National: Why Democrats’ Version of ‘Stop the Steal’ Isn’t Taking Off | Stuart A. Thompson, Kaleigh Rogers and Steven Lee Myers/The New York Times

The 2024 presidential election has set off a new wave of election denialism online — only this time, it is coming from voters on the left. Much as many supporters of President-elect Donald J. Trump did after the 2020 election, some supporters of Vice President Kamala Harris are demanding recounts in key states in a bid to verify or even overturn the result. They are scrutinizing election results for signs of tampering, questioning whether election machines flipped votes and wondering whether digital technology could have injected fake votes. Read Article

National: 13 accused of being ‘fake electors’ cast Electoral College votes for Trump | Oren Oppenheim, Brittany Shepherd, Laura Romero, and Peter Charalambous/ABC

More than a dozen Republican officials accused of signing false certifications claiming Donald Trump had won their states’ electoral votes in the 2020 election served as electors Tuesday, this time casting real votes for the president-elect. Thirteen alleged “fake electors” cast Electoral College votes in Pennsylvania, Nevada and Michigan despite some of the officials still facing criminal charges from the last election. All have pleaded not guilty. Read Article

National: The 2024 election increased public trust in elections, but is it only temporary? | Carrie Levine/Votebeat

The presidential election this year had a quick and decisive result. In its wake, survey after survey is finding that a majority of the public believes the election was fair and the results are accurate. The polling is finding a significant uptick in Republicans’ belief in the results, which is driving the increase. A majority of the public asserting they have faith in elections is, by any measure, good news. But after the past few years, it’s also fair to ask whether the results would be different if Donald Trump had lost the presidential election — and whether that faith will hold when elections turn out differently. It’s too early to answer the second question with any degree of certainty. But at a summit on elections held by the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington, D.C. earlier this month, election officials said they continue to worry — about whether the public will continue to believe in elections, about what comes next, about their own personal safety. Read Article

National: Trump Has Little Power to Make Drastic Voting Changes | Joshua A. Douglas/Washington Monthly

Donald Trump has bold ideas for changing our elections. While most of his proposals would make our voting rules worse, there’s a silver lining. Given the decentralized nature of our election system, he has little official power to implement the new rules he supports. At an event on December 7, Trump stated, “We want to have paper ballots, one-day voting, voter ID, and proof of citizenship.” This statement echoed one of the priorities he listed on his campaign website: “Secure our elections, including same day voting, voter identification, paper ballots, and proof of citizenship.” But as president, Trump does not have the authority to administer elections. The U.S. Constitution says that state legislatures determine the “times, places, and manner of holding elections” for Congress, though Congress can step in to “make or alter” those rules. The Constitution gives the president no power over voting beyond signing or vetoing congressional laws. States scrupulously guard their constitutional authority to regulate elections, often opposing federal statutes that dictate rules for administering elections. Read Article

National: States Must Take the Lead on Election Security | Derek Tisler/Brennan Center for Justice

American elections face increasingly complex cyber and physical security threats from foreign adversaries, emerging technology, and escalating risks of political violence. Fortifying election systems against these threats is essential. Historically, state and local governments have been responsible for ensuring the integrity of our electoral system, and that remains true. Decentralized election administration has been a significant source of strength for election security. But over the past decade, federal support has increased as Congress and federal agencies provided state and local officials with funding and expertise and facilitated information sharing on the threat landscape. As security threats continue to evolve and with election officials now operating as frontline national security figures, that support has helped make U.S. election systems more resilient than ever. Read Articled

National: The Top Cybersecurity Agency in the US Is Bracing for Donald Trump | Eric Geller/WIRED

Donald Trump helped create the US government’s cybersecurity agency during his first term as president. Six years later, employees of that agency are afraid of what he’ll do with it once he retakes office. Trump’s alliances with libertarian-minded billionaires like Elon Musk and his promises to cut government spending and corporate oversight have alarmed staffers at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the component of the Department of Homeland Security that defends US government computer systems from hackers and helps state and local governments, private companies, and nonprofit groups protect themselves. CISA, which the Trump administration and Congress created in 2018 by reorganizing an existing DHS wing, became a target of right-wing vitriol after its Trump-appointed director rebuffed the president’s election conspiracy theories in 2020 (prompting Trump to fire him) and after it worked with tech companies to combat online misinformation during the 2022 election. Read Article

National: ‘Not the AI election’: Why artificial intelligence did not define the 2024 campaign | Loreben Tuquero/PolitiFact

Days after New Hampshire voters received a robocall with an artificially generated voice that resembled President Joe Biden’s, the Federal Communications Commission banned using AI-generated voices in robocalls. It was a flashpoint. The 2024 election would be the first to unfold amid wide public access to AI generators, which let people create images, audio and video — some for nefarious purposes. But the anticipated avalanche of AI-driven misinformation never materialized. As Election Day came and went, viral misinformation played a starring role, misleading about vote counting, mail-in ballots and voting machines. But this chicanery leaned largely on old, familiar techniques, including text-based social media claims and video or out-of-context images. Read Article

Arizona Judge blocks new election rules, including on certifying results | Jen Fifield/Votebeat

Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes exceeded his authority in several instances when making changes to the state’s election manual last year, a Maricopa County Superior Court judge ruled Thursday. The state will now be blocked from enforcing these particular rules, including one that would have allowed the secretary of state to finalize statewide election results without the results of a county, if the county failed to certify its results by the deadline. That rule had already been suspended by a federal judge in a separate case challenging Fontes’ manual. That challenge was filed in July in federal court by the Trump-aligned America First Policy Institute. Read Article

Georgia appeals court strips DA Fani Willis of case that charged Donald Trump with election interference | Tamar Hallerman and Bill Rankin/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The Georgia Court of Appeals ruled on Thursday that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and her office should be disqualified from the 2020 election interference case, a bombshell decision that upends the last remaining criminal case against incoming President Donald Trump. In a 2-1 opinion, the court concluded that Willis’ onetime romantic relationship with former special prosecutor Nathan Wade merited her dismissal from the case. “After carefully considering the trial court’s findings in its order, we conclude that it erred by failing to disqualify DA Willis and her office,” Judge Trenton Brown wrote for the majority. He was joined by Judge Todd Markle. A third judge, Benjamin Land, issued a strongly worded dissent. Read Article

Michigan Senate votes forward proposed penalties for spreading false election information | Kyle Davidson/Michigan Advance

Late in the evening on Thursday, members of the Michigan Senate voted along party lines to advance a bill creating fines for intentionally making a false statement about Michigan elections. Senate Bill 707 specifies individuals who knowingly misrepresent the time, place or manner of an election; the qualifications or restrictions on voter eligibility; criminal penalties associated with voting in an election; an individuals’ voter registration status or eligibility would be subject to a fine of up to $1,000 for each violation. The bill clarifies that an individual has intentionally and knowingly made a false statement or representation if they know it is false and make the statement with the intent to hinder or prevent another individual from voting in an election. Read Article

New Jersey: New plan to boost voter turnout: send mail voting applications as 18th birthday gift | Nikita Biryukov/New Jersey Monitor

A Senate panel approved legislation that would require the state to send a vote-by-mail application to New Jersey residents upon their 18th birthday in what the bill’s sponsor said is a bid to boost turnout. The legislation, which passed the Senate’s state government committee in a 3-0 vote Monday, would require county clerks send mail ballots to registered voters when they reach the age of majority. “Only 65% of eligible New Jerseyans cast a ballot in this year’s election, marking the lowest turnout for a presidential race in state history,” said Sen. Jim Beach (D-Camden), the bill’s sponsor and the committee’s chairman. “One way to improve voter participation is to increase accessibility for young voters, many of whom are away at school during general elections.” Read Article

North Carolina: Republican Appeals Court Judge Griffin asks State Supreme Court to intervene in his challenge of 60,000 ballots | Kyle Ingram/Raleigh News & Observer

Republican Jefferson Griffin is asking the North Carolina Supreme Court to intervene in his effort to challenge over 60,000 ballots cast in his race for the high court. The State Board of Elections dismissed Griffin’s ballot protests, but has not taken a final step of certifying the election. Griffin now asks the court, which has a 5 to 2 Republican majority, to prohibit the board from certifying the election and to throw out the challenged ballots. Read Article

Ohio GOP stoked fears of non-citizen voting. In reality, it’s rare | Julie Carr Smith/Associated Press

Before the November presidential election, Ohio’s secretary of state and attorney general announced investigations into potential voter fraud that included people suspected of casting ballots even though they were not U.S. citizens. It coincided with a national Republican messaging strategy warning that potentially thousands of ineligible voters would be voting. “The right to vote is sacred,” Attorney General Dave Yost, a Republican, said in a statement at the time. “If you’re not a U.S. citizen, it’s illegal to vote -– whether you thought you were allowed to or not. You will be held accountable.” In the end, their efforts led to just a handful of cases. Read Article

Pennsylvania: Five years after changes in election laws, workers still waiting for small fixes to big problems | Tom Shortell/Lehigh Valley News

Pennsylvania’s 2024 election operated like a well-oiled machine this year with no major delays or snafus, but Lehigh County’s top election official warned there’s still trouble under the hood. For years, state and county officials have requested tweaks to Pennsylvania’s election code: more time to pre-canvass mail-in ballots and an earlier voter registration deadline. Other requests, such as a more robust form of early, in-person voting, have cropped up since. But thanks in part to political gridlock and the politicization of elections, none of the changes have gone on the books. Read Article

Texas GOP wants to require citizenship proof from voters | Natalia Contreras/The Texas Tribune

Republicans are making a big push for legislation requiring Texans to provide proof of citizenship to register to vote, and key lawmakers are signaling that they’ll make it a priority next year. The push is part of a national effort by the GOP and conservative allies who assert that such legislation is needed to stop noncitizens from illegally casting ballots, even though such cases are already very rare. Read Article

Wisconsin Assembly Republicans pushing voter ID amendment, pre-election ballot processing | Adam Kelnhofer and Mitchell Schmidt/Wisconsin State Journal

Amending the state Constitution to require an ID to vote and passing a bill to allow clerks to start processing absentee ballots before election night are among Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos’ top priorities for this legislative session, Vos said Wednesday. Vos told the Wisconsin State Journal he wants the Legislature to move swiftly and approve the voter ID proposal at the beginning of the session so it can go before voters in the April election, which includes a high-profile race for the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Liberals currently have a 4-3 majority on the court, but that could change depending on who wins this spring. Read Article