National: States Want to Boost Protections for Threatened Local Election Officials | Matt Vasilogambros/Stateline

From her second-floor office window in Medford, Oregon, elections administrator Chris Walker vividly remembers reading the unsettling words painted in big white letters on the parking lot below in late November 2020: “Vote don’t work. Next time bullets.” Her heart sank, she recalls, wondering whether or when the threat would materialize. Former President Donald Trump had won her southern Oregon community, and despite his lie that the election was stolen, she never expected this anger. While her office is nonpartisan, Walker, the Jackson County clerk, has been a registered Republican for as long as she’s been able to vote. She’s frustrated to see the amount of election misinformation from members of her party. The pressure from constituents has not let up over the past two years. In emails, she is called a crook and a criminal just for doing her job: running elections. “It really was shocking,” she said. “We are normal, everyday people. We’ve been charged with an extraordinary task. We have to continue to do our work. We’ve not let it control what we do here.” Walker is one of many election officials around the country who have faced violent threats and harassment since the 2020 presidential election, as Trump and his allies continue to perpetuate repeatedly disproven myths about voter fraud. This pressure, meant to exhaust and scare local officials into resigning, could usher in new election personnel who seek to skew results, election experts say.

Full Article: States Want to Boost Protections for Threatened Local Election Officials | The Pew Charitable Trusts

Another way to protect voting rights: Hack-proof our elections | Matthew Germer/The Hill

In recent years, leading computer scientists and network security experts have found real vulnerabilities in election technology that could allow even lower-tier hackers to pose threats. As this technology ages, dozens of states are now in dire need of new equipment and support for managing security issues. Public reports from the Director of National Intelligence and other cybersecurity experts suggest that threats could come from Russia, Iran, China or North Korea, as well as non-state actors with radical agendas. But all is not lost. There is growing agreement across the political spectrum on how to improve election security: voter-verified paper ballots that create permanent, physical records of votes; risk-limiting audits that use robust statistical analysis to ensure accurate counts and ample, consistent funding for state and local election administrators in order to carry out trustworthy elections for years to come. There is also support for even stronger protection from hackers and foreign interference through improved federal oversight of voting machine vendors and by keeping voting and tabulation infrastructure off the internet.

Full Article: Another way to protect voting rights: Hack-proof our elections | TheHill

National: 2020 Was a Banner Year for U.S. Election Administration | Claire DeSoi/Elections Performance Index

Despite widespread claims that the 2020 election was fraudulent or poorly managed, election administration did not just persevere under unexpected and challenging conditions—it improved. The 2020 election was an anomaly in many ways, but the Election Performance Index (EPI) shows us that election administration continued to trend in the direction it was already heading: up. While there was more early voting and voting by mail than previous years (a pre-existing trend that 2020 accelerated), overall, more states improved their practices, data, and reporting. When looking at the index for 2020, we must of course remain mindful of the 2020 election atmosphere and context. In an election year like 2020, though, where administrators and election officials had to adapt quickly to unprecedented challenges, data-driven measures became even more important in finding and telling the story of how elections in the US are managed.

Full Article: 2020 Was a Banner Year for U.S. Election Administration | Elections Performance Index

National: Local election officials are exhausted, under threat and thinking about quitting | Zach Montellaro/Politico

Election officials feel besieged by conspiracy theorists and fear that a lack of support for their work is going to squeeze experts out of the field, according to a new poll. The survey from the Brennan Center for Justice, a liberal-leaning think tank and advocacy group, showed that nearly 8 in 10 local election officials feel that threats against them and their colleagues have increased in recent years, and a majority say that they are either very or somewhat concerned about the safety of their fellow administrators. The question of how to deal with threats has become a constant conversation among election officials at all levels of government, many of whom fear that it could discourage people from staying in their field of election administration, or even joining it in the first place. “Over the long run, if this continues, it will be a lot harder to get folks to stick around,” said Natalie Adona, the assistant county clerk-recorder of Nevada County, Calif. “People will retire maybe because they’re just ready to retire because they’ve been doing this for so dang long — or maybe because they feel that the risk is not worth it. But there will be more retirements.” The poll results confirm Adona’s feeling, with 3 in 10 of the officials surveyed saying they know at least one or two election workers who have left their jobs in part because of fears for their safety. Sixty percent of the respondents said they are concerned that those issues will make it more difficult to retain or recruit election workers in the future.

Full Article: Local election officials are exhausted, under threat and thinking about quitting – POLITICO

National: 1 in 5 local election officials say they’re likely to quit before 2024 | Miles Parks/NPR

For the past two years, the people who run America’s elections have been sounding the alarm. The polarized voting environment that’s come out of the 2020 election has led to near daily harassment and death threats for some election officials, and made the profession unsustainable for many. Now, there’s new data to back up those concerns. A new survey of local election officials released Thursday by the Brennan Center for Justice found that 1 in 5 local election administrators say they are likely to leave their jobs before the 2024 presidential election. “There’s a crisis in election administration,” said Larry Norden, the senior director of elections and government at the Brennan Center. “[Election administrators] are concerned, and they’re not getting the support that they need.” The Brennan Center worked with the Benenson Strategy Group, which has worked for a number of national Democratic political campaigns, to conduct the poll over two weeks in early February among 596 local election officials. Respondents were split fairly evenly across the political spectrum: 26% identified as Democrats, 30% as Republicans, and 44% said they were independent. The margin of error was about 4%.

Full Article: 1 in 5 local election officials say they’re likely to quit before 2024 : NPR

National; Could the Supreme Court give Republicans more control over how to run elections? | Amber Phillips/The Washington Post

Democrats got a break from the Supreme Court on Monday when the justices essentially decided not to let Republicans draw congressional maps in two states that are battlegrounds for control of Congress, North Carolina and Pennsylvania. That means members of Congress in those states will run on maps drawn by state courts that are more favorable to Democrats than they would have otherwise been. But then four conservative justices opened the door to something else much more worrisome for the left: They indicated they’re open to letting state lawmakers run federal elections without state courts or even the state constitution having a say. It’s based on a conservative push of something called the “independent state legislature” doctrine, and it would be a drastic change from the way the Supreme Court has seen the role of state courts — as a check on legislatures, reports The Washington Post’s Robert Barnes. And it comes as former president Donald Trump continues his efforts to undermine faith in federal elections, primarily by pressuring state legislatures to try to overturn his election loss. “It would throw election administration into nationwide chaos,” the North Carolina League of Conservation Voters argued to the Supreme Court.

Full Article: Could the Supreme Court give Republicans more control over how to run elections? – The Washington Post

National: Judge denies Fox News motion to dismiss defamation suit by election-tech company Smartmatic | Jeremy Barr/The Washington Post

A judge allowed an election technology company’s $2.7 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News to proceed on Tuesday, though he dismissed specific claims made against host Jeanine Pirro and two of the network’s guests. New York Supreme Court Judge David B. Cohen denied Fox’s motion to dismiss the 2021 lawsuit, in which the company, Smartmatic, alleged that the network and several of its on-air personalities “decimated its future business prospects” by falsely accusing it of rigging the 2020 election against Donald Trump. But in the same ruling, Cohen dropped Pirro from the lawsuit, noting that while she floated election conspiracy theories, she did not specifically accuse Smartmatic of wrongdoing. He also dropped Trump-affiliated lawyer Sidney Powell from the suit, saying his court has no jurisdiction over her as a Texas resident. And he dismissed some of Smartmatic’s claims against Rudolph W. Giuliani while allowing others to continue, noting that the Trump lawyer explicitly alleged that Smartmatic committed crimes — comments, Cohen wrote, that “if false, were defamatory per se.”

Full Article: Smartmatic lawsuit against Fox News upheld by judge – The Washington Post

National: Vice President Kamala Harris marks ‘Bloody Sunday’ anniversary in Selma | Kim Chandler/Associated Press

Vice President Kamala Harris visited Selma, Alabama, on Sunday to commemorate a defining moment in the fight for equal voting rights, even as congressional efforts to restore the landmark 1965 Voting Rights Act have faltered. Under a blazing blue sky, Harris linked arms with rank-and-file activists from the civil rights movement and led thousands across the bridge where, on March 7, 1965, white state troopers attacked Black voting rights marchers attempting to cross. The images of violence at the Edmund Pettus Bridge — originally named for a Confederate general — shocked the nation and helped galvanize support for passage of the Voting Rights Act. Harris called the site hallowed ground where people fought for the “most fundamental right of American citizenship: the right to vote.” “Today, we stand on this bridge at a different time,” Harris said in a speech before the gathered crowd. “We again, however, find ourselves caught in between. Between injustice and justice. Between disappointment and determination. Still in a fight to form a more perfect union. And nowhere is that more clear than when it comes to the ongoing fight to secure the freedom to vote.”

Full Article: Kamala Harris marks ‘Bloody Sunday’ anniversary in Selma | AP News

Colorado clerk is indicted for election tampering and misconduct | Bente Birkeland/NPR

A grand jury has indicted a Colorado county clerk, Tina Peters, and her deputy on a laundry list of charges related to an election security breach in her office last summer that was influenced by former President Donald Trump’s false claims that he won the 2020 election. The charges against Peters come as election workers around the U.S. face death threats amid a national disinformation campaign that has falsely alleged wide-scale election tampering in 2020. Peters’ case is particularly worrisome to many who run elections as a sign that insiders might act upon those conspiracy theories, further undermining confidence in the voting process. Peters, who’s the county clerk and recorder in Mesa County, in western Colorado, faces 10 counts, including seven felony charges and three misdemeanors. The felony charges include attempting to influence a public servant, identity theft, criminal impersonation and conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation. The misdemeanors include first-degree official misconduct, violation of duty and failure to comply with the requirements of the secretary of state. Her deputy, Belinda Knisley, has been indicted on six counts, including attempt to influence a public servant, conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation, violation of duty and failure to comply with the requirements of the secretary of state.

Full Article: Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters indicted for election tampering : NPR

Florida: Voting rights advocates decry new office for election crimes | Sam Levine/The Guardian

Florida has approved a measure that would create a statewide office to investigate election crimes – the first of its kind in the United States. Voter fraud is extremely rare both nationwide and in Florida. Nonetheless, the new office of election crime and security will have 25 positions to investigate election fraud and be funded with more than $3m, Daniel Perez, a Republican state representative who backed the bill, said on the floor of the Florida house this week. It will be housed within the department of state, which is responsible for overseeing elections in Florida and whose head is appointed by the governor. The department will be authorized to investigate any alleged violations of Florida election law and oversee a voter fraud hotline. Each year, the agency will be required to provide a report to the governor and state legislature on how many investigations it conducted the previous year as well as how many matters were referred to another agency for further investigation or prosecution. The measure passed the Florida house on Wednesday and final approval from the Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, is expected shortly. The unit is slightly scaled back from what DeSantis called for in January, when he requested $6m for the office and wanted 52 staffers.

Full Article: Voting rights advocates decry Florida’s new office for election crimes | US news | The Guardian

Florida Senate Passes Voting Bill to Create Election Crimes Agency | Nick Corasaniti/The New York Times

The Florida Senate passed a sweeping new bill overhauling the state’s electoral process, adding new restrictions to the state election code and establishing a law enforcement office dedicated solely to investigating election crimes. The bill, which passed 24-14, now goes to the state’s House of Representatives, where it could pass as soon as next week and land on the desk of Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, who is expected to sign it. One Republican, State Senator Jeff Brandes, voted against it. A Democratic senator, Loranne Ausley, initially voted yes, but immediately posted on Twitter that she “pushed the wrong button” and has since changed her vote. Though Republicans in the state had passed another sweeping voting law in May of last year, Mr. DeSantis made election reform one of the top priorities for this legislative session as well. Both efforts come after the 2020 election in Florida was without any major issues, and Republicans in the state touted it as a “gold standard” for election administration.

Full Article: Florida Senate Passes Voting Bill to Create Election Crimes Agency – The New York Times

Georgia: Poll closure plan defeated in rural Lincoln County | Mark Niesse/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Election officials in rural Lincoln County on Wednesday voted against closing all seven of the county’s polling places, a plan that would have replaced them with one new central voting location. The unanimous decision to keep every polling place open followed months of protests and petition drives objecting to the proposal, saying it would limit voter access in the county, located north of Augusta. “The voters of Lincoln County spoke loud and clear on the proposals to consolidate polling locations,” said Cindy Battles of the Georgia Coalition for the People’s Agenda, a voting rights group that helped organize opposition to the poll closure plan. “We are incredibly happy the board of elections listened to them.” The elections board backed down from the poll closure idea in response to resistance that began late last year. Voting rights organizations gathered hundreds of signatures on petitions in January that blocked some of the poll closures from moving forward. Under Georgia law, a petition signed by at least 20% of registered voters in a precinct can prevent its closure.

Full Article: Rural Georgia county votes to keep all precincts open after protests

Michigan audit debunks dead voter theory in 2020 election | Craig Mauger/The Detroit News

A report released Friday by Michigan’s Office of the Auditor General quashed a conspiracy theory that a significant number of fraudulent votes were cast on behalf of dead people in the state’s 2020 presidential election. The 67-page document examined election processes in the battleground state, generally finding them to be sufficient with some exceptions. Nothing in the document specifically called into question the results of Michigan’s election, when Democrat Joe Biden defeated President Donald Trump, but did criticize audits that occurred afterward. The auditor general’s office — whose leader, Doug Ringler was appointed by the Republican-controlled Legislature — compared state voting records with public health records, finding 1,616 votes, or 0.03% of the total ballots, were attributed to people who were deceased as of Election Day. In the wide majority of the cases, the problem votes were absentee ballots cast by someone who died in the final days before the election, according to the auditors’ report. That indicates the people were alive when they sent in their ballots ahead of the election but passed away before Election Day. Ballots of voters who have died before Election Day are supposed to be rejected in Michigan, even if the voter cast an absentee ballot and then died before Election Day, according to the Secretary of State’s office. In 20 instances in the presidential election, a person who cast a ballot had died more than 40 days before the election, according to the new report. Likewise, the report found that 99.99% of the voters examined were within acceptable age parameters and 99.99% of the votes cast were not identified as a duplicate vote.

Full Article: Audit debunks dead voter theory in Michigan 2020 election

New Hampshire: Effort to eliminate ballot-counting machines snags | Casey McDermott/Concord Monitor

A newly animated movement to eliminate ballot-counting machines in New Hampshire ran stalled out this week at the State House and in town elections, where the issue was on the ballot in about a dozen communities. On Wednesday, the House Election Law Committee unanimously voted against a bill that would have required all future elections in New Hampshire to be hand-counted. And the day before, voters across the state rejected similar mandates at the local level. Cities and towns can choose whether to count ballots by hand or by machine. Most opt to use the AccuVote, the only machine currently approved for use in New Hampshire, and hand-counting is largely limited to towns with 2,000 voters or less. Local activists and some Republican state lawmakers, spurred by mistrust in the outcome of the 2020 election, have been pushing to hand count all of New Hampshire’s future elections. In addition to rallying behind a bill to ban machines statewide, they also organized petition drives to put the issue before voters in a handful of communities this spring. House Election Law Committee Chairwoman Barbara Griffin, a Republican from Goffstown, said members of the panel waited to finalize their opinion on the statewide ban on vote-counting machines until voters had a chance to weigh in on the issue in Tuesday’s town elections. “There is no town that voted yesterday that supported the elimination of the counting devices that are currently used,” Griffin said. “So I think that to require this for every community in the state would not be appropriate.”

Full Article: Effort to eliminate ballot-counting machines snags

New Hampshire voters will weigh in on AccuVote ballot machines | Todd Bookman/NPR

Voters in the town of Milton, N.H., will this week be asked to weigh in on more than 30 different local issues, things like the school budget, the next fire chief and even the type of lightbulbs used in streetlamps. But another item on Milton’s town meeting ballot could reshape the town’s election process itself: Residents will decide whether election officials should continue using a ballot counting machine, known as the AccuVote, or revert to a hand count. Milton is one of more than a dozen New Hampshire communities voting on vote-counting this town meeting season, after activists who question the accuracy and security of the state’s ballot counting machines launched a campaign to ditch them. The activists behind the push to hand-count all ballots contend, without proof, that the machines can be hacked or rigged, and their effort follows baseless claims of widespread issues with the 2020 election. State and local election officials say the AccuVote — the only approved ballot counting machine in New Hampshire — has proven itself reliable at the polls and in an exhaustive outside audit held last spring.

Full Article: New Hampshire voters will weigh in on AccuVote ballot machines : NPR

Pennsylvania’s mail-in voting law has its day in Supreme Court | Stephen Caruso/Pennsylvania Capital-Star

Roles were reversed in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Tuesday, as attorneys argued over the fate of the state’s three-year-old mail-in voting law, with lawyers for Gov. Tom Wolf arguing to protect legislative power, and lawyers for 14 dissident lawmakers arguing to undo a law that 11 of them had voted to approve. The law, known as Act 77, was declared unconstitutional in a 3-2 January decision by the state’s Commonwealth Court, as it ruled on two challenges to the law — one brought by the Republican lawmakers, as well as a separate one from Bradford County Commissioner Doug McClinko. Act 77 was approved in a deal between the GOP-controlled General Assembly and Democrat Wolf, in which the General Assembly passed no-excuse absentee ballots, and Wolf agreed to eliminate straight-ticket voting. The bill also provided funding to counties to replace decertified voting machines. It passed with near-unanimous Republican support. But a three-judge Commonwealth Court panel that initially invalidated the law ruled that universal mail-in balloting should have been passed as a constitutional amendment, which requires a referendum, rather than as a statute signed into law.

Source: Pennsylvania’s mail-in voting law has its day in Supreme Court – Pennsylvania Capital-Star

Nevada: Nye County commissioners considering all paper elections, hand-counting ballots | Sean Golonka and Jacob Solis/The Nevada Independent

On Tuesday, Nye County commissioners will discuss a proposal to have the 2022 primary and general elections use only paper ballots and count those ballots by hand — the latest response by a rural Nevada county to greatly overhaul election administration in response to unproven conspiracy theories about the 2020 election. Republican Commissioner Debra Strickland’s request for the agenda item points to “concerns about the integrity of the voting process” raised by many Nye County citizens and states that it “will help reassure voters that their voice is heard, and their votes are accurately recorded.” In November 2020, nearly 70 percent of Nye County voters cast their ballots for Donald Trump for President, a significantly larger percentage than the share of voters registered as Republicans in the county that month (48 percent). Strickland told The Nevada Independent in an interview Monday that the proposal would eliminate the use of the county’s Dominion Voting Systems electronic machines during the elections, if accepted by Nye County Clerk Sandra Merlino. The position of Nye County clerk is elected and not appointed, meaning jurisdictional issues prevent the county commission from ordering the clerk’s office to take a specific course of action. If Merlino accepts the request, her office would be responsible for hand-counting thousands of ballots in June and November this year — a time-consuming and costly process often mired by human error but that has gained widespread attention and support amid false narratives about the security of electronic vote tabulators.

Full Article: Nye commissioners considering all paper elections, hand-counting ballots – The Nevada Independent

Tennessee: Here’s why Williamson County is switching to new voting machines after state review | Cole Villena/Nashville Tennessean

Williamson County will use new voting machines in its 2022 election cycle following vote tabulation discrepancies found during the October election. The discrepancies did not affect the final vote tally of those elections, which were verified through a hand count. “The primary concern that we have at the Williamson County Election Commission is that elections are held with fidelity and transparency, and that voters would have confidence in the results,” said Election Commission Chair Jonathan Duda. “This process has demonstrated that we’re going to go to all efforts to ensure that occurs, and that’s precisely what we’re doing here.” The county will rent and use Electronic Systems & Software machines in the 2022 election cycle. The machines function similarly to the Dominion voting machines used in previous elections and will output vote tallies both on physical “tapes” — essentially printed receipts — and electronically. The Tennessee State Department and third-party analysts recommended the switch in a February letter to the Election Commission. Duda served on the Williamson County Election Commission during the 2021 election cycle and was recently named chair. Former chair Bob Brown left the role to serve as U.S. House candidate Beth Harwell’s campaign manager.

Full Article: Williamson County to ditch Dominion voting machines after state review

Texas: Harris County election chief resigns as political parties demand answers over fumbled vote count | Alexa Ura/The Texas Tribune

With counting holdups and missed ballots marring what amounted to a low-turnout election,Harris County’s election administrator has announced she is resigning amid pressure from local leaders of both political parties to explain what went wrong in last week’s primary. Houston-area voters saw relatively few issues on election day, but days later the state’s largest county faced a 10,000 vote-sized problem. Over the weekend, Harris County election officials announced that thousands of mail-in ballots — 6,000 Democratic and 4,000 Republican — had been mistakenly left off the county’s vote tally. This came after unofficial results were significantly delayed in part because more than a thousand ballot sheets were damaged as voters tried out the county’s new voting machines. On Tuesday afternoon, the Houston Chronicle reported that Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, a Democrat, said she wanted a change in leadership and intended to replace election administrator Isabel Longoria. Shortly after, Longoria announced she would step down on July 1. Her resignation came after Harris County Democrats called for a comprehensive post-election review, while Republicans — regular adversaries of the county’s Democratic leadership — simultaneously sued the county and demanded Longoria’s resignation.

Full Article: Parties seek answers after Harris County fumbles election vote count | The Texas Tribune

Wisconsin Elections Commission debates how electronic voting data is stored | Anthony Dabruzzi/Spectrum

Now that state lawmakers have wrapped up their legislative business, many will turn their focus to the campaign trail. As they do, the Wisconsin Elections Commission is continuing to work through its own changes for running elections. Commissioners put their focus on how electronic voting system data is currently stored, during a virtual meeting Wednesday. For every ballot cast in Wisconsin, there is a paper artifact, which is the first way to validate results. Hence, discussion of the issue isn’t really about tabulation, rather retention in case questions are ever raised. All across the state, data within electronic voting systems are being kept properly, according to a recent analysis by commission staff. However, the guidance for how information should be stored is 12 years old and doesn’t carry the force of law.

Full Article: WEC debates how electronic voting data is stored

National: GOP pushes for an ‘earthquake in American electoral power’ | Zach Montellaro/Politico

A legal argument lurking in two Supreme Court cases could give Republican legislators in battleground states sweeping control over election procedures, with ramifications that could include power over how states select presidential electors. Republicans from Pennsylvania and North Carolina challenged court-ordered redistricting plans in their states based on the “independent legislature” theory. It’s a reading of the Constitution, stemming from the 2000 election recount in Florida, that argues legislators have ultimate power over elections in their states and that state courts have a limited ability — or even none at all — to check it. The Supreme Court turned away the GOP redistricting challenges on Monday, largely on procedural grounds. But at least four justices embraced the “independent legislature” theory to some degree, which would consolidate power over election administration in key states with GOP-dominated state legislatures, from the ability to draw district lines unchallenged to passing new restrictions on voting. Taken to its extreme, some proponents of the theory argue it would give legislators power to override the choice of presidential electors after voting in their states. Even if five justices signed on to a version of the independent legislature theory, it is unclear how far reaching a ruling will be, said Rick Hasen, an election law expert at the University of California, Irvine School of Law who does not support the theory. “There’s a lot of potential for nuance here,” he said. “Even if you had a majority of justices that agreed that there’s something to this theory, they might not agree that a particular state has violated it.”

Full Article: GOP pushes for an ‘earthquake in American electoral power’ – POLITICO