Voting for the 2022 midterms is already underway, and the nation’s top election officials are caught fighting a two-front war: Battling disinformation stemming from the last election, while simultaneously preparing for the next one. The officials are no longer just running elections. They’ve become full-time myth-busters, contending with information threats coming from the other side of the globe — and their own ranks. In interviews with 10 state chief election officials — along with conversations with staffers, current and former local officials and other election experts — many described how they have had to refocus their positions to battle a constant rolling boil of mis- and disinformation about election processes. They’re dealing with political candidates undermining the election systems that they still run for office in, and conspiracy theories that target even the most obscure parts of America’s election infrastructure. And they say the country will face the same issues this year as it elects a new Congress and decides control of three dozen statehouses. “The biggest challenge that we face is disinformation, about the 2020 election in particular, and more generally about the election system itself,” Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon, a Democrat, said in an interview. Their battle against mis- and disinformation comes at a tenuous time for American democracy, as an already diminished faith in the U.S. electoral system risks slipping further still in 2022. A recent NPR/Ipsos poll found that 64 percent of Americans believed democracy was “in crisis and at risk of failing.”
Transparency or conspiracy? Bill seeks public ballot reviews | Mark Niesse/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It was a rare bipartisan election proposal: Make paper ballots public in Georgia so anyone who doubted election results could see for themselves. But a bill to make that idea a reality quickly sparked resistance. Opponents fear the legislation would enable endless “audits” driven by losing candidates who will never accept defeat, turning any ambiguity or mistake into the next stolen election claim. Democrats withdrew support for the measure following criticism from Fair Fight Action, a voting rights group that Democrat Stacey Abrams started, concerned that the proposal would do more to undermine elections than increase confidence in them. Georgia election officials conducted three ballot counts and repeated investigations of the 2020 election, finding isolated problems but no widespread fraud. Nonetheless, former President Donald Trump and some of his supporters have continued to spread conspiracy theories about the results. The bill’s backers say it would allow the public to verify elections, identify errors, detect counting mistakes and hold election officials accountable. Republican state Rep. Shaw Blackmon, the bill’s lead sponsor, said transparency is the key to building trust in elections. “This bill would give voters more confidence and help them understand more thoroughly our process,” said Blackmon, who represents Bonaire. “Both parties wanted a paper ballot because people are more comfortable working with real documents. And this makes those documents open to public inspection.”
National: County election systems just got a (simulated) stress test | Benjamin Freed/StateScoop
Officials from county governments across the U.S. on Friday theorized what they’d do if an election in their jurisdiction was upended by a blizzard, power outage, phishing attack, ransomware or disinformation campaign — or some combination of those events. On the first day of the National Association of Counties‘ annual legislative conference in Washington, the county officials, including some elected leaders and chief information officers, played out a tabletop scenario that asked them to describe how they’d respond to an election-night disaster. Tabletop exercises have become increasingly common in the election-administration community, with federal agencies like the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency holding nationwide, often closed-door events every year. The NACo event featured officials who, while maybe not directly involved in election work, could potentially have to help respond in case of an emergency. The NACo tabletop focused on a fictional community in Tennessee — Pictoria County, population 220,000 — with an election staff of 10 and IT workforce of 20, who assist with testing voting equipment before and on Election Day. In the first scenario, Pictoria County was hit with a freak, early-November snowstorm strong enough to knock down power lines, prompting the election director to ask the IT director how voting equipment will be delivered to all 150 precincts. Full Article: County election systems just got a (simulated) stress testNational: Paper Shortage for Ballots Could Pose Difficulties for Elections | Andre Claudio/Route Fifty
With this year’s election season right around the corner, officials are warning that a shortage of paper for ballots, envelopes and other voting materials could create problems. The paper required for ballots must be a specific type that is higher quality than other kinds, explained Tammy Patrick, a senior adviser with the Democracy Fund, a nonpartisan foundation that focuses on elections and other issues. “It's difficult to know exactly what the impact will be because we are not sure at what point these supply deficits will be filled,” Patrick told Route Fifty. “We have a situation where we have this high-quality ballot paper stock that we need for things ranging from voter registration forms, envelopes, provisional ballot forms, applications for ballots and even something as simple as a voter identification card,” she said, adding that U.S. elections are “still deeply rooted in the use of paper.” Patrick and others raised the issue of potential paper shortages affecting elections, along with rising paper costs, during a National Association of Counties meeting in Washington, D.C. over the weekend. As with other goods during the past year or so, supply chain kinks and labor shortages are among the factors blamed for shortages in the paper industry. The Electoral Knowledge Network notes that printing ballots involves extensive quality control measures and can involve using paper with features like watermarks.
Full Article: Paper Shortage for Ballots Could Pose Difficulties for Elections - Route FiftyNational: State judges across the U.S. face growing GOP pushback against rulings in election cases | Kira Lerner/Georgia Recorder
In mid-December, Texas’ highest criminal court revoked the state attorney general’s ability to use his office to prosecute election-related cases without the request of a district or county attorney. In an 8-1 opinion, the all-Republican court weakened Attorney General Ken Paxton’s power to independently go after perpetrators of voter fraud, a problem he says is rampant but is actually exceedingly rare. The decision angered Paxton, who took to Twitter to say the ruling “could be devastating for future elections in Texas.” But he didn’t stop there. In addition to filing a motion for a rehearing, he embarked on a campaign across conservative media calling on his voters to pressure the judges to reverse their ruling. His crusade is the latest example of how Republican officials are trying to discredit state court judges who rule against them or issue rulings they disagree with in election-related cases. Officials in other states, including Tennessee and Pennsylvania, are also using the tactic to undermine the judiciary and to sow doubt among voters about whether judges can be independent arbiters of fact when it comes to decisions about the administration of elections. Full Article: State judges across the U.S. face growing GOP pushback against rulings in election cases | Georgia Public BroadcastingArizona: GOP-led Senate panel votes to hand-count all ballots | Bob Christie/Associated Press
Republican state senators on Monday advanced legislation that would require every ballot cast in Arizona's elections to be counted by hand, with GOP proponents who embraced former President Donald Trump's false narrative of massive voter fraud calling it a needed reform. The proposal from Sen. Wendy Rogers, R-Flagstaff, was approved by the Senate Government Committee Monday afternoon on a 4-3 vote with no Democratic support. The measure is one of scores of election bills making their way through the Legislature this year. Rogers said her proposal for an all-hand count tabulation was prompted by comments made by Doug Logan, the CEO of the firm the Arizona Senate hired to recount 2.1 million Maricopa County ballots last spring, Cyber Ninjas. “This does away with the machines," Rogers said. “When I interviewed cyber forensic expert Doug Logan ... he told me that the biggest finding he has from the audit is that the more technology we use, the more chance there is to cheat." Logan's hand-counting operation used hundreds of people, lasted weeks and only recounted the presidential and U.S. Senate races. He confirmed that President Joe Biden won, as the original machine count had found. Jen Marson, executive director of the Arizona Association of Counties, said the proposal was simply unworkable. “As we know, we cannot get enough people in many of our counties to conduct the limited hand count that happens post-election,” Marson told the panel. “I struggle to believe that we would have enough people to hand count the entire election and all of the different ballot styles associated with that election in any kind of timely fashion.” Full Article: GOP-led Arizona Senate panel votes to hand-count all ballots | HostedColorado elections clerk is sued after passing on voting data | and Alexandra Ulmer/Reuters
A Colorado elections clerk was sued on Thursday after he copied data from voting machines with the help of two men with ties to groups supporting the false conspiracy theory that the 2020 election was stolen from former Republican President Donald Trump. Dallas Schroeder, who oversees elections in Elbert County, east of Denver, was sued by Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold for making two copies of his county's voting system hard drives and then handing the images to "unauthorized people", according to the lawsuit. In the civil lawsuit, filed in Elbert County District Court, Griswold demands that Schroeder return the copies and hand over the device he used to make them. Schroeder did not immediately respond to a Reuters email for comment. Schroeder is the second Colorado elections clerk to come under scrutiny for allegedly breaching voting systems as part of an "election integrity" effort by Trump supporters who falsely claim the 2020 election was marred by fraud. Suspected breaches are under investigation in other states, including in Michigan, where authorities last week said an unnamed third party had been given unauthorized access to a county voting system. In August, the FBI opened an investigation into a suspected security breach of voting equipment in Mesa County in western Colorado. Griswold, a Democrat, has accused Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters of facilitating that breach.
Full Article: Colorado elections clerk is sued after passing on voting data | ReutersGeorgia: Cybersecurity agency reviews hacking risk to voting system | Mark Niesse/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A confidential report alleging Georgia’s voting touchscreens could be hacked is now being reviewed by the federal government. The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency wrote in a court filing late Thursday that it will assess potential vulnerabilities and decide whether updates or patches are needed to mitigate risks. CISA’s action came in response to a report by a computer scientist who said votes could be changed if someone gained physical access to Georgia’s voting touchscreens or election management computers. Georgia election officials say the state’s voting systems are secure and that vulnerabilities discovered in a lab would be difficult to exploit in a real election. There’s no indication that Georgia’s election computers manufactured by Dominion Voting Systems were hacked in the 2020 election, but an ongoing election security lawsuit alleges the touchscreens could be exploited in future elections. Three ballot counts and multiple investigations checked the 2020 election results. Both Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and plaintiffs in the lawsuit have called for a redacted version of the hacking report to be made public, but CISA urged a judge not to disseminate further information for now.
Indiana lawmakers say they want to secure elections. Voting groups say the focus is wrong | Kaitlin Lange/Indianapolis Star
Indiana lawmakers are advancing legislation that they say would further ensure confidence in Indiana's elections amid a national focus on election security. But voting rights groups say the state is focusing on the wrong tactics with House Bill 1116, which passed out of the Senate elections committee on Monday despite opposition from Democrats. In order to request an absentee mail-in ballot online under the legislation, a voter would have to provide either their driver's license number or the last four digits of the their Social Security number. State election officials say the bill codifies a process that was already implemented in 2020 when online ballot requests were first allowed and agreed upon by the co-directors of the Indiana Election Division. Voting rights groups, though, argue the requirement could limit who decides to request a ballot. Indiana Vote by Mail, Indiana League of Women Voters, Verified Voting and Free Speech For People sent a letter to lawmakers emphasizing that outfitting Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) voting machines with printers produces a paper trail that is "difficult or impossible" for Hoosiers to verify their votes or for election officials to use in audits. The font can be challenging to read and thermal paper used can rip or fade, the groups said in their letter.
Full Article: Indiana voting rights to look different under bills in House, SenateIndiana: Voting Groups Urge Move to Paper Election Ballots | Tom Davies/Associated Press
A proposal for improving Indiana’s election security by adding small printers to thousands of electronic touch-screen voting machines is being criticized by voting rights groups as relying on ineffective and outdated technology. An Indiana Senate committee is scheduled to consider a bill Monday that includes moving up the deadline for counties to add such devices to any paperless voting machines to July 2024, 5-1/2 years earlier than current state law. The Indiana League of Women Voters, Indiana Vote by Mail and other groups argue that the state should end the use of all such machines and have all counties use paper ballots that voters mark before they are scanned for counting. The voting rights organizations said in a letter Thursday to legislators that the printer technology relies on lightweight thermal paper that is easily damaged and lets voters see only a portion of their ballot at a time through a small window. They call the estimated $2,600-per-machine price tag “an extraordinary cost for a poor solution.”
Full Article: Voting Groups Urge Indiana Move to Paper Election Ballots | Indiana News | US News
Kansas House committee explores options for expanding election audits | Tim Carpenter/Kansas Reflector
The Kansas secretary of state’s office and election reform organizations are backing legislation significantly broadening post-election auditing of close political races. A bill under consideration in the Kansas House would require hand counting of 10% of county precincts whenever a federal, statewide or legislative race was decided by a margin of 1% or less of votes on election night. The proposed reform would be applied in even-numbered election years on top of a 2018 requirement auditing occur in 1% of precincts in each county in randomly selected races for county, state and federal offices. In addition, House Bill 2570 would require new process-and-procedure audits of four randomly selected counties in odd-numbered years following a federal election. Clay Barker, deputy assistant secretary of state, said process audits would test voting machine accuracy, review the list of registered voters and in-person early voters, examine reasons for rejecting provisional ballots and look at signature verification materials. “Although we remain confident in our election procedures and audits, we understand the constant need to improve and enhance our processes,” Barker said. He said Secretary of State Scott Schwab’s office worked with the Kansas County Clerks and Election Officials Association to make certain reforms in the bill were attainable. Full Article: Kansas House committee explores options for expanding election audits - Kansas ReflectorMichigan Secretary of State asks for criminal probe of alleged election machine tampering | Dave Boucher/Detroit Free Press
Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson wants law enforcement to investigate allegations someone inappropriately accessed election equipment in a northern Michigan county. In a news release late Thursday, Benson said she's asked Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel and the Michigan State Police to look into reports she received this week that "an unnamed third party was allowed to access vote tabulator components and technology in Roscommon County." “Michigan law is clear about the security threats that emerge when anyone gains unauthorized access to our election machines or technology, and I will have no tolerance for those who seek to illegally tamper with our voting equipment," Benson said in a statement. Benson spokeswoman Tracy Wimmer said their office has no reason to believe the alleged misconduct occurred before the 2020 election. But she declined to provide specific details about when or how the allegedly unauthorized access occurred. At least one person obtained access to tabulation machines and data drives used for both Roscommon County and Richfield Township, a small area in the eastern portion of the county, according to the news release. Unauthorized access to voting equipment is a felony under state law.
Full Article: Benson asks for criminal probe of alleged election machine tamperingNew Jersey: Bill would revive stalled rule requiring state’s voting machines leave paper trail | Nikita Biryukov/New Jersey Monitor
For more than a decade, a New Jersey law requiring the state’s counties to use voting machines that can create a paper record of every vote cast has gone unenforced because of the amount of money it would cost counties. That may soon change. A new bill — sponsored by Sens. Linda Greenstein (D-Middlesex) and Jim Beach (D-Camden) — would alter the rule by requiring counties to purchase machines that create a paper trail when older machines age out. The bill would allow the New Jersey secretary of state to waive the requirement for machines used in an election before the bill’s effective date, which comes on the first day of the third month following its passage. The proposal would bar the secretary of state from issuing such waivers for machines purchased or leased after that date. Paper records can serve multiple purposes. Besides allowing voters to review their slips to ensure their votes were recorded correctly, they’re also used in election audits and recounts. The old requirement, set to go into effect in January 2009, was never enforced because provisions of the law required it to be suspended until New Jersey received federal funds for statewide machine upgrades or appropriated money for the purpose in the state budget. Those provisions appear to have been put in place to head off an unfavorable ruling from the Council on Local Mandates, which enforces a constitutional requirement that the state government pay for mandates it imposes. Full Article: Bill would revive stalled rule requiring state's voting machines leave paper trail - New Jersey MonitorOregon: Facing threats, elections workers lobby for bill that would increase penalties for harassment | Chris Lehman/The Oregonian
When Jackson County clerk Chris Walker arrived for work on Nov. 24, 2020, she encountered something she’d never experienced in her dozen years on the job. In a parking lot across the street from the elections office, someone had written in bold white paint: “NEXT TIME BULLETS.” “After walking across the street and taking photos, we spent the rest of the day pretty much in shock that this could have happened here,” said Walker. “The noise happening around the country had hit home.” Walker testified to the Oregon House Rules Committee Tuesday in favor of a bill that would increase criminal penalties for people convicted of harassing election workers. The bill would also exempt the home addresses of election workers from certain public records. “The goal is to protect the people who protect our democracy,” said Secretary of State Shemia Fagan in support of House Bill 4144. Fagan said elections workers in Oregon receive threats related to their work and submitted as evidence a portion of a letter that she says was received last month by an Oregon county clerk. “I’m coming after you. You will go down in flames – GUARANTEED!” read the handwritten letter.
Full Article: Facing threats, elections workers lobby for bill that would increase penalties for harassment - oregonlive.com