Warren Stewart – Page 103 – The Voting News

Michigan lawmaker offered ‘forensic audit’ in bid to access voting machines | Craig Mauger/The Detroit News

June 10, 2022

A Michigan lawmaker who attempted to get an unidentified group of people access to voting machines in the battleground state told one clerk the team was hoping to perform a “forensic audit,” according to an email obtained by The Detroit News. The message, which was sent by Markey Township Clerk Sheryl Tussey to other officials in northern Michigan’s Roscommon County, reveals the individuals who were looking to obtain voting equipment were using the same terminology that supporters of former President Donald Trump were wielding in their push to advance unproven claims of fraud in the November 2020 election. “I did hear from someone who wanted to do a ‘forensic audit,'” Tussey wrote in an email on May 5, 2021. “Rep. Daire Rendon contacted me a while back and asked if some people could come up and get my machine for that reason, and I said no that I wasn’t comfortable with that.” Tussey’s email — which was sent to 18 recipients, including other local clerks — sheds new light on Rendon’s requests to multiple clerks in her district to get access to vote-counting machines. The News first reported May 20 on Rendon’s entanglement in an investigation by Michigan State Police and Attorney General Dana Nessel’s office into unauthorized access to vote-counting tabulator machines after the 2020 election.

Full Article: Michigan lawmaker offered ‘forensic audit’ in bid to access voting machines

Michigan widens probe into voting system breaches by Trump allies | Nathan Layne and Peter Eisler/Reuters

June 10, 2022

State police in Michigan have obtained warrants to seize voting equipment and election-related records in at least three towns and one county in the past six weeks, police records show, widening the largest known investigation into unauthorized attempts by allies of former President Donald Trump to access voting systems. The previously unreported records include search warrants and investigators’ memos obtained by Reuters through public records requests. The documents reveal a flurry of efforts by state authorities to secure voting machines, poll books, data-storage devices and phone records as evidence in a probe launched in mid-February. The state’s investigation follows breaches of local election systems in Michigan by Republican officials and pro-Trump activists trying to prove his baseless claims of widespread fraud in the 2020 election. The police documents reveal, among other things, that the state is investigating a potential breach of voting equipment in Lake Township, a small, largely conservative community in northern Michigan’s Missaukee County. The previously unreported case is one of at least 17 incidents nationwide, including 11 in Michigan, in which Trump supporters gained or attempted to gain unauthorized access to voting equipment.

Full Article: Exclusive: Michigan widens probe into voting system breaches by Trump allies | Reuters

Michigan GOP gubernatorial candidate Ryan Kelley arrested on Jan. 6 riot-related charges | Robert Snell, Craig Mauger and Beth LeBlanc/The Detroit News

June 10, 2022

FBI agents arrested Republican gubernatorial candidate Ryan Kelley on Thursday on misdemeanor charges related to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, injecting a new round of turmoil into Michigan’s upcoming primary election. Kelley, 40, became one of the highest-profile individuals nationally to face charges so far in federal authorities’ ongoing investigation. Federal court records describe Kelley as being an active participant in the riot, climbing onto portions of the Capitol, encouraging yelling, gesturing to participants and removing a covering from a temporary structure outside the Capitol. Kelley declined to answer reporters’ questions after he was released on bond Thursday afternoon following a brief hearing in federal court in Grand Rapids. He was greeted by a crowd of his supporters outside the federal courthouse, including GOP attorney general candidate Matt DePerno. “We love you, Ryan,” said one of Kelley’s backers at the end of his initial hearing in a courtroom. Prosecutors filed four charges against Kelley. They are knowingly entering or remaining in a restricted building; disorderly and disruptive conduct; knowingly engaging in any act of physical violence against person or property in a restricted building or grounds; willfully injuring or committing depredation against property of the U.S. If convicted, Kelley faces a maximum punishment of up to one year in federal prison and a fine of up to $100,000 for each charge. He was freed on a personal recognizance bond. His next hearing will take place over Zoom on June 16.

Full Article: Ryan Kelley, Michigan GOP gubernatorial candidate, arrested on Jan. 6 riot-related charges

Montana: Here’s why the primary ballots in Lincoln County are being counted by hand | Kiana Wilson/KPAX

June 10, 2022

Lincoln County has had to resort to hand counting all the ballots for the primary election because the ballots were cut too short and will not work in the automatic counting machines. This will delay the election results. “This is a very, very tedious, monotonous process. It takes a lot of you know, concentration and focus. And I don’t you know, I would rather take it slow and steady and be accurate 100% of the time rather than trying to push it and stretch it out until six o’clock in the morning and end up with shoddy results,” Lincoln County Elections Administrator Paula Buff said Wednesday. The whole ballot snafu began when the ballots arrived a week late from the Couer D’Alene Printing Press, without a test deck. After retrieving the test deck, Buff cuts the test deck to the required 14” to run in the machine. But when the absentee ballots arrived, they were a ¼” too short and would not run through the machines. After many tests and possible solutions, Buff and members from the Montana Secretary of State’s office decided that the best course of action would be to hand count all of the ballots. Despite the complications, election officials say it comes down to the community. “I kind of send out the Bat Signal at the last minute and, ‘hey, who wants to count?’ and you know, I mean, most of our, you know, election judges are elderly, but, you know, they have some serious stamina and staying power,” Buff said. “And, you know, some of them have more energy than me, I think.”

Full Article: Here’s why the primary ballots in Lincoln Co. are being counted by hand

Montana: Wrong-sized ballots delay results in US House race | Amy Beth Hanson/Associated Press

June 10, 2022

Ballot printing errors have delayed election results for Montana’s new congressional seat, forcing a small northwestern county to count votes by hand in the unexpectedly close Republican primary race between former Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and former state Sen. Al “Doc” Olszewski. Zinke led Olszewski by 1,181 votes, or 1.5 percentage points, out of 80,194 votes counted, as of 3:30 p.m. local time Wednesday. Lincoln County had an estimated 6,000 ballots to hand count. Zinke, a former Navy SEAL, was considered the favorite in the race and had been endorsed by former President Donald Trump. “The race appears to answer the question of whether President Trump is a ‘kingmaker,’ as Zinke has previously said,” said Christina Barsky, a University of Montana professor who teaches classes in election administration, government and public budgeting. The trouble in Lincoln County stemmed from a vendor printing the ballots on the wrong-sized paper, meaning they could not be run through a machine tabulator, the secretary of state’s office said Wednesday. By law, ballots have to either all be counted by machine or all counted by hand, spokesperson Richie Melby said. Lincoln County Clerk and Recorder Robin Benson said in a statement that the hand count was expected to take two to three days. Election officials started counting ballots on Tuesday.

Source: Wrong-sized ballots delay results in Montana US House race | AP News

New Hampshire Vote Counting Law Will Divert Ballots With Overvotes | Kevin Landrigan/The New Hampshire Union Leader

June 10, 2022

New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu signed into law a pivotal ballot-counting reform Tuesday, June 7, that grew out of the post-election ballot mess from the 2020 election in Windham. The bipartisan measure will, for the first time, require vendors to program vote-counting machines to divert into a side compartment any ballot that appears to have too many marks on it for a single office. The bill’s prime sponsor, Hillsborough Democratic state Rep. Marjorie Porter, said the change should prevent a repeat of the chaos in Windham. If this had been in place before the 2020 election, it would have immediately flagged the absentee ballots that were incorrectly read by Windham’s automated voting machines on Election Day because of folds through one of the candidates’ names. After a hand recount, all four Republican candidates for state representative in Windham picked up nearly 300 votes apiece. The leading Democratic candidate lost nearly 100 votes after the recounts. A never-before-used folding machine was deployed in Windham to cope with the high number of absentee ballots.

Full Article: Latest New Hampshire Vote Counting Law Will Remove Overvotes

Pennsylvania Republicans are no closer to re-inspecting Fulton County’s 2020 voting machines | Sam Dunklau/WITF

June 10, 2022

A planned inspection of a rural Pennsylvania county’s voting equipment from 2020 remains on hold, despite a recent state court decision. South-central Fulton County, encouraged by state Senate Republicans, has been seeking a second inspection of Dominion voting machines that it used during the 2020 election. But the county has been mired in court challenges. At issue is whether Fulton can have its Dominion machines inspected, and whether the Department of State can stop an inspection from happening. Supporters of the effort have not explained how such an inspection would be carried out and have not clearly explained why one is necessary more than a year and a half after the machines were used. Former President Donald Trump, who won 85 percent of the vote there, continues to falsely assert that he lost to President Joe Biden because of systemic ballot fraud and procedural issues. There is no evidence of widespread fraud or machine tampering in Pennsylvania. Fulton County’s latest examination was set to happen in January after Commonwealth Court sided with the county in a lawsuit – but the state Supreme Court halted it when the Department of State appealed the lower court’s decision. It’s been on pause ever since. “I’m just a little frustrated with the Supreme Court for their delay,” said Sen. Cris Dush (R-Cameron), who leads the Senate committee that has spearheaded the latest inspection effort.

Full Article: Pennsylvania Republicans are no closer to re-inspecting Fulton County’s 2020 voting machines | WITF

Rhode Island Senate committee to vote on remote voting bill despite warnings of risks | Katherine Gregg/The Providence Journal

June 10, 2022

The state’s top election officials raised warning flags. One state lawmaker after another stated their misgivings when it popped up a year ago. But a bill to allow remote voting is once again headed to a vote at the Rhode Island State House. On Tuesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to vote on the bill, S2118, to allow disabled and military voters to “electronically receive and return their mail ballot.” The proposal was not included in the much-heralded “Let RI Vote” bill, allowing online applications and eliminating longstanding witness requirements for mail ballots, that Gov. Dan McKee is expected to sign into law on Wednesday. And only one person spoke in favor of the legislation at a hearing earlier this year: the lead sponsor, Sen. Stephen Archambault, D-Smithfield. Others voiced their support in writing, including the Rhode Island Commission for Human Rights. But in a letter of concern to lawmakers, Cranston’s director of elections, Nicholas Lima, wrote: “There are significant cybersecurity concerns … despite assurances that some electronic ballot vendors tend to promote to the contrary. “No current technology exists that allows a [ballot] to be transmitted … electronically, without risk of interception or alteration by hostile threat actors – including well-equipped nation state actors that are intent on disrupting American elections by any means necessary.

Full Article: Rhode Island Senate committee to vote on remote voting bill

Tennessee: Long Stalemate Ends on New Shelby County Voting Machines | Jackson Baker/Memphis Flyer

June 10, 2022

At long last, after at least two years of steady contentiousness between the County Commission and the Shelby County Election Commission, a resolution may have been reached on the matter of what kind of voting method should replace the currently used outmoded machines. But that auxiliary verb “may” is necessary. At several points during three-and-a-half hours of intense disagreements and outright verbal combat, various commissioners would invoke the prospect of reconsideration — that parliamentary device which allows voters for a majority position to call for a revote later on. Though a flurry of secondary issues became part of the argument, the essential debate at Monday’s commission meeting was between proponents of hand-marked paper ballots and defenders of the Election Commission’s preference for electronic ballot-marking devices. The commission had voted twice previously in favor of hand-marked paper ballots and had specifically rejected ballot-marking devices, but the resolution before the body on Monday called for almost $6 million to purchase ballot-marking machines from the Election Systems & Software company. It also allowed for a “compromise” procedure whereby voters could either ask for paper ballots or use the ballot-marking machines. Partisans of hand-marked paper ballots tended to be skeptical regarding the bona fides of that provision. At the end, in any event, the resolution would pass, though at various intervals a series of amendments that would have transformed it one way or another were introduced and then withdrawn. The final version targeted November as the changeover date, though Election Administrator Linda Phillips and Election Commission chairman Mark Luttrell had asked for action before the August county election on grounds that the county’s existing machines were on their last legs.

Full Article: Memphis Flyer | Long Stalemate Ends on New Voting Machines

Wisconsin: Future of Election Commission remains unclear as new chair is about to be selected | Joy Powers, Kobe Brown/WUWM

June 10, 2022

The Wisconsin Election Commission has been in the spotlight since the 2020 election. Unsubstantiated claims of election fraud have pitted many Republican politicians against the commission, despite the fact the election commission was created by former Republican Governor Scott Walker to ensure that both major parties would have equal representation in the process. The commission postponed selecting its new chairperson when Republican commissioner Dean Knudson resigned late last month — citing Republican’s deep desire that he step down in light of Knudson’s assertions that widespread voter fraud didn’t occur in Wisconsin during the 2020 presidential election. Now, Wisconsin state Assembly Speaker Robin Vos has appointed a new Republican member to replace Knudson — attorney Don Millis. “[Don Millis is] a former member of the commission and a former member of the body that preceded the commission, so he has a history and some expertise,” says Barry Burden, a professor of political science at UW-Madison and director of the Elections Research Center. “He was well received by former Governor Tommy Thompson, who actually appointed him initially to serve on the state board. There were even positive things said about him by Ann Jacobs, who’s the current Democratic chair of the commission.” The next chairperson of the commission will be a Republican and will certify the 2022 midterm election and 2024 presidential election. It’s likely to be either Millis or Robert Spindell, who attempted to cast Electoral College ballots for President Donald Trump during the 2020 election and has been a strong supporter of the GOP investigation into the election.

Full Article: Future of Wisconsin Election Commission remains unclear as new chair is about to be selected | WUWM 89.7 FM – Milwaukee’s NPR

Alaska Judge orders delay in certification of US House special primary; state plans appeal | Iris Samuels, Anchorage Daily News

June 10, 2022

An Alaska state judge ruled Friday that the results of the special U.S. House primary election could not be certified until visually impaired voters are given “a full and fair opportunity to vote independently, secretly and privately.” The state immediately said it was planning an appeal to the Alaska Supreme Court. The ruling, from Anchorage Superior Court Judge Judge Una Gandbhir, came after arguments earlier in the day in a lawsuit filed earlier this week by the Alaska State Commission for Human Rights against the Alaska Division of Election and Lt. Gov. Keven Meyer, who oversees the division. The commission asserted that the primary, which is the state’s first all-mail election, does not provide visually impaired voters in the state adequate voting access. The order comes just a day before the Saturday voting deadline. It could upend a plan to hold the special general election on Aug. 16 and force an all-mail general election, according to the Division of Elections. The ramifications of the court decision on the ongoing election were not immediately clear. “No court should consider lightly an injunction that potentially upends an ongoing election, but neither can the Court allow flawed state procedures to disenfranchise a group of Alaskans who already face tremendous barriers in exercising a fundamental right,” Gandbhir wrote in her decision to grant the preliminary injunction. The decision does not specify what giving visually impaired voters “a full and fair” opportunity to vote would entail, but Gandbhir wrote she “urges the parties to work together expeditiously to find a timely, appropriate remedy.”

Full Article: Judge orders delay in certification of Alaska’s US House special primary; state plans appeal | Nation | fltimes.com

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