Election officials beef up security as new survey shows nearly 4 in 10 grapple with threats and harassment | Fredreka Schouten/CNN

When officials in Durham, North Carolina, open their new $24 million elections operations center later this year, it will include a feature not in the original plan: a separate mail-room exhaust system to guard against dangerous particles spreading through the building. The design change came after a spate of suspicious letters – some laced with fentanyl – landed at election offices around the country last year, said Derek Bowens, who has served as Durham County’s elections director since 2017. The letters, which were sent to election offices from Georgia to Washington state, set off fresh security concerns for a workforce battered by unprecedented threats and harassment. Durham didn’t receive any of those letters, but “we were terrified” that the county – a Democratic bastion in a swing state – would be targeted, Bowens said. “There was mass concern.” Read Article

Georgia: Cyberattack hits Coffee County at center of voting software breach | Derek B. Johnson and AJ Vicens/CyberScoop

Earlier this month, Coffee County in Georgia experienced a cyberattack on its computer infrastructure, leading state officials to cut off the county's access to statewide election systems as a precautionary measure. While Coffee County's IT infrastructure showed no evidence of data exfiltration, it did indicate cyber activity by an unknown malicious actor, prompting the county to declare a cyber incident and secure its systems. State election officials barred Coffee County from accessing various state systems, including the statewide voter registration system and election management suite, until the security threat is resolved. This incident follows a similar breach in Fulton County earlier this year, raising concerns about the integrity of election systems in counties linked to legal battles over the 2020 election results. Read Article

Pennsylvania state House advances bill to give counties more time to count mail ballots | Carter Walker/Spotlight PA

Pennsylvania House Democrats are again pushing to allow counties time to process mail ballots before the day of the election. But the effort appears doomed because of the Senate GOP majority’s insistence on pairing the measure with an expanded voter ID law. A House bill passed Wednesday in a party line vote would allow counties up to seven days before election day to open ballot envelopes and run ballots through scanning machines, though results would still be tabulated on the day of the election. Currently, counties cannot begin processing mail ballots until the morning of the election, which means counties with large numbers of mail ballots may need additional days to finish counting and report complete results. Read Article

National: As Trump airs his election doubts, many supporters say they won’t accept a Biden win in 2024 | Alex Tabet, Jillian Frankel, Emma Barnett, Nnamdi Egwuonwu and Jake Traylor/NBC

More than six months out from the presidential election, many Republican voters harbor deep doubts not only about whether President Joe Biden is fit for a second term — but also about whether he can even win re-election fair and square. “I think that the powers that be on the Democratic side have figured out a way to circumvent democracy,” said Darlene Anastas, 69, of Middleborough, Massachusetts. Poll after poll has found that a large proportion of the Republican electorate believes the only reasons Joe Biden is president are voter fraud and Democratic dirty tricks, buying into former President Donald Trump’s baseless claims about the 2020 election. Trump continues to stoke those fires on the campaign trail. Read Article

National: RNC targets absentee ballots, voter rolls in 2024 to ‘protect’ vote | Erin Mansfield/USA Today

The Republican National Committee and its lawyers are going state to state seeking to influence what laws and procedures will govern the November election. The RNC, which has been overhauled with loyalists to former President Donald Trump, is reviving failed legal arguments from 2020 as it seeks to get involved in dozens of state and federal lawsuits. The cases are in all the major battleground states for 2024, but also in deep-red and deep-blue states. Some of the biggest ongoing cases target how absentee ballots are processed and who should be removed from voter rolls. If the cases are successful, fewer people will be allowed to vote in November, and fewer absentee ballots will be counted. Read Article

National: Inside the far-right plan to use civil rights law to disrupt the 2024 election | Sarah D. Wire and Mackenzie Mays/Los Angeles Times

A group called United Sovereign Americans is touring the U.S., spreading misinformation about election procedures and recruiting activists to challenge election results through lawsuits alleging civil rights violations. Led by Marly Hornik, the group aims to scrutinize voter rolls for errors and file lawsuits in multiple states, with the goal of preventing certification of election results unless substantial changes are made to election processes. Despite legal experts dismissing their arguments and concerns about the integrity of the electoral process, the group's strategy could potentially sow doubts about the 2024 presidential election's integrity if even one sympathetic judge rules in their favor. Read Article

National: A post falsely suggesting migrants illegally registered to vote spread to millions in four weeks | Nicole Acevedo/NBC

The rumor started as a post on X. The post published in early April misrepresented federal data from the Social Security Administration to falsely suggest that hundreds of thousands of migrants may have registered to vote in Pennsylvania, Arizona and Texas. One hour later, the tweet got the rocket fuel it needed to take off: X owner Elon Musk reposted it with the comment, “extremely concerning.”  In less than four days, the false narrative was widely shared on X, Facebook and Instagram. Donald Trump and Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor-Greene soon joined in, respectively proclaiming, “What is going on???” and “Are migrants registering to vote using SSN?” By the end of the month, the original tweet and Musk’s had generated more than 125 million views. Read Article

National: Will hackers, trolls and AI deepfakes upset the 2024 election? | Jeffrey Fleishman/Los Angeles Times

In the analog days of the 1970s, long before hackers, trolls and edgelords, an audiocassette company came up with an advertising slogan that posed a trick question: “Is it live or is it Memorex?” The message toyed with reality, suggesting there was no difference in sound quality between a live performance and music recorded on tape. Fast forward to our age of metaverse lies and deceptions, and one might ask similar questions about what’s real and what’s not: Is President Biden on a robocall telling Democrats to not vote? Is Donald Trump chumming it up with Black men on a porch? Is the U.S. going to war with Russia? Fact and fiction appear interchangeable in an election year when AI-generated content is targeting voters in ways that were once unimaginable. Read Article

Arizona may fund tool to allow candidates to verify election results, ballot by ballot | Jen Fifield/Votebeat

Arizona legislators are considering a proposal that would allocate $2 million from the state budget to develop a tool allowing election candidates to verify individual ballots in their races, aiming to increase transparency and address concerns about election integrity. Led by State Sen. Ken Bennett, Republicans endorse the initiative, which bypasses the traditional legislative process, prompting debate over privacy and potential misuse of election data. While supporters argue the tool would combat false claims of election fraud and bolster voter trust, critics, including Democratic Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, raise concerns about voter privacy and the potential for misuse of data before results are certified. Read Article

California: Two months to count election ballots? State’s long tallies turn election day into weeks, months | Micharl R. Blood/Associated Press

Nearly two months after the election, a recount settled the outcome in a Northern California U.S. House primary contest, breaking a mathematically improbable tie for second place but also spotlighting the lengthy stretch it took count the votes. Most California residents vote by mail, and in the pursuit of accuracy, thoroughness and counting every vote, the nation’s most populous state has gained a reputation for tallies that can drag on for weeks — and sometimes longer. Voting in the state’s primary election concluded on March 5. At time when many Americans have doubts about election integrity, a two-month stretch to tally votes in one House race “absolutely is a problem from an optics point of view,” said Kim Alexander, president of the nonpartisan California Voter Foundation, which seeks to improve the voting process. Read Article

Georgia’s election laws could create ‘hovering threat’ for poll workers in 2024 | Karissa Waddick/USA Today

Milton Kidd, an election administrator in Georgia since 2012, has observed significant changes in his work environment since the 2020 presidential election. Increased threats from voters and new regulations have strained resources and altered operations in his office. Over half of U.S. states have passed laws since 2021 that could restrict voter access and impede election administration, with former President Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson proposing legislation targeting noncitizen voting. In Georgia, new rules, including those awaiting Governor Brian Kemp's signature, could further burden election officials and even subject them to criminal penalties. These changes, including heightened scrutiny and reduced timelines for runoff elections, have raised concerns among election workers about recruitment challenges and potential errors amidst tighter deadlines and increased complexity in their roles. Read Article

Michigan bills to overhaul election recount law pass Senate | Clara Hendrickson/Detroit Free Press

Recounts of Michigan ballot proposals in 2022 did not include a review of enough votes to change any election outcomes. But they left taxpayers with a hefty bill and election officials clamoring for changes to the law. Bills passed by Democrats in the state Senate Tuesday would require recount requests to petition for a review of a greater number of votes than the margin by which a candidate or ballot proposal lost. The legislation would also increase the upfront payment aggrieved candidates and ballot question committees must make and ease the restrictions that have excluded a significant number of votes from past recounts. The legislation next heads to the state House for consideration. Read Article

Pennsylvania: Democrats advance election bill long sought by counties to process ballots faster | Marc Levy/Associated Press

Pennsylvania’s House of Representatives on Wednesday approved a bill long sought by counties seeking help to manage huge influxes of mail-in ballots during elections in the presidential battleground state and to avoid a repeat of 2020’s drawn-out vote count. The bill comes barely six months before Pennsylvania could play a decisive role in selecting the next president in November’s election. The bill passed on party lines, 102-99, as Democrats backed it and Republicans opposed it, warning that it would open the door to fraud. Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, supports the bill, and on Wednesday issued a statement urging the Senate to pass it but it faces long odds in the Republican-controlled chamber. Read Article

Pennsylvania: Election officials in the US are under threat. A key county just faced a major test ahead of November | Sam Levine/The Guardian

Jim Rose, the director of administrative services in Luzerne county in north-eastern Pennsylvania, had been listening to the radio all morning and had not heard “a single peep” about problems at the polls during Pennsylvania’s primary on Tuesday. When he ran into Emily Cook, the county’s acting director of elections, she wasn’t ready to celebrate. It was, after all, only mid-afternoon, and the polls would be open until 8pm. “If you say that, you have to go outside, spin around on your left foot – it has to be your left foot – and throw some salt,” she said. ... “I am very conscious of how important it is that I get this right, not just for the department or the county on the whole, but for my own job,” she said in her office. “It feels like a test and preparation for what comes in November.” Read Article

South Dakota: Three counties will vote on banning ballot tabulator machines, requiring hand-counting | Makenzie Huber/South Dakota Searchlight

Three South Dakota counties will ask voters during the June 4 primary if they should ban the use of tabulator machines in future local elections. If the measures pass, the auditor’s offices in each county would have to hand-count ballots in the Nov. 5 general election and thereafter. The votes – in Gregory, Haakon and Tripp counties – were forced by citizen-initiated petitions at the county level. The auditors in each county are now working to educate their citizens on the election process, including the accuracy and safety of tabulators, and highlighting the potential financial consequences of hand-counting ballots. Read Article

Texas: With lawsuits and recount petitions rising, some elections seem to go on forever | Natalia Contreras/The Texas Tribune

It has been 15 months since Democrat DaSean Jones was sworn in as a Harris County criminal district court judge. He’s presided over hundreds of cases since then. And he’ll be on the ballot again in November, this time for a seat on the Texas Supreme Court. But there’s an asterisk on his 2022 election win: His opponent, Republican Tami Pierce, is still challenging the outcome in court, arguing that there were “improper or illegal votes that shouldn’t have been counted” and that the election was “plagued with mistakes.” Her case is awaiting a ruling from a Bexar County visiting judge. It’s another example of a pattern officials and experts say they’re seeing around Texas in recent years: elections that just won’t end. Read Article

Wisconsin Republicans recruiting legion of monitors to observe polls, set stage for lawsuits | Molly Beck/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The Republican National Committee and Trump campaign are set to mobilize tens of thousands of volunteers and attorneys to monitor and potentially challenge voting processes in battleground states like Wisconsin, echoing former President Donald Trump's baseless election claims and positioning the effort as a response to alleged "Democrat tricks" from the 2020 election. GOP officials aim to recruit 100,000 individuals nationwide for observing election processes, conducting regular training sessions, and focusing on various aspects of the electoral process, including early voting, absentee ballot processing, and post-election procedures. Read Article