Machine Politics: How America casts and counts its votes | Matt Zdun/Reuters

The United States, like most countries, uses paper ballots to vote. In most cases, voters mark the ballots by hand. In other cases, voters can make their choice on a machine called a ballot marking device, which then prepares a paper printout for submission. The extent to which voters use digital technology to cast their ballots has shifted over time. Paperless electronic voting, touted for its ability to tally votes quickly and accurately, largely decreased in popularity in the United States and European countries from the mid-2000s onward. Countries have turned to paper as the most secure way to audit their elections and detect potential vote tampering. To be sure, machines are still integral to the election process even when votes are cast on paper ballots. Optical scan tabulators count the results. The United States invested hugely in paperless electronic voting machines after the contested presidential election between Democrat Al Gore and Republican George W. Bush in 2000 shook election officials’ confidence in paper ballots. In the weeks after the election, local officials in Florida spent their days looking closely at tiny pieces of paper called “chads” that were still attached to ballots. In counties that used punch-card voting machines, voters would punch out these paper chads with a stylus to indicate their chosen candidate. If the chad was completely punched out from the ballot, a counting machine could tally the vote. The conundrum for election officials arose when the chad was said to be hanging, or still partly attached to the ballot. That raised concerns about whether the voter’s intent had been accurately recorded.

Full Article: Machine Politics: How America casts and counts its votes

Voting machine tampering points to concern for fall election | Christina A. Cassidy and Colleen Slevin/Associated Press

On the last day of voting in Colorado’s June primary, a poll worker sent to wipe down a voting machine found a concerning error message on its screen: “USB device change detected.” The machine, used to mark ballots electronically, was taken out of use and an investigation launched. The message raised concerns that a voter had tried to tamper with it by inserting an off-the-shelf thumb drive. The incident heightened concerns among election officials and security experts that conspiracy theories related to the 2020 presidential election could inspire some voters to meddle with — or even attempt to sabotage — election equipment. Even unsuccessful breaches, like the apparent one in the county south of Colorado Springs, could become major problems in the November general election, when turnout will be greater and the stakes higher — causing delays at polling places or sowing the seeds of misinformation campaigns. Activists who promote the false claim that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from former President Donald Trump have been traveling the country peddling a narrative that electronic voting machines are being manipulated. They have specifically targeted equipment made by Dominion Voting Systems, which has filed several defamation lawsuits and said that post-election reviews in state after state have shown its tallies to be accurate.

Full Article: Voting machine tampering points to concern for fall election | AP News

National: Copied voting systems files were shared with Trump supporters, election deniers | Jon Swaine , Aaron C. Davis , Amy Gardner and Emma Brown/The Washington Post

Sensitive election system files obtained by attorneys working to overturn President Donald Trump’s 2020 defeat were shared with election deniers, conspiracy theorists and right-wing commentators, according to records reviewed by The Washington Post. A Georgia computer forensics firm, hired by the attorneys, placed the files on a server, where company records show they were downloaded dozens of times. Among the downloaders were accounts associated with a Texas meteorologist who has appeared on Sean Hannity’s radio show; a podcaster who suggested political enemies should be executed; a former pro surfer who pushed disproven theories that the 2020 election was manipulated; and a self-described former “seduction and pickup coach” who claims to also have been a hacker. Plaintiffs in a long-running federal lawsuit over the security of Georgia’s voting systems obtained the new records from the company, Atlanta-based SullivanStrickler, under a subpoena to one of its executives. The records include contracts between the firm and the Trump-allied attorneys, notably Sidney Powell. The data files are described as copies of components from election systems in Coffee County, Ga., and Antrim County, Mich. A series of data leaks and alleged breaches of local elections offices since 2020 has prompted criminal investigations and fueled concerns among some security experts that public disclosure of information collected from voting systems could be exploited by hackers and other people seeking to manipulate future elections. Access to U.S. voting system software and other components is tightly regulated, and the government classifies those systems as “critical infrastructure.” The new batch of records shows for the first time how the files copied from election systems were distributed to people in multiple states. Marilyn Marks, executive director of the nonprofit Coalition for Good Governance, which is one of the plaintiffs in the Georgia lawsuit, said the records appeared to show the files were handled recklessly. “The implications go far beyond Coffee County or Georgia,” Marks said.

Full Article: Copied voting systems files were shared with Trump supporters, election deniers – The Washington Post

National: Justice Dept. sued to disclose records on threats to election workers | Mike Scarcella/Reuters

The U.S. Justice Department was sued on Thursday by a government watchdog group seeking public records about the task force the agency set up last year to address mounting threats of violence against election workers and state voting administrators. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) filed the complaint in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The lawsuit requests details under the Freedom of Information Act about the number of tips the task force has received and how many cases are open or closed. CREW also seeks communication from U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland and Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco about the department’s work under its Election Threats Task Force, and the identities of the investigative panel’s members. Lawyers for CREW said they are seeking records to show the public actions the task force has “both taken and failed to take to date.”

Full Article: U.S. Justice Dept. sued to disclose records on threats to election workers | Reuters

National: Election officials can’t access federal funding for security as violent threats mount | Kira Lerner/Virginia Mercury

Colorado’s election officials, like so many across the country, faced a surge of violent threats after the 2020 election. Federal authorities are prosecuting a man who pled guilty to threatening a Colorado election official on Instagram, where he wrote: “Do you feel safe? You shouldn’t.” And Colorado police arrested a man accused of calling Secretary of State Jena Griswold and saying that “the angel of death is coming for her.” So when the Colorado secretary of state’s office learned early this year that the U.S. Department of Justice would allow funding through the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant program to be used by state and local election offices to combat threats, they submitted an application in March. The office requested $396,000 to pay contractors to monitor social media for threats and to enhance physical security for the secretary of state’s office staff and county clerks through September 2023. In May, Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Beall made a presentation to the board that determines grant recipients. “There is a clear threat to Colorado Department of State (CDOS) staff, including the Secretary of State,” Beall wrote in a letter to the Colorado Department of Public Safety, which oversees the grant. “We are, simply stated, facing a threat environment that is unprecedented for election officials and staff.”

Full Article: Election officials can’t access federal funding for security as violent threats mount – Virginia Mercury

National: Election officials brace for onslaught of poll watchers | Carrie Levine/Votebeat

North Carolina’s May primary was “one of the worst elections I’ve ever worked,” said Karen Hebb, the elections director in Henderson County. “It was worse than COVID.”  In addition to long conversations with skeptical voters bringing her misinformation they read on the Internet, Hebb said she and her staff were blindsided by the sheer number of election observers who wanted to watch voting during the primary. There were at least 20 from the Republican Party alone, she said, compared with five or six observers total in the past. “We’ve never had that before,” she said. Hebb stresses she’s fine with having observers. But some of the people watching the primary were disruptive, endlessly questioning workers and demanding to approach tabulators to verify totals, she reported to state officials in a post-election survey. And in one alarming case, Hebb said in an interview with Votebeat, an observer followed an election worker from a voting site to the elections office “to make sure that they actually brought the ballots.” In the wake of the primary, Hebb is one of many local election officials nationwide worried about an onslaught of election observers. She called a special meeting with election workers to discuss the issues that came up during the primary.

Full Article: Poll observer increases have election officials tightening rules – Votebeat: Nonpartisan local reporting on election administration and voting

National: States Are Bracing for Social Media-Enabled Election Violence | Elizabeth L. T. Moore/Bloomberg

State elections officials say they’re seeing an uptick in a new kind of social media-fueled danger to US midterms: online anger that threatens to spill over into real-world violence. In Arizona, online conspiracy theories resulted in so many harassing phone calls to the secretary of state’s office, employees had to take a break from answering. In Michigan, officials have seen such a flood of violent rhetoric online that this week they sent letters to tech company CEOs pleading with them to do more to control their platforms. In Maine, a state where Election Day is associated with patriotic pie-eating, a poll worker last year received a credible death threat on Facebook. Bloomberg reached out to all 50 secretaries of state and spoke with representatives of 12 offices, from Texas to Hawaii. All of those who commented said they’ve seen an increase in online suspicion about the electoral process, which in many states has led to threats for staff or poll workers and resignations of these crucial employees. Narratives that drove the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the US Capitol, such as false claims of voter fraud, have lingered online. The chatter escalated most during primaries in states that had close contests in 2020 or where former US President Donald Trump backed candidates for office. Social media platforms have ramped up their election-related security measures, adding channels for state governments to report posts more directly. But rules on misinformation and harassing content are applied inconsistently, if at all, the officials said.

Full Article: States Are Bracing for Social Media-Enabled Election Violence – Bloomberg

National: New breed of video sites thrive on misinformation and hate | Andrew R.C. Marshall and Joseph Tanfani/Reuters

A day after a mass shooting in Buffalo, New York last May, the video-sharing website BitChute was amplifying a far-right conspiracy theory that the massacre was a so-called false flag operation, meant to discredit gun-loving Americans. Three of the top 15 videos on the site that day blamed U.S. federal agents instead of the true culprit: a white-supremacist teenager who had vowed to “kill as many blacks as possible” before shooting 13 people, killing 10. Other popular videos uploaded by BitChute users falsely claimed COVID-19 vaccines caused cancers that “literally eat you” and spread the debunked claim that Microsoft founder Bill Gates caused a global baby-formula shortage. BitChute has boomed as YouTube, Twitter and Facebook tighten rules to combat misinformation and hate speech. An upstart BitChute rival, Odysee, has also taken off. Both promote themselves as free-speech havens, and they’re at the forefront of a fast-growing alternative media system that delivers once-fringe ideas to millions of people worldwide. Searching the two sites on major news topics plunges viewers into a labyrinth of outlandish conspiracy theories, racist abuse and graphic violence. As their viewership has surged since 2019, they have cultivated a devoted audience of mostly younger men, according to data from digital intelligence firm Similarweb. Online misinformation, though usually legal, triggers real-world harm. U.S. election workers have faced a wave of death threats and harassment inspired by former President Donald Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was rigged, which also fueled the deadly Jan. 6, 2021 U.S. Capitol riot. Reuters interviews with a dozen people accused of terrorizing election workers revealed that some had acted on bogus information they found on BitChute and almost all had consumed content on sites popular among the far-right.

Full Article: SkewTube: New video-sharing sites thrive on misinformation and hate

Colorado: Tina Peters’ deputy clerk pleads guilty, will cooperate with investigation into her boss | Bente Birkeland and Megan Verlee/Colorado Public Radio

Prosecutors looking to build their case against Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters have gained a potentially important asset in their investigation — the cooperation of Peters’ deputy clerk Belinda Knisley. On Thursday Knisley pled guilty to three misdemeanor charges relating to her role in the breach of Mesa County’s election machines last year. In return for dropping more significant charges against her, Knisley has agreed to assist prosecutors. “There was some specific information she provided to us that was very valuable,” said Mesa County District Attorney Dan Rubinstein as part of his reasoning for the court to accept the plea deal. The judge granted prosecutors’ request to sentence Knisley to two years of unsupervised probation, as long as she continues to cooperate with the investigators building a case against Peters and former Mesa County Elections Manager Sandra Brown. He also ordered her to perform 150 hours of community service. Her conviction will prevent her ever working or volunteering in elections administration again. “This has been a very tumultuous time in her life,” Knisley’s lawyer said during the hearing, noting that she’s had a heart attack since the investigation began and that “she would like to get this matter behind her, do what she needs to do.”

Full Article: Tina Peters’ deputy clerk pleads guilty, will cooperate with investigation into her boss | Colorado Public Radio

Georgia:  Confidential 2020 election files copied by Atlanta tech firm | Mark Niesse/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The Atlanta-based tech firm SullivanStrickler says it had “no reason to believe” there was anything illegal about sending four of its employees to a South Georgia county to copy every election file they could find: memory cards that store votes, ballot scanners, and an election server. The company asserted this week it was doing legitimate work in January 2021 at the behest of Sidney Powell, an attorney for then-President Donald Trump who had promised on national TV to “unleash the kraken” of claims that the presidential election was rigged. But SullivanStrickler hasn’t explained its justification for copying confidential data, besides a statement that the firm was preserving election records under Powell’s direction. The company then distributed the data to election deniers and billed Powell $26,000 for the job. The GBI recently opened a criminal investigation of computer trespass, which is a felony. The sensitive election data collected by SullivanStrickler, which also gathered election files in Antrim County, Michigan, soon reached the hands of conspiracy theorists who were seeking to reverse the outcome of the election that Trump lost. The files from Georgia or Michigan were downloaded by individuals such as a Texas meteorologist who promoted election falsehoods on social media, a former pro surfer who alleged the election was manipulated, and a right-wing podcaster, The Washington Post reported Monday.

Full Article: Confidential 2020 election files copied by Atlanta tech firm in South Georgia county

Georgia: Lindsey Graham Resists Testifying in Trump Investigation | Danny Hakim and Richard Fausset/The New York Times

Six days after major news organizations declared Donald J. Trump the loser of the 2020 presidential election, his allies were applying a desperate full-court press in an effort to turn his defeat around, particularly in Georgia. The pro-Trump lawyer Sidney Powell went on television claiming that there was abundant evidence of foreign election meddling that never ultimately materialized. Another lawyer, L. Lin Wood, filed a lawsuit seeking to block the certification of Georgia’s election results. That same day, Nov. 13, 2020, Senator Lindsey Graham, the South Carolina Republican and one of Mr. Trump’s most ardent supporters, made a phone call that left Brad Raffensperger, Georgia’s Republican secretary of state, immediately alarmed. Mr. Graham, he said, had asked if there was a legal way, using the state courts, to toss out all mail-in votes from counties with high rates of questionable signatures. The call would eventually trigger an ethics complaint, demands from the left for Mr. Graham’s resignation and a legal drama that is culminating only now, nearly two years later, as the veteran lawmaker fights to avoid testifying before an Atlanta special grand jury that is investigating election interference by Mr. Trump and his supporters.

Full Article: Lindsey Graham Resists Testifying in Trump Investigation in Georgia – The New York Times

Kansas recount confirms landslide win for abortion rights, but highlights risk to democracy | Katie Bernard and Jonathan Shorman/The Kansas City Star

Kansas reaffirmed its landslide vote to uphold abortion rights after election officials on Sunday finished a recount that never had any chance of changing the outcome but was sought by an election denier and anti-abortion activist advancing baseless allegations of fraud. The exercise instead delivered a second victory for opponents of an amendment that would have stripped abortion rights from the state constitution. But the recount of such a lopsided vote, rather than building credibility in the results, risks undermining trust in elections because the process provided fringe, diehard amendment supporters an opportunity to attempt to create an aura of uncertainty surrounding the vote when, in fact, none ever existed. A hand recount in nine counties – including Johnson and Sedgwick, the state’s two largest – cost roughly $120,000 and burned countless hours as election officials scrambled to conclude the arduous process before a Saturday deadline. Kansas voters rejected the amendment, called Value Them Both by supporters, 59% to 41% with a margin of about 165,000 votes. The partial recount ultimately changed the outcome by fewer than 60 votes —an infinitesimal fraction of the overall vote that included ballots from more than 922,000 Kansans.

Source: Kansas abortion vote confirmed with partial amendment recount | The Kansas City Star

Michigan election officials demanded change after 2020. Their calls so far have gone unmet. | Clara Hendrickson/Detroit Free Press

As voters across the country prepare for the upcoming midterm elections, many will contend with a whole new set of election rules from lawmakers who ushered in major changes in the wake of 2020. But in Michigan, the landscape remains largely unchanged. Divided government in the state killed Republican proposals enacted elsewhere as Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer repeatedly wielded her veto pen to strike down GOP-sponsored bills, including strict voter ID requirements and a ban on private donations for election offices. But even changes favored by lawmakers and election officials from both parties were sidelined by the governor or stalled in the state Legislature ahead of the August primary. Clerks who administer elections have pushed for changes they say will improve voter access and confidence such as time to process ballots before Election Day, training requirements for election challengers and allowing military voters to return ballots electronically. But inaction has left election officials scratching their heads. “Both sides are saying we want to make commonsense voting reforms,” said Harrison Township Clerk Adam Wit, a Republican who was recently elected as president of Michigan’s municipal clerks association.

Full Article: Michigan election officials’ calls for change have gone unmet

Minnesota election administration explained: post-election checks | Max Hailperin/Minnesota Reformer

Election officials do their best to get results out on election night or the next morning, but always with a note that they are unofficial. Perhaps preliminary would be a better word than unofficial. These results do come from an official source, unlike news reports of estimates derived from exit polling. But they haven’t been through all the checks and revisions that occur following the election. Those post-election activities are essential to producing final, official, certified results that merit confidence. Nothing done quickly can have the same level of assurance. Turning the unofficial results of election night into the official results that allow a winner to receive their election certificate is called canvassing. In Minnesota, the canvass process includes administrative checks, formal board action, and a manual audit of randomly selected precincts. Election administrators in each jurisdiction produce a “canvass report” that tabulates the votes cast, as well as the number of voters, and Election Day and advance registrants. This largely repeats the information from election night. However, it reflects several kinds of cross-checking and the revision of any errors found through that checking. Most basically, the administrators check that the vote counts were correctly uploaded to the Election Reporting System. They do this by closing the loop back to the definitive source of information: the printouts from the tabulators.

Full Article: Minnesota election administration explained: post-election checks – Minnesota Reformer

Minnesota: Olmsted County administrator: Data misinterpretation led to group’s 2020 election concerns | Randy Petersen/Rochester Post Bulletin

A group alleging the Olmsted County votes counted in 2020 outnumbered the county’s eligible voters appears to have added the wrong numbers. County Administrator Heidi Welsch said a report from the Olmsted County Elections Integrity Group appears to have added the number of registered voters prior to Election Day – 100,815 – and the number who registered on Election Day – 5,786 – with the assumption that they all voted. “There are two problems with this calculation,” she wrote in a letter sent Wednesday to the group’s chairman, Roger Mueller. “First, these numbers are registered voters, not actual votes cast. In other words, not everyone who is registered actually votes.” The actual number of ballots reported being cast in Olmsted County was 91,864, according to the Minnesota Secretary of State’s office. When the group compared what it represented as 106,601 ballots cast to a reported 104,234 registered voters on Dec. 20, 2020, it raised concerns, according to a report distributed to county commissioners by county resident Dave Sprenger.

Full Article: Olmsted County administrator: Data misinterpretation led to group’s 2020 election concerns – Post Bulletin | Rochester Minnesota news, weather, sports

Montana GOP lawmaker: Republican election laws tied to concerns that college students vote ‘liberal’ | Sam Wilson/Helena Independent Record

A Republican state lawmaker testified in a Billings courtroom Tuesday that her GOP colleagues were motivated when crafting new election laws last year by the perception that “college students tend to be liberal.” Rep. Geraldine Custer, a former long-time elections official from Forsyth, made no secret of her opposition to several of her party’s priority election bills during the 2021 session. Three of those measures that were signed into law by Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte are being challenged in an ongoing trial in Yellowstone District Court that began last week. Custer was at times her party’s lone voice of opposition to those laws. She was the only Republican “no” vote on one that changed voter identification to require additional documentation if a voter tries to use a student ID from a Montana college. Among nearly a dozen plaintiffs in the consolidated court case, a trio of youth advocacy organizations are challenging the student ID bill as unconstitutional because it discriminates against young voters. In response to a question from Rylee Sommers-Flanagan, an attorney representing Montana Youth Action, Forward Montana Foundation and the Montana Public Interest Research Group, Custer suggested some Republican lawmakers possess a “mistrust” of young voters. “The general feeling in the caucus is that college students tend to be liberal, and so that’s the concern with them voting,” Custer said.

Full Article: GOP lawmaker: Republican election laws tied to concerns that college students vote ‘liberal’ | 406 Politics | helenair.com

Montana Secretary of State’s office refers to ‘wingnuts’ pushing Missoula County election allegations | Sam Wilson/Nontana Standard

The chief legal counsel for Montana’s top elections official referred to claims of election irregularities in Missoula County as a conspiracy theory advanced by “wingnuts” during a legal deposition in which he was designated to speak under oath as Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen’s representative. The comments were made public Thursday near the end of a nine-day trial to determine the constitutionality of several election laws enacted by Republicans last year. Austin James is the chief legal counsel for Jacobsen, who is the sole defendant in the civil case. He took the stand as the final witness in the marathon trial. Nearly a dozen plaintiffs are asking Yellowstone County District Court Judge Michael Moses to strike down elections laws that tightened photo ID restrictions for voters, eliminated Election Day registration and restrict third-party ballot collection. The bench trial ended Thursday afternoon. The allegations refer to claims by right-wing activists that their public records inspection of ballot envelopes in Missoula County last year revealed discrepancies with the official election numbers certified by the county and the state in 2020. Alarmed by indications conservative voters were becoming convinced their votes don’t count, Missoula County Republicans this spring undertook their own records request and found no substantial difference from the official tally. County election officials have criticized the original group’s methods as imprecise and error-prone.

Full Article: Secretary of State’s office refers to ‘wingnuts’ pushing Missoula Co. election allegations | 406 Politics | mtstandard.com

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton says ballots are public records right after elections | Jessica Huseman/Votebeat Texas

A legal opinion released by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton last week will almost certainly throw county elections offices into chaos after November, experts say, exposing election clerks to possible criminal charges and materially reducing the security of every ballot cast in the state. Federal and state law require that ballots be kept secure for 22 months after an election to allow for recounts and challenges — a timeframe Texas counties have had set in place for decades. Paxton’s opinion, which doesn’t stem from any change to state law,  theoretically permits anyone —  an aggrieved voter, activist, or out-of-state entity — to request access to ballots as soon as the day after they are counted. Such requests have been used by activists all over the country as a way to “audit” election results. The opinion from Paxton doesn’t carry the force of law, but experts say it will almost certainly serve as the basis for a lawsuit by right-wing activists. The opinion has already impacted election administrators across the state, who told Votebeat that they’ve seen an onslaught of requests since Paxton released it. “[Paxton’s office wants] to throw a monkey wrench into the operations of vote counting, especially if they think they might lose, and Paxton is in a close race as far as I can tell,” said Linda Eads, a professor at Southern Methodist University’s Dedman School of Law and a former deputy attorney general for litigation for the state of Texas. She said she was “shocked” by the opinion.

Full Article: Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton says ballots are public records right after elections – Votebeat Texas – Nonpartisan local reporting on elections and voting

Wyoming Looks to Limit Secretary of State Power After 2020 Election Denier Nominated | Nick Reynolds/Newsweek

Wyoming lawmakers are looking to strip the secretary of state’s duties to oversee the state’s elections after a candidate who denies the result of the 2020 presidential election won the Republican primary to lead the office. On a voice vote Thursday, the state’s Republican-dominated Joint Committee on Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions approved a motion to draft legislation stripping the office’s sole authority to oversee the state’s elections and creating an entity overseen by all five of the state’s top elected officials. “We have a 2024 presidential election coming up. It’s going to be very contentious. And I do have some concern that the most likely person who will be our next chief elections officer, secretary of state, has alleged that there may be nefarious activities at the ballot box in Wyoming, which I don’t agree exists,” Cheyenne Republican Dan Zwonitzer said, introducing the motion. “I think our elections are safe and secure, probably more than any other state’s in the country,” he added. “And so I’m concerned, based on some of the rhetoric and the mailers I saw in regards to our most likely incoming secretary of state, that we may be in a precarious position when it comes to election administration for the next four years.”

Full Article: Wyoming Looks to Limit Secretary of State Power After 2020 Election Denial