Juli Haller was part of Donald Trump’s legal brigade in Michigan, filing a lawsuit alongside the ubiquitous Sidney Powell that claimed absentee vote counts were likely manipulated by a computer algorithm developed by allies of deceased Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chávez. The lawsuit was quickly deemed baseless, and she was among nine attorneys ordered by a federal judge to pay the city of Detroit and state of Michigan’s legal fees and referred for possible disbarment. In a blistering rebuke, Judge Linda V. Parker called it a “historic and profound abuse of the judicial process.” But unlike Rudy Giuliani, whose law license was suspended in New York and Washington, D.C., for championing similar cases, or Haller’s own co-counsel, Powell, whose law license is at risk in Texas, Haller is going strong. She has gained a robust client roster that includes two alleged members of the far-right vigilante group the Oath Keepers who are accused of fueling the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Haller’s trajectory — from rebuked purveyor of baseless claims to a go-to attorney for MAGA extremists — infuriates many liberal activists, including some groups who are targeting the lawyers for discipline, and alarms some nonpartisan specialists in legal ethics. They say those who helped legitimize the former president’s lies should not be allowed to use it as a foundation to build their legal practices, lest it serve as an incentive to profit from ever more outlandish claims that shake the confidence of Americans in the integrity of U.S. elections and endanger democracy.
Michigan election workers want more done to keep them safe as they face threats, harassment | Grant Hermes/Click On Detroit
During the 2020 election, Canton Township Clerk Michael Siegrist’s office collected more than 57,000 ballots. They did it safely and securely. But once the counting was done, the threats started, coming by the dozens. “Veiled threats,” said Siegrist said during an interview in early May. “Yeah, I received lots of veiled threats. Nobody called me and said I’m going to kill your family.” His office was in the thick of preparing for the August primaries. But those calls did happen for other clerks in Michigan. Former Farmington Hills Clerk Tina Barton received a voicemail filled with explicit language threatening her family. Detroit Clerk Janice Winfrey was sent photos of a dead body with a message to imagine that body as her daughter. Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson was threatened by armed protestors outside her home and told NBC News that former President Donald Trump wanted her executed. Trump denies that claim. “I would sit there late at night a lot of times holding my son worried, wondering, you know, what would happen if these people actually made do with some of the stuff that they were saying?” Siegrist said as he frequently had long, pensive pauses while recounting his long, long nights. “It wears on you. It wears on you.”
Full Article: Michigan election workers want more done to keep them safe as they face threats, harassmentNew Hampshire: More post-election audits might raise voter confidence, committee is told | David Brooks/Concord Monitor
When the committee looking for ways to raise voter confidence came to Concord in front of a standing-room-only crowd, one idea stood out during hours of discussion: Post-election audits. “In a lot of other states, where they do more with random audits, the temperature is a little bit less hot,” said Jeff Silvestro, president of LHS Associates, the company that makes and services the aging machines used to count New Hampshire’s ballots, as well as ballots in numerous other states and localities. “There’s disagreement … but not to the extent we’ve had here.” Others agreed. “Official audits help increase confidence among voters who have lost confidence,” said Russell Muirhead, a Democratic state representative from Hanover and Dartmouth College professor of government, who discussed election-related research. Even David Kiley of Atkinson, one of several speakers who expressed skepticism about the security of ballot-counting machines or even the need for them, supported the idea of double-checking voting tallies at randomly selected polling places. Kiley also urged the committee to make it easier for ordinary people to request them: “We need some way to allow citizens to make a challenge” without having to go through the legislature, he said. Full Article: More post-election audits might raise voter confidence, committee is toldPennsylvania is in an election results certification crisis over the primary, and the state just sued three counties | Jonathan Lai/Philadelphia Inquirer
Pennsylvania’s quietly in the middle of an election results certification crisis. Nearly two months after the May 17 primary election, three of the state’s 67 counties have refused to count “undated” mail ballots, defying both an earlier court order and the Pennsylvania Department of State’s requests. The other 64 counties did certify results with the undated ballots, which were received on time but on which voters didn’t write a date as required by law. The department, which oversees elections, either has to certify the results knowing the vote counts are inconsistent — or find a way to force the counties into alignment. But the state has no real power on its own to actually run or regulate elections; it can’t force counties to do many things, let alone certify results a specific way. On Monday, the state sued Berks, Fayette, and Lancaster Counties in Commonwealth Court. The immediate fight is about which votes to count in this election — are they supposed to accept undated mail ballots or throw them out? — and how the law interacts with state and federal court rulings.
Full Article: Pa. sues counties for not counting undated mail ballots from 2022 primary electionWisconsin’s GOP frontrunner for governorTim Michels isn’t ruling out overturning results of 2020 election | Molly Beck/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Republican candidate for governor Tim Michels isn't ruling out supporting a legislative effort to overturn the results of the last presidential election in Wisconsin. Michels, a construction executive who is endorsed by former President Donald Trump, said Tuesday he would "need to see the details" before deciding whether he would support decertifying the 2020 election, an illegal and impossible endeavor that has been promoted by Trump despite it being impracticable. "You know, I have to work with the Legislature and see what these bills look like," Michels told a WKOW reporter at a campaign stop in Green Bay on Tuesday in response to whether he would sign a bill pulling back Wisconsin's 10 electoral votes cast for President Joe Biden in 2020. "As a businessman, I just don't say that I'll do this or I'll do that. It's always about the details." Michels also has pledged to abolish the state's elections commission and has not yet determined what he would want in its place to help the thousands of clerks in Wisconsin navigate election laws. Democratic incumbent Gov. Tony Evers warned supporters Wednesday that if a Republican candidate defeats him in November, the state "will see elections change to the point where the Legislature makes the final decision and that should scare the living crap out of everybody in this room." Evers said he believes Republicans will not stop looking into the election any time soon. "They will continue doing this until Donald Trump is six feet under," he said at a campaign event in Madison.
Full Article: Tim Michels isn't ruling out overturning results of 2020 electionWisconsin elections commission rejects guidance for clerks on how to implement a court ruling outlawing absentee ballot drop boxes. | Scott Bauer/Associated Press
Wisconsin’s bipartisan elections commission couldn’t agree Tuesday on what guidance, if any, to give the state’s more than 1,800 local clerks to help them understand how to implement a Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling outlawing absentee ballot drop boxes. The commission, evenly divided between Republicans and Democrats, repeatedly deadlocked on what to tell clerks about what the decision meant and how to interpret it ahead of the Aug. 9 primary. Commissioners said they may consider giving guidance later. The primary will set the field for the Nov. 8 election where Democratic Gov. Tony Evers and Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson are both on the ballot in high-stakes races. Johnson and Republican candidates for governor have called for disbanding the bipartisan elections commission and overhauling how elections are run in the state. Republican members of the commission argued that it owed it to the clerks who run elections to help them understand the court’s ruling, while Democrats said the guidance proposed went too far, would confuse clerks and only invited more lawsuits. Not taking any action means the commission is telling clerks “go out and figure it out for yourself,” said Republican commissioner Bob Spindell.
Full Article: Wisconsin elections commission rejects guidance for clerks | AP NewsNational: Poll workers are short-staffed, under attack — and quietly defending democracy | Amy Sherman and Hana Stepnick/PolitiFact
There’s no doubt about it: For election officials across the country, recruiting poll workers is more challenging than ever. COVID-19 made people with health worries want to stay home. Rampant misinformation about election fraud spurred vitriol and even death threats against election workers. Long hours and paltry pay for a seasonal job have never been that enticing. Election officials are struggling to recruit workers, but people who are taking the jobs — some for the first time — say they’re doing so out of a commitment to their country and to democracy itself. PolitiFact interviewed multiple poll workers nationwide and found they were undeterred by threats or falsehoods. Some poll workers are inspired to do this work by new laws that make it harder to vote, or by the way some politicians refuse to certify elections or spread falsehoods about voting. Democracy in the balance motivated Robin Levin, a retired schoolteacher, to become a newly trained poll worker in Florida’s Broward County. "Democracy has been challenged, and it’s all based around voting," Levin said. "Our whole democracy is voting, and when you lose voting, you have no democracy. That’s my biggest fear. That is my whole reason to get more involved." Full Article: PolitiFact | Poll workers are short-staffed, under attack — and quietly defending democracyThe Results Are In: U.S. Moves Toward Paper-Based Elections | Andrew Adams/Governent Technology
Most voting systems are designed to last 10 to 20 years. In the 2022 elections, 24 states will be using voting machines that are more than 10 years old, according to an analysis from the Brennan Center for Justice. In the coming years, hundreds of jurisdictions around the country will be in the market for new election technology. Increasingly, local election authorities are turning to ballot marking devices or recommitting to paper ballots marked by hand. In 2022, 92.2 percent of voters will live in a jurisdiction using one of these voting methods. Peoria County, Ill., a mid-sized county in central Illinois, held its primary elections on June 28, marking the halfway point through the 2022 primary season. This was the first election in Peoria with paper ballots in more than 10 years. Prior to this year, they had been using Hart InterCivic eSlate, a type of direct recording electronic (DRE) device. These types of devices record votes to electronic memory. In the 2012 midterms, about one-third of voters lived in jurisdictions using these machines, but they have fallen out of favor across the board. This year, 7.5 percent of voters live in a jurisdiction that uses them, according to data compiled by Verified Voting. Full Article: The Results Are In: U.S. Moves Toward Paper-Based ElectionsNational: Election officials face security challenges before midterms | Christina A. Cassidy/Associated Press
Election officials preparing for the upcoming midterms face a myriad of threats, both foreign and domestic, as they look to protect voting systems and run a smooth election while fighting a wave of misinformation that has been undermining public confidence in U.S. elections. The nation’s top state election officials gathered Thursday for the start of their annual summer conference, with a long list of challenges that begins with securing their voting systems. While a top concern heading into the 2020 presidential election was Russia or another hostile nation waging a disruptive cyberattack, the landscape has expanded to include ransomware, politically motivated hackers and insider threats. Over the last year, a small number of security breaches have been reported at local election offices in which authorities are investigating whether office staff improperly accessed or provided improper access to sensitive voting technology. Jen Easterly, who leads the nation’s cybersecurity agency, said Russia, China and North Korea remain “very dynamic and complex cyber threats” and that criminal gangs pushing ransomware were also a concern. But she noted election security officials could not afford to prioritize one over the other.
Full Article: Election officials face security challenges before midterms | AP NewsNational: Insider threats a growing concern for election security efforts | Benjamin Freed/StateScoop
While state and local election officials deserve a “huge amount of credit” for improving their defenses against cyberthreats like ransomware and foreign-backed actors, top officials from the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said Thursday that insider threats — from individuals within election administration offices — are an increasing concern. Speaking at the National Association of Secretaries of State conference in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, CISA Director Jen Easterly said election officials need to focus on an entire “landscape” of threats. “If we focus too intently on one set of threats, we are very likely to miss those coming from another direction,” she told reporters. “Insider threats can do malicious things. They can also pose malicious physical threats.” In recent months, breaches of election equipment have come under investigation across the country, following incidents in which unauthorized third parties have been given access to vote-tabulation devices, servers and other technology assets in attempts to prove baseless claims of widespread fraud in the 2020 presidential election. Full Article: Insider threats a growing concern for election security effortsNational: ‘It’s a sham’: fears over Trump loyalists’ ‘election integrity’ drive | Peter Stone/The Guardian
A conservative group called the America Project that boasts Donald Trump loyalists and “big lie” pushers Roger Stone and Michael Flynn as key advisers, has begun a self-styled “election integrity” drive to train activists in election canvassing and poll-watching, sparking fears from voting rights watchdogs about voter intimidation. Patrick Byrne, the multimillionaire co-founder of the America Project, has said he has donated almost $3m to launch the drive, dubbed “Operation Eagles Wings”, with a focus on eight states including Arizona, Michigan and Pennsylvania, which Trump lost, plus Texas and Florida, which he won. The drive was unveiled in late February at a press event where Byrne touted plans to educate “election reform activists” to handle election canvassing, grassroots work and fundraising “to expose shenanigans at the ballot box” in what has echoes of Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was rigged, and could become a sequel to those charges. Byrne, for instance, has said the operation’s mission is to “make sure that there are no repeats of the errors that happened in the 2020 election”, and stressed the “need to protect the voting process from election meddlers who care only about serving crooked special interest groups that neither respect nor value the rule of law”.
Full Article: ‘It’s a sham’: fears over Trump loyalists’ ‘election integrity’ drive | US news | The GuardianNational: Taking Trump’s lead, even fringe candidates who lost badly are claiming fraud | Stephen Fowler/NPR
When Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp overwhelmingly won the Republican primary in Georgia on May 24, his chief opponent former Sen. David Perdue was quick to admit it was over. "Everything I said about Brian Kemp was true, but here's the other thing I said was true: he is a much better choice than Stacey Abrams," he said shortly after polls closed, referring to the matchup this fall between Kemp and Democrat Abrams. "And so we are going to get behind our governor." But another one of his opponents felt something was off. "I want y'all to know that I do not concede," Kandiss Taylor said in a video posted to social media. "I do not. And if the people who did this and cheated are watching, I do not concede." Kemp won Georgia's primary with about 74% of the vote. Perdue, who had the backing of former President Donald Trump, earned about 22% of the vote. And Taylor? Just 3.4%. Full Article: Taking Trump's lead, even fringe candidates who lost badly are claiming fraud : NPRNational: Disinformation Has Become Another Untouchable Problem in Washington | Steven Lee Myers and Eileen Sullivan/The New York Times
The memo that reached the top of the Department of Homeland Security in September could not have been clearer about its plan to create a board to monitor national security threats caused by the spread of dangerous disinformation. The department, it said, “should not attempt to be an all-purpose arbiter of truth in the public arena.” Yet when Secretary Alejandro N. Mayorkas announced the disinformation board in April, Republican lawmakers and conservative commentators denounced it as exactly that, calling it an Orwellian attempt to stifle dissenting views. So did some critics from the left, who questioned the powers that such an office might wield in the hands of future Republican administrations. Within weeks, the new board was dismantled — put on “pause,” officially — undone in part by forces it was meant to combat, including distortions of the board’s intent and powers. There is wide agreement across the federal government that coordinated disinformation campaigns threaten to exacerbate public health emergencies, stoke ethnic and racial divisions and even undermine democracy itself. The board’s fate, however, has underscored how deeply partisan the issue has become in Washington, making it nearly impossible to consider addressing the threat.
Why Colorado’s Democratic secretary of state won’t stop warning about ‘insider threats’ | Adam Edelman/NBC
Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold was in a constant state of motion Tuesday night as she awaited the primary election results that would determine her opponent in her re-election contest this fall. Moving through her downtown office building, Griswold, who ran unopposed for the Democratic Party's renomination, checked in with her Rapid Response Election Security Cyber Unit, the group she created in 2020 to help fight election misinformation. She chatted up her cybersecurity squad, composed of members of her information technology team and computer scientists temporarily deployed by the Army and Air National Guards. And she watched the results from the Republican secretary of state primary come in fast — a benefit of the state's vote-by-mail system in which previously processed votes are tabulated immediately after polls in the state close. Would her November opponent be Tina Peters, a local election official indicted on charges that she directed a breach of voting machines — exactly the type of "insider threat" to election security Griswold has spent the last several years warning about and trying to guard against? bWithin an hour of polls closing, former Jefferson County clerk Pam Anderson had been projected the winner, instead. Peters, almost immediately and without evidence, claimed fraud was responsible for her third-place finish. Griswold later told NBC News, following Peters' claims, that the state's elections are "safe and secure and have bipartisan oversight throughout" the process.
Full Article: Why Colorado's Democratic secretary of state won't stop warning about 'insider threats'Florida: Democratic alarms sound over DeSantis’s new elections overseer | Lizette Alvarez/The Washington Post
The once-sleepy job of secretary of state — and chief election overseer — was revealed as enormously important to our democracy when Donald Trump’s assault on the 2020 election results commenced. Now several Trump-aligned candidates are vying for secretary of state positions across the country, prompting concerns that election results might actually be manipulated. But here in Florida, a Trumpian bureaucrat is already in the job, thanks to his recent installation by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis. That’s disturbing in a state where political races are often too close to call and vote recounts are routine. Meet Cord Byrd, who was a hard-right Republican member of the state House before his appointment in May and state Senate confirmation. DeSantis celebrated him as “an ally of freedom and democracy.” But Byrd sounds a little uncertain about the 2020 election results. Asked if Joe Biden won the election, Byrd said, “He was certified as the president and he is the president of the United States,” adding, “There were irregularities in certain states.” What Byrd didn’t say is that Biden won the election. Full Article: Opinion | Democratic alarms sound over DeSantis’s new elections overseer - The Washington PostGeorgia: ‘Extremely confident’: Cherokee County finishes election audit | Shannon Ballew/Cherokee Tribune and Ledger-News
An audit of ballots cast in Cherokee County in the May 24 primary and June 21 runoff elections confirmed the county’s certified results, the county’s election department reported. The elections board initiated a risk-limited audit, conducted Wednesday and Thursday, of all early voting May 24 primary ballots at the Oak Grove precinct and June 21 Election Day ballots for the Democratic lieutenant governor runoff and the two Republican school board runoffs at the county’s Dixie, Hillside, Neese, Clayton, R.T. Jones and Teasley precincts. The precincts, other than Oak Grove, were selected at random. Elections officials initially planned to audit four precincts plus Oak Grove early voting to audit 10% of the precincts, the elections department said, but due to low numbers they added two precincts, for a total of seven audited precincts. The overall margin of error was 1.69%, with 294 votes separating the audit total and the total for those precincts as tabulated by the voting machines, Elections Director Anne Dover said. “We were very pleased with the outcome of the audit,” she said in an email. “The margin of error was 1.69%. This difference is well below the 10% mark we had set, and is below the State’s margin of error that was given to us for the November 2020 hand count, which was 5%.”
Massachusetts high court hears GOP case challenging mail-in voting | Anthony Brooks/WBUR
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court on Wednesday heard arguments about a new law that allows anyone to vote by mail for any reason. The state Republican Party contends the law is unconstitutional and could encourage voter fraud. At issue is the VOTES Act, which was passed by the legislature and signed into law by Gov. Charlie Baker. The sweeping election law makes no-excuse mail-in voting permanent while expanding options to vote early, among a number of other changes. The MassGOP argues the state constitution only allows people to cast absentee ballots in certain circumstances. Michael Walsh, an attorney for the party, argued early voting should also be banned, even though the state has conducted it for the past eight years. "Decisions — no matter how wrong, how old or how bad — if they're bad they deserve to be overturned," Walsh said. Walsh argued that early voting and no-excuse mail-in voting make elections more susceptible to voter fraud, though he acknowledged there was no evidence to back that up. "We certainly didn't say that in our complaint," he told the justices.
Full Article: Mass. high court hears GOP case challenging mail-in voting | WBUR NewsMichigan Makes $8M in Funds Available for Election Security | Jared Leatzow/Government Technology
As much as $8 million in federal funds will be available to Michigan's election officials, including northwest Ottawa County. Municipalities are eligible to receive up to $1,500 in reimbursements for each one of their voting districts. The money is meant to help improve security for local elections. Grand Haven Township has reported in a recent weekly newsletter that it is eligible to receive as much as $10,500. Township officials said they will be using the money to pay for a security camera to monitor their election drop box at the administration building, and pay for seven voter I.D. scanners and eight laptop computers. Ferrysburg Clerk Jessie Wagenmaker said her municipality has only one district and would be eligible to receive only $1,500. Wagenmaker said Ferrysburg has not decided yet if it will use the funds. Spring Lake Township Clerk Carolyn Boersma said the township will be receiving $9,000, and plans to spend the money on laptops, I.D. scanners and another ballot scanner. Michigan primary elections will be held on Tuesday, Aug. 2. Ottawa County residents will be asked to vote in the Republican primary to decide who their candidates will be for the county's Board of Commissioners. Full Article: Michigan Makes $8M in Funds Available for Election SecurityNevada’s GOP chair continues to deny he was a fake elector | Jessica Hill/Las Vegas Sun
Nevada Republican Party Chairman Michael McDonald doubled down last week on his assertion that his plan to send electoral certificates in favor of Donald Trump to Congress in 2020 was legitimate. “Many of you remember we were called, they called us fake electors,” McDonald said at a Mt. Rose Republican Women’s Dinner last week. “We weren’t fake. We were elected. We were elected to convention.” The Sun obtained an audio recording of McDonald’s remarks, and it was unclear what convention McDonald was referring to. McDonald and James DeGraffenreid, the state party secretary and a member of the Republican National Committee, were two of six “alternate electors” who on Dec. 14, 2020, signed the fake electoral document — titled “Certificate of the Votes of the 2020 Electors from Nevada” — that declared Donald Trump as winner of Nevada’s six electoral votes and sent it to the National Archives in Washington, D.C. Trump lost to Biden by about 30,000 votes here, and Nevada’s Republican secretary of state has assured the public that the election was free and fair and untainted by meaningful fraud. Full Article: Nevada’s GOP chair continues to deny he was a fake elector - Las Vegas Sun NewspaperNew Hampshire is preserving the ballot design that made secret elections possible | David Brooks/Concord Monitor
Up to about 140 years ago, anyone who wanted to cast a vote in a state or federal election in New Hampshire had to get a ballot from the political party of their choice — whether Republican or Democrat or some group that has long since faded away, such as the Prohibition Party. This meant that bystanders at the polling place knew which candidate voters were choosing, because every party’s “ticket,” as they were known, looked different. This made it possible for outsiders to threaten or bribe voters — hard cider was a common reward — and ensure the result they wanted. Political parties made extensive use of this ability. “There was real corruption in elections,” said Brian Burford, New Hampshire state archivist. “It got very bad. The reform movement in 1880s said we’ve got to do something about this — we’re going to have the state-run (elections) and have some way to have some secret ballots.” Secrecy was ensured by what is known as the Australian ballot, so called because it was first used in that country in 1856. Its design, still used today, puts all political parties on a single ballot. Bystanders couldn’t tell how anyone voted so they had less of an incentive to use bribes or threats.
Full Article: NH is preserving the ballot design that made secret elections possible | State news | sentinelsource.com
Rhode Island governor signs bill allowing internet voting | Benjamin Freed/StateScoop
Rhode Island Gov. Daniel McKee last week signed legislation that could allow some of the state’s registered voters to cast their ballots over the internet, despite concerns raised by election officials and critics of electronic voting. The new law, S2118, calls for giving deployed military service members, citizens residing overseas and people with physical disabilities the ability to receive and submit their ballots online. While the legislation passed the Rhode Island General Assembly earlier this year with comfortable margins, it raised criticisms from election-security advocates who’ve long said that submitting votes over an internet connection could imperil the secret ballot. “The landscape of the internet hasn’t really changed much since the early 1990s,” said C. Jay Coles, a senior policy associate at Verified Voting. “The internet wasn’t designed as a secure space.” Under the new Rhode Island law, eligible voters could request an electronic ballot if the secretary of state’s office approves a system that’s gone through “one or more independent security reviews” and meets the scrutiny of the cybersecurity framework published by the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Full Article: Rhode Island governor signs bill allowing internet votingTexas GOP’s proposed election reforms would restrict mail-in voting for seniors, early voting | Jill Ament/Texas Standard
Leaders of Texas’ Republican Party continue to promote false claims that the 2020 presidential election was “stolen” from former President Donald Trump – and during the Texas GOP convention in Houston last month, members overwhelmingly voted to make election reforms the party’s No. 1 priority. As the Houston Chronicle reports, this means they want the state to adopt laws in the 2023 legislative session that would further restrict voting by shortening the early voting period from two weeks to one and by no longer letting any senior vote by mail. “They’re going off of this assumption that there’s more fraud in early voting and in mail voting,” said Jeremy Wallace, a political reporter at the Chronicle’s Austin bureau. “That is based on some of the unproven claims from former President Donald Trump about how elections went in other states like Pennsylvania and Georgia, and the Texas Republican Party has kind of grabbed that baton and are pushing it in Texas, even though there’s been no evidence that the expanded early voting time that we have here in Texas has resulted in additional fraud.” Under legislation that would limit seniors from voting by mail, instead of letting anyone over the age of 65 have the option, as they have for decades, seniors would instead only be able to do so with an excuse. Out of the million voters who utilized mail-in voting for the 2020 presidential election, 850,000 were 65 and up, Wallace said. But Republicans’ new proposal would limit absentee voting to those who are in the military, have a disability or are out of the country. Full Article: Texas GOP’s proposed election reforms would restrict mail-in voting for seniors, early voting | Texas StandardWisconsin: An incompetent circus’: Michael Gableman’s 2020 election review reaches 1 year and the $1 million mark with little to show | Molly Beck/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
A year ago, Robin Vos was unequivocal."We give you our word that we are doing everything we possibly can to uncover what occurred in 2020," the Assembly Speaker told a conference center full of Republicans meeting in Wisconsin Dells for their first state party convention since Donald Trump began tying make-believe voter fraud to his loss in the Badger State, contributing to losing his presidency. But since Vos announced his hire of former Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman to probe the 2020 election completely and Assembly Republicans' intent to pass bills based on Gableman's findings, the review has failed to accomplish those goals. Lawmakers did not receive any recommendations from Gableman before wrapping up their work for the year. And the review has turned up little information not previously known, and has not found evidence showing the 2020 election outcome was incorrectly called. Full Article: Michael Gableman investigation at 1 year: $1 million, little to showAmerica Is In Denial | Mitt Romney/The Atlantic
Even as we watch the reservoirs and lakes of the West go dry, we keep watering our lawns, soaking our golf courses, and growing water-thirsty crops. As inflation mounts and the national debt balloons, progressive politicians vote for ever more spending. As the ice caps melt and record temperatures make the evening news, we figure that buying a Prius and recycling the boxes from our daily Amazon deliveries will suffice. When TV news outlets broadcast video after video of people illegally crossing the nation’s southern border, many of us change the channel. And when a renowned conservative former federal appellate judge testifies that we are already in a war for our democracy and that January 6, 2021, was a genuine constitutional crisis, MAGA loyalists snicker that he speaks slowly and celebrate that most people weren’t watching. What accounts for the blithe dismissal of potentially cataclysmic threats? The left thinks the right is at fault for ignoring climate change and the attacks on our political system. The right thinks the left is the problem for ignoring illegal immigration and the national debt. But wishful thinking happens across the political spectrum. More and more, we are a nation in denial.
Full Articxle: Mitt Romney: America Is In Denial - The AtlanticRepublican push to recruit election deniers as poll workers causes alarm | Sam Levine/The Guardian
Republicans and other conservative groups are undertaking a huge effort to recruit election workers, a push that could install people with unfounded doubts about the 2020 election in key positions in voting precincts where they could exert considerable power over elections. At the forefront of this push is Cleta Mitchell, a lawyer who was on Donald Trump’s legal team in 2020 and played a key role in his effort to overturn the election. Over the last few months, Mitchell has held “election integrity summits” in several battleground states, convening groups and citizens who continue to believe the 2020 election was stolen. The summits offer in-depth training on how to monitor election offices and how to work elections. At a mid-June summit in North Carolina, Mitchell mocked the term “election denier” and said “whether the outcome was correct, that’s all I deny”. Voter fraud is extremely rare and there was no evidence of widespread fraud in 2020. The effort, called the Election Integrity Network, underscores how Trump and allies are capitalizing on now deeply seeded Republican doubt about Joe Biden’s victory and are targeting key election offices and jobs that play a considerable role in determining how ballots are cast and counted. The summits are a project of the Conservative Partnership Institute (CPI), a group with close ties to Trump’s political operation, and where Mitchell is a senior legal fellow. Mark Meadows, Trump’s former chief of staff, is a senior partner at CPI. Full Article: Republican push to recruit election deniers as poll workers causes alarm | US voting rights | The GuardianNew Missouri law bans use of electronic voting machines | Davis Suppes/KOMU
Gov. Mike Parson signed five new measures into law Wednesday, including House bill 1878. The bill is focused on improving methods for Missourians to vote. Beginning Jan. 1, 2023, the bill requires the use of a paper ballot that is hand-marked by the voter or marked in another authorized manner. Any election authority with direct recording, electronic vote-counting machines may continue using such machines until Jan. 1, 2024. These electronic vote-counting machines were first introduced back in 2002 with the first wave of electronic voting. There are currently zero of these machines used in Boone County and only two machines of its kind being used in the state of Missouri due to updates in technology, according to Boone County Clerk Brianna Lennon. The technology was updated in favor of ballot-marking devices. The ballot-marking devices require the voter to put a piece of paper into the ballot-marking device machine. The voter can then use the touchscreen for accessibility purposes to make their selections. Full Article: New Missouri law bans use of electronic voting machines | State News | komu.comAn end to ballot bar codes? Georgia election officials consider design changes | Mark Niesse/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
When Georgia began using computer-printed paper ballots in 2020, they raised a new issue: Votes are scanned from bar codes that are unreadable by the human eye. The inability to verify that the text of a ballot matches the contents of the bar code raised concerns from election integrity advocates, who said voters can’t be sure that their ballots were counted as they intended. They’ve warned that bar codes could be manipulated by hackers, though there’s no evidence that has ever happened. Now, state election officials are weighing whether to replace bar codes with ballots that display candidate names with ovals next to them. A U.S. cybersecurity agency, in a report that found vulnerabilities in Georgia’s voting equipment, recently said local governments can choose to eliminate bar codes. While no decision has been made to change the ballot design seen by every in-person voter in Georgia, the secretary of state’s office has been discussing the idea for over a year, Chief Operating Officer Gabriel Sterling said. Election officials are considering security, costs and challenges of printing a longer ballot. Georgia began using printed-out paper ballots in 2020, ending 18 years of electronic voting by purchasing $138 million worth of voting equipment manufactured by Dominion Voting Systems. Paper ballots provide a way to hand count and audit results. The voting system relies on a combination of touchscreens and printers, which produce a sheet of paper that includes a bar code — called a QR code — along with a human-readable list of the voter’s choices. Then, voters insert their ballots into optical scanning machines that read the bar code, which counts as the official vote.