November 2021 – Page 4 – The Voting News

National: ‘A roadmap for a coup’: inside Trump’s plot to steal the presidency | Ed Pilkington/The Guardian

November 3, 2021

On 4 January, the conservative lawyer John Eastman was summoned to the Oval Office to meet Donald Trump and Vice-President Mike Pence. Within 48 hours, Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election would formally be certified by Congress, sealing Trump’s fate and removing him from the White House. The atmosphere in the room was tense. The then US president was “fired up” to make what amounted to a last-ditch effort to overturn the election results and snatch a second term in office in the most powerful job on Earth. Eastman, who had a decades-long reputation as a prominent conservative law professor, had already prepared a two-page memo in which he had outlined an incendiary scenario under which Pence, presiding over the joint session of Congress that was to be convened on 6 January, effectively overrides the votes of millions of Americans in seven states that Biden had won, then “gavels President Trump as re-elected”. The Eastman memo, first revealed by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa in their book Peril, goes on to predict “howls” of protest from Democrats. The theory was that Pence, acting as the “ultimate arbiter” of the process, would then send the matter to the House of Representatives which, following an arcane rule that says that where no candidate has reached the necessary majority each state will have one vote, also decides to turn the world upside down and hand the election to the losing candidate, Donald Trump. Eastman’s by now notorious memo, and the surreal encounter in the Oval Office, are among the central twists in the unfolding story of Trump’s audacious bid to hang on to power. They form the basis of what critics argue was nothing less than an attempted electoral coup. Full Article: ‘A roadmap for a coup’: inside Trump’s plot to steal the presidency | US elections 2020 | The Guardian

National: ‘It’s been a barrage every day’: US election workers face threats and harassment | Sam Levine/The Guardian

November 3, 2021

Before he leaves his house to walk his dog these days, Rick Barron’s 12-year-old-daughter reminds him that he needs to keep an eye out because she worries her dad could be the target of an attack. Barron, 55, is the director of voting and elections in Fulton county, which includes Atlanta and is the most populous county in Georgia. For the last year, he’s been subject to a barrage of voicemails and emails with threats, including some threatening violence and death, as Donald Trump and his allies have falsely claimed the election was stolen. “You will be served lead,” someone said on a voicemail left for Barron in recent months. It’s an experience being shared by state and local officials across the United States. For decades, those officials have largely been invisible, working out of the public spotlight to ensure the machinery of elections runs smoothly. But as Trump and allies target that machinery as part of an effort to insist something was amiss in 2020, those officials have been thrust into the national spotlight and subject to vicious harassment. Nearly one in three election officials feel unsafe in their job, according to an April survey commissioned by the Brennan Center for Justice. “It’s been a barrage every day,” Katie Hobbs, Arizona’s secretary of state, told the Guardian. She said the threats have bombarded virtually every part of her office, including services that have nothing to do with elections.

Full Article: ‘It’s been a barrage every day’: US election workers face threats and harassment | US voting rights | The Guardian

Arizona Attorney General questions former Maricopa County election offical | Jonathan J. Cooper/Associated Press

November 3, 2021

Former Maricopa County Recorder Adrian Fontes said Monday he was questioned by investigators from Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich’s office about the 2020 election. The questioning of Fontes, a Democrat who oversaw mail-in balloting last year but lost his own re-election bid, suggests Brnovich is pressing ahead with his pledge to review the findings of the state Senate Republicans’ partisan review of the 2020 election. That review, led and almost entirely funded by supporters of former President Donald Trump, confirmed President Joe Biden’s victory in Maricopa County but spread falsehoods about alleged malfeasance. Brnovich is seeking the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate but could be weighed down by sharp criticism from Trump, who retains considerable sway with the GOP base. Trump repeatedly attacked Brnovich earlier this year as “lackluster,” claiming the attorney general wasn’t doing enough to advance the false claim that Trump’s loss in Arizona was the result of fraud. Fontes, who is running in a contested Democratic primary for secretary of state, said he spoke for about an hour Monday morning with two special agents from Brnovich’s office. He said the discussion was “professional and collegial,” but he said the agents did not seem to know much about election systems. “If they were trying to build an actual case, they would’ve been prepared before they asked me any questions,” Fontes told The Associated Press. “This is nothing more than political box-checking and an abuse of power by a desperate Republican Senate nominee.”

Full Article: Arizona AG questions former Maricopa County election offical

Colorado officials counter false election claims | Charles Ashby/Grand Junction Sentinel

November 3, 2021

Embattled Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters continuously repeats falsehoods about how Colorado elections are conducted, local and state officials say. From questioning why passwords are kept secret to barcodes that are being phased out that are used to tabulate only a fraction of all ballots while simultaneously criticizing using machines to count them, Peters is relying on voter-fraud conspiracy theories and ignoring how elections are actually conducted, the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office and others say. “Colorado is considered the nation’s leader in election security,” Secretary of State Jena Griswold said. “Clerk Peters is incorrect, and compromised the entire Mesa County election system to try to prove conspiracy theories.” As a result, local and state election officials are concerned that Peters’ false statements about how elections actually are conducted are leaving some voters to question them. They say that may partly be because Peters has yet to get the state required certification to operate elections because she hasn’t completed that training, something clerks are required to do within two years of taking office, according to Secretary of State records. Peters has been overseeing the county elections for nearly three years. To help counter Peters’ disinformation, those same officials addressed, point for point, several of her false claims, which some say border on the absurd.

Full Article: Officials counter false election claims | Western Colorado | gjsentinel.com

Colorado: Election misinformation reaches Arapahoe County clerk’s office | Ellis Arnold/Littleton Independent

November 3, 2021

In the months leading up the election that ends today, the Arapahoe County office that oversees elections received messages about dubious claims playing out at the state level about election security — lingering echoes of unproven claims about wrongdoing in the 2020 presidential election. A letter defending an embattled elections official — Mesa County Clerk and Recorder Tina Peters — was sent to at least several Colorado county clerks, according to reporting by news outlet Colorado Newsline. The letter was dated Aug. 27. The typed section of the letter discusses Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold's investigation into an election-system security breach involving Peters, Colorado Newsline reported. The office of Arapahoe County Clerk and Recorder Joan Lopez received a copy of that letter, addressed to Lopez, with the return address blacked out, a spokesperson for the clerk told Colorado Community Media. “We have also received several emails incorporating a similar theme — defending Tina Peters as a 'hero,' accusing Secretary of State (Jena) Griswold of overstepping her authority, alleging that voter fraud is rampant” and so on, the spokesperson, Tom Skelley, told CCM via email. “Many of those emails were obviously copied and pasted from one original source just as this letter was.” Neither Lopez nor the office's staff have received any direct threats of violence, Skelley said. “We have, however, seen references to a coming 'Civil War,' mentions of 'treason (being) punishable by Death' and demands for a 'forensic' audit of ballots,” Skelley said.

Full Article: Election misinformation reaches Arapahoe County clerk's office | Littletonindependent.net

Florida Bars State Professors From Testifying in Voting Rights Case | Michael Wines/The New York Times

November 3, 2021

Three University of Florida professors have been barred from assisting plaintiffs in a lawsuit to overturn the state’s new law restricting voting rights, lawyers said in a federal court filing on Friday. The ban is an extraordinary limit on speech that raises questions of academic freedom and First Amendment rights. University officials told the three that because the school was a state institution, participating in a lawsuit against the state “is adverse to U.F.’s interests” and could not be permitted. In their filing, the lawyers sought to question Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, on whether he was involved in the decision. Mr. DeSantis has resisted questioning, arguing that all of his communications about the law are protected from disclosure because discussions about legislation are privileged. In their filing on Friday, lawyers for the plaintiffs said the federal questions in the case — including whether the law discriminates against minority groups — override any state protections. The university’s refusal to allow the professors to testify was a marked turnabout for the University of Florida. Like schools nationwide, the university has routinely allowed academic experts to offer expert testimony in lawsuits, even when they oppose the interests of the political party in power. Leading experts on academic freedom said they knew of no similar restrictions on professors’ speech and testimony and said the action was probably unconstitutional.

Full Article: Florida Bars State Professors From Testifying in Voting Rights Case - The New York Times

Florida: Lake Elections Supervisor Alan Hays to GOP election-fraud claims: ‘PUT UP OR SHUT UP!!’ – Stephen Hudak/Orlando Sentinel

November 3, 2021

Irritated by Lake County Republican leaders who want a forensic audit of the 2020 vote and who allege the “entire election system is fraught with flaws,” Elections Supervisor Alan Hays — a long-time member of the GOP — posted a rebuttal on his official website Tuesday, demanding they “PUT UP OR SHUT UP!!” ”As an election professional, I find it disturbing that some of our citizenry continue to promote a narrative that is unsubstantiated in fact or example,” he wrote. “It begins with the unrelenting desire to believe that an election was ‘stolen,’ and that ‘the vast majority of us witnessed (this) on election night 2020.’ ” Hays, a former state legislator, defended the elections in Florida and in Lake, where he has served as supervisor since January 2017. He posted the lengthy “News Bulletin” on lakevotes.com as citizens in five Lake cities went to the polls to choose municipal leaders, including a mayor in Mount Dora. “There continues to be reliance on unproven algorithms and analysis that has been the basis of these ‘stolen’ election claims,” he wrote. The Lake County Republican Executive Committee last month passed resolutions demanding the Legislature conduct an “immediate, open, transparent and independent full forensic audit, including a hand recount” of Lake County and the entire state, though Trump won the county and Florida by almost 372,000 votes. They wanted the review to be “at least as thorough as the audit being conducted in Maricopa County, Arizona.”

Full Article: Lake Elections Supervisor Alan Hays to GOP election-fraud claims: ‘PUT UP OR SHUT UP!!’ - Orlando Sentinel

Georgia Secretary of State: Trump ‘had no idea how elections work’ | Reid Wilson/The Hill

November 3, 2021

Former President Trump demonstrated virtually no knowledge of the conduct of modern elections procedures in a long and rambling phone call with Georgia’s top elections administrator as he ticked off a host of debunked and fanciful conspiracy theories he blamed for his electoral defeat. The man on the other end of that call in early January, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R), details months of mistruths and disinformation perpetuated by the Trump campaign that led up to their conversation in a new book out Tuesday, “Integrity Counts.” The book includes a roughly 40-page transcript of the call itself, which shows an increasingly agitated Trump grasping at allegations that Raffensperger and his top deputy systematically refute as then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows pleaded with the Georgia officials to investigate further and Trump urged Raffensperger to “find” enough votes to deliver the state’s electoral votes. President Biden became the first Democratic presidential candidate since Bill Clinton to carry Georgia’s electoral votes, by a margin of 11,779 votes. “Fellas, I need 11,000 votes. Give me a break,” Trump told Raffensperger and Ryan Germany, the general counsel to the secretary of state, according to the transcript. “This repeated request for votes showed me that President Trump really had no idea how elections work. The secretary of state’s office doesn’t allocate any votes,” Raffensperger writes in an annotation of the call.

Full Article: Georgia secretary of state: Trump 'had no idea how elections work' | TheHill

Michigan: Missing Hillsdale County voting equipment found, state checking whether tampering occurred | John Tunison/MLlive.com

November 3, 2021

Authorities have recovered voting equipment that went missing after a rural township clerk in Hillsdale County was barred from administering next week’s Nov. 2 election. Adams Township Clerk Stephanie Scott refused to allow legally-required maintenance and accuracy testing on voting machines, leading to the ruling about the upcoming election, state officials said. Hillsdale County Clerk Marney Kast has said she suspected Adams Township Clerk Stephanie Scott was in possession of a “tablet” that contained sensitive election information. Kast said Scott did not turn over the tablet, described as the “brains” of the voting machine, and that Scott said she was “consulting her attorney” when asked to relinquish it. On social media, Scott has promoted election conspiracy theories. In a release issued late in the day Friday, Oct. 29 by Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson’s office, officials said state police recovered the missing election equipment from the Adams Township Hall earlier in the day. It wasn’t immediately clear if the equipment was at the township hall all along, or somewhere else. Tracy Wimmer, a Secretary of State spokesperson, said an investigation is ongoing as to whether the equipment shows any tampering. She sad the matter is “currently the subject of an ongoing criminal investigation” and she planned no further comment about specific details of the investigation.

Full Article: Missing Hillsdale County voting equipment found, state checking whether tampering occurred - mlive.com

New Jersey voters faced a new way to sign in. It didn’t always go smoothly for poll workers or those casting ballots. | Ted Sherman/NJ.com

November 3, 2021

As New Jersey voters waited in line on Tuesday, they were handed a disposable rubber-tipped stylus to electronically sign their names before casting their ballots. Signing the poll book is an Election Day exercise that in the past involved thick volumes of scrawled signatures tracking one’s participation in Democracy over the years — while serving to verify someone’s identify. But this year, the process was a little different. And that didn’t come without problems. Counties for the first time were using electronic poll books instead of paper ones — a change mandated by the move to early voting in the state. The electronic system, which updates the state voter database in real-time, has a record of all eligible voters for each polling location. It is meant to prevent someone from voting in multiple locations or on different days, officials explained, making possible the offering of early voting with safeguards intended to to flag those trying to vote more than once. But at a number of polling locations, election workers had issues connecting through the internet to the state database, which led to long lines in some places, and voters even being turned away from others.

Full Article: N.J. voters faced a new way to sign in. It didn’t always go smoothly for poll workers or those casting ballots. - nj.com

Pennsylvania: Republican lawsuit over mail-in ballots in Delaware County dismissed by judge | Rob Tornoe/Philadelphia Inquirer

November 3, 2021

A petition over 670 flawed mail-in ballots filed by a lawyer for two Republican candidates running for Delaware County Council was largely dismissed ahead of Tuesday’s election. The lawsuit, filed by longtime Republican lawyer Michael Puppio, asked for an emergency hearing over the absentee ballots that Delaware County acknowledged were mailed to the wrong addresses, as well as more than 5,000 ballots that were mailed out late by a vendor. Common Pleas Court Judge Kelly Eckel dismissed the bulk of the lawsuit Monday night, ruling that the board of election will continue to oversee Tuesday’s election after putting safeguards in place and correcting the ballot issues. The judge will allow two watchers — one from each political party — to monitor the mail-in ballots in Delaware County for any irregularities. The 670 ballots in question were mailed to addresses that did not match the voter information on the ballot inside. The county said it has taken steps to identify those ballots and send new ones to the voters who received them. Delaware County Solicitor Bill Martin criticized Republicans for attempting to wrestle control of the election out of the hands of the county board of elections over an issue he said had already been “appropriately remedied.”

Full Article: Republican lawsuit over mail-in ballots in Delaware County dismissed by judge

Pennsylvania voting official sues Trump, Giuliani, others over 2020 allegations | Betsy Woddruff Swan, Kyle Cheney and Josh Gerstein/Politico

November 3, 2021

The supervisor of a voting machine warehouse in the Philadelphia suburbs is suing Donald Trump and top political advisers in a Philadelphia-based county court, saying the former president slandered him during a months-long effort to overturn the 2020 election results. In a 60-page lawsuit, James Savage, the voting machine warehouse custodian in Delaware County, says that in the aftermath of Trump’s effort, he suffered two heart attacks and has regularly received threats. In addition to Trump, he’s suing some of Trump’s key advisers, including his former campaign attorneys Rudy Giuliani and Jenna Ellis, who has largely escaped investigators’ scrutiny so far. “Simply put, Mr. Savage’s physical safety, and his reputation, were acceptable collateral damage for the wicked intentions of the Defendants herein,” says Savage’s attorney J. Conor Corcoran, “executed during their lubricious attempt to question the legitimacy of President Joseph Biden’s win in Pennsylvania.” Savage is seeking monetary damages and a jury trial on charges of defamation and civil conspiracy. The suit against Trump, Giuliani, Ellis, local GOP officials and others was first reported by Law360.

Full Article: Pa. voting official sues Trump, Giuliani, others over 2020 allegations - POLITICO

Virginia’s defenders of democracy ensure free, fair and secure elections | Chris Piper/Richmond Times-Dispatch

November 3, 2021

A cornerstone of our American democracy is a free, fair and secure election process. Regardless of your party affiliation, you need to be assured the process encourages eligible voters to vote and that their choices are accurately recorded and counted. Thousands of Virginians passionately defend this cornerstone. More than 133 certified registrars who follow 470 pages of Virginia election law operate year-round to ensure it. And when election season comes around, another 15,000 Virginians join the process as poll watchers, precinct captains and other roles. These are your friends and neighbors — people you see in the grocery store, or at church or while walking in your neighborhood. They are trained and retrained to be on the front lines of the election to ensure a free and fair process with an accurate outcome decided by the majority of voters. They show up and work hard to protect your vote and the collective wishes of your community. These guardians are the front line of a process that the Virginia Department of Elections has in place to ensure your elections are not susceptible to subterfuge. These are your defenders of democracy. In recent years, much misinformation and disinformation has been disseminated about our election system. Some (but not all, of course) of these efforts have been intentional and designed to whittle away at public trust. But facts still stand soundly behind your ability to trust that our elections are an accurate reflection of the voice of the people. While cybersecurity always is a concern, it’s important to know that Virginia law prohibits voting machines from being connected to the internet — and there always is a paper record of your vote.

Full Article: Chris Piper column: Virginia's defenders of democracy ensure free, fair and secure elections | Columnists | richmond.com

Wisconsin elections commissioner says fellow Republicans are looking for a scapegoat after Trump’s loss | Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel

November 3, 2021

A Republican state elections commissioner says lawmakers calling for his resignation are looking for a scapegoat because Donald Trump lost Wisconsin. Dean Knudson made the comments Friday, a day after Racine County Sheriff Chris Schmaling accused him and other commissioners of committing felonies by telling election clerks to mail absentee ballots to nursing homes instead of visiting them in person during the COVID-19 pandemic. Knudson denied the allegation and questioned why Schmaling isn’t pursuing charges against anyone in Racine County if he believes fraud occurred. He said Republican lawmakers — some of whom he served with when he was in the Assembly — were wrong to ask him to step down. “Certain public figures in Wisconsin are under intense pressure to find someone to be the fall guy for Trump’s loss in 2020 in Wisconsin,” Knudson said. “It is the equivalent of losing the playoff football game and six months later still complaining about the bad call by the referee and insisting that they never officiate a game again. “There are a lot of individuals that are under pressure to try to find some explanation other than the obvious one.” Asked what that obvious explanation was, he said, “That (Joe) Biden got more votes in Wisconsin than Trump did.” Source: Wisconsin elections commissioner says fellow Republicans are looking for a scapegoat after Trump’s loss

Wisconsin elections commission administrator: GOP calls for her resignation are ‘partisan politics at its worst’ | Mitchell Schmidt/Wisconsin State Journal

November 3, 2021

State elections commission administrator Meagan Wolfe said Monday that calls for her resignation by some state Republicans following allegations brought forth last week by the Racine County sheriff are “partisan politics at its worst.” Wolfe also said she is still learning the details of Racine County Sheriff Christopher Schmaling’s investigation related to the Ridgewood Care Center in Racine County, but added that “it sounds like there are some procedures that may not have been followed” related to absentee voting at the Mount Pleasant center. If anyone felt coerced or influenced to vote in a specific manner, as Schmaling suggested, Wolfe said local law enforcement should investigate. “The commission is not a law enforcement entity and we cannot prosecute crimes,” she said. Wolfe’s comments came after Schmaling last week accused the commission of breaking the law during last year’s election by issuing guidance directing election clerks to mail absentee ballots to nursing homes if special voting deputies, or SVDs, were unable to visit residents in person during the COVID-19 pandemic. The allegations were followed by calls for Wolfe’s resignation from close to a dozen state Republicans, including Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester. “I think in some ways they think I’m an easy target — I’m not,” Wolfe said during a press conference Monday. “I don’t think that the claims have any basis and I do think this is partisan politics at its worst, but at the same time I have an obligation as the state’s nonpartisan elections official to rise above it.”

Full Article: Elections chief Meagan Wolfe: GOP calls for her resignation are 'partisan politics at its worst' | Local Government | madison.com

Monthly Archives: November 2021