Warren Stewart – Page 108 – The Voting News

The Nye County Commission is used to dealing with all sorts of hot-button controversies. Water rights, livestock rules and marijuana licenses are among the many local dramas that consume the time of the five commissioners in this vast swath of rural and deeply Republican Nevada. Last spring, it was something new: voting machines. For months, conspiracy theories fueled on social media by those repeating lies about former President Donald Trump’s loss in 2020 inflamed public suspicions about whether election results could be trusted. In response, the commission put a remarkable item on its agenda: Ditch the county’s voting machines and instead count every vote on every ballot — more than 20,000 in a typical general election — entirely by hand. Commissioners called a parade of witnesses, including three from out of state who insisted voting machines could be hacked and votes flipped without leaving a trace. They said no county could be certain their machines weren’t accessible via the internet and open to tampering by nefarious actors. It was all just too much for Sam Merlino, a Republican who has spent more than two decades administering elections as the county’s clerk. She simply felt outgunned.

Full Article: In a Nevada county, election conspiracies sow deep distrust | AP News

New Mexico: US District Court judge OKs online publication of voter records | Morgan Lee/Associated Press

A conservative-backed initiative to publish voter registration records from across the country online for public consumption can move forward over the objections of New Mexico election regulators, a federal judge has ordered in a preliminary opinion. Albuquerque-based U.S. District Court Judge James Browning issued an order last Friday preventing New Mexico state prosecutors from pursuing allegations of possible election code violations against the creators of VoteRef.com. The VoteRef.com website provides searchable access to voter registration records by name and street addresses, often indicating when people voted in past elections. The online records do not say for which candidates the people voted or how they voted on initatives. Party affiliation is listed for voters in some states but not all. The Voter Reference Foundation that created the website advocates for voting accountability by making voter information more accessible to the public. Following the ruling, the foundation said it would post New Mexico voter rolls online starting Tuesday. The decision doesn’t apply to New Mexico voters enrolled in a confidential address program aimed at protecting victims of domestic violence and stalking.

Source: US judge OKs online publication of New Mexico voter records | AP News

Pennsylvania: Butler County auditing some 2020 mail-in ballots to gather information for future elections | Jesse Bunch/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Officials in Butler County began an audit of ballots from the 2020 general and state elections on Wednesday — a move leaders said is a bipartisan effort to collect data on what it would take to conduct similar reviews for future elections. “We’re doing this as a way to understand what that type of a process would take, what that would look like time wise,” said Leslie Osche, a Republican and chair of the Butler County board of commissioners. … County Commissioner and Democrat Kevin Boozel called claims of widespread claims voter fraud from former President Donald Trump and politicians across the Republican party in the wake of that year’s election the “elephant in the room” during Wednesday’s public meeting. “Now everyone’s paying attention. Whether it’s right, wrong, or indifferent, our job, I feel, is about integrity,” Mr. Boozel said. “Do I like doing the 2020 review? Hell no. Do I believe that we owe it to people to be as transparent as possible, and if people want to see something, do we owe that to them? I do — with reason.” Mr. Boozel said he did not know how much it would cost the county for the review.

Full Article: Butler County auditing some 2020 mail-in ballots to gather information for future elections | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Texas will audit 2022 midterm election results in four counties | Philip Jankowski/Dallas Morning News

The Texas secretary of state’s office selected the state’s most populated county and three others Thursday for an audit of election returns that will include the 2022 midterms. Cameron, Guadalupe, Eastland and Harris counties were picked at random under a provision of the 2021 omnibus election law that created the audit process. Cameron and Harris were chosen from a pool of Texas’ 18 counties with populations of 300,000 or more and Guadalupe and Eastland from counties with fewer than 300,000 people. Since the beginning of the year, the secretary of state’s office has been building a forensic audit department within its ranks. In November, Gov. Greg Abbott and top Republicans at the Legislature signed off on sending $4 million to the secretary of state’s office to staff up the division. The audits will begin immediately after November’s midterms and will also examine other non-primary elections, such as the May 7 vote on amendments to the Texas Constitution. The audit process came about after the Texas Legislature passed a sweeping election law, Senate Bill 1, in 2021 in reaction to fears over election security stoked by former President Donald Trump’s false claims of widespread fraud. Republicans led the charge in passing the bill over the objections of House Democrats, who took desperate measures to block its passage by stealthily walking out on 2021′s regular session and then much more visibly fleeing the state during a special session. Their efforts failed as several House Democrats quietly returned to Austin and allowed the House to gavel in with a quorum present.

Full Article: Texas will audit 2022 midterm election results in four counties

Utah: Judge tosses lawsuit from election conspiracy duo seeking 2020 voting data | Bryan Schott/Salt Lake Tribune

A judge tossed a lawsuit from a pair of Utah election deniers seeking detailed voting data from the 2020 election. Jen Orten and Sophie Anderson, known online as “The Two Red Pills,” filed suit against Utah, Juab and Millard counties, seeking voting machine data from the 2020 elections. In their lawsuit, Orten and Anderson asked for the “cast vote record” in those counties from the 2020 election, which is a record of when ballots from the election were counted by machine and logged into the system. The duo claimed since Utah law does not explicitly protect those records, they should be made available. Utah Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson’s office filed a motion to dismiss in the suit, claiming Utah’s public records laws don’t apply because the data is an “election record,” which is exempted from GRAMA (the Government Records and Management Act). Utah law says all election materials must be sealed for 22 months after the results are certified and destroyed. Additionally, her office was skeptical about why the two were asking for the data. “Plaintiffs effectively want to contest the 2020 and 2021 elections results and thereby cast doubt on county and state administration of elections,” Henderson’s motion reads.

Full Article: Judge tosses lawsuit from Utah election conspiracy duo seeking 2020 voting data

Wisconsin: Dane County elections committee calls for greater security for equipment, clerks | Chris Rickert/Wisconsin State Journal

Describing the security of election equipment as “inadequate” and threats to elections workers as a “serious problem,” a Dane County task force on Monday called for hardening the county’s election infrastructure in the wake of a 2020 presidential election that many Republicans continue to falsely claim was tainted by systemic fraud or outright stolen. A report by the nine-member Election Security Review Committee does not make specific recommendations for how much more should be spent or on what, although during a press conference held over Zoom, Dane County Clerk Scott McDonell said he’d like to see a dedicated climate-controlled building, with cameras and other security, to store voting machines and other equipment. The committee also was not able to obtain specific figures from local or federal law enforcement on how many threats were made against the county’s election workers or whether any of those were investigated and led to prosecutions. But a survey of the county’s municipal clerks found that 84% of respondents said threats against election officials have increased in recent years, with 70% saying they were at least “somewhat concerned” for their safety or the safety of their staffs and 78% saying they worried about being harassed over the phone or on the job. Fifty of the county’s 62 clerks’ offices responded to the survey.

Full Article: Dane County elections committee calls for greater security for equipment, clerks | Local Government | madison.com

National: Elections officials urged to prepare for shortages, delays | Scott Bauer/Associated Press

Elections officials from across the country meeting under heightened security were urged Tuesday to prepare for supply chain issues that could lead to shortages in paper used for everything from ballots to “I voted” stickers for years to come. The summer meeting of the National Association of State Election Directors brought together nearly 200 people, including elections directors from 33 states, experts in election security, interest groups that work with elections, vendors and others. Election security experts told the directors to be prepared for possibly years of supply chain issues affecting paper, computer hardware and other things. The supply chain as it affects elections may not return to normal until 2026, said Ed Smith, a longtime election technology and administration veteran who chairs a federal government-industry coordinating council that works on election security issues. The lead time to obtain election hardware is two- to three-times longer than the norm, a delay not seen since 1999 or 2000, Smith said. Costs are also higher and elections officials should be prepared for spotty and unpredictable problems due to transportation and pandemic-related shutdowns, he said.

Full Artic le: Elections officials urged to prepare for shortages, delays | AP News

National: A Jan. 6 Mystery: Why Did It Take So Long to Deploy the National Guard? | Mark Mazzetti and Maggie Haberman/The New York Times

As the House committee investigating Jan. 6 used its prime-time hearing on Thursday to document President Donald J. Trump’s lack of forceful response to the attack on the Capitol by his supporters, it again raised one of the enduring mysteries of that day: Why did it take so long to deploy the National Guard? The hearing did not fully answer the question, but it shed light on Mr. Trump’s refusal to push for troops to assist police officers who were overrun by an angry mob determined to halt the certification of the 2020 presidential election. The mobilization and deployment of National Guard troops from an armory just two miles away from the Capitol was hung up by confusion, communications breakdowns and concern over the wisdom of dispatching armed soldiers to quell the riot. It took more than four hours from the time the Capitol Police chief made the call for backup to when the D.C. National Guard troops arrived, a gap that remains the subject of dueling narratives and finger-pointing. The hearing featured the testimony of Matthew Pottinger, the deputy White House national security adviser, who resigned in protest on the day of the attack. On that day, Mr. Pottinger had an urgent discussion with the White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, about why National Guard troops had not been deployed to the Capitol.

Full Article: Why Did It Take So Long to Deploy the National Guard on Jan. 6? – The New York Times

National: New and familiar threats loom over midterms, election officials tell Congress | Benjamin Freed/StateScoop

Many of the cybersecurity, disinformation and resource challenges that election administrators have long faced are as present as ever in 2022, a panel of election officials told the House Homeland Security Committee on Wednesday. Added in this year is a steady clip of insider threats posed by actors inside government, as well as a rising tide of explicit threats of violence made against officials and their families.

Cybersecurity measures, staffing challenges, financial resources and stronger relationships with law enforcement were all tossed about during the nearly three-hour hearing, with many speakers noting the strain the threat landscape has placed on election administrators nationwide.

“Election officials have found themselves victims of harassment and threats in a way we have never seen before,” said Rep. Ritchie Torres, D-N.Y., the committee’s vice chairman. “As a result, election offices across the country are struggling to retain a trained staff, exacerbating the existing challenges associated with administering the 2022 midterm elections.”

Insider threats were a major topic of conversation when the National Association of Secretaries of State gathered earlier this month in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. But those concerns are often accompanied by a rise in verbal threats and harassment. Testifying remotely, New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver said that in the weeks since a showdown with a county commission over its refusal to certify primary election results — with commissioners citing disproven conspiracy theories about vote-counting equipment — she and her employees have received numerous threats that were referred to law enforcement.

Full Article: New and familiar threats loom over midterms, election officials tell Congress – StateScoop

National: The People Who Count Our Elections—or Can Grind the Process to a Halt | Quinn Yeargain/Bolts

The certification of President Biden’s win in Michigan was in serious doubt after the 2020 election. In Detroit’s Wayne County, the Republican members of the board of canvassers initially refused to certify the results, citing baseless allegations of “irregularities” in several local precincts. Under pressure, the local board eventually and unanimously certified the results. But the Republicans on the state’s canvassing board renewed their objections to Detroit’s vote count until one Republican’s decision to greenlight the results allowed the process to move forward. The 2020 election exposed more than any other how the mechanics of vote counting rely on a convoluted series of decisions by individual officials. Many are imbued with powers that, depending on how they wield them, can grind the machinery of democracy to a halt, as is made clear by the revelations about former President Donald Trump’s plot to convince state and local officials to deny the results of the 2020 election. Even when their tasks are ceremonial, the system may still hinge on their operating in good faith and without desire to overturn an election. Trump and his allies have only intensified their focus on this sea of decision-makers, building strength. The Republican Party in Michigan has replaced many of its members on canvassing boards with representatives who do not say whether they would have certified the 2020 election, including in Wayne County. In Wisconsin, one of the GOP members of the state’s elections commission—the body tasked with certifying results—actively participated in the efforts to overturn Biden’s win in 2020. The commission’s chair, another Republican, is silent on the legitimacy of the 2020 election. Elsewhere in the country, election deniers are running for secretary of state or other critical local offices like county clerk and election judge, often with vows to intervene in upcoming elections; and local elections officials have faced persistent harassment from proponents of the Big Lie.

Full Article: The People Who Count Our Elections—or Can Grind the Process to a Halt | Bolts

National: Russia Election Threat Persists Amid War in Ukraine, Officials Say | Adam Goldman/The New York Times

Top national security officials warned on Tuesday about the continuing threat of election interference from abroad, emphasizing that Russia could still seek to meddle or promote disinformation during the 2022 midterm races even as it wages war in Ukraine. “I am quite confident the Russians can walk and chew gum,” Christopher A. Wray, the F.B.I. director, said during a cybersecurity conference in Manhattan, where he spoke alongside Gen. Paul M. Nakasone, the head of the National Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command. Iran and China also remained potent threats, mounting their own campaigns to undermine American democracy, the officials said. “The Russians are trying to get us to tear ourselves apart,” Mr. Wray said. “The Chinese are trying to manage our decline, and the Iranians are trying to get us to go away.”

Full Article: Russia Election Threat Persists Amid War in Ukraine, Officials Say – The New York Times

National: FBI director expects onslaught of digital assaults targeting midterm elections | Suzanne Smalley/CyberScoop

Federal law enforcement officials are preparing for a wave of multilayered cyberattacks and influence operations from China, Russia and Iran in the run up to November’s midterm elections, FBI Director Christopher Wray said Tuesday. Wray pointed to a multi-pronged 2020 Iranian cyber campaign to intimidate and influence American voters, saying officials expect to see more such incidents in the coming months. The risks posed to the American public by “relatively modest hacking” increase exponentially when foreign governments layer such efforts with influence operations and disinformation that “causes panic or lack of confidence in our election infrastructure,” Wray said during a cybersecurity conference at Fordham University in New York City. Officials worry about how the impact of such threats might be magnified by what Wray called “multidisciplinary” cyber operations. The FBI is working closely with U.S. Cyber Command to manage election threats and when the two agencies are in “combat tempo” their respective teams are in touch every two hours at a minimum, Wray said.

Full Article: FBI director expects onslaught of digital assaults targeting midterm elections

Editorial: Preventing the Next Jan. 6 Riot | Wall Street Journal

Like a buried artillery shell from a long-ago war, the 1887 Electoral Count Act (ECA) was a law waiting to explode. By giving Congress a process for rejecting Electoral College votes, the ECA created a constitutional hazard that detonated on Jan. 6, 2021. This week 16 Senators, led by Republican Susan Collins and Democrat Joe Manchin, unveiled legislation to overhaul the ECA and stop future electoral mischief. The bill isn’t perfect, but it’s worth passing.

Source: Preventing the Next Jan. 6 Riot – WSJ

Alabama Attorney General says Lindy Blanchard lawsuit on electronic voting based on ‘speculation and innuendo’ | Mike Cason/al.com

Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall has asked a judge to toss out a lawsuit by former gubernatorial candidate Lindy Blanchard and others that claims electronic voting machines in Alabama are inaccurate and subject to manipulation. “Plaintiffs ask this Court to rewrite Alabama’s election laws based on nothing more than speculation and innuendo,” attorneys with Marshall’s office wrote in a motion to dismiss the case filed Wednesday in Montgomery County Circuit Court. Blanchard’s lawsuit asks the court to bar the use of electronic vote-counters used in all 67 Alabama counties and require a hand count of ballots in the general election in November. The lawsuit claims, in part, that the use of the electronic voting machines violates due process because the machines are capable of being connected to the internet and hacked. Lawyers with the AG’s office said the court has no jurisdiction over what they characterized as hypothetical claims. “Plaintiffs do not claim that their ballots will likely be miscounted,” the motion to dismiss says. “They allege only that someone’s ballot might be miscounted, if a voting machine is ever hooked up to the internet and if someone hacks it.”

Full Article: Alabama AG says Lindy Blanchard lawsuit on electronic voting based on ‘speculation and innuendo’ – al.com

Colorado: Two GOP primary losers fail to pay for recounts | Nicholas Riccardi and Colleen Slevin/Associated Press

Colorado’s secretary of state’s office on Wednesday said it has told two candidates who lost their Republican primary races last month that it will not conduct a recount of those races because they failed to pay the required amount by the deadline. The office informed Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters, who lost her race for the GOP nomination for secretary of state, and state Rep. Ron Hanks, who fell short in his bid for the party’s U.S. Senate nomination, that it was moving forward finalizing the results of the primary. Neither candidate paid the $236,000 that was due by July 15 for the recount. In letters sent to the office on Tuesday, both said they wanted a hand recount rather than one done by machine. A centerpiece of their election conspiracy theory has been mistrust of voting machines. Peters and Hanks have promoted the false claim that President Joe Biden did not actually win his election against former President Donald Trump in 2020 and also claimed widespread fraud led to their losses in the state’s June 28 GOP primary. They are part of a growing number of deniers of the outcome of the 2020 election also questioning their own primary losses. The secretary of state’s letters said a hand recount is not allowed under the office’s regulations and dismissed the candidates’ concerns about possible fraud. It said they have one last window to pay for a recount — until July 26.

Full Article: Two GOP primary losers in Colorado fail to pay for recounts | AP News

Georgia: Driven by voter skepticism, several counties seek election audits | Mark Niesse/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The elections board in rural Pickens County voted Tuesday to ask a judge to unseal ballots from this year’s primary, the latest attempt in heavily Republican areas to audit Georgia election results. If a court agrees, election workers would conduct a hand count of over 7,600 ballots cast in Republican races for governor and secretary of state to check the accuracy of results tabulated by voting computers. Election board members said they sought the audit in response to residents who distrust Georgia’s election equipment, manufactured by Dominion Voting Systems, which uses touchscreens to print out paper ballots. “I implore this board to search your hearts in the name of voter confidence and transparency, and to not allow the fear of the unknown to stop you from doing what is right,” Republican board member Mike Carver said before the vote.

Full Article: Elections boards in several rural Georgia counties pursue audits

Indiana: Lake County Election Board approves resolution to volunteer county for post-election audits in state pilot program | Alexandra Kukulka/Chicago Tribune

The Lake County Board of Elections and Registration approved Tuesday a resolution to volunteer the county as a post-election audit county for a state pilot program. State law requires that by 2024 all counties utilize a voter verifiable paper audit trail, or VVPAT machines, said Lake County Board of Elections and Registration assistant director LeAnn Angerman. The county implemented VVPAT machines during early voting in the 2022 primary election, she said, and the 2022 general election will see a 10% implementation of VVPAT machines in the polls. Angerman and Lake County Board of Elections and Registration director Michelle Fajman have financial and storage concerns with the VVPAT machines. While the state is paying for the VVPAT machines, Angerman said the county will have to pay for the special thermal paper the machines require. When the county receives 1,300 VVPAT machines by 2024, it’ll be costly to restock the paper at about $9 a roll, she said. Fajman said the paper has to be stored in a climate controlled environment, so it’ll be challenging to find a place to store it. Angerman said storing the VVPAT machines will either require renovation or finding additional storage space. “The space we have is not sufficient,” Angerman said.

Full Article: Election board approves resolution to volunteer county for post-election audits in state pilot program – Chicago Tribune

Minnesota GOP activists lobby county officials to do hand counts of paper ballots | Deena Winter/Minnesota Reformer

Right-wing activists are pressuring county officials in Minnesota to change election procedures, hand counting paper ballots, which election administrators say would be an unwieldy nightmare. In recent weeks, the GOP activists have lobbied for changes in Carver and Sherburne counties. Minnesota Republicans, who haven’t won a statewide race since 2006, have also been pushing hard to recruit like-minded election judges in the hopes that more Republican eyes on the polls will foil perceived fraud and flip elections their way. Election judges — who are poll workers — greet voters, accept ballots and help voters at the polls. It’s all part of a nationwide Republican push to get more GOP watchers involved in elections, fueled by false claims that the 2020 election was stolen. A legally required post-election audit in Minnesota found few irregularities in 2020 — nowhere near enough to change the results. The activists accuse county boards of using antiquated voting systems. Instead of city and county workers, they want more partisan election judges on ballot boards, which decide whether or to accept or reject absentee ballots. They’re also urging counties to stop using absentee ballot drop boxes. The League of Women Voters of Minnesota has been showing up at county board meetings, too, urging commissioners not to buy into misinformation.

Full Article: GOP activists lobby Carver, Sherburne county officials to do hand counts of paper ballots – Minnesota Reformer

Pennsylvania counties want to count mail-in ballots early. State lawmakers have yet to agree. | Sam Dunklau/WITF

Pennsylvania county election departments have been clamoring for a legal change they say would ease the pressure of ballot processing and counting. Though the GOP-controlled General Assembly has offered up the change in several bills, the idea remains in procedural limbo. Counties have said they want to open and sort mail-in ballots, a process known as pre-canvassing, before Election Day. Right now, workers process several million mail-in votes each election, but can only start doing so once polls open. In the 2018 midterms, county workers processed just over 205,000 mail-in votes. That was before lawmakers opened up mail-in voting to all registered voters under Act 77 of 2019. The County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania, a group that lobbies the legislature on behalf of all 67 counties, has made more pre-canvassing time one of its policy priorities in 2021 and 2022. The organization has also asked lawmakers to set an earlier deadline for returning mail-in ballot applications – to no avail.

Full Article: Pa. counties want to count mail-in ballots early. State lawmakers have yet to agree. | WITF

US Virgin Islands: Officials Probe Voting Machine Concern on St. John But Find No Malfunction | St. Thomas Source

s U.S. Virgin Islanders turn out in steady numbers during early voting for the Primary Election, Supervisor of Elections Caroline Fawkes said Thursday she was made aware of a concern with the St. John ExpressVote machines and took immediate action. However, she said there was no “malfunction” of any of the machines. “Voting technicians in each district are on call, upon learning of the St. John concern, a voting technician was deployed to the Julius Sprauve Elementary School to assess the functionality of the ExpressVote machine, there were no findings of any malfunction,” Fawkes said in a press release. Fawkes added that all early voting equipment was tested and certified for use on July 13 by the Board of Elections, which was open to the public and the media. “Voters should be assured that the Elections System of the Virgin Islands operates with the highest level of integrity to ensure that every single vote cast is correctly counted every time,” said Fawkes. Voters have two choices for casting their ballot – manually shading the oval beside the candidate of their choice on a paper ballot, or using the touch screen of the ExpressVote machine to fill their ballot in the same manner electronically.

Full Article: Officials Probe Voting Machine Concern on STJ But Find No Malfunction | St. Thomas Source

Utah ballot records lawsuit tossed | Matt Ward/Millard County Chronicle Progress

A Fourth District Court judge dismissed a civil lawsuit last week filed by two “moms” seeking to make public normally secure voting records as part of a wide-ranging effort to prove various election fraud claims. Jennifer Orten, of Draper, and Sophie Anderson, of Salt Lake City, brought the lawsuit after multiple records requests across various Utah counties were denied, including here in Millard County. The women’s efforts are best described as Utah’s version of the “big lie”—a notion spread by ultra-right radicals arguing that widespread fraud affected the outcome of the 2020 presidential election. Not a thimble’s worth of solid evidence has emerged in 22 months since the 2020 election to support such claims, despite dozens of lawsuits and ballot audits across multiple states. Judge Derek Pullan pulled the plug on the women’s lawsuit—they sued Utah, Juab and Millard counties in March—after hearing arguments during a motion to dismiss hearing Wednesday. The hearing was spurred by Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson’s office, which filed a motion to dismiss in May. The lieutenant governor is the state’s top election officer.

Full Article: Ballot records lawsuit tossed – Millard County Chronicle Progress

Washington: King County Elections asks sheriff to investigate GOP activists’ ballot-box ‘surveillance’ as potential voter intimidation | Jim Brunner/The Seattle Times

Full Article: King County Elections asks sheriff to investigate GOP activists’ ballot-box ‘surveillance’ as potential voter intimidation | The Seattle Times

Calling it an attempt at voter intimidation, King County Elections Director Julie Wise requested the sheriff’s office investigate people who planted signs near ballot boxes warning voters they were “under surveillance.” In a statement Tuesday evening, Wise blasted what she called an effort to scare voters. “I believe this is a targeted, intentional strategy to intimidate and dissuade voters from using secure ballot drop boxes. My team is not going to stand by and allow any group to seed fear and doubt amongst our residents and voters, especially not when they are simply trying to make their voices heard,” Wise said. The signs in question were posted near ballot boxes in several Seattle and Eastside locations, with red letters warning the boxes were “under surveillance” and implying criminal consequences “for harvesting or depositing ballots” for pay. The signs included a scannable QR code that linked to a King County Republican Party website and form encouraging people to submit “incident reports” documenting allegedly suspicious activity. Wise noted voter intimidation is outlawed by both state and federal law.

Wisconsin GOP blocks absentee ballot address correction rule | Todd Richmond/Associated Press

Wisconsin Republicans erased regulations Wednesday allowing local election clerks to fill in missing information on absentee ballot envelopes, the latest move in the GOP’s push to tighten voting procedures in the crucial swing state. The Wisconsin Elections Commission developed an emergency rule earlier this year that permits local clerks to fill in missing witness address information on absentee envelopes without contact the witness or the voter. The rule reflected guidance the commission issued to clerks in October 2016. The guidance was in effect during the 2020 presidential election, which saw Joe Biden narrowly defeat then-President Donald Trump. The Republican-controlled Legislature’s rules committee voted 6-4 to suspend the emergency rule. The guidance remains in place, but it’s unclear how many clerks might follow it in light of the committee vote and a court could soon erase it as well. The committee vote is part of a string of Republican efforts to impose tighter restrictions on voting around the country as Trump continues to spread the false claim that Biden stole the election. Multiple reviews and court decisions have found no evidence of fraud on a scale that would have affected the outcome but Trump and his supporters keep working to convince people the election wasn’t legitimate.

Full Article: Wisconsin GOP blocks absentee ballot address correction rule | AP News

Will Wisconsin’s Republicans Make Voting Meaningless, or Just Difficult? | Dan Kaufman/The New Yorker

In late March, Claire Woodall-Vogg, the executive director of the Milwaukee Election Commission, was in her office in city hall, preparing for Milwaukee’s mayoral election, when an F.B.I. agent called. The agent was investigating death threats that Woodall-Vogg had been receiving since deciding to permit the use of drop boxes during early voting for the upcoming election. Drop boxes had long been used for absentee ballots in some Wisconsin communities, but their use increased dramatically in 2020, owing to the coronavirus pandemic. After President Donald Trump’s narrow defeat in the state, the boxes became a focus of conspiracy theories claiming that the election was stolen from him. Woodall-Vogg, along with other municipal clerks and election officials, was at the center of those conspiracy theories. She played me a few of the hundreds of threats she has received since the 2020 Presidential election. “You motherfucker,” one voice mail went. “You rigged my fucking election. We’re going to try you, and we’re going to fucking convict your piece-of-shit ass, and we’re going to hang you.” Woodall-Vogg is estranged from her mother-in-law, who is a firm believer in the stolen-election conspiracy, and she no longer speaks to her husband’s aunt. “She said that I signed up for this—for death threats?” Woodall-Vogg said. “You have to wonder if people are thinking very deeply about what they’re doing. Do they realize what the alternatives are to a functioning democracy?”

Full Article: Will Wisconsin’s Republicans Make Voting Meaningless, or Just Difficult? | The New Yorker

‘Veil of misinformation’ chases election officials’ 2020 successes | Benjamin Freed/StateScoop

Nearly two years after a presidential election widely hailed as the most secure and error-free in history, the officials who oversaw voting in their states continue to be hounded by misinformation and disinformation about the process, several speakers said Monday at an event in Washington. “Elections in 2020 were extremely smooth, highly secure,” Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said during a panel discussion hosted by the Center for Election Innovation & Research, a nonpartisan group that advises election administrators around the country. “Our story is one of great success. The other story is the veil of misinformation.” Baseless claims and conspiracy theories about the expansion of absentee voting during the pandemic and the equipment used to count ballots have continued to fester since the 2020 election and the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol by people seeking to overturn former President Donald Trump’s loss. The falsehoods have often morphed into threats agains election officials, highly partisan ballot reviews and even attempts by election-office insiders to tamper with equipment. That activity continues to weigh on officials preparing to oversee another election this year, said Leigh Chapman, Pennsylvania’s acting secretary of the commonwealth. “One concern I continue to have is the rampant disinformation on how 2020 was administered and mail-in voting,” she said. “2020 was secure, so is 2022.”

Full Article: ‘Veil of misinformation’ chases election officials’ 2020 successes

National: Conservative group finds ‘absolutely no evidence of widespread fraud’ in 2020 election | Zach Schonfeld/The Hill

Eight prominent conservatives released a 72-page report Thursday refuting claims of election fraud in the 2020 presidential election in dozens of unsuccessful court cases brought forth by former President Trump and his allies. The group — which includes former federal judges, Republican senators and Republican-appointed officials — said they reviewed all 64 court cases Trump and his allies initiated challenging the election outcome, saying they had reached an “unequivocal” conclusion that the claims were unsupported by evidence. “We conclude that Donald Trump and his supporters had their day in court and failed to produce substantive evidence to make their case,” the group wrote. The eight conservatives repeatedly condemned the election fraud claims, but said they have not switched their allegiance to the Democratic Party and have no “ill will” toward Trump nor his supporters. The group consists of former Sen. John Danforth (R-Mo.); longtime Republican lawyer Benjamin Ginsberg; former federal Judge Thomas Griffith; David Hoppe, chief of staff to former House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.); former federal judge J. Michael Luttig; former federal judge Michael McConnell; Theodore Olson, solicitor general under former President George W. Bush; and former Sen. Gordon Smith (R-Ore.).

Full Article: Conservative group finds ‘absolutely no evidence of widespread fraud’ in 2020 election | The Hill

National: Criminalizing the vote: GOP-led states enacted 102 new election penalties after 2020 | Kira Lerner/News From The States

During the 2020 election, Rhonda Briggins and her sorority sisters spent days providing voters in metro Atlanta with water and snacks as they waited in long lines at polling places. The lines for early voting and on Election Day at times stretched on for hours. As the national co-chair for social action with the Delta Sigma Theta sorority for Black women, Briggins felt compelled to help, and she and her sisters unofficially adopted one DeKalb County location where many elderly Georgians cast their ballots. “When you’re a senior or someone with an infant child, line relief is very critical,” she said. “It allows someone to not have to suffer just because they want to exercise their right to vote.” But if Briggins tries to do the same in November, she could face criminal charges. In March 2021, four months after former President Donald Trump claimed that voter fraud cost him the state’s electoral votes and the presidency, Georgia’s Republican governor signed a law criminalizing people who give food or drinks to voters waiting at the polls.

Full Article: Criminalizing the vote: GOP-led states enacted 102 new el… | News From The States

Election officials fear copycat attacks as ‘insider threats’ loom | Zach Montellaro/Politico

Election officials are confronting a wave of threats and security challenges coming from a troubling source: inside the election system itself. In interviews on the sidelines of the National Association of Secretaries of State’s summer conference, a dozen chief election administrators detailed a growing number of “insider threats” leading to attempted or successful election security breaches aided by local officials. The most prominent was in Colorado, where a county clerk was indicted for her role in facilitating unauthorized access to voting machines. But there have been similar instances elsewhere, including in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Ohio. Beyond security breaches, other insider efforts to undermine elections have sprouted. In New Mexico last month, the board of commissioners in Otero County — a predominantly Republican county along the state’s southern border with Texas — refused to certify primary election results, citing unfounded claims about the security of voting machines that are rooted in conspiracy theories about hacked election equipment from the 2020 election. “What’s clear is this is a nationally coordinated effort,” said Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat. “It’s multi-year, multi-faceted … not just pressuring election officials, but pressuring local elected officials as well.” Election officials fear the handful of publicly disclosed incidents over the last two years are only the start of a wave ahead of the 2022 and 2024 elections.

Full Article: Election officials fear copycat attacks as ‘insider threats’ loom – POLITICO

Election Officials Confront Cyber Threats, False Claims Ahead of Midterms | Alexa Corse/Wall Street Journal

Election officials on the front lines of defending voting systems say they are preparing for a range of challenges ahead of the fall midterms, as they seek to ward off cyber threats and restore voter confidence after a flood of unsubstantiated election-fraud claims. On the cybersecurity front, Russia, China, Iran and North Korea pose persistent threats along with other concerns including ransomware, said Jen Easterly, director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency—the U.S. government’s top cyber unit. Federal and state officials said they aren’t only guarding against cyber threats, but also protecting physical access to voting systems. “We’re in a mode of constant vigilance,” said Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, a Republican, whose office in late June issued a third round of cyber- and physical-security requirements, including camera surveillance of election equipment, for the state’s county election boards. The nation’s secretaries of state, who typically oversee state election systems, met with Ms. Easterly and other federal cybersecurity officials over the past few days at a hotel in Baton Rouge, as part of their annual bipartisan summer gathering.

Full Article: Election Officials Confront Cyber Threats, False Claims Ahead of Midterms – WSJ

National: Trump’s 2020 outrage drives fear of ‘insider’ election threats | Ines Kagubare/The Hill