Georgia election proposal would add new rule before certification | Mark Niesse/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Local election board members across Georgia would be entitled to review vast troves of documents before they certify this fall’s presidential election under a rule proposal that critics fear would allow partisans to reject the results. The Republican-controlled State Election Board voted 3-1 on Tuesday to advance the proposal, which was sought by Cobb County Republican Party Chairwoman Salleigh Grubbs. The initiative follows, even when there weren’t any problems and the outcome of the election wasn’t in doubt. Certification is a required step under state law before election results can be finalized by counties the Monday after election day. If the majority of an election board refused to certify the presidential race, the results could be delayed and disputed in court. Read Article

Michigan judge calls off hearing on alleged voter data breach to allow for appeal | Craig Mauger/The Detroit News

A Hillsdale County judge suddenly called off a preliminary examination scheduled for Thursday morning to allow a former township clerk and lawyer, facing felony charges over an alleged voter data breach, to fight the allegations in a higher court. After district court Judge Megan Stiverson announced her decision, Richard Cunningham, the prosecutor in the cases for the Michigan Attorney General’s office, could be heard telling others in the courtroom that he was “shocked.” Two days earlier on Tuesday, Stiverson rejected a motion to immediately dismiss the charges from Dan Hartman, the attorney who’s representing former Adams Township Clerk Stephanie Scott and Stefanie Lambert, a lawyer involved in efforts to advance unproven election fraud claims in multiple battleground states. In her ruling, Stiverson specifically said the preliminary examination to decide whether the charges should proceed to trial would go forward “as scheduled” Thursday. However, at the start of the hearing, Hartman revealed that he wanted to challenge Stiverson’s Tuesday order in Hillsdale County Circuit Court. Read Article

New Hampshire Governor signs bill requiring accessible voting machines in every town for local elections | Ethan DeWitt/New Hampshire Bulletin

New Hampshire cities and towns will be required to provide accessible voting machines for all elections after January 2025, according to a bill signed into law by Gov. Chris Sununu this month. House Bill 1264, signed by Sununu July 3, states that every municipality must “ensure that each polling place has at least one accessible voting system” during every election. And it creates a pilot program requiring the Secretary of State’s Office to share those machines with towns and cities in spring 2025. “Now those of us with vision and print disabilities will be able to vote independently and keep our votes private like everyone else,” said Jean Shriner, an activist, in a statement reacting to the signing Friday. “For me, as a blind person, it’s empowering and exciting.” Currently, the Secretary of State’s Office provides accessible voting machines to cities and towns only during federal elections – as required by federal law. That includes the September state primaries, the November general elections, and the presidential primaries. Read Article

Nevada county votes against certifying recount results, a move that raises longer-term questions | Gabe Stern/Associated Press

Commissioners in Nevada’s second most populous county on Tuesday refused to certify the results of two local recounts from last month’s primary, a rare move that has potential implications for the presidential race in one of the nation’s most important swing states. The three Republican members on the five-member Washoe County Board of Commissioners voted to reject the results of recounts in one race for a commission seat and another for a local school board seat. What happens next is unclear. The county elections department and district attorney’s office declined to comment, along with the state attorney general. A request for comment from the secretary of state was not immediately returned. The rejection of the recounts and questions over how to handle it raised concerns about what could happen in November if a local commission refused to certify the presidential election results. Read Article

North Dakota: Ballot measure to prohibit electronic voting machines and tabulators misses deadline for November ballot | Michael Achterling/North Dakota Monitor

Sponsors of a constitutional ballot initiative that would change how elections are conducted in North Dakota failed to submit signatures to the Secretary of State’s Office by Monday’s deadline for inclusion on the November ballot. The petition was approved by the Secretary of State’s Office for circulation on Sept. 27, 2023, and the measure’s sponsoring committee has one year to gather 31,164 signatures. Sponsors are working to collect 20,000 more signatures between now and September for inclusion on the June 2026 ballot, Lydia Gessele, chair of the ballot measure’s sponsoring committee, told the North Dakota Monitor. She said petition circulators are gathering more signatures than required in case some are ruled invalid. “We’re going to have people out at different events and then just in their communities as well,” Gessele said. The ballot measure would prohibit electronic voting machines and tabulators, which would cause all election results to be hand counted. Some of the other aspects of the measure would prohibit early voting or voting by mail, except for absentee ballots; drop-boxes for ballots; and ranked-choice voting. Read Article

Pennsylvania House passes bill to avoid election certification logjam | Carter Walker/Votebeat

In a bipartisan effort to avert a potential crisis in certifying November’s election results, the Pennsylvania House passed a bill Tuesday that would cement the timelines for resolving post-election legal battles and prevent delays in finalizing the state’s electoral votes. A federal law passed in 2022, the Electoral Count Reform Act, set a strict deadline for states to certify slates of presidential electors: Dec. 11. But Pennsylvania doesn’t have its own set of deadlines to meet that target, which could set the state up for a potential conflict with the federal law. “This gap poses a significant risk of missing the federally mandated deadlines for certifying presidential election results,” said Rep. Benjamin Sanchez (D-Montgomery), the bill’s prime sponsor. “Our goal with HB 2473 is to mitigate this risk and guarantee Pennsylvania’s voice is heard and respected when Congress counts the state’s electors.” Read Article

Utah: Iron County certifies 2024 primary election results despite controversy over ballot postmarks | Bryan Schott/Salt Lake Tribune

After 24 hours of handwringing and investigating if hundreds of Utahns’ mail-in ballots with late postmarks could be counted, the Iron County Commission voted 2-1 on Tuesday to officially certify their 2024 primary election results. On Monday, Republican Commissioner Paul Cozzens disrupted the typically routine vote to certify the election results by refusing to approve the final count. He cited the rejection of approximately 400 ballots postmarked after the June 24 deadline. Mailed ballots were sent to Las Vegas for processing, and many mailed before the deadline were not postmarked until the following day, rendering them invalid, county officials said. The commission postponed the certification vote for a day to explore whether the law provided any flexibility that would allow them to include those ballots in the final count. There was none to be found. Commission members and other county officials said they spent the final day to certify their ballots by conferring with the state elections office and legislative leaders, who told them that, under current Utah law, there was no way to include the late ballots. Read Article

Wisconsin Supreme Court reinstates absentee ballot drop boxes | Lawrence Andrea and Molly Beck/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Wisconsin’s Supreme Court on Friday restored the use of absentee ballot drop boxes in the swing state ahead of the upcoming elections — a reversal of a past decision from the court that could impact voter participation. The 4-3 decision was a win for Democrats who argued the longstanding practice of allowing voters to file ballots into the locked, unmanned boxes made voting more accessible. That process, however, was highly criticized in 2020 by former President Donald Trump and Republicans who claimed without evidence that the boxes and absentee voting were rife with fraud. Read Article

Wyoming: Push To Ditch Ballot Machines For Hand Counts Gaining Steam | Cowboy State Daily

A push to eliminate electronic ballot counting machines in favor of hand counts in Wyoming’s elections is spreading across the state, and it has the full support of Secretary of State Chuck Gray. Wyoming Voter Initiatives, the same group that recently turned in 44,000 signatures to get a property tax initiative on the 2026 ballot, is now working on a new effort to have all ballots hand counted. The goal is to get the initiative on the 2026 ballots and implemented for the 2028 elections. In addition to the “People’s Initiative to Restore Hand Tabulation of all Elections in Wyoming” ballot initiative, the group also wants to overhaul the state’s Title 22 election code through the Legislature by enacting measures allowing for public ballot inspections, stricter voter ID and registration requirements, and ban ballot dropboxes. Read Article