National: After Fox settlement, experts warn election falsehoods will persist | Patrick Marley and Jeremy Barr/The Washington Post

Fox News’s $787.5 million settlement with a voting machine company sends a stark warning to others about the cost of making false statements, but that doesn’t mean election falsehoods will disappear. The constellation of conservative networks and right-wing websites that promote those falsehoods may just become more adept at spreading conspiracy theories and baseless claims, election officials and misinformation experts say, such as by avoiding naming companies and individuals. “There are people who are so committed to the perpetuation of this narrative that it won’t die completely,” said Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer (R), a top election official in Arizona’s largest county. “There are organizations, candidates, fundraisers who this has been their life for a few years, and one settlement isn’t going to make them probably throw away their entire business model.” Election officials and academics described Fox’s settlement with Dominion Voting Systems as one small part of a broad effort to restore Americans’ faith in elections and hold those who tell falsehoods accountable. On its own, the settlement might not change much, they said.

Full Article: After Fox settlement, experts warn election falsehoods will persist – The Washington Post

No consequences so far after Trump supporters copied Georgia election data | Mark Niesse/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Caught by surveillance video, text messages and emails, overwhelming evidence shows that supporters of then-President Donald Trump copied Georgia’s statewide voting software from an election office in rural Coffee County in early 2021. Yet no one has been charged, the FBI doesn’t appear to be investigating the case, and the GBI investigation has been pending for eight months. So far, everyone involved in the scheme has escaped accountability, including former Trump attorney Sidney Powell, a phony Republican elector who tried to award Georgia’s votes to Trump, and county election officials who helped them take vast amounts of election data. They copied the files on Jan. 7, 2021 — the day after a mob attacked the U.S. Capitol and two days after runoffs in Georgia flipped control of the U.S. Senate. Georgia law enforcement and election officials say they’re taking the case seriously, but little information has been made public while the investigation remains open. Election security experts have warned that the disclosure of the inner workings of Georgia election computers increases the risk of hacks in future elections, and it could be used to fabricate evidence or spread misinformation. “The message the GBI is telling people is that it’s OK to go into Georgia and take our software and nothing is going to happen to you. The same message is coming from the FBI, too,” said Susan Greenhalgh, senior adviser for the advocacy group Free Speech for People. “There’s no publicly available information that would indicate this investigation is being executed with great rigor.”

Full Article: Investigation drags long after Coffee County election software breach

National: Fox Settles Dominion Suit, but Smartmatic Case and Others Loom | Lora Kelley/The New York Times

On Tuesday, Fox News hastily agreed to pay $787.5 million to resolve a defamation suit filed by Dominion Voting Systems — among the largest settlements ever in a defamation case — just hours after the jury for the trial was selected. In addition to the whopping financial settlement, Fox conceded that “certain claims” it had made about Dominion were false. In settling with Dominion, the network avoided the possible embarrassment of a trial that could have exposed its inner workings. Rupert Murdoch, the 92-year-old Fox News founder, and the Fox host Tucker Carlson were potential witnesses. Dominion sued the cable news network two years ago, after it aired stories falsely claiming that Dominion’s voting machines were susceptible to hacking and had flipped votes to Joseph R. Biden Jr. that had been cast for Donald J. Trump, who was president. But the settlement with Dominion is not the only legal action that some news outlets are facing after making bogus claims about the 2020 elections.

Full Article: Fox Settles Dominion Suit, but Smartmatic Case and Others Loom – The New York Times

National: Fox and Dominion settle for $787.5m in defamation lawsuit over US election lies | Sam Levine and Kira Lerner/The Guardian

Fox and the voting equipment company Dominion reached a $787.5m settlement in a closely watched defamation lawsuit, ending a dispute over whether the network and its parent company knowingly broadcast false and outlandish allegations that Dominion was involved in a plot to steal the 2020 election. The settlement came before scheduled opening statements and after an unexpected lengthy delay on Tuesday afternoon just after the jury was sworn in. Neither party immediately disclosed the terms of the settlement other than the dollar amount, and attorneys for Dominion declined to answer questions about whether it requires Fox to issue a retraction or a formal apology. “The parties have resolved their case,” Judge Eric Davis told jurors on Tuesday afternoon before excusing them from the courtroom. In a press conference outside the courthouse, the Dominion attorney Justin Nelson said the more than $787m represented “vindication and accountability”. The settlement amount is less than half of the $1.6bn Dominion demanded in its lawsuit. “Truth matters,” he said. “Lies have consequences. The truth does not know red or blue,” he continued. “People across the political spectrum can and should disagree on issues, even of the most profound importance. But for our democracy to endure another 250 years and hopefully much longer, we must share a commitment to facts.”

Full Article: Fox and Dominion settle for $787.5m in defamation lawsuit over US election lies | Fox News-Dominion case | The Guardian

National: EAC Commissioner takes part in secretive GOP conference, sparking backlash | Zachary Roth/News From The States

A commissioner of a federal elections agency recently spoke at a secretive conference of conservative voting activists and Republican secretaries of state and congressional staff — a step that election experts call highly improper for an official charged with helping states administer fair and unbiased elections. U.S. Election Assistance Commissioner Donald Palmer, the former chief election official in Virginia, was a panelist at a February conference organized by conservative groups working to impose new voting restrictions, including the Heritage Foundation. Ten chief state election officials, as well as elections staff from three additional Republican-led states, attended the confab, which was described by one prominent organizer as a “private, confidential meeting.” The existence of the conference, including its agenda and list of attendees, was first reported by The Guardian U.S. and the investigative journalism site Documented. In a statement to States Newsroom, Palmer defended his appearance, calling it “an important opportunity to engage.” Palmer, who was appointed by former President Donald Trump, is one of two Republican members of the four-member commission, which by law is divided evenly between the two main political parties.

Full Article: U.S. elections official takes part in secretive GOP conference, sparking backlash | News From The States

National: Mike Lindell firm told to pay $5 million in ‘Prove Mike Wrong’ election-fraud challenge | Chris Dehghanpoor, Emma Brown and Jon Swaine/The Washington Post

MyPillow founder and prominent election denier Mike Lindell made a bold offer ahead of a “cyber symposium” he held in August 2021 in South Dakota: He claimed he had data showing Chinese interference and said he would pay $5 million to anyone who could prove the material was not from the previous year’s U.S. election. He called the challenge “Prove Mike Wrong.” On Wednesday, a private arbitration panel ruled that someone did. The panel said Robert Zeidman, a computer forensics expert and 63-year-old Trump voter from Nevada, was entitled to the $5 million payout. Zeidman had examined Lindell’s data and concluded that not only did it not prove voter fraud, it also had no connection to the 2020 election. He was the only expert who submitted a claim, arbitration records show. He turned to the arbitrators after Lindell Management, which created the contest, refused to pay him. In their 23-page decision, the arbitrators said Zeidman proved that Lindell’s material “unequivocally did not reflect November 2020 election data.” They directed Lindell’s firm to pay Zeidman within 30 days. In a statement to The Washington Post, Zeidman said he was “really happy” with the arbitrators’ decision. “They clearly saw this as I did — that the data we were given at the symposium was not at all what Mr. Lindell said it was,” he said. “The truth is finally out there.”

Full Article: Mike Lindell firm told to pay $5 million in ‘Prove Mike Wrong’ election-fraud challenge – The Washington Post

National: GOP lawyer Cleta Mitchell decries ease of ‘campus voting’ in private RNC pitch | Josh Dawsey and Amy Gardner/The Washington Post

A top Republican legal strategist told a roomful of GOP donors over the weekend that conservatives must band together to limit voting on college campuses, same-day voter registration and automatic mailing of ballots to registered voters, according to a copy of her presentation reviewed by The Washington Post. Cleta Mitchell, a longtime GOP lawyer and fundraiser who worked closely with former president Donald Trump to try to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, gave the presentation at a Republican National Committee donor retreat in Nashville on Saturday. The presentation — which had more than 50 slides and was labeled “A Level Playing Field for 2024” — offered a window into a strategy that seems designed to reduce voter access and turnout among certain groups, including students and those who vote by mail, both of which tend to skew Democratic. Mitchell did not respond to a request for comment, and it is unclear whether she delivered the presentation exactly as it was prepared on her PowerPoint slides. But in addition to the presentation, The Post listened to audio of portions of the presentation obtained by liberal journalist Lauren Windsor in which Mitchell discussed limiting campus and early voting.

Full Article: GOP lawyer Cleta Mitchell decries ease of ‘campus voting’ in private RNC pitch – The Washington Post

Editorial: Why It’s Fine that Fox and Dominion Settled | Richard L. Hasen/Slate

What does the Fox (News) say? Not enough to save American democracy. But we never should have expected that a private defamation suit could have cured this country’s ongoing election panic anyways. Dominion Voting Systems had sued Fox for defamation after Fox hosts and guests lied about the supposed role of Dominion’s voting machines in the 2020 presidential election. (Specifically, they said that the company rigged the votes against Donald Trump and for Joe Biden.) Voting machine manipulation was one of many outlandish conspiracy theories—like those involving Italian space lasers or fake ballots coming in from China—that swirled across right wing cable television and social media as Donald Trump churned up the lies to try to overturn his loss. By the time the Dominion defamation case got to trial, Fox had a weak hand. Embarrassing depositions, emails, and other material from inside Fox showed that those at the top of the company knew the claims of a stolen election were a huge lie unsupported by any real evidence. The trial judge had already ruled, before trial, that the evidence indisputably showed that claims of Dominion voting machines being rigged were false, and that Fox was not merely reporting on such claims. The only real issue (aside from which Fox entities were liable and how much damage Dominion suffered) was whether Fox made false statements with “actual malice.” That standard, imposed by the Supreme Court to protect journalists and others reporting on public officials and public figures, requires proof that the speaker made the statements knowing they were false or with reckless disregard as to their truth or falsity.

Full Article: Fox and Dominion settlement: It’s actually fine there’s no trial.

Arizona Senate settles suit over election audit for $150K | Associated Press

A left-leaning watchdog group on Wednesday announced a settlement of over $150,000 in a public records lawsuit against the Arizona Senate, which fought to withhold emails, texts and other records involving a partisan audit of the 2020 election. American Oversight, which promotes government transparency, will receive $153,000 from the state Senate. According to the agreement that both parties initially signed in March, they will mutually release each other from legal claims. The agreement also specifies that the settlement is not an indication of any wrongdoing. The litigation also extended to Cyber Ninjas, the now defunct Florida-based firm that led the Senate’s review of ballot counting machines, computers and ballots in Maricopa County. Shortly before the settlement agreement was signed, lawyers for The Arizona Republic argued that some of the records being withheld by the Senate should still be made publicly available. The whole ordeal was worthwhile for “having succeeded in bringing much-needed transparency” to the audit, American Oversight said in a statement.

Full Article: Arizona Senate settles suit over election audit for $150K | AP News

California: How Shasta County Became A Petri Dish For the Big Lie | Kaila Philo/TPM

A deep red enclave in rural Northern California has recently seen the balance of its local governing body shift to the far right. Now it’s about to embark on an experiment tried in few other jurisdictions across the country: counting all of its paper ballots by hand. The county clerk warned TPM that the switch could be more problematic than the hard-right majority could have anticipated. The Board of Supervisors in Shasta County, California, has served as a petri dish for the most noxious refuse of Trumpism over the past few years. From COVID-19 denialism to conspiracy theories about Dominion Voting Systems, a handful of county board members have used their positions to breathe life into Trumpian conspiracy theories and grievances at the local level, pulling in MyPillow CEO and noted Trump brown-noser Mike Lindell along the way.  It started on Aug. 11, 2020, when a local militia member Carlos Zapata hijacked a board meeting to go on a rant against COVID-19 restrictions, and threatened violence if they continued. “Right now, we’re being peaceful, and you better be happy that we’re good citizens, that we’re peaceful citizens,” he said, “but it’s not going to be peaceful much longer, OK?” His rant, which subsequently got attention from Alex Jones and Fox News, portended the near future: Less than a year later, a local anti-government militia led an effort to recall county supervisors who followed mitigation measures—and ultimately succeeded in ousting one of them.

Full Article: How A Rural California County Became A Petri Dish For the Big Lie

Georgia suits among those left involving election lies after Fox settlement | David Wickert/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

This week’s massive settlement of a defamation lawsuit against Fox News is the latest effort to seek accountability for those who spread false tales of election fraud in Georgia and other states. But it’s not the last. Two Fulton County election workers whose lives were upended by false voting fraud accusations have filed defamation lawsuits against other media companies and individuals who spread the claims. And a Gwinnett County man falsely accused of voting fraud has sued the producers of the film “2000 Mules.” It’s far from certain the lawsuits will be successful — the defendants deny any wrongdoing. But the election workers have already had some success in court. And legal experts say the $787.5 million settlement in the Fox case bodes well for continuing efforts to hold people and institutions accountable for lies that undermined confidence in U.S. elections and led to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. “With what appears to be one of the largest defamation settlements in history, we can hope that this is the beginning of accountability and a restoration of respect for our election process and election officials,” said David Becker, founder of the Center for Election Innovation and Research.

Full Article: After Fox settlement, Georgia suits among those left involving election lies

New Hampshire panel combines voting machine grants with election portal | Kevin Landrigan/The New Hampshire Union Leader

A proposal to permit cities and towns to ask for federal money to replace their antiquated voting machines moved a step closer to reality this week. The plan would permit local officials to apply to Secretary of State David Scanlan’s office to get grants from $12.8 million in federal Help America Vote Act (HAVA) money the state has gotten over the past two decades to make voting system improvements. Last week, House Election Laws Committee Chairman Ross Berry, R-Manchester, proposed tacking this proposal onto a Senate-passed bill (SB 70) that would create a state information portal to allow citizens to register online to vote more easily, to update their voter information or to request absentee ballots. The House panel voted 13-5 in support of that measure, which now goes to the full House of Representatives. The state Senate had earlier killed separate legislation (SB 73) to permit the use of HAVA money for voting machines while Berry’s House committee had decided to retain its own legislation on the topic (HB 447) until early in 2024.

Full Article: Panel combines voting machine grants with election portal

Pennsylvania Supreme Court angrily sanctions county for violating order on Dominion voting machines | Jonathan Lai/Philadelphia Inquirer

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Wednesday said Fulton County had blatantly defied the court when it allowed a third-party company to access its 2020 voting machines. The county had first given a firm access to its Dominion voting machines in the weeks after the 2020 election, prompting the Pennsylvania Department of State, which oversees elections, to decertify the machines and ask the court to block the county from giving any further access. The court agreed, ordering the machines be kept secure. Fulton County gave another company access to its voting machines anyway, leading the justices to impose sanctions on the county and its attorneys in the form of repaid legal fees for both the state and Dominion. “No remedy can undo the harm that the county’s contempt caused,” Justice David Wecht said in his majority opinion, but “simply are the next best thing.”

Full Article: Pa. Supreme Court sanctions Fulton County over voting machines

Texas Senate OKs end to countywide voting on Election Day | Pooja Salhotra and James Barragan/The Texas Tribune

Countywide polling locations on Election Day would be banned in Texas under a bill approved by the Texas Senate on Thursday. Senate Bill 990, authored by Republican Sen. Bob Hall of Edgewood, passed 17-12 along party lines. The bill — if approved by the state House — would eliminate countywide voting centers on Election Day and require residents to vote at an assigned precinct, typically in their neighborhood. Larger voting centers would be permitted through early voting. Currently, 90 counties — including large metro counties like Harris and Dallas as well as rural ones — are approved by the secretary of state’s office to use countywide voting centers on Election Day. Hall has framed the bill as necessary to address potential issues with vote counts, but Democrats who opposed the bill pressed him for any evidence that countywide polling had led to people voting at more than one location. Hall said on Thursday that spreading voting locations across a precinct makes it “impossible” to ensure an accurate count and that limiting voters to a central polling location would simplify the tally. There has been no evidence of systematic voter fraud in Texas. And each county that has been approved to use countywide voting policies must pass audits by the secretary of state’s office during two election cycles to keep the practice in place. Officials with the secretary of state’s election division have said the program — which began in rural counties — is popular among voters because it allows them to vote anywhere in the county. That is especially helpful in some of the state’s largest and most sprawling counties like Harris and Bexar, where Texans have long commutes from work to home and could possibly miss their window to vote if they don’t make it to their neighborhood precinct on time after work. Election officials also like the convenience the program provides to voters because they don’t have to scramble to figure out where to vote on Election Day.

Full Article: Texas Senate OKs end to countywide voting on Election Day | The Texas Tribune

Another Texas Election Official Quits After Threats From Trump Supporters | Neil Vigdor/The New York Times

Heider Garcia, the head of elections in Tarrant County, Texas, announced this week that he would resign after facing death threats, joining other beleaguered election officials across the nation who have quit under similar circumstances. Mr. Garcia oversees elections in a county where, in 2020, Donald J. Trump became only the second Republican presidential candidate to lose in more than 50 years. Right-wing skepticism of the election results fueled threats against him, even though the county received acclaim from state auditors for its handling of the 2020 voting. With Mr. Trump persistently repeating the lie that he won the 2020 election, many of his supporters and those in right-wing media have latched on to conspiracy theories and joined him in spreading disinformation about election security. Those tasked with running elections, even in deeply Republican areas that did vote for Mr. Trump in 2020, have borne the brunt of vitriol and threats from people persuaded by baseless claims of fraud.

Full Article: Another Texas Election Official Quits After Threats From Trump Supporters – The New York Times

Virginia: The battle between misinformation and election officials in Buckingham County | Fred Echols/WVTF

When the entire staff at the Buckingham County Registrar’s office resigned after repeatedly being accused of incompetence and even criminal mismanagement of the electoral process, the county drew national attention from those who say rampant misinformation may cause even more damage heading into a presidential election year. Buckingham County provided Virginia’s most extreme example – to date – of what can happen when election workers are overwhelmed by accusations of fraud. Lauren Coletta is senior advisor in Virginia for Common Cause. She says the immediate effect is that people with little or no elections experience find themselves trying to do a very demanding and very important job. “You had a registrar who was there for 29 years and then this next person was there since 2019, I believe, so she was getting her stride and now you’ve lost the staff,” Coletta explains. “So, this is a consequence of the disinformation that is going on.” But even after all this time, many people don’t see it as disinformation, something that Coletta finds puzzling. “Given all the court cases at the federal level, and in this particular case in Buckingham County; the Attorney General investigated, said there was nothing,” Coletta says. “How many times does something have to be disproven before people catch on that they’re being lied to?”

Full Article: The battle between misinformation and election officials in Buckingham County | WVTF

Wyoming county clerks pen letter to Secretary of State refuting election denier | Maggie Mullen/WyoFile

The County Clerks’ Association of Wyoming is refuting the claims of a prominent election denier who toured the state in March and April, giving public presentations in six counties and meeting privately with some lawmakers and Secretary of State Chuck Gray. Douglas Frank, a former high school math and science teacher from Ohio, also discussed his assertions of voter fraud with several county clerks. “Throughout those meetings, we have concluded that Dr. Frank conveys claims of impropriety but provides no proof to support his allegations,” Malcolm Ervin, Platte County clerk and president of the clerks’ association, wrote in a letter to Gray on March 29. Most Wyoming voters remain confident in the state’s elections, according to a survey conducted by the University of Wyoming last July and August. And audits before and after both the 2020 and 2022 elections indicated 100% accuracy across the state. The voting machines first used in 2020 were more secure and sophisticated than any other voting machines used in the history of Wyoming’s elections, former Secretary of State Ed Buchanan said while in office. Notably, those machines do not include the software or hardware necessary to connect to the internet or to communicate election results externally. The same is true of the tabulation computer in each county. Despite those facts, Frank told clerks those machines could be hacked remotely, even claiming he, himself, has the ability to do so. When asked for proof, according to the letter, Franked recalled a time “where he supposedly provided proof of that ability to a secretary of state in a southern state.

Full Article: County clerks pen letter to Secretary of State Gray refuting election denier – WyoFile