 2021 election. The "court determines that the petitioners have met the burden of showing that Peters and Knisley have committed a breach and neglect of duty and other wrongful acts," Mesa County District Court Judge Valerie Robison wrote in Wednesday's ruling. "As such, Peters and Knisley are unable or unwilling to appropriately perform the duties of the Mesa County Designated Election Official. The court further determines substantial compliance with the provisions of the code require an injunction prohibiting Peters and Knisley from performing the duties of the Designated Election Official." In August, Watkins released photos of information on Dominion's Election Management Systems (EMS) voting machines, including an installation manual and "BIOS passwords for a small collection of computers, including EMS server and client systems," as we reported at the time. While Watkins, a former 8chan administrator, was trying to prove that Dominion can remotely administer the machines, the documents actually showed "a generic set of server hardware, with explicit instructions to keep it off the Internet and lock down its remote management functions." Peters, who promoted Trump's conspiracy theory that voting machines were manipulated to help Joe Biden win the 2020 election, "'holed up' in a safe house provided by pillow salesman and conspiracy theorist Mike Lindell" when the FBI began investigating her, according to an August 19 Vice News article. Her location was described as a "mystery" for a while, but she appeared at an event in Grand Junction, Colorado, last month. Full Article: Trumpist county clerk barred after leak of voting-system passwords to QAnon | Ars Technica

Michigan Republicans Replace Officials Who Certify Vote Totals | Matt Shuham/TPM

Like lots of other rank-and-file Republicans, Robert Boyd has his doubts about the integrity of the last election, particularly in his home state of Michigan — and particularly in Detroit’s TCF Center, where the city’s votes were counted last year despite a concerted effort from local Republicans to disrupt the counting process. “People saw ballots come in the back door, so, you know, there were cameras in there that people weren’t aware of, that were there,” Boyd told TPM over the phone Tuesday. “They had a bunch hiding under the table. It was not a very pleasant thing to see.” But there’s a big difference between Boyd and others who may share his view: The 73-year-old Rockwood, Michigan resident is the newest member of the four-person Wayne County Board of Canvassers, the body responsible for certifying vote totals for Detroit and the surrounding area. He’s one of several new members of such boards around the state, chosen by local Republican leaders, who are replacing incumbents who voted to certify the last election under immense, nationwide pressure from their party. The Detroit News first reported on the wave of replacements last week, including incumbents who wanted to be renominated but weren’t.

Full Article: Michigan Republicans Replace Officials Who Certify Vote Totals

Ohio: Stark County elections workers have tested 1,400 new Dominion voting machines | Robert WangThe Canton Repository

Staffers at the Stark County Board of Elections have completed testing on the final batch of new touchscreen Dominion Voting Systems machines that will be used on Election Day on Nov. 2. Full-time and seasonal election workers did what is referred to as logic and accuracy testing, required by the state. They ensure the machines work, their batteries are charged, the touchscreen functions and the machines count votes accurately, said Travis Secrest, one of the board’s two administrative assistants. Logic and accuracy testing “is where from start to finish, our staff will go through every Election Day component to make sure that the machine is functioning correctly. That it is receiving the votes correctly. That it is tabulating correctly,” he said. Board staff tested a total of 1,408 Dominion machines. Stark County is using eight machines for in-person early voting at the Board office on Regent Avenue NE in Canton. The rest will be used on Nov. 2. And the board will have 42 backup machines. Secrest said it takes about 15 minutes for one staffer to test a machine.

Full Article: Stark elections workers have tested 1,400 new Dominion voting machines

Pennsylvania court allows lawsuit to decertify Northampton County voting machines to move forward | Peter Hall/The Morning Call

A Pennsylvania judge ruled a lawsuit to block the use of electronic voting machines used in Northampton County and elsewhere can move forward. Commonwealth Court Judge Kevin P. Brobson on Monday rejected arguments by the state’s top election official that election security advocates and more than a dozen Pennsylvania voters lacked standing and had failed to make valid claims about the ExpressVote XL voting machines used in Northampton and Philadelphia counties. The National Election Defense Coalition and Citizens for Better Elections filed a petition in January 2020 seeking a preliminary injunction requiring the state to decertify the ExpressVote XL electronic voting system for the primary and general election. It cited information from voters about security concerns and trouble using the machines and a “no confidence” vote by the Northampton County elections board, and said there is “no way to restore voters’ trust in the machines.” Attorney Ron Fein, who represents the petitioners, said his clients look forward to reviewing documents and interviewing potential witnesses in the case. “The court rejected every one of the secretary of state’s arguments,” Fein said. “The plaintiffs look forward to conducting discovery, examining the ExpressVote XL machine and presenting evidence it never should have been certified at trial.” A spokesperson for the Pennsylvania Department of State said it had no comment on the decision. Brobson, who authored the opinion for the three-judge panel, is the Republican candidate for a seat on the state Supreme Court this November.

Full Article: Northampton County voting machine lawsuit can move forward - The Morning Call

At Rhode Island cybersecurity summit, elections officials confront ‘elephant in the room’ | Mark Reynolds/The Providence Journal

Local elections officials were reminded of a new and different challenge facing the country’s election systems on Wednesday at Secretary of State Nellie Gorbea’s virtual summit on cybersecurity. The reminder came from James Ludes. The director of Salve Regina University’s Pell Center for International Relations and Public Policy talked about former President Donald Trump’s rejection of the 2020 presidential election results. This was on the back end of Ludes’ extensive presentation on Russia-based efforts to undermine the U.S. election system. “I think we have to talk about the elephant in the room,” Ludes said to 150 elections officials and information-technology professionals. Trump’s allegations of election fraud and cheating have “intertwined with and reinforced” narratives advanced by foreigners to the point that it’s “difficult to determine who the first mover is,” Ludes said. He told the crowd he is terrified by an alignment between narratives propagated by foreigners and those amplified by “domestic sources.” “Sincerely, it terrifies me,” he said. “The former president of the United States continues to push a big lie in rallies across the country and in statements that America’s election was corrupt and that he was cheated out of victory in 2020. We have to have confidence in our electoral outcomes. It’s one of the reasons the work that you do is frankly sacred.”

Full Article: Trump’s rejection of 2020 election raised at RI cybersecurity summit

Texas Governor’s pick for top election post worked with Trump to fight 2020 results | James Barragan and Patrick Svitek/The Texas Tribune

Gov. Greg Abbott on Thursday appointed John Scott — a Fort Worth attorney who briefly represented former President Donald Trump in a lawsuit challenging the 2020 election results in Pennsylvania — as Texas' new secretary of state. As secretary of state, Scott would oversee election administration in Texas — a task complicated in recent years by baseless claims of election fraud from Republicans in the highest levels of government, fueled by Trump. The former president has filed a flurry of lawsuits nationwide and called for audits in Texas and elsewhere to review the results of the 2020 presidential elections. Trump’s own attorney general, Bill Barr, said there was no evidence of widespread voter fraud nationwide, and in Texas, an official with the secretary of state’s office said the 2020 election was “smooth and secure.” On Nov. 13, Scott signed on as counsel to a lawsuit filed by Trump attempting to block the certification of Pennsylvania's election. A few days later, on the eve of a key hearing in the case, Scott filed a motion to withdraw as an attorney for the plaintiffs. Scott's motion also asked to withdraw Bryan Hughes, a Texas state senator from Mineola who works for Scott's law firm, as an attorney for the case. Scott's law firm was the second in the span of a few days to withdraw from the case. Hughes said Trump's campaign reached out to Scott "because he's a stellar lawyer." “It’s not surprising," he said.

  Full Article: John Scott appointed Texas secretary of state by Gov. Greg Abbott | The Texas Tribune

Utah legislators attack vote by mail, want statewide audit and return to paper ballots | Mark Shenefelt/Standard-Examiner

Two legislators are leading an effort to virtually eliminate vote by mail and mandate an independent audit of the 2020 Utah election, while state and county officials are pushing back and instead proposing tweaks to the existing system. Republican Reps. Steve Christiansen of West Jordan and Phil Lyman of Blanding outlined for the Legislature’s Judiciary Interim Committee on Wednesday their proposal for a return to paper ballots; independent election audits on an ongoing basis; photo ID required at the polls; and no private funds allowed for “registration or other election activities.” Christiansen referred to questions about election integrity being raised in a few counties but gave no specifics. But he said citizen concerns are evidence that the state should fund an independent audit of last year’s election, similar to the audit of Arizona’s results conducted after President Joe Biden’s narrow win there last November. “We should allow mail-in ballots only for those traveling or immobilized,” Christiansen said, and voting machines should be scrapped and all ballots be counted at the precinct level. “There are enough concerns with those machines that we need to get back to the way we used to do it,” he said. Lyman, who received a pardon from then-President Donald Trump last year for his conviction in a federal lands protest, said the legislation also would bar “outside sources funding election integrity” programs. “That’s a huge red flag,” he said.

Full Article: Legislators attack vote by mail, want statewide audit and return to paper ballots | News, Sports, Jobs – Standard-Examiner

Wisconsin Attorney General seeks to block subpoenas Gableman issued to state elections officials | Molly Beck and Patrick Marley/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Attorney General Josh Kaul is seeking to block subpoenas former Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman issued to state elections officials as part of Assembly Republicans’ review of the 2020 presidential election. Kaul is asking a Dane County judge to declare that the subpoenas are unenforceable under the state and U.S. constitutions and Wisconsin state law. He also wants the judge to issue an order barring Gableman from enforcing the subpoenas or penalizing those who do not comply. Kaul argued the subpoenas are improper because Gableman wants to interview Wisconsin Elections Commission administrator Meagan Wolfe privately, rather than in public in front of a legislative committee. “The Special Counsel and his staff, however, have been charged with assisting the Committee, but they are not themselves a house of the Legislature or a legislative committee. The Subpoenas also command the witnesses to appear not in the state capitol or any other location in which a legislative committee would ordinarily meet, but rather in a non-public office ‘at 200 South Executive Drive, Suite 101, Brookfield, WI 53005,'” Kaul wrote.

Full Article: Josh Kaul seeks to block subpoenas in Gableman election review

Wisconsin GOP review of 2020 election beset by blunders from former Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman | By Elise Viebeck/The Washington Post

The glaring errors became clear soon after a former Wisconsin judge issued subpoenas earlier this month in a Republican review of the state’s 2020 presidential election. Some of the requests referred to the wrong city. At least one was sent to an official who doesn’t oversee elections. A Latin phrase included in the demands for records and testimony was misspelled. Michael Gableman, the former judge leading the review, admitted days later that he does not have “a comprehensive understanding or even any understanding of how elections work.” He then backed off some of his subpoena demands before reversing course again, telling a local radio host that officials would still be required to testify. The latest round of reversals and blunders is intensifying calls to end the probe, one of several recent efforts around the country to revisit Joe Biden’s win in states where former president Donald Trump and his supporters have leveled baseless accusations of voter fraud. Attorney General Josh Kaul (D) this week called the subpoenas unlawful and “dramatically overbroad,” and he urged Republicans to “shut this fake investigation down.” Voting rights advocates, election policy experts and some state and local officials, meanwhile, accuse Gableman of incompetence and say his review — which could cost taxpayers $680,000 or more — will decrease public trust in Wisconsin elections. “It’s terrible for democracy in the state,” Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway (D) said in an interview. “It’s corrosive. It undermines confidence in our elections, and it’s deeply insulting to our municipal clerks and poll workers. … The thing that should give everybody some confidence is the fact that our elections are not being run by people like attorney Gableman.”

Full Article: Wisconsin GOP review of 2020 election beset by blunders from former Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman - The Washington Post