National: Iran is accelerating US election influence operations, Microsoft research says | David DiMolfetta/Nextgov/FCW

Iran is stepping up its efforts to interfere in the 2024 U.S. elections, laying the groundwork to stoke chaos with fake news campaigns and seeking to get into the accounts of candidates, Microsoft said in a report Friday. One Iranian hacking group sent a spear-phishing email two months ago to a high-ranking presidential campaign official, relying on a compromised email account of a former senior adviser, according to the tech giant. It also tried to log into the account of a former presidential candidate. Microsoft didn’t name any of the targets. In total, four different groups have conducted a range of activities, Microsoft said. Read Article

Georgia website flaw allowed users to cancel others’ voter registrations | Colin Wood/StateScoop

A cybersecurity researcher over the weekend uncovered a flaw in a Georgia website that allowed anyone with rudimentary technical knowledge — and a bit of ill will — to cancel others’ voter registrations. ProPublica and Atlanta News First reported on Monday they’d been contacted over the weekend by cybersecurity researcher Jason Parker, who said he found the flaw and reported it to state officials. The flaw, which Georgia state officials said has been fixed, involved using a web browser to inspect the HTML of a new webpage for voter registration cancellation that’s administered by Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. In a video, Parker demonstrated how it was possible to cancel a voter’s registration using only a name, date of birth and county of residence. Read Article

How Texas election officials treat voter roll challenges led by True the Vote | Natalia Contreras/Votebeat

County election departments across Texas are trying to reassure voters amid a flood of formal challenges questioning whether their registrations are valid. The challenges, filed by conservative groups and individual activists, seek to remove tens of thousands of voters from the rolls on the grounds that they don’t live in the county, are not citizens, or have died. Election officials say the challenges are complicating the work they’re already doing to keep their voter rolls updated. They want voters to know that they’re following state and federal laws that protect voters from being improperly removed from the rolls if someone questions their eligibility. Read Arfticle

National: How secretary of state elections became the new battleground for election deniers | Sudiksha Kochi/USA Today

Kari Estes made a 25-minute journey from her home in Festus, Missouri, to the suburbs of St. Louis County on a hot summer evening to mingle with Democratic Secretary of State candidate Barbara Phifer. Estes was among a few dozen voters who gathered for an ice cream social to hear Phifer less than a week from the state’s primary election on Aug. 6. It was her first time seeing Phifer in person – and she said she felt an air of “hopefulness” in the room that day. “What she said when she addressed all of us is that the secretary of state position should be boring … (and) nonpartisan,” she said. “Since the ‘big lie’ and steal the election and all of that, people now are more aware of the importance of the secretary of state to be nonpartisan and neutral on the subject of certifying elections.” For Estes and many voters paying close attention to secretary of state races around the country, the stakes couldn’t be higher. Read Article

National: GOP continues a legal fight against mail ballots that arrive after Election Day | Ashley Lopez/NPR

Ahead of this year’s election, Republicans have been trying to stop some states — including swing state Nevada — from counting postmarked mail ballots that don’t make it to election officials until after Election Day. That legal effort hasn’t been going well. But Republican Party officials say they are committed to these challenges and in recent days they appealed their case in Mississippi to a conservative circuit court in the hopes of getting a favorable ruling there. Roughly 20 states plus Washington, D.C., accept and count mail-in ballots that are received after Election Day if they are postmarked on or before Election Day. These rules are meant to accommodate voters who don’t remember to turn in their ballot until Election Day and to create wiggle room in case there are issues with the Postal Service. Read Article

National: State lawmakers eye promise, pitfalls of AI ahead of November elections | Kevin Hardy/Stateline

Inside a white-walled conference room, a speaker surveyed hundreds of state lawmakers and policy influencers, asking whether artificial intelligence poses a threat to the elections in their states. The results were unambiguous: 80% of those who answered a live poll said yes. In a follow-up question, nearly 90% said their state laws weren’t adequate to deter those threats. It was among the many exchanges on artificial intelligence that dominated sessions at this week’s meeting of the National Conference of State Legislatures, the largest annual gathering of lawmakers, in Louisville. “It’s the topic du jour,” Kentucky state Sen. Whitney Westerfield, a Republican, told lawmakers as he kicked off one of many panels centering on AI. “There are a lot of discussions happening in all of our state legislatures across the country.” Read Article

National: Justice Deparment says it’s committed to sharing info about foreign election threats with tech companies | Eric Tucker/Associated Press

The Justice Department remains committed to sharing with social media companies information that it picks up about efforts by foreign governments to influence this year’s elections, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco told a lawyers’ conference on Friday. Speaking at the American Bar Association’s annual meeting, Monaco, the department’s No. 2 official, said that though it’s ultimately up to technology companies to decide what if any action to take, “We will provide companies with actionable intelligence so they can make decisions regarding abuse on their platforms by adversaries conducting foreign malign influence operations, including targeting our elections.” The comments were part of a wide-ranging speech on election security in which Monaco also warned that Russia remains the primary foreign threat to elections, with Moscow targeting specific voting demographics and using encrypted direct-messaging apps to reach Americans, and sound an alarm about a rising threat of violence to public officials — including election workers. Read Article

National: Vice presidential candidates present stark contrast on voting issues | Jessica Huseman/Votebeat

The selection Tuesday of Tim Walz, governor of Minnesota, as Kamala Harris’ vice presidential running mate spotlights a clear contrast with JD Vance, his counterpart on Donald Trump’s ticket, on the issue of voting. As governor, Walz has staked out a lengthy policy record on voting and election issues, including an expansion of voting rights. Vance has had fewer opportunities to affect voting policy as a senator, but his statements on the subject over the last four years, including false claims about voter fraud, offer insight into his views. Read Article

Arizona: Court blocks enforcement of voter intimidation rules, just before election | Jen Fifield/Votebeat

Arizona’s rules aimed at preventing specific types of voter intimidation and harassment near polling places and drop boxes are too broad and violate free speech rights, a Maricopa County judge ruled. The rules, some of which have been in place for years, prohibit anyone from following, photographing, videotaping, or yelling at voters outside drop boxes or polling places, along with other activities that Secretary of State Adrian Fontes had declared were intimidating. Tuesday’s injunction from Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Jennifer Ryan-Touhill temporarily prohibits Arizona officials from enforcing the rules, until the court can issue a final ruling in the matter. The ruling comes just two months before early voting begins for the presidential election, and as Republican groups pledge to watch over the polls. Fontes’s office said in a statement Tuesday that it will appeal the order. Read Article

Arkansas: Local, state officials defend election integrity, use of voting machines to count ballots | Tess Vrbin/Arkansas Advocate

Saline and Garland county officials told Arkansas lawmakers Wednesday that they have full confidence in the way they conduct elections, specifically the use of voting machines instead of hand-counted paper ballots, and decried the right-wing talking point that any elections have been “stolen.” The Joint City, County and Local Affairs Committee continued a discussion started by the Joint Performance Review Committee in June, in which Searcy County election officials said they had learned from the problems that arose from their first time hand-counting paper ballots in the March primary elections. Searcy, Saline and Garland counties were among the 15 the State Board of Election Commissioners randomly selected to audit from three pools of counties based on population, and Searcy County was the only one where auditors found problems with the way elections had been conducted, board director Chris Madison said. Read Article

Colorado judge denies acquittal to Tina Peters in charges related to voting machine data leak | Amanda Pampuro/Courthouse News Service

A Colorado judge on Thursday denied a motion for judgment of acquittal filed by Tina Peters, the former Mesa County clerk and recorder facing criminal charges related to a 2021 voting machine data leak. “Considering all of the forgoing evidence and in light of the charges that have been filed, the court does conclude the people have established sufficient evidence in both quantity and quality that proves her guilt beyond the reason of doubt,” 21st Judicial District Judge Matthew Barrett, an appointee of Democratic Governor Jared Polis, said from the bench. Following seven days of witness testimony from state and Mesa County elections administrators, as well as an employee of Dominion Voting Systems, and a man who’s identity was misused in the leak, prosecutors rested their case Thursday. Read Article

Georgia Board Grants Local Officials New Power Over Certifying Elections | Nick Corasaniti/The New York Times

The Republican-controlled Georgia State Election Board approved on Tuesday a measure that could empower local officials to refuse or delay certification of a county’s election results, creating the potential for another disputed and contentious post-election period in November. The new rule states that before certifying results, local officials may conduct “reasonable inquiry” that “the results are a true and accurate accounting of all votes cast in that election.” Though seemingly innocuous, the language implies that local election officials are awarded a level of discretion in the certification process, a suggestion that runs counter to decades of settled Georgia law delineating how results are officially certified. State law dictates that officials “shall” certify an election, making the process effectively ministerial; disputes over alleged fraud or major errors are typically left to recounts and courts. Read Article

Illinois Voter Data Exposed by Contractor’s Unsecured Databases | Lily Hay Newman/WIRED

Databases containing sensitive voter information from multiple counties in Illinois were openly accessible on the internet, revealing 4.6 million records that included driver’s license numbers as well as full and partial Social Security Numbers and documents like death certificates. Longtime security researcher Jeremiah Fowler stumbled upon one of the databases that appeared to contain information from DeKalb County, Illinois, and subsequently discovered another 12 exposed databases. None were password protected nor required any type of authentication to access. As criminal and state-backed hacking becomes ever more sophisticated and aggressive, threats to critical infrastructure loom. But often, the biggest vulnerabilities come not from esoteric software issues, but from gaping errors that leave the safe door open and the crown jewels exposed. After years of efforts to shore up election security across the United States, state and local awareness about cybersecurity issues has improved significantly. But as this year’s US election quickly approaches, the findings reflect the reality that there are always more oversights to catch. Read Article

Michigan: Power outages and humid ink barely mar a smooth day of voting in low turnout primary | Hayley Harding/Votebeat

Even after nine days of early voting and 40 days to return absentee ballots, Michigan’s August primary appeared to be a relatively low turnout election. Officials said the majority of voters had already cast their ballots before election day on Tuesday. As of Monday, more than 1 million people across the state had voted, the vast majority of them doing so absentee. Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said Tuesday night that she expected totals to be near 2 million, which would be less than a quarter of the state’s total registered voters. In 2022, there were more than 2.1 million votes cast in Michigan’s August primary. Four years ago, there were more than 2.5 million votes cast. Read Article

Nevada county won’t hand-count in 2024, but some officials support doing so in the future | Gabe Stern/Associated Press

County commissioners in rural northeastern Nevada decided Wednesday not to submit a plan to hand-count votes in November, but some officials said they support implementing it in future election cycles in the latest debate over voting machines across the Western swing state. Elko County commissioners said it was far too close to the election to implement such a plan — parts of which they acknowledged did not meet state guidelines for hand-counting. Instead organizers and some officials said they supported lobbying state officials to allow more methods of hand-counting than what are currently outlined in those guidelines, which they say are too arduous, in the future. Resad Article

A North Carolina county is losing its 2 top election officials weeks before balloting begins | Associated Press

A North Carolina county will soon lose its top two election administrators mere weeks before the first general election ballots go out to voters. The elections board in Pasquotank County, along the Virginia border about 170 miles (274 kilometers) northeast of Raleigh, this week accepted the resignation of Deputy Director Troy White, The Daily Advance of Elizabeth City reported. White’s departure is effective Aug. 16, the same day that the resignation of Director Emma Tate takes effect. Staffing has long been a challenge for election offices nationally, but 2020 was a tipping point with the pandemic-related challenges before the presidential vote and the hostility afterward driven by false claims of a rigged election. Other politically important states have also seen considerable turnover. For instance, 11 of Nevada’s 17 counties have had turnover in top county election positions since the 2020 election. Read Article

Pennsylvania’s Department of State guidance was a 2020 lightning rod. This is how it works. | Carter Walker/Spotlight PA

When legislative Republicans urged Congress to reject Pennsylvania’s electoral votes for Joe Biden in 2020, they didn’t cite voter fraud or illegal activity. Instead, they pointed to something seemingly innocuous: guidance from the Pennsylvania Department of State. State Republicans including then-state House Speaker Bryan Cutler accused the agency of undermining Pennsylvania’s new mail voting law. Jake Corman, then the state Senate’s majority leader, called on former Secretary Kathy Boockvar to step down, saying, “To have this sort of stuff going on at the 11th hour is unconscionable.” Corman was referencing guidance issued by Boockvar the day before the November 2020 election that advised counties to notify voters of fatal defects with their mail ballots and have them vote provisionally at a polling place. Some counties followed the guidance, and some didn’t. Read Article

Texas activist frustrates election officials with lawsuit about threat to ballot secrecy | Natalia Contreras/The Texas Tribune

Laura Pressley claims to hold the key to what should be a closely guarded secret: how every voter in Williamson County has voted. Her story about how she got hold of this information goes something like this: She had gathered clues through scores of public-records requests she had made over the years to the Williamson County elections department, looking for a breakthrough in her quest to find flaws with the electronic voting machines that Texans use to cast their ballots. One day, she fell to her knees, weeping, and asked God to reveal to her the vulnerabilities she was certain existed, she told attendees at an April social media event on ballot secrecy issues organized by the right-wing organization Cause of America, according to an audio recording reviewed by Votebeat. “I said, ‘Dear Lord, show me the pattern, because I know it’s here.’” Around 20 minutes later, by her account, “the Lord showed me the pattern, and I found it. I was literally in shock — emotional shock — to actually have the knowledge of how every voter in Williamson County votes.” Read Article

Under Wisconsin’s ‘drawdown’ election law, one person’s error can cost another person their vote | Alexander Shur/Votebeat

Consider this scenario: An absentee ballot in Wisconsin gets returned with an error, like the voter failing to sign the envelope, but it mistakenly gets counted anyway, because a municipal election worker initially didn’t catch the error when taking the ballot out of the envelope. Later, perhaps during a recount, a worker catches the error and has to mark that voter as invalid. And now the number of ballots in the counting pile is one greater than the number of valid voters. The solution? Just pull one random ballot out of the pile and set it aside to not be counted. Now the numbers match up. But someone — it’s impossible to know who — got their valid vote tossed. It may not seem fair, but it actually happens from time to time in Wisconsin — and almost nowhere else — because of an election law that’s nearly as old as the state. Election officials aren’t crazy about the practice, called a ballot drawdown, and say it is reserved only for extraordinary cases. Read Article