‘Veil of misinformation’ chases election officials’ 2020 successes | Benjamin Freed/StateScoop

Nearly two years after a presidential election widely hailed as the most secure and error-free in history, the officials who oversaw voting in their states continue to be hounded by misinformation and disinformation about the process, several speakers said Monday at an event in Washington. “Elections in 2020 were extremely smooth, highly secure,” Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said during a panel discussion hosted by the Center for Election Innovation & Research, a nonpartisan group that advises election administrators around the country. “Our story is one of great success. The other story is the veil of misinformation.” Baseless claims and conspiracy theories about the expansion of absentee voting during the pandemic and the equipment used to count ballots have continued to fester since the 2020 election and the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol by people seeking to overturn former President Donald Trump’s loss. The falsehoods have often morphed into threats agains election officials, highly partisan ballot reviews and even attempts by election-office insiders to tamper with equipment. That activity continues to weigh on officials preparing to oversee another election this year, said Leigh Chapman, Pennsylvania’s acting secretary of the commonwealth. “One concern I continue to have is the rampant disinformation on how 2020 was administered and mail-in voting,” she said. “2020 was secure, so is 2022.”

Full Article: ‘Veil of misinformation’ chases election officials’ 2020 successes

National: Conservative group finds ‘absolutely no evidence of widespread fraud’ in 2020 election | Zach Schonfeld/The Hill

Eight prominent conservatives released a 72-page report Thursday refuting claims of election fraud in the 2020 presidential election in dozens of unsuccessful court cases brought forth by former President Trump and his allies. The group — which includes former federal judges, Republican senators and Republican-appointed officials — said they reviewed all 64 court cases Trump and his allies initiated challenging the election outcome, saying they had reached an “unequivocal” conclusion that the claims were unsupported by evidence. “We conclude that Donald Trump and his supporters had their day in court and failed to produce substantive evidence to make their case,” the group wrote. The eight conservatives repeatedly condemned the election fraud claims, but said they have not switched their allegiance to the Democratic Party and have no “ill will” toward Trump nor his supporters. The group consists of former Sen. John Danforth (R-Mo.); longtime Republican lawyer Benjamin Ginsberg; former federal Judge Thomas Griffith; David Hoppe, chief of staff to former House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.); former federal judge J. Michael Luttig; former federal judge Michael McConnell; Theodore Olson, solicitor general under former President George W. Bush; and former Sen. Gordon Smith (R-Ore.).

Full Article: Conservative group finds ‘absolutely no evidence of widespread fraud’ in 2020 election | The Hill

National: Criminalizing the vote: GOP-led states enacted 102 new election penalties after 2020 | Kira Lerner/News From The States

During the 2020 election, Rhonda Briggins and her sorority sisters spent days providing voters in metro Atlanta with water and snacks as they waited in long lines at polling places. The lines for early voting and on Election Day at times stretched on for hours. As the national co-chair for social action with the Delta Sigma Theta sorority for Black women, Briggins felt compelled to help, and she and her sisters unofficially adopted one DeKalb County location where many elderly Georgians cast their ballots. “When you’re a senior or someone with an infant child, line relief is very critical,” she said. “It allows someone to not have to suffer just because they want to exercise their right to vote.” But if Briggins tries to do the same in November, she could face criminal charges. In March 2021, four months after former President Donald Trump claimed that voter fraud cost him the state’s electoral votes and the presidency, Georgia’s Republican governor signed a law criminalizing people who give food or drinks to voters waiting at the polls.

Full Article: Criminalizing the vote: GOP-led states enacted 102 new el… | News From The States

Election officials fear copycat attacks as ‘insider threats’ loom | Zach Montellaro/Politico

Election officials are confronting a wave of threats and security challenges coming from a troubling source: inside the election system itself. In interviews on the sidelines of the National Association of Secretaries of State’s summer conference, a dozen chief election administrators detailed a growing number of “insider threats” leading to attempted or successful election security breaches aided by local officials. The most prominent was in Colorado, where a county clerk was indicted for her role in facilitating unauthorized access to voting machines. But there have been similar instances elsewhere, including in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Ohio. Beyond security breaches, other insider efforts to undermine elections have sprouted. In New Mexico last month, the board of commissioners in Otero County — a predominantly Republican county along the state’s southern border with Texas — refused to certify primary election results, citing unfounded claims about the security of voting machines that are rooted in conspiracy theories about hacked election equipment from the 2020 election. “What’s clear is this is a nationally coordinated effort,” said Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat. “It’s multi-year, multi-faceted … not just pressuring election officials, but pressuring local elected officials as well.” Election officials fear the handful of publicly disclosed incidents over the last two years are only the start of a wave ahead of the 2022 and 2024 elections.

Full Article: Election officials fear copycat attacks as ‘insider threats’ loom – POLITICO

Election Officials Confront Cyber Threats, False Claims Ahead of Midterms | Alexa Corse/Wall Street Journal

Election officials on the front lines of defending voting systems say they are preparing for a range of challenges ahead of the fall midterms, as they seek to ward off cyber threats and restore voter confidence after a flood of unsubstantiated election-fraud claims. On the cybersecurity front, Russia, China, Iran and North Korea pose persistent threats along with other concerns including ransomware, said Jen Easterly, director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency—the U.S. government’s top cyber unit. Federal and state officials said they aren’t only guarding against cyber threats, but also protecting physical access to voting systems. “We’re in a mode of constant vigilance,” said Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, a Republican, whose office in late June issued a third round of cyber- and physical-security requirements, including camera surveillance of election equipment, for the state’s county election boards. The nation’s secretaries of state, who typically oversee state election systems, met with Ms. Easterly and other federal cybersecurity officials over the past few days at a hotel in Baton Rouge, as part of their annual bipartisan summer gathering.

Full Article: Election Officials Confront Cyber Threats, False Claims Ahead of Midterms – WSJ

National: Trump’s 2020 outrage drives fear of ‘insider’ election threats | Ines Kagubare/The Hill

Former President Trump’s campaign to undermine the 2020 election is fueling concerns over midterm election security, with experts warning of “insider” threats from the very officials charged with guarding the vote. Hundreds of GOP candidates in federal and state races have embraced his false claims about the election, including at least 20 Republican candidates running for secretary of state, according to an NPR analysis. Trump’s election denial movement has raised concerns among U.S. officials and experts who fear the conspiracy theories could undermine the legitimacy of future elections. “I think that’s kind of a new element to the threat landscape of elections,” said William Adler, a senior technologist in elections and democracy at the Center for Democracy & Technology. “I think that the new risk is the risk of insider threats.” Arizona is among the states where false claims about the 2020 election are the center of this year’s campaigns.

Full Article: Trump’s 2020 outrage drives fear of ‘insider’ election threats | The Hill

National: CISA flags election system threats ahead of midterms | Susan Miller/GCN

To help state and local officials with election security ahead of the midterm elections, organizations are issuing advice for supply chain risks, insider threats and strengthening election systems’ cyber defenses. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency on June 30 released information on mitigating supply chain risks to election infrastructure, including hardware, software, services and paper supplies. CISA advises election offices to deploy a robust supply chain risk management plan that identifies the security concerns with products and components they must buy. Suppliers should be identified and continually monitored to ensure they meet the latest supply chain management security policies and procedures. Election officials should also continually monitor their vendors, anticipate higher costs and longer lead times for products and be sure their budgets and processes can accommodate delays. The security agency also recently warned of insider threats to election systems. Whether by accident, through negligence or intentional, insider threats risk the confidentiality, integrity and availability of election systems and information. Electronic threats include viruses, data breaches, denial of service attacks, malware or attacks on unpatched software – as well as the spread of election-related mis-, dis- and mal-information, CISA said in a recent guide.

Source: CISA flags election system threats ahead of midterms – GCN

National: Safeguarding the Midterms: Election leaders reveal top concerns ahead of November | Mark Albert/Hearst Television

Just four months before Election Day, misinformation and disinformation, threats toward election workers, and a lack of voter confidence in America’s democratic system are the top concerns among state election leaders. The National Investigative Unit interviewed top election officials from 19 states during the annual summer conference of the National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS), held this year in Louisiana’s state capital. The interviews provide the latest evidence that falsehoods about the 2020 election are still roiling U.S. politics nearly two years after the presidential election, which Joe Biden won. Federal agencies – including those helmed by appointees of former President Donald Trump and now, President Joe Biden, have repeatedly said there was no widespread fraud that would have changed the results of the election, which they deemed “secure.” In February 2021, secretaries of state from both parties told Hearst Television there was no fraud of sufficient scale and scope to have altered Biden’s victory in their states. Not one secretary disagreed.

Full Article: Safeguarding the Midterms: Election leaders reveal top concerns ahead of November

Arizona secretary of state candidate Mark Finchem doesn’t trust elections. Now he wants to run them. | Mary Jo Pitzl/Arizona Republic

Mark Finchem tells the story of a late-night search for three men suspected of pulling off a string of robberies in Kalamazoo, Michigan, three decades ago. An officer with the local police department at the time, Finchem stopped a suspicious vehicle but didn’t have the evidence needed to make an arrest. As turned back toward his car, he noticed the stopped car’s trunk was slightly ajar and got a bad feeling. He later learned a man was in there with a sawed-off shotgun. “I knew when I got out of my car something was wrong,” Finchem said. “I didn’t know what.” That’s how he views the 2020 presidential election, the event that has catapulted him to national notoriety and is propelling his bid as Arizona’s next secretary of state. Something was wrong, he felt. “People see things they know are just wrong, but they don’t know what,” he said in an interview late last year. He says he’s here to sort it out for them. Finchem, 65, is finishing his fourth term as a Republican state representative from Oro Valley. He’s a prominent proponent of false claims that Donald Trump was cheated out of the presidency. While court hearings, audits, congressional scrutiny and even a homegrown ballot review by the state Senate have failed to produce evidence of such fraud, Finchem maintains he has the proof. Thus far, he hasn’t convinced political leaders or the courts.

Full Article: Arizona secretary of state primary 2022 candidate: Mark Finchem

Colorado judge revokes Tina Peters’ bond after travel to Las Vegas for a conference | Amanda Pampuro/Courthouse News Service

A Colorado judge issued a bondless warrant for embattled Mesa County Clerk-Recorder Tina Peters on Thursday after she violated the terms of her release by traveling to Las Vegas for a conference. Peters first came under scrutiny in 2021 after a security breach in her office led to the exposure of sensitive passwords and election processes. She is accused of allowing an unauthorized person to participate in what should have been a secure process for installing an update to the electronic voting system. Court documents indicate Peters took videos and photos, which included passwords and were leaked online. While under investigation by both the state and the 21st Judicial District Attorney’s Office, Peters told supporters she is standing up for what she believes in while citing baseless election fraud conspiracies spread after Biden won the presidency in 2020. This past January, Democratic Secretary of State Griswold successfully sued to block Peters from participating in Mesa County’s elections for the second year in a row. Both the Mesa County Board of County Commissioners and the district attorney’s office investigated Peters’ claims of irregularities in the 2020 vote count, but did not find evidence of a single fraudulent vote. Presented with Peters’ report of fraud, District Attorney Daniel Rubinstein found only human error.

Full Article: Colorado judge revokes Tina Peters’ bond after travel to Las Vegas for a conference | Courthouse News Service

Georgia: Lindsey Graham Tries Again to Quash Election-Probe Subpoena | Margaret Newkirk/Bloomberg

U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham is trying again to avoid testifying before a special purpose grand jury in Fulton County, Georgia, filing a motion to quash his subpoena in a South Carolina federal court. The grand jury, convened by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, is investigating President Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn the Georgia results of the 2020 federal election. Graham made two phone calls to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in the weeks following the election, according to the July 5 subpoena. At the time, Raffensperger said publicly that he believed Graham was urging him to find a way to throw out legitimately cast mail-in ballots. Graham has denied that. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney rejected Graham’s first attempt to quash the subpoena on July 11 and ordered him to appear before the grand jury Aug. 2. Graham filed the new request to quash the subpoena July 12 in Anderson, South Carolina. He claims he was acting in his role as a US Senator and can’t be compelled to testify. He claims in the filing that Willis is asking him to testify in person for seven weeks which would interfere with his Senate duties. A spokesman for Willis’ office couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.

Full Article: Lindsey Graham Tries Again to Quash Georgia Election-Probe Subpoena – Bloomberg

Idaho Republicans considers resolution to reject 2020 election results | Keith Ridler/Associated Press

The Idaho Republican Party will consider 31 resolutions at its three-day convention starting Thursday, including one already adopted by Texas Republicans that President Joe Biden isn’t the legitimate leader of the country. The Idaho resolution in the deeply conservative state that Donald Trump won with 64 percent of the vote in 2020 is nearly identical to the Texas resolution that was passed last month, stating: “We reject the certified results of the 2020 presidential election; and we hold that acting president Joseph Robinette Biden was not legitimately elected by the people of the United States.” Both the Idaho and Texas resolutions contend that secretaries of state circumvented their state legislatures, even though both states have Republican secretaries of state. Jim Jones, a former chief justice of the Idaho Supreme Court as well as a former Republican state attorney general, called the resolution rejecting the 2020 presidential election results “asinine,” noting multiple courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, rejected attempts to overturn the election.

Full Article: Idaho Republicans considers resolution to reject 2020 election results | PBS NewsHour

Michigan election workers want more done to keep them safe as they face threats, harassment | Grant Hermes/Click On Detroit

During the 2020 election, Canton Township Clerk Michael Siegrist’s office collected more than 57,000 ballots. They did it safely and securely. But once the counting was done, the threats started, coming by the dozens. “Veiled threats,” said Siegrist said during an interview in early May. “Yeah, I received lots of veiled threats. Nobody called me and said I’m going to kill your family.” His office was in the thick of preparing for the August primaries. But those calls did happen for other clerks in Michigan. Former Farmington Hills Clerk Tina Barton received a voicemail filled with explicit language threatening her family. Detroit Clerk Janice Winfrey was sent photos of a dead body with a message to imagine that body as her daughter. Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson was threatened by armed protestors outside her home and told NBC News that former President Donald Trump wanted her executed. Trump denies that claim. “I would sit there late at night a lot of times holding my son worried, wondering, you know, what would happen if these people actually made do with some of the stuff that they were saying?” Siegrist said as he frequently had long, pensive pauses while recounting his long, long nights. “It wears on you. It wears on you.”

Full Article: Michigan election workers want more done to keep them safe as they face threats, harassment

New Hampshire: More post-election audits might raise voter confidence, committee is told | David Brooks/Concord Monitor

When the committee looking for ways to raise voter confidence came to Concord in front of a standing-room-only crowd, one idea stood out during hours of discussion: Post-election audits. “In a lot of other states, where they do more with random audits, the temperature is a little bit less hot,” said Jeff Silvestro, president of LHS Associates, the company that makes and services the aging machines used to count New Hampshire’s ballots, as well as ballots in numerous other states and localities. “There’s disagreement … but not to the extent we’ve had here.” Others agreed. “Official audits help increase confidence among voters who have lost confidence,” said Russell Muirhead, a Democratic state representative from Hanover and Dartmouth College professor of government, who discussed election-related research. Even David Kiley of Atkinson, one of several speakers who expressed skepticism about the security of ballot-counting machines or even the need for them, supported the idea of double-checking voting tallies at randomly selected polling places. Kiley also urged the committee to make it easier for ordinary people to request them: “We need some way to allow citizens to make a challenge” without having to go through the legislature, he said.

Full Article: More post-election audits might raise voter confidence, committee is told

Pennsylvania is in an election results certification crisis over the primary, and the state just sued three counties | Jonathan Lai/Philadelphia Inquirer

Pennsylvania’s quietly in the middle of an election results certification crisis. Nearly two months after the May 17 primary election, three of the state’s 67 counties have refused to count “undated” mail ballots, defying both an earlier court order and the Pennsylvania Department of State’s requests. The other 64 counties did certify results with the undated ballots, which were received on time but on which voters didn’t write a date as required by law. The department, which oversees elections, either has to certify the results knowing the vote counts are inconsistent — or find a way to force the counties into alignment. But the state has no real power on its own to actually run or regulate elections; it can’t force counties to do many things, let alone certify results a specific way. On Monday, the state sued Berks, Fayette, and Lancaster Counties in Commonwealth Court. The immediate fight is about which votes to count in this election — are they supposed to accept undated mail ballots or throw them out? — and how the law interacts with state and federal court rulings.

Full Article: Pa. sues counties for not counting undated mail ballots from 2022 primary election

Wisconsin’s GOP frontrunner for governorTim Michels isn’t ruling out overturning results of 2020 election | Molly Beck/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Republican candidate for governor Tim Michels isn’t ruling out supporting a legislative effort to overturn the results of the last presidential election in Wisconsin. Michels, a construction executive who is endorsed by former President Donald Trump, said Tuesday he would “need to see the details” before deciding whether he would support decertifying the 2020 election, an illegal and impossible endeavor that has been promoted by Trump despite it being impracticable. “You know, I have to work with the Legislature and see what these bills look like,” Michels told a WKOW reporter at a campaign stop in Green Bay on Tuesday in response to whether he would sign a bill pulling back Wisconsin’s 10 electoral votes cast for President Joe Biden in 2020. “As a businessman, I just don’t say that I’ll do this or I’ll do that. It’s always about the details.” Michels also has pledged to abolish the state’s elections commission and has not yet determined what he would want in its place to help the thousands of clerks in Wisconsin navigate election laws. Democratic incumbent Gov. Tony Evers warned supporters Wednesday that if a Republican candidate defeats him in November, the state “will see elections change to the point where the Legislature makes the final decision and that should scare the living crap out of everybody in this room.” Evers said he believes Republicans will not stop looking into the election any time soon. “They will continue doing this until Donald Trump is six feet under,” he said at a campaign event in Madison.

Full Article: Tim Michels isn’t ruling out overturning results of 2020 election

Wisconsin elections commission rejects guidance for clerks on how to implement a court ruling outlawing absentee ballot drop boxes. | Scott Bauer/Associated Press

Wisconsin’s bipartisan elections commission couldn’t agree Tuesday on what guidance, if any, to give the state’s more than 1,800 local clerks to help them understand how to implement a Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling outlawing absentee ballot drop boxes. The commission, evenly divided between Republicans and Democrats, repeatedly deadlocked on what to tell clerks about what the decision meant and how to interpret it ahead of the Aug. 9 primary. Commissioners said they may consider giving guidance later. The primary will set the field for the Nov. 8 election where Democratic Gov. Tony Evers and Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson are both on the ballot in high-stakes races. Johnson and Republican candidates for governor have called for disbanding the bipartisan elections commission and overhauling how elections are run in the state. Republican members of the commission argued that it owed it to the clerks who run elections to help them understand the court’s ruling, while Democrats said the guidance proposed went too far, would confuse clerks and only invited more lawsuits. Not taking any action means the commission is telling clerks “go out and figure it out for yourself,” said Republican commissioner Bob Spindell.

Full Article: Wisconsin elections commission rejects guidance for clerks | AP News