Warren Stewart – Page 109 – The Voting News

National: 3 Existential Threats to Our Elections | Amisa Ratliff and Michael Beckel/Issue One

April 18, 2022

America’s elections face three existential threats in the coming years: An exodus of election officials, the potential of election manipulation, and inadequate funding of our critical election infrastructure. Congress and the states can help reduce these threats if they act now. In the wake of a massive and coordinated disinformation effort during the 2020 elections, election officials and election workers — who do the behind-the-scenes work of running our elections and ensuring their safety and accuracy — have faced threats of violence and harassment, which has led to an exodus of good people from these positions. At the same time, we’re seeing a wave of anti-democracy, conspiracy-minded candidates running for positions as election officials, and statehouses across the country are considering or passing bills that would place election administration under greater partisan control for their own political gain.

Full Article: 3 Existential Threats to Our Elections – Issue One

National: Midterms raise fears of Russian cyberattacks | Ines Kagubare/The Hill

April 18, 2022

Russia is likely to deploy a range of cyber weapons on the United States and its election systems during this year’s midterm election cycle, as tensions continue to escalate amid the ongoing war in Ukraine. Moscow has so far shown cyber restraint against the U.S. despite escalating sanctions that have damaged Russia’s economy, but experts predict the Kremlin will unleash a range of cyber weapons in an attempt to interfere in the 2022 midterms — from disinformation campaigns to efforts to hack into the election system. “I do think that the chances are higher that we see a ramp up in cyber activity by the Russians as the conflict drags on; it’s less of what I would have expected at this point, but the elections are certainly in play,” said Jamil Jaffer, founder and executive director of the National Security Institute at George Mason University. Russia’s overarching goal is to pit Americans against each other and micro-target specific voters, especially those living in swing states, with information that aligns with their preconceived beliefs. “The Russians’ goal is to create internal discord in the United States,” Jaffer said.

Full Article: Midterms raise fears of Russian cyberattacks | The Hill

Arizona: How a Trump ally got his unfounded voting-machine audit push in front of federal cyber agency | Betsy Woodruff Swan, Lee Hudson and Zach Montellaro/Politico

April 18, 2022

Donald Trump’s top pick to administer Arizona elections in 2024 is more than a garden-variety backer — he played a little-known but notable role in bolstering the former president’s push to subvert the 2020 ballot. It was the waning weeks of the Trump presidency when Arizona state Rep. Mark Finchem made an unusual request of the federal agency that deals with cybersecurity threats. Finchem, a longstanding Trump ally now running for Arizona secretary of state, asked the Department of Homeland Security agency to conduct “a full spectrum forensic examination” of voting machines. Finchem’s request was elevated to the acting director of DHS’ Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, Brandon Wales, at 7:59 a.m. on Christmas Eve 2020. And it got his attention. “We need to do a call on this today,” Wales wrote to several people eight minutes later, including the agency’s then-deputy chief external affairs officer. The emails to the DHS agency, known as CISA, are part of a tranche of new communications that show Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani and his allies’ attempts to get the federal government to help them reverse election results went even broader than previously known. American Oversight, a watchdog group, obtained the emails through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit and shared them with POLITICO.

Full Article: How a Trump ally got his unfounded voting-machine audit push in front of federal cyber agency – POLITICO

Colorado: New election tool provides transparency to voting ballots | Angeline McCall/9news

April 18, 2022

A new online tool allows the public to access thousands of ballots in three different counties – El Paso and Pueblo counties piloted the program after the 2020 election to provide more transparency – Weld County launched the program shortly thereafter. The Ballot Image Audit Tool is available to anyone online after creating a username and password. In Weld County, the tool allows people all of the 64,000 ballots cast in the 2020 election. The goal of the tool is to allow people to see every ballot cast and how the ballot corresponds with the way it was recorded by the ballot machine. It also shows which ballot and choices were adjudicated, meaning which ones were looked at by the human eye because the machine could not clearly decipher them. “It’s all out there for the public to go and see, so that they can make sure and gain confidence in the elections,” said Republican Weld County Clerk Carly Kappes, who continues to receive questions over the legitimacy of the election results. Kappes said she has been able to point people to the tool to verify the results themselves, which she hopes will help them to verify their concerns. “It has been something that I have had people go and look at,” said Weld. “I can stand here all day. I can have those conversations with people that have the questions, but really at the end of the day, I want to provide them the tools for them to verify what I am saying.”

Full Article: Public can look at election ballots with new online tool | 9news.com

District of Columbia won’t move forward with a mobile voting measure | Aaron Schaffer/The Washington Post

April 18, 2022

Mobile voting won’t be a thing in D.C. anytime soon. A crucial member of the D.C. Council says he won’t move forward with a bill to expand voting by phone in the District, dealing a blow to an effort to expand mobile voting across the country. The course reversal is a victory for election security advocates who have long argued that the technology isn’t ready for a widespread rollout, even as proponents argue it would be an effective way to boost voter turnout and accessibility. The D.C. bill had support from eight members of the 13-person Council and groups like the D.C. branch of the NAACP. But council member Charles Allen’s (D-Ward 6) opinion of the bill was especially important for its future because he chairs a committee that the bill would have to advance through.

Full Article: D.C. won’t move forward with a mobile voting measure – The Washington Post

Georgia: Voting rights trial opens with disputes over election hurdles | Mark Niesse/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

April 18, 2022

A major voting rights trial launched Monday with allegations that Georgia has erected “a series of roadblocks” to casting a ballot, and a response that the case attempts “a wholesale attack” on the state’s election system. Opening statements by each side marked a stark contrast in the federal trial, where a judge will hear testimony over the next month to determine if Georgia’s elections procedures illegally burden eligible voters. It’s the first voting rights case to make it to trial in Atlanta’s federal courts in at least a decade, the culmination of a lawsuit filed by allies of Democrat Stacey Abrams after her close loss to Republican Brian Kemp in the 2018 race for governor. As the trial begins 3 1/2 years later, Abrams and Kemp are again running for governor, but a decision in the case isn’t expected until after Georgia’s May 24 primary.

Full Article: Opening of Georgia voting rights trial focuses on ‘exact match’ rules

Michigan State Court of Appeals judges hear Antrim County election case arguments |Mardi Link/Traverse City Record-Eagle

April 18, 2022

A three-judge state Court of Appeals panel will decide whether to reverse a 13th Circuit Court judge’s decision last May to dismiss an Antrim County election-related lawsuit filed by a Central Lake Township man. On Tuesday, the appeals judges heard oral arguments in the case that focused on whether an Amendment to Michigan’s Constitution grants an individual right to voters to audit statewide elections, or whether the power to audit is wielded only by the Secretary of State. William Bailey filed suit Nov. 23, 2020, accusing the county of voter fraud and of violating his constitutional rights, after initial results of the 2020 Presidential election showed about 2,000 votes cast for then-President Donald Trump had mistakenly been assigned to then-challenger Joe Biden. Antrim County Clerk Sheryl Guy acknowledged her office’s human error, an assertion backed by election experts, academics and the state’s Senate Oversight Committee, members of whom in 2021 studied — and rejected — claims of widespread election fraud in Antrim County and in Michigan. Bailey accused the county of using Dominion Voting Systems equipment pre-programmed for fraud, a subsequent court-ordered forensic exam by Dallas-based-Allied Security Operations Group was debunked by experts and Judge Kevin Elsenheimer dismissed the lawsuit May 18, 2021.

Full Article: State Court of Appeals judges hear Antrim election case arguments | Local News | record-eagle.com

Minnesota: Election security money going to counties ahead of 2022 vote | Stephen Montemayor/StarTribune

April 18, 2022

The Minnesota Secretary of State’s Office is starting to distribute nearly $3 million in election cybersecurity money as counties prepare for another busy election season. This latest round of federal Help America Vote Act security dollars is another chapter in efforts to bolster cyber defenses statewide since Russian hackers tried to breach Minnesota’s voting system in 2016. “We want to make sure counties are thinking about their overall cyber security – and specifically election security posture – not just in an election year but all the time,” said Bill Ekblad, the office’s election security cyber navigator.

Full Article: Election security money going to Minnesota counties ahead of 2022 vote – StarTribune.com

Nevada counties to hear election proposals spurred by false election fraud claims | Michael Lyle/Nevada Current

April 18, 2022

At least four more Nevada counties are considering changes to the voting process with three proposing to switch to hand-counting paper ballots, a move borne from unsubstantiated claims about widespread election fraud. Lyon, Lincoln, Elko and Esmeralda county commissions have all scheduled to hear proposals at upcoming meetings next week. “Enough is enough,” said Holly Welborn, the policy director for the ACLU of Nevada, which threatened to sue Washoe County for its recent proposed voting resolutions. “This is a targeted attempt to undermine and threaten our election officials, to undermine democracy in the state of Nevada and the rest of the country, and to get the electorate to not trust election officials who are hard-working people who are following the law,” she said. The office of Republican Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske reviewed the 2020 General Election after alleged “election integrity issues” and found no evidence of widespread voter fraud.

Full Article: Four Nevada counties to hear election proposals spurred by false election fraud claims – Nevada Current

Nevada: Transition to state-led, top-down voter database delayed, expected later than 2024 | Sean Golonka/The Nevada Independent

April 18, 2022

State election officials plan to submit a bill asking lawmakers for two more years to implement a new state-led voter registration system, as transitioning away from the current county-led system by a January 2024 deadline appears unlikely. Earlier this month, Deputy Secretary of State for Elections Mark Wlaschin told legislators on an interim elections committee that his office is still aiming to meet the 2024 deadline established by AB422, but he expects the project to be finished closer to 2026. Wlaschin said their goal was “to not do it quickly, but to do it properly,” pointing to recent technical issues that state election officials faced in Washington and West Virginia when moving to new statewide voter registration databases. A 2017 report from the U.S. Election Assistance Commission identified Nevada as one of just six states with a bottom-up voter registration system, in which individual counties maintain their own voter lists and transmit that data to the state on a daily basis. But a top-down, centralized system, in which the state manages a voter registration database and transmits that data to local jurisdictions, is generally meant to improve the efficiency and uniformity of voter roll maintenance. Local election officials also expect the system to help with same-day voter registration.

Full Article: Transition to state-led, top-down voter database delayed, expected later than 2024 – The Nevada Independent

Ohio: ‘It’s been extremely stressful:’ Summit County scrambling amid redistricting chaos | Abbey Marshall/Akron Beacon Journal

April 18, 2022

With less than three weeks until the May 3 primary, the Summit County Board of Elections is scrambling to keep up with near-constant changes in redistricting after a fourth set of maps was rejected Thursday afternoon. The court has already rejected four sets of Republican-drawn maps, which would give long-awaited clarity to what candidates are running in which district and whom they’re serving. Early voting in Summit County is already underway with Ohioans casting ballots in other elections including U.S. Senate, congressional, gubernatorial and local races. But as the redistricting confusion continues, candidates for state House and Senate are missing from the ballot. Local election officials can offer no clarity to voters and candidates before the murky redistricting process is resolved. The uncertainty places a major burden on Summit and other county boards of elections, which will likely have to run a second primary later this summer at a cost that surpasses half a million dollars. But the effects go beyond just cost, as election officials feel the pressure of overtime hours, uncertainty and potential staffing problems.

Full Article: Summit County scrambling to keep up with redistricting confusion

Wisconsin: Michael Gableman, leader of the GOP’s review of the 2020 vote, disparages state’s election director for how she dresses | Patrick Marley/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

April 18, 2022

When Republican attorney Michael Gableman took to the airwaves Tuesday, he didn’t just attack the governor, the attorney general, two judges and five members of the bipartisan Wisconsin Elections Commission. He also took a shot at how the woman leading the commission dresses. “Black dress, white pearls — I’ve seen the act, I’ve seen the show,” Gableman said on WTAQ-AM of Meagan Wolfe, director of the Elections Commission. When host Joe Giganti said he recently saw Wolfe wearing a gold locket rather than pearls, Gableman responded, “Oh, Hillary Clinton.” The off-script comment came as Gableman, a former state Supreme Court justice, made the case that the Elections Commission should be dissolved and voting rules overhauled. Gableman is conducting his review of the 2020 election using $676,000 in taxpayer funds provided by Republicans who control the Assembly. “I’m a professional who takes my job seriously,” Wolfe said in a written statement. “Comments directed at my appearance are a far cry from being serious, and are beneath anybody who purports to be undertaking a review of subject matter as important as election integrity.”

Full Article: Michael Gableman disparages elections director for how she dresses

Wyoming: Election distrust persists, solutions mired in politics | Maggie Mullen/WyoFile

April 18, 2022

Park County Republicans want to fix a voting system election officials say isn’t broken. In an attempt to secure elections, and restore confidence in the process, they have proposed adding a layer of scrutiny by hand-counting paper ballots. Election officials question the legality of the measure and continue to assert that the 2020 election was fair, secure and accurately tallied. But they also agree it’s time to boost voter confidence — the Wyoming Survey and Analysis Center found that voter confidence declined in the state after the 2020 election. The Park County conversation reflects a larger statewide discussion about election law. The Wyoming Legislature added a voter ID law in 2021, and more recently, created a felony penalty for disclosing certain voting results before the polls close. But those measures haven’t assuaged all concerns, which is where the proposal to hand-count paper ballots comes in. Wyoming already uses paper ballots, but in combination with electronic counting machines. It’s those machines that are problematic for some.

Full Article: Election distrust persists, solutions mired in politics – WyoFile

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