Nevada Secretary of State slams Governor’s election reform bill | Mark Credico/Las Vegas Review-Journal

Nevada Secretary of State Francisco Aguilar criticized an elections bill introduced by Gov. Joe Lombardo that would institute voter ID and end the practice of sending a mail ballot to every active registered voter. Speaking during a tour of Henderson’s voting facilities Monday as residents cast ballots in a special election to fill the vacant Ward 1 seat, Aguilar dismissed Senate Bill 405 as unnecessary. “I think it’s the solution to a problem that doesn’t exist,” Aguilar told reporters Monday morning. The measure, introduced last week, would require voters to show ID to vote, either in person or by mail, end universal mail balloting, require all mail ballots to be received by the county before polls close on Election Day and place limitations on so-called ballot harvesters who turn in ballots on behalf of others. Other Nevada Democrats have also criticized the governor’s proposed bill. Aguilar called the bill “a response to anecdotal information rather than facts.” He praised the current state of Nevada’s elections, saying they are “some of the most secure elections in the country” and are highly rated by third-party audits.

Full Article: Aguilar slams Lombardo’s Nevada election reform bill | Las Vegas Review-Journal

National: Attacks on Dominion Voting Persist Despite High-Profile Lawsuits | Stuart A. Thompson/The New York Times

With a series of billion-dollar lawsuits, including a $1.6 billion case against Fox News headed to trial this month, Dominion Voting Systems sent a stark warning to anyone spreading falsehoods that the company’s technology contributed to fraud in the 2020 election: Be careful with your words, or you might pay the price. Not everyone is heeding the warning. “Dominion, why don’t you show us what’s inside your machines?” Mike Lindell, the MyPillow executive and prominent election denier, shouted during a livestream last month. He added that the company, which has filed a $1.3 billion defamation lawsuit against him, was engaged in “the biggest cover-up for the biggest crime in United States history — probably in world history.” Claims that election software companies like Dominion helped orchestrate widespread fraud in the 2020 election have been widely debunked in the years since former President Donald J. Trump and his allies first pushed the theories. But far-right Americans on social media and influencers in the news media have continued in recent weeks and months to make unfounded assertions about the company and its electronic voting machines, pressuring government officials to scrap contracts with Dominion, sometimes successfully. The enduring attacks illustrate how Mr. Trump’s voter fraud claims have taken root in the shared imagination of his supporters. And they reflect the daunting challenge that Dominion, and any other group that draws the attention of conspiracy theorists, faces in putting false claims to rest.

Full Article: Attacks on Dominion Voting Persist Despite High-Profile Lawsuits – The New York Times

Could Ballot Images Loosen the Grip of Disinformation? | Steven Rosenfeld/Washington Monthly

Former President Donald Trump’s indictment in New York City has put election disinformation back under the klieg lights. But across the country in Arizona, a noteworthy and nominally bipartisan reform intended to loosen disinformation’s grip has been moving ahead in one of the nation’s most Trump-friendly legislatures. The transparency-based measure is an interesting but controversial remedy to address two commonly hurled clichés about unpopular election results. First, the bill creates a mechanism for determining whether voters who received a ballot were legal and registered. And second, it would verify if each of the choices on the ballot has been accurately counted.  S.B. 1324 does this by requiring Arizona’s counties to release four essential records used by elections officials soon after Election Day so that anyone can verify the electorate’s legality and the result’s accuracy. Any error or interference, if found, could be quickly evaluated and addressed before the window for a legal recount or election challenge litigation closed. While different states release or sell some of these data sets, most election officials keep these administrative details out of public view. Instead, election managers typically urge voters to trust their oversight. The Arizona legislation could mark a start of changing this status quo.

Full Article: Could Ballot Images Loosen the Grip of Disinformation? | Washington Monthly

National: Trump was repeatedly warned he did not have the authority to seize voting machines, officials tell special counsel | Zachary Cohen/CNN

Former top national security officials have testified to a federal grand jury that they repeatedly told former President Donald Trump and his allies that the government didn’t have the authority to seize voting machines after the 2020 election, CNN has learned. Chad Wolf, the former acting Homeland Security secretary, and his former deputy Ken Cuccinelli were asked about discussions inside the administration around DHS seizing voting machines when they appeared before the grand jury earlier this year, according to three people familiar with the proceedings. Cuccinelli testified that he “made clear at all times” that DHS did not have the authority to take such a step, one of the sources said. Trump’s former national security adviser Robert O’Brien, in a closed-door interview with federal prosecutors earlier this year, also recounted conversations about seizing voting machines after the 2020 election, including during a heated Oval Office meeting that Trump participated in, according to a source familiar with the matter. Details about the secret grand jury testimony and O’Brien’s interview, neither of which have been previously reported, illustrate how special counsel Jack Smith and his prosecutors are looking at the various ways Trump tried to overturn his electoral loss despite some of his top officials advising him against the ideas.

Full Article: Trump was repeatedly warned he did not have the authority to seize voting machines, officials tell special counsel | CNN Politics

National: Voters with disabilities often overlooked in voting battles | Ayanna Alexander/Associated Press

Patti Chang walked into her polling place in Chicago earlier this year, anxious about how poll workers would treat her, especially as a voter who is blind. Even though she was accompanied by her husband, she said she was ignored until a poll worker grabbed her cane and pulled her toward a voting booth. Like many voters with disabilities, Chang faces barriers at the polls most voters never even consider — missing ramps or door knobs, for example. The lack of help or empathy from some poll workers just adds to the burden for people with disabilities. “It doesn’t help you want to be in there if you’re going to encounter those kinds of low expectations,” said Chang, 59. “So why should I go vote if I’m going to have to fight with the poll workers? I’m an adult and I should be able to vote without that.” Chang had a better experience when she cast an early ballot in March in the runoff election for Chicago mayor, a race that will be decided Tuesday, even as access to the ballot box remains a challenge across the city for voters like her. Chicago is among numerous voting jurisdictions across the United States with poor access to polling locations for disabled voters. Since 2016, the Department of Justice has entered into more than three dozen settlements or agreements to force better access in cities and counties under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Many of those places are holding elections this year.

Full Article: Voters with disabilities often overlooked in voting battles | AP News

National: How Fox Chased Its Audience Down the Rabbit Hole | Jim Rutenberg/The New York Times

On the evening of Nov. 19, 2020, Rupert Murdoch was watching TV and crawling the walls of his 18th-century mansion in the British countryside while under strict pandemic lockdown. The television hosts at Murdoch’s top cable network, Fox News, might have scoffed at such unyielding adherence to Covid protocols. But Jerry Hall, his soon-to-be fourth ex-wife and no fan of Fox or its conservative hosts, was insisting that Murdoch, approaching his 90th birthday, remain cautious. The big story that day, as it had been every day in the two weeks since the election, was election theft, and now Rudolph W. Giuliani was giving a news conference at the Republican National Committee. With Sidney Powell, the right-wing attorney and conspiracy theorist, at his side, Giuliani, sweating profusely, black hair dye dripping down the side of his face, spun a wild fantasy about Joe Biden’s stealing the election from President Donald J. Trump. Dizzying in its delusional complexity, it centered on a supposed plot by the Clinton Foundation, George Soros and associates of Hugo Chávez to convert Trump votes into Biden votes by way of software from Smartmatic and voting machines from Dominion Voting Systems.

Source: How Fox Chased Its Audience Down the Rabbit Hole – The New York Times

Alabama Senate approves bills requiring paper ballots, banning internet-capable voting machines | Jemma Stephenson/Chattanooga Times Free Press

The Alabama Senate approved two bills that would codify current voting practices. Senate Bill 9 and Senate Bill 10, both sponsored by Sen. Clyde Chambliss, R-Prattville, passed through the chamber. SB 9 requires the use of paper ballots in voting machines. SB 10 prevents the use of voting machines that connect to the internet. Each passed on 29-0 votes. Both measures passed Tuesday afternoon. Chambliss said after the Senate adjourned Tuesday that the bills would not affect polling places. The legislation, he said, aimed to prevent hacking and allow ballot counting when power outages take place. “What we’re trying to do is be proactive with issues that we’ve seen happen in other places and just make sure that’s not a problem here,” Chambliss said.

Full Article: Alabama Senate approves bills requiring paper ballots, banning internet-capable voting machines | Chattanooga Times Free Press

Arizona: Cochise County supervisors ordered to pay legal fees in election certification suit | Gloria Rebecca Gomez/Arizona Mirror

The Cochise County supervisors who delayed certification of the November midterms will have to pay more than $36,000 in legal fees, a Pima County judge has ruled. Last year, Republican county supervisors Tom Crosby and Peggy Judd initially refused to certify the canvass of the countywide election results, jeopardizing the state certification process and risking the votes of thousands. To defend their refusal, the two cited bogus allegations that the county’s electronic tabulators weren’t properly certified. Only after then-Secretary of State Katie Hobbs took them to court and a judge ordered them to complete their statutorily mandated duties did they finally certify the results. Afterward, both the secretary of state and the Arizona Alliance for Retired Americans, which joined the lawsuit against Crosby and Judd, filed to request reimbursement of their attorneys fees and court costs. Late Wednesday, Pima County Superior Court Judge Casey McGinley approved part of that request. Secretary of State Adrian Fontes was awarded $13,143, despite petitioning for more than $17,000. The Alliance, which originally filed for more than $34,000 was awarded just over $23,000. McGinley rejected arguments from Crosby and Judd that election lawsuits shouldn’t be subject to attorney fee repayments, and that taxpayers should bear the brunt of the cost, calling their arguments “unavailing.”

Full Article: Cochise supervisors ordered to pay legal fees in election certification suit • Arizona Mirror

California: Shasta County finally picks voting system, rescinds CEO job offer | Roman Battaglia/Jefferson Public Radio

After months of confusion about how Shasta County will conduct its elections, county supervisors approved a new company to provide their voting equipment on Thursday. That’s in addition to an effort to hand-count ballots. The Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to pick Hart Intercivic as their new provider of voting equipment in the county. That’s after the board canceled their contract with Dominion Voting Systems in January, based on unproven claims of election fraud. The decision made Shasta the first county in California to drop Dominion. The county is required to have a vendor to provide voting accessibility, but their larger plan is to count all of the ballots by hand. No other county in California counts ballots this way. During Thursday’s meeting, Supervisor Mary Rickert said that hand-counting is both expensive and a waste of resources. “I feel like you’re almost, kind-of setting up the elections office to fail,” she said. Elections department staff say that state rules that are currently under development about hand-counting would require they still scan ballots before counting them to deter fraud. The board approved an initial $800,000 dollars on Thursday for the Hart Intercivic system. They haven’t figured out how it will affect the county’s budget. More funding will be needed to pay for the costs of hand-counting.

Full Article: Shasta finally picks voting system, rescinds CEO job offer | Jefferson Public Radio

Colorado’s top election official continues to worry about misinformation going into 2024 | Dylan Anderson/SteamboatToday

Colorado’s top election official says she is still concerned about misinformation as she looks ahead to the 2024 presidential race. Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold, a Democrat, said that while many election deniers lost in the 2022 midterms, there are still many of them in prominent positions. “There’s 150 election deniers in the U.S. Congress,” Griswold told the Steamboat Pilot & Today. “There are five or six secretary of state election deniers. The top of the ticket presidential on the Republican side could be an election denier. Their lies incited violence. Griswold, who was in Steamboat Springs to meet with business leaders and election officials on Tuesday, April 4, said she thinks Colorado will continue to see election misinformation as the next presidential election approaches, which she said takes a toll on election workers. Griswold noted that two people have been arrested for threatening her life. “They’re causing election workers to step down; it’s causing attacks to election infrastructure,” Griswold said. “As secretary of state, my job is to make sure that every eligible Republican, Democrat and unaffiliated voter has access.”

Full Article: Pushing for reforms, Colorado’s top election official continues to worry about misinformation going into 2024 | SteamboatToday.com

Michigan: Ionia County board denies request to hand count votes for May election | Evan Sasiela/Ionia Sentinel-Standard

Ionia County will continue to utilize an optical scan machine for the May 2023 election after a request to hand count paper ballots was denied. The Ionia County Board of Commissioners voted 6-0 at its March 28 meeting to deny a request from the Ionia County Republican Party for a paper ballot hand count in the May 2 election. Kristie Walls, vice chair of the Ionia County Republican Party, said the request was made due to the election software being close-sourced — meaning it can only be accessed by the manufacturer — and that tabulation equipment has components made in China. Walls, who worked as a financial controller and IT manager for 15 years, said she’d like to see a resolution from the county to support the hand count of paper ballots. “Your public wants you to be aware that we are not confident in election equipment, and these are the reasons why we’re not confident in it,” Walls told the board. “We’d like your support.”

Full Article: Ionia County board denies request to hand count votes for May election

How will Montana police the integrity of its future elections? | Alex Sakariassen/Montana Free Press

The past three months have featured one legislative debate after another over proposed changes to how counties conduct elections and verify their results. But last week the conversation took an inevitable turn into the realm of enforcement — in other words, how Montana will police the integrity of its elections moving forward. The first pitch came last Wednesday from Rep. Neil Duram, R-Eureka, who suggested the state establish an “election security team” made up of eight appointees handpicked by statewide officials, legislative leaders and the Montana Supreme Court. Duram’s House Bill 905 would task that team with overseeing a post-election hand count of all ballots cast in every Montana precinct — numbering 663 as of the 2022 general election — and report its findings to state and county election officials.

Source: How will Montana police the integrity of its future elections?

North Dakota Senate OKs bill to ensure physical polling places | Jack Dura/The Bismarck Tribune

The North Dakota Senate on Friday, March 31, passed a bill to ensure physical polling places, similar to legislation that failed in 2021, brought in the wake of North Dakota’s all-mail June 2020 election. House Bill 1167 , by Rep. Steve Vetter, R-Grand Forks, passed in a 39-5 vote and now goes to Gov. Doug Burgum. The state House of Representatives in February passed the bill unanimously. The bill states: “The governor may not issue an executive order that suspends or amends a provision in a statute, order, or rule relating to a state or local requirement regarding minimum number of physical polling places.” Burgum in 2020 signed an executive order waiving the requirement that counties provide at least one physical polling site for the June 2020 election due to the coronavirus pandemic. The House and Senate in 2021 had passed the previous bill, but the Senate reconsidered it and it failed by a single vote.

Full Article: North Dakota Senate OKs bill to ensure physical polling places – InForum | Fargo, Moorhead and West Fargo news, weather and sports

Texas GOP wants out of national program that targets voter fraud | Cayla Harris/San Antonio Express-News

State lawmakers are taking steps to pull Texas out of a multistate partnership that helps prevent voter fraud and encourages unregistered citizens to sign up to vote. Officials have hinted at the state’s impending exit from the Electronic Registration Information Center for months, and senators heard testimony on a bill last week that would clear the way for Texas to leave the program. The initiative launched in 2012 and had more than 30 member states at its peak, helping local governments identify voters who moved, died or had duplicate registrations. Texas Republicans say they want to replace ERIC with their own program, but it’s unclear how long it would take to develop and how many states would join. “Many Texans and folks across the country — but in particular, Texans — are concerned about the security of voter information flowing to this national organization, also about the high cost associated with it,” said state Sen. Bryan Hughes, R-Mineola, as he introduced Senate Bill 1070 last week.

Full Article: Texas GOP wants out of national program that targets voter fraud

Vermont journalist Sue Halpern on threats to democracy | David Goodman/VTDigger

Vermont journalist Sue Halpern reports on national issues for the New Yorker magazine, where she is a staff writer. Her recent reporting has included stories about the 40-year effort to ban abortion pills, the promise and peril of artificial intelligence, and threats to democracy. One topic that she has covered in depth is the effort to subvert elections. She has written about candidates for secretary of state who deny that Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election, attempts by election deniers to access electronic voting systems and the Republican war on voting. Halpern was recently shocked to discover that Vermont is currently considering allowing internet voting, which experts have described as “a security nightmare.” The provision, which is supported by the Office of the Vermont Secretary of State, is tucked into legislation, H.429, that was approved last month by the Vermont House and is now being considered in the Senate. Among those arguing against Vermont’s internet voting provision are the watchdog groups Common Cause, Public Citizen, Free Speech for the People and the Brennan Center for Justice.

Full Article: Vermont Conversation: Journalist Sue Halpern on threats to democracy – VTDigger

Wisconsin: Disabled voters say absentee law not followed | Scott Bauer/Associated Press

Disabled voters say local election leaders across Wisconsin are not following federal law during early voting in the high-stakes race for state Supreme Court, incorrectly telling them they can’t have another person return their absentee ballot for them. Absentee ballots, and who can return them, has been a political flashpoint in battleground Wisconsin, known for razor-thin margins in statewide races. The April 4 election will determine majority control of the state Supreme Court, with abortion access and the fate of Republican-drawn legislative maps on the line. Challenges to laws and practices in at least eight states that make it difficult or impossible for people with certain disabilities to vote have also arisen in the past two years. At the same time, there has been a push in many states to restrict rules affecting who can return absentee ballots. Wisconsin Republicans successfully sued last year to ban absentee ballot drop boxes, and the conservative-controlled state Supreme Court ruled that only the voter can return their ballot in person or place it in the mail. People with disabilities filed a federal lawsuit in response to the state court’s decision, arguing that federal law allows them to get assistance in returning their ballot. A federal court ruled in their favor in August, noting that the Voting Rights Act applies to Wisconsin voters who require assistance with mailing or delivering their absentee ballot because of a disability.

Full Article: Disabled Wisconsin voters say absentee law not followed | AP News