Biden warns U.S. faces powerful threat from anti-democratic Americans | Yasmeen Abutaleb and Marisa Iati/The Washington Post

President Biden delivered a forceful address Thursday on what he called a dangerous assault on American democracy, warning that “too much of what’s happening in our country today is not normal” as “Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic.” Biden’s speech, outside Philadelphia’s Independence Hall, was a remarkable assessment from a sitting president that the fabric of American governance is under serious threat — “we do ourselves no favors to pretend otherwise,” he said. While Biden did not name Republicans other than the former president, he warned of election deniers who have won Republican primaries and those who have sought to overturn legitimate elections. “We are still at our core a democracy — yet history tells us that blind loyalty to a single leader, and the willingness to engage in political violence, is fatal to democracy,” Biden said. “There is no question that the Republican Party is dominated, driven and intimidated by Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans.” Biden on Thursday appeared to seek a balance between the lofty tones of a presidential address and the sharp, personal criticism of Republicans that many in his party believe is necessary to meet a moment of crisis. While paying tribute to the country’s grand historical traditions, Biden also suggested the upcoming election is a battle between those embracing American values and those trying to destroy them.

Full Article: Biden warns U.S. faces powerful threat from anti-democratic Americans – The Washington Post

Michigan police investigating how voting machine wound up for sale online | Donie O’Sullivan, Curt Devine and Kimberly Berryman/CNN

Authorities in Michigan are investigating how a missing voting machine from the state wound up for sale on eBay last month for $1,200. The machine was purchased by a cybersecurity expert in Connecticut who alerted Michigan authorities and is now waiting for law enforcement to pick up the device. CNN determined the machine was dropped off at a Goodwill store in Northern Michigan, before being sold last month on eBay by a man in Ohio. In an interview with CNN, the Ohio man said he purchased the machine online at Goodwill for $7.99 before auctioning it on eBay for $1,200. Election machines are part of the United States’ critical infrastructure and are supposed to be kept under lock and key. It’s an issue that has become increasingly important in recent years as people have sought to gain unauthorized access to election systems in a futile attempt to prove the false notion that the 2020 election was stolen. News of the sold machine comes as authorities in Michigan, Colorado and Georgia are probing apparent efforts to gain unauthorized access to voting machines or obtain data from them following the 2020 election.

Full Article: Police investigating how Michigan voting machine wound up for sale online – CNNPolitics

National: Here’s what could happen when an election denier becomes a chief election official | Zach Montellaro/Politico

Many of the election deniers running for secretary of state this year have spent their time talking about something they can’t do: “decertifying” the 2020 results. The bigger question — amid concerns about whether they would fairly administer the 2024 presidential election — is exactly what powers they would have if they win in November. Atop the list of the most disruptive things they could do is refusing to certify accurate election results — a nearly unprecedented step that would set off litigation in state and federal court. That has already played out on a smaller scale this year, when a small county in New Mexico refused to certify election results over unfounded fears about election machines, until a state court ordered them to certify. But secretaries of states’ roles in elections stretch far beyond approving vote tallies and certifying results. Many of the candidates want to dramatically change the rules for future elections, too. The Donald Trump-aligned Republican nominees in a number of presidential battleground states have advocated for sweeping changes to election law, with a particular focus on targeting absentee and mail voting in their states — keying off one of Trump’s obsessions.

Full Article: Here’s what could happen when an election denier becomes a chief election official – POLITICO

National: Growing alarm as more election workers leave their posts ahead of Election Day | redreka Schouten/CNN

State and federal officials, along with voting rights advocates, are sounding the alarm about a growing exodus of local election officials as the November midterms draw closer and workers face continued threats and harassment. In Kentucky, 23 of the state’s 120 county election clerks have opted not to seek reelection this year — “an unusually high” rate of departures, Kentucky Secretary of State Michael Adams, a Republican, told CNN. Five have left their posts in recent weeks, he said. And Adams, who has defended the integrity of the 2020 election, said he reported to the FBI last week a new threat to hang him for “treason.” In Texas, meanwhile, officials have seen a 30% turnover rate among local election officials since 2020, said Sam Taylor, a spokesman for the Texas secretary of state’s office. In one small Texas county, all three election workers recently resigned. The election administrator cited threats as one reason for her resignation. “Our election workers and elections have proved themselves incredibly resilient,” said Larry Norden, the senior director of the elections and government program at the liberal-leaning Brennan Center for Justice at New York University’s law school. “But we are really pushing it to the limit.”

Source: Growing alarm as more election workers leave their posts ahead of Election Day – CNNPolitics

National: With 10 weeks until midterms, election deniers are hampering some election preparations | oo Rin Kim, Laura Romero, Patrick Linehan, and Kate Holland/ABC

In Colorado, supporters of Donald Trump seeking evidence of 2020 election fraud have flooded some county offices with so many records requests that officials say they have been unable to perform their primary duties. In Nevada, some election workers have been followed to their cars and harassed with threats. And in Philadelphia, concerns about the potential for violence around Election Day have prompted officials to install bulletproof glass at their ballot-processing center. With ten weeks to go until the 2022 midterms, dozens of state and local officials across the country tell ABC News that preparations for the election are being hampered by onerous public information requests, ongoing threats against election workers, and dangerous misinformation campaigns being waged by activists still intent on contesting the 2020 presidential election. The efforts, many of which are being coordinated at both the national and local level, range from confronting election officials at local government meetings to training volunteers to challenge the vote-counting process on Election Day, according to election officials. Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon told ABC News he’s concerned that the efforts are a reflection of the prevailing attitude among 2020 election deniers that “the folks running elections in this county or this city are up to no good.”

Full Article: With 10 weeks until midterms, election deniers are hampering some election preparations – ABC News

National: Trump says he would issue full pardons and government apology to rioters who stormed the Capitol Jan. 6 | Mariana Alfaro/The Washington Post

Former president Donald Trump said he would issue full pardons and a government apology to rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and violently attacked law enforcement to stop the democratic transfer of power. “I mean full pardons with an apology to many,” he told conservative radio host Wendy Bell on Thursday morning. Such a move would be contingent on Trump running and winning the 2024 presidential election. Supporters of the former president attacked the Capitol as Congress was confirming Joe Biden’s electoral college win in the 2020 election, the worst attack on the seat of democracy in more than two centuries. The insurrection left four people dead, and an officer who had been sprayed with a powerful chemical irritant, Brian D. Sicknick, suffered a stroke and died the next day. About 140 members of law enforcement were injured as rioters attacked them with flagpoles, baseball bats, stun guns, bear spray and pepper spray. As a result, the House impeached Trump for inciting an insurrection. Trump’s comments to Bell came on the same day President Biden is scheduled to deliver a prime-time address in Philadelphia about extremist threats to American democracy and efforts to rescue “the soul of the nation,” and as Trump is battling in court over top-secret documents he apparently took to his Mar-a-Lago estate after leaving office and did not return despite being subpoenaed.

Full Article: Trump says he would issue full pardons and government apology to rioters who stormed the Capitol Jan. 6 – The Washington Post

National: ‘I dread 2024’: America’s local election officials are being pushed to their limits | Kenneth Tran/USA Today

Lackluster funding, infinite work hours, staff shortages, limited resources, abusive phone calls and more: These problems are nothing new for America’s election officials. They have stretched from long before the pandemic to today. Despite it all, they have remained steadfast in the conviction that their job is what maintains American democracy. Failure is not an option. “We don’t stop elections,” said Karen Brinson Bell, executive director of North Carolina State’s Board of Elections. “We figure out how to proceed.” Now, however, their patience is being pushed to its limits by new hostility and threats – it’s pushing officials away and it doesn’t bode well for future elections. “I dread 2024, I don’t know how people are gonna be in 2024,” said Tonya Wichman, director of Ohio’s Defiance County Board of Elections. “You can only take so many phone calls that tell you how bad you are at your job.”

Full Article: Local election officials face heavy turnover amid increasing threats

Alabama voting machines challenged as unreliable in court hearing | Mike Cason/AL.com

Montgomery County Circuit Judge Greg Griffin is holding a hearing today on a lawsuit that seeks to block Alabama’s use of electronic ballot-counting machines in the November election. Plaintiffs in the case claim the machines are unreliable and susceptible to hacking and tampering that can change election results. They have asked the court to order the state to count ballots by hand through a process outlined in their lawsuit. Attorney General Steve Marshall has asked the court to dismiss the case, saying the claims are based on speculation and innuendo. The lawsuit was filed in May by former gubernatorial candidate Lindy Blanchard, state Rep. Tommy Hanes, a Republican from Jackson County, Dr. David Calderwood of Madison County, and Focus on America, a social welfare organization. Blanchard, who finished second to Gov. Kay Ivey in the Republican primary, withdrew from the lawsuit. Dean Odle, another Republican candidate for governor in this year’s primary, attended this morning’s hearing and said he supports the plaintiffs in the case.

Full Article: Alabama voting machines challenged as unreliable in court hearing – al.com

Arizona GOP candidates lose bid to ban ‘exploitable’ voting machines | Michael McDaniel/Courthouse News Service

A federal judge in Arizona dismissed a suit Friday seeking to ban electronic voting machines ahead of the November midterm election, brought by Republican candidates who claim the machines may have security flaws. In the suit, Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake and secretary of state candidate Mark Finchem claimed an injunction to stop the use of voting machines was necessary since the “voting system does not reliably provide trustworthy and verifiable election results.” Former President Donald Trump — a frequent purveyor of baseless election fraud claims — has endorsed Lake and Finchem in their respective races. Lake and Finchem claimed that voting on paper ballots and hand-counting those votes was the only efficient and secure method for proceeding in November. In arguments, the pair contended that contractors found some concerns after completing a partisan audit of the 2016 presidential election. Chiefly, the contractors allegedly found cybersecurity best practices weren’t used, antivirus software patches were neglected, computer logs were cleared, and some files were missing from the election management system. U.S. District Judge John Tuchi on Friday found the supposed evidence conjectural and not concrete. “Ultimately, even upon drawing all reasonable inferences in plaintiffs’ favor, the court finds that their claimed injuries are indeed too speculative to establish an injury in fact, and therefore standing,” wrote Tuchi.

Full Article: Arizona GOP candidates lose bid to ban ‘exploitable’ voting machines | Courthouse News Service

Georgia: Trump election probe cites voting system breach | Kate Brumback and Christina A. Cassidy/Associated Press

The prosecutor investigating whether former President Donald Trump and others illegally tried to interfere in the 2020 election in Georgia is seeking information about the alleged involvement of a Trump ally in the breach of voting equipment at a county roughly 200 miles south of her Atlanta office. The widening of the probe highlights the latest instance in which unauthorized people appear to have gained access to voting equipment since the 2020 election, primarily in battleground states lost by Trump. Election experts have raised concerns that sensitive information shared online about the equipment may have exposed vulnerabilities that could be exploited by people intent on disrupting future elections. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is seeking to have attorney Sidney Powell, who tried persistently to overturn Trump’s loss, testify before a special grand jury seated for the investigation into possible illegal election interference. In her court petition filed Thursday, Willis said Powell is “known to be affiliated” with Trump and the Trump campaign and has unique knowledge about her communications with them and others “involved in the multi-state, coordinated efforts to influence the results of the November 2020 elections in Georgia and elsewhere.” The scope of Willis’ criminal investigation has expanded considerably since it began, prompted by a Jan. 2, 2021, phone call in which Trump suggested Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger could “find” the votes needed to overturn Trump’s narrow election loss in the state. Among other things, Willis wrote that she wants to ask Powell about rural Coffee County, where Trump beat President Joe Biden by nearly 40 percentage points.

Full Article: Trump election probe in Georgia cites voting system breach | AP News

Georgia subpoenas media texts and emails from critic of Georgia electronic voting system | Stanley Dunlap/Georgia Recorder

A plaintiff in a lawsuit challenging the state’s electronic voting system is being subpoenaed by Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and the State Election Board for information that would include her communication with reporters. A subpoena filed Monday in U.S. District Court of Northern Georgia requests Marilyn Marks, executive director of Coalition for Good Governance, to provide every email, text message, details of conversation and any other documents about the unauthorized access of Coffee County’s voting system, including communication she’s had with the media. Marks and a First Amendment advocacy organization accused the state of trying to intimidate reporters and sources from reporting on potentially serious misconduct of some local Coffee election officials scheming with a team of computer forensic experts and Donald Trump loyalists to gain access to sensitive election files in attempt to discredit President Joe Biden’s narrow 2020 election victory in Georgia. Marks said she believes she is being targeted by the state because she was on the March 2021 call that led to the news breaking this year of a breach of the Coffee County voting system and has been outspoken in her criticism of the state’s handling of the investigation. Marks is a critic of the state’s use of Dominion Voting Systems ballot-marking machines that critics say are less secure than hand-marked paper ballots. Marks noted that she is the first person in this case that the state has subpoenaed despite the state election board and secretary of state’s office having been aware of allegations before releasing the recording in February of a phone conversation she had in which Atlanta bails bondsman Scott Hall described chartering a flight to Coffee County to “scan every freaking ballot.”

Full Article: State subpoenas media texts and emails from critic of Georgia electronic voting system  – Georgia Recorder

Kansas certifies defeat of anti-abortion amendment, other results | Jonathan Shorman/The Kansas City Star

The Aug. 2 election in Kansas was the highest-turnout primary election in state history, Kansas Secretary of State Scott Schwab’s Office said Thursday as top officials met to formally certify the results, including the defeat of an amendment to remove abortion rights from the state constitution. The unprecedented turnout in the Aug. 2 primary election was driven by extraordinary voter interest in the amendment, called Value Them Both by supporters, which would have overturned a 2019 Kansas Supreme Court decision that found the state constitution protects abortion access. The Kansas State Board of Canvassers voted unanimously to certify the results of the amendment vote and every other state-level and congressional race at the end of a brief meeting in Topeka. In addition to Schwab, the board includes Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly and Republican state Attorney General Derek Schmidt, who will face each other in the Nov. 8 general election for governor. Kelly and Schmidt shook hands, but otherwise didn’t speak to each other during the meeting as they sat on opposite ends of a table, with Schwab, who chaired the meeting, in the middle.

Source: KS certifies defeat of anti-abortion amendment, other results | The Kansas City Star

Michigan sheriff sought to seize multiple voting machines, records show | By Peter Eisler and Nathan Layne/Reuters

A sheriff in Barry County, Michigan, already under state investigation for alleged involvement in an illegal breach of a vote-counting machine, sought warrants in July to seize other machines in an effort to prove former President Donald Trump’s claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election, documents reviewed by Reuters showed. The proposed warrants sought authorization to seize vote tabulators and various election records from the offices of the Barry County and Woodland Township clerks, the documents showed. The two jurisdictions have not been previously identified as targets in the sheriff’s investigation into suspicions that machines in the county were rigged to siphon votes from Trump. The warrants were submitted in July to the office of Barry County Prosecuting Attorney Julie Nakfoor Pratt, a Republican, who told Reuters she declined to endorse them because she felt the sheriff lacked sufficient evidence to support his suspicions that the machines were rigged. Reuters obtained copies of the documents under a Freedom of Information request filed with the prosecutor’s office. The requests suggest Barry County Sheriff Dar Leaf, a Republican, was seeking to broaden his investigation of alleged election fraud even as he faced investigation from the state attorney general’s office.

Full Article: Michigan sheriff sought to seize multiple voting machines, records show | Reuters

Nevada: Proposed bill requires counties with unused voting machines to pay back the state funds used to buy them | Taylor R. Avery/Las Vegas Review-Journal

An interim legislative committee Monday voted to request a bill draft that, if passed in the next legislative session, would require any county not using voting machines purchased with state funds to pay back the money used to buy them. The request, which was recommended to the Joint Interim Committee on Legislative Operations and Elections, was brought by Assemblywomen Maggie Carlton, D-Las Vegas and Brittney Miller, D-Las Vegas. “We would have never thought that a county that came to us and asked for dollars to purchase something would just put them in a closet and not want to use them,” said Carlton, who chairs the committee. “It’s very sad to think that state dollars, taxpayer dollars were given to a county and they bought machines and they’re just gathering dust.” The proposal follows a successful push by election deniers in Nye County to eliminate the use of electronic voting machines in in favor of paper ballots and hand counting the results, a move which saw the county’s long serving clerk, Sam Merlino, resign. She was replaced earlier this month by Mark Kampf, a former executive who has falsely claimed that former President Donald Trump won the 2020 election. Kampf has said that Nye County will both hand count ballots as well as use machines to ensure an accurate tally.

Full Article: Proposed bill requires counties with unused voting machines to pay | Las Vegas Review-Journal

Nevada approves hand counting votes over fears of machines | Gabe Stern/Associated Press

As parts of rural Nevada plan to count ballots by hand amid misinformation about voting machines, the Nevada secretary of state’s office on Friday approved regulations for counties to hand count votes starting as soon as this fall’s midterm elections. But the revised regulations will no longer apply to the one county that has been at the forefront of the drive to count by hand. That’s because Nye County, in the desert between Las Vegas and Reno, will also use a parallel tabulation process alongside its hand count, using the same machines that are typically used to count mail-in ballots. All ballots in Nye County will resemble mail-in ballots, interim Nye County Clerk Mark Kampf said in an interview earlier this month. Nye County is one of the first jurisdictions nationwide to act on election conspiracies related to mistrust in voting machines. Nevada’s least populous county, Esmeralda, used hand-counting to certify June’s primary results, when officials spent more than seven hours counting 317 ballots cast. The long-time Nye County clerk resigned in July after election conspiracies led to a successful push to hand count votes. Kampf, her replacement, has falsely claimed that former President Donald Trump won the 2020 election. He has vowed to bring hand counting to the rural county of about 50,000, alongside the parallel tabulation process using machines.

Full Article: Amid fears of voting machines, Nevada approves hand counting | AP News

New Hampshire: Lawsuit seeks to block electronic voting machines | Kein Landrigan/Union Leader

A conservative constitutional lawyer has sued Gov. Chris Sununu and legislative leaders, asserting the state has no authority to use electronic ballot-counting machines at polling places. Daniel Richard of Auburn also sued his hometown and Town Administrator Daniel Goonan for refusing to let him cast a vote by paper ballot and have it hand-counted. In a motion filed Wednesday, Richard asked a Rockingham County Superior Court judge to issue an injunction to stop towns from using the machines for the Sept. 13 primary. He asked to be allowed to make an in-court argument on the topic before voters go to the polls. A Rockingham County Superior Court judge has agreed to hear arguments on Richard’s suit Sept. 9, four days before the primary. “Voting in New Hampshire is non-validated and not in accordance with any known electrical and electronic safety standards — by design, in order to maintain the country’s “first-in-the-nation” vote status,” Richard wrote in his latest filing.

Full Article: Lawsuit seeks to block electronic voting machines in N.H. | Voters First | unionleader.com

Texas: What brought down one county’s entire elections department? It was something in the water. | Natalia Contreras/Votebeat

Last November’s sleepy constitutional amendment election nearly came to blows in Gillespie County, a central Texas county known for its vineyards. A volunteer poll watcher, whose aggressive behavior had rankled election workers all day, attempted to force his way into a secure ballot vault. The burly man was repeatedly blocked by a county elections staffer. Shouting ensued. “You can’t go in there,” the staffer, Terry Hamilton, insisted to the man, who towered over Hamilton. “We can see anything we want!” the poll watcher and his fellow election integrity activists yelled, according to an election worker who witnessed the scene. They accused Hamilton and Elections Administrator Anissa Herrera of a variety of violations of the state elections code, which they quoted, line by line. “Oh Lord, they can cite chapter and verse,” recalled Sue Bentch, a Fredericksburg election judge who saw the confrontation that night. “But you know, just as the devil can cite scripture for its own purposes it seemed to me that it was often cited out of context and misinterpreted.” “Finally, I called the sheriff’s officer,” said Bentch. The officer barred the activists from the vault. “Poor Terry was coming to fisticuffs.”

Full Article: What brought down one Texas county’s entire elections department? It was something in the water.

Washington: Some Republicans in state cast a wary eye on an election security device | Miles Parks/NPR

In northeast Washington state, a remote region nestled against the Canadian border, the politics lean conservative and wariness of government runs high. Earlier this year, a Republican-led county commission there made a decision that rippled across Washington — triggering alarm at the secretary of state’s office, and now among cybersecurity experts who have worked for the past six years to shore up the security of America’s voting systems. It happened on Valentine’s Day during the regular weekly meeting of the three-member commission in Ferry County, where Donald Trump received more than 63% of the vote in the 2020 election. After an agenda that included an update on the county fair and a discussion about a local water and sewer district, the commissioners took up a proposal to disconnect a recently installed cybersecurity device from the county’s computer network. The device, known as an Albert sensor, was designed to alert local governments to potential hacking attempts against their networks. More than 900 Albert sensors have been deployed across the country, primarily to states and counties, and they have been a key component of the federal government’s cybersecurity response following Russian election interference around the 2016 election.

Full Article: Election security device under suspicion by Washington GOP : NPR