Colorado: Douglas County clerk questioned by state about allegedly copying election equipment hard drives | Bente Birkeland/Colorado Public Radio

Colorado’s Democratic secretary of state Jena Griswold is requesting more information about a potential election security breach by Douglas County’s Republican clerk and recorder Merlin Klotz. This makes Klotz the third GOP election official in Colorado under investigation for their alleged handling of sensitive election technology. Griswold said her office became aware of a social media post from last October in which Klotz wrote, “we, as always, took a full image backup of our server before a trusted build was done this year.”  The trusted build is a regular process every county goes through after an election, in which the makers of its election equipment update the operating system. Douglas is one of two counties in the state whose equipment is supplied by a company called Clear Ballot. The rest of Colorado uses technology from Dominion Voting Systems, based in Denver. A false election conspiracy circulated by supporters of former president Trump claims that Dominion used their machines to subvert the 2020 election, and then hid the evidence during the routine software update. Klotz’s social media post did not suggest that he believes Clear Ballot was involved in election fraud but has concerns about Dominion’s trusted builds.

Full Article: Douglas County clerk questioned by state about allegedly copying election equipment hard drives | Colorado Public Radio

Georgia debates if voting machines too vulnerable to hacking? | Joseph Marks/The Washington Post

There’s a long-running and complicated fight over how much security is necessary to protect elections against hacking. A brewing controversy in Georgia illustrates this perfectly. A judge may soon release a sealed report which was prepared as part of a years-long lawsuit over the security of Georgia’s voting machines. Its author, Alex Halderman, was given rare access to dig through the machines and look for ways to hack them. He said in a declaration filed in the case that he found multiple vulnerabilities that could allow hackers to install malicious software and undermine elections. Halderman, who runs the University of Michigan’s Center for Computer Security and Society, is an expert for the plaintiffs in the case, a group of Georgia voters who want the state to replace its touch-screen voting machines that produce paper records with hand-marked paper ballots that they say are far more secure. Georgia election officials see things differently. Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) says Halderman’s claims are overblown and that the bugs he found couldn’t reasonably be exploited in an actual election. He compared Halderman’s findings — discovered over 12 weeks of probing the machines — to “having the keys and alarm codes to a home then claiming he found a way to break in.” The report, which could be made public as early as this week, could shed new light on a battle between security advocates and election officials that burst into public view after the 2016 contest was marred by Russian interference. Russian hackers penetrated voter rolls in at least two states during that contest, but there’s no evidence they changed any votes. 

Full Article: Are voting machines too vulnerable to hacking? Georgia’s having that debate – The Washington Post

Minnesota Secretary of State rejects Crow Wing County request for 2020 election audit | Deena Winter/Minnesota Reformer

Minnesota’s secretary of state has flatly denied a request by the Crow Wing County Board for an audit of the 2020 election in that county, where activists have been dogging officials for months to look into unspecified claims of fraud. Convinced there was fraud to be found — and egged on by people like former President Donald Trump, MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell and a cadre of right-wingers — a group of activists lobbied the central Minnesota county board for months to do more examinations of the election in the county, which Trump won by 30 points. After the county attorney said the board had no legal authority to audit the election, four of the five county board members passed a resolution on Jan. 4 asking the secretary of state’s office to “undertake a full forensic audit of all election material and data” of the 2020 election. The resolution said the board “continues to have faith in the 2020 election results as valid and reliable but it is equally troubling that there are citizens who still have a sincerely held belief that it was not.” Secretary of State Steve Simon responded to the county in a letter Monday, saying that while he appreciates the “delicate balancing act” the county has undergone in trying to address constituents’ concerns, his office will not do another review of the election. “Our office will not engage in a vague and impossibly broad search for unspecified misconduct based on anyone’s gut feeling, hunch, or belief — no matter how sincerely held,” Simon said. “The 2020 general election, which took place almost 15 months ago, was fundamentally fair, accurate, honest, and secure across Minnesota.”

Full Article: Secretary of State rejects Crow Wing County request for 2020 election audit – Minnesota Reformer

New Hampshire audit bill attracts charges, threats and conspiracies | Kevin Landrigan/The New Hampshire Union Leader

The legislative campaign for a forensic audit of the 2020 election in New Hampshire elicited wild charges, threats and conspiracy theories during a public hearing Wednesday. State Rep. Timothy Baxter, R-Seabrook, said he proposed that this audit (HB 1484) be paid for with donations or private nonprofit grants to rebut critics who said the cost to taxpayers would be too high. “Let me be clear: A majority of this state thinks either the 2016 or the 2020 election was stolen. Every voter in this country deserves nothing less than that and this would allow every person to know the truth,” said Baxter, a Republican candidate for a U.S. House seat in the 1st Congressional District. An independent third party would conduct the audit, which supporters acknowledge would have to be a hand recount. That’s because many of the memory cards inside automated voting machines used to record and count votes in 2020 were reprogrammed to report results of town or city elections last year.

Full Article: Voter audit bill attracts charges, threats and conspiracies

A Pennsylvania court overturned the state’s mail voting law, but an appeal means it’s still in place | Jonathan Lai and Andrew Seidman/Philadelphia Inquirer

A Pennsylvania court on Friday struck down the state’s mail voting law, saying the state constitution requires voters to cast ballots in person unless they meet specific requirements. That almost certainly won’t be the final word on the matter, as the state quickly appealed to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, triggering an automatic stay of the decision and leaving Act 77 in place while the high court considers the case. And Democrats believe the Supreme Court, which has a Democratic majority, will uphold the law. Democrats had feared for months that the state’s Commonwealth Court, with its Republican majority, would strike down Act 77. “This opinion is based on twisted logic and faulty reasoning, and is wrong on the law,” state Attorney General Josh Shapiro, the leading Democratic candidate for governor, said on Twitter. “We are confident that Act 77 will ultimately be upheld as constitutional.” The final outcome aside, the ruling may add momentum to a GOP push in Harrisburg to enact more restrictive voting laws. Republican candidates for governor celebrated the ruling, and former President Donald Trump issued a statement saying a “great patriotic spirit is developing at a level that nobody thought possible.”

Full Article: Pennsylvania mail voting law Act 77 overturned by Commonwealth Court, state appeals

Virginia Governor says he intends to replace state’s top election official | Graham Moomaw/Virginia Mercury

Gov. Glenn Youngkin said Monday he plans to appoint someone new to serve as Virginia’s top election official when current Elections Commissioner Chris Piper’s four-year term expires this summer. The comment from Youngkin, made in an interview with Trump-supporting radio host John Fredericks, was the first clear indication from the new governor on what he has planned for the Virginia Department of Elections. In the interview, Fredericks asked Youngkin if he plans to “clean house” at the agency. “We in fact fully expect that when the current commissioner’s term is up that we will replace him,” Youngkin replied. “We have to make sure the leadership that’s in the Department of Elections is leadership that is looking out for the integrity of the election process and not trying to be political.” Youngkin’s comment drew a rebuke from current Board of Elections Chairman Bob Brink, a former Democratic delegate who said Piper has led the agency “through the extraordinary challenges of the past several years with unquestioned integrity and professionalism.” “Gov. Youngkin’s announcement that he plans to fire Chris without cause is a deeply troubling injection of politics into the administration of our elections,” Brink said in a written statement. “It is also a slap in the face to the thousands of local election workers across the commonwealth. Their nonpartisan efforts have produced efficient, accessible, secure and transparent elections that all Virginians can be proud of. Those workers and Virginia’s voters deserve better, as does Chris Piper.”

 

Full Article: Youngkin says he intends to replace Virginia’s top election official – Virginia Mercury

Wisconsin Republicans seek constitutional ban on election grants while Democrats seek ouster of elections commissioner | Molly Beck/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Litigation of Wisconsin’s 2020 presidential election continued Wednesday as Republican lawmakers rolled out a constitutional amendment banning the use of grant money to administer elections while Democratic lawmakers called for a state elections commissioner to lose his job after pretending to be an elector for former President Donald Trump. The measures being put forward by Republicans are part of a nationwide effort to overhaul how elections are administered sprung from the convergence of false claims of significant election fraud by Trump and an influx of absentee voting and atypical election guidance due to the coronavirus pandemic. At the same time, Democrats are focused on the actions of Republicans who submitted false paperwork claiming Trump won their state instead of Joe Biden, who actually received more votes in their states. In Wisconsin, two Republicans who pretended to be electors have been subpoenaed by the U.S. House committee convened to investigate how the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol materialized. Democratic Sen. Chris Larson of Milwaukee sent a letter signed by 13 colleagues to Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu on Wednesday asking him to rescind his appointment of Robert Spindell to the Wisconsin Elections Commission.

Full Article: Wisconsin Republicans seek constitutional ban on election grants

Georgia: Secret report alleges potential flaw in ballot marking devices | Mark Niesse/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

 

A confidential report alleges that hackers could flip votes if they gained access to Georgia’s touchscreens, drawing interest from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Louisiana election officials and Fox News. One key agency hasn’t asked the court to disclose the report: the Georgia secretary of state’s office. There’s no sign that state election officials have done anything about the vulnerability, a potential flaw dangerous enough to be kept under seal, labeled in court as “attorneys’ eyes only” six months ago. The vulnerability hasn’t been exploited in an election so far, according to examinations of the state’s Dominion Voting Systems equipment, but election security experts say it’s a risk for upcoming elections this year. Investigations have repeatedly debunked allegations of fraud in the 2020 election. Georgia election officials won’t say what actions they’ve taken, if any, to improve security or detect tampering. State election officials declined to answer questions about a report they haven’t seen, which outlined the flaw as part of a lawsuit aimed at forcing the state to abandon its $138 million voting system that prints out paper ballots and instead use paper ballots filled out by hand. Several election integrity advocates said Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger shouldn’t ignore the issue, even if he believes existing protections would prevent illicit access to voting equipment. “It’s really concerning that the Georgia secretary of state and Dominion are kind of putting their head in the sand,” said Susan Greenhalgh, an election security consultant for plaintiffs suing over Georgia’s voting system. “Common sense would say you would want to be able to evaluate the claims and then take appropriate action, and they’re not doing any of that.”

 

Full Article: Secret report alleges potential flaw in Georgia voting machines

Court throws Pennsylvania’s mail-in voting law into doubt | Marc Levy/Associated Press

A court declared Friday that Pennsylvania’s expansive 2-year-old mail-in voting law violates the state constitution, agreeing with challenges by Republicans who soured on the practice after former President Donald Trump began baselessly attacked it as rife with fraud in his 2020 reelection campaign. Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration swiftly appealed to the state Supreme Court, immediately putting the party-line decision by a panel of three Republican and two Democratic judges on hold and stopping it from overturning the law. Still, it throws Pennsylvania’s voting laws into doubt as the presidential battleground state’s voters prepare to elect a new governor and a new U.S. senator in 2022. Just over 2.5 million people voted under the law’s expansion of mail-in voting in 2020′s presidential election, most of them Democrats, out of 6.9 million total cast. Wolf’s office said its appeal means the lower court ruling has no immediate effect, and criticized Republicans as trying to kill the law “in the service of the ‘big lie’” of Trump’s baseless election fraud claims. “We need leaders to support removing more barriers to voting, not trying to silence the people,” Wolf’s office said.

Full Article: Court throws Pennsylvania’s mail-in voting law into doubt | AP News

National: Federal prosecutors looking at 2020 fake elector certifications, deputy attorney general says | Evan Perez and Tierney Sneed/CNN

Federal prosecutors are reviewing fake Electoral College certifications that declared former President Donald Trump the winner of states that he lost, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco told CNN on Tuesday. “We’ve received those referrals. Our prosecutors are looking at those and I can’t say anything more on ongoing investigations,” Monaco said in an exclusive interview. The fake certificates falsely declaring Trump’s victory were sent to the National Archives by Trump’s allies in mid-December 2020. They have attracted public scrutiny amid the House’s January 6 investigation into the pressure campaign that sought to reverse Trump’s electoral defeat. Monaco did not go into detail about what else prosecutors are looking at from the partisan attempt to subvert the 2020 vote count. She said that, more broadly, the Justice Department was “going to follow the facts and the law, wherever they lead, to address conduct of any kind and at any level that is part of an assault on our democracy.” This is the first time that the Justice Department has commented on requests from lawmakers and state officials that it investigate the fake certifications.

Full Article: Federal prosecutors looking at 2020 fake elector certifications, deputy attorney general says – CNNPolitics

Georgia: Judge is asked to release report on alleged voting vulnerability | Mark Niesse/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Both Georgia election officials and critics of the state’s voting touchscreens asked a federal judge Thursday to release a confidential report that describes how a hacker could attempt to change votes. The calls for disclosure come a day after The Atlanta Journal-Constitution published an article on the findings of University of Michigan computer science professor Alex Halderman, who detailed vulnerabilities of Georgia’s voting equipment in a sealed court document. There’s no sign of tampering with the state’s Dominion Voting Systems equipment in the 2020 election, according to audits and experts, but Halderman’s report outlined risks for upcoming elections this year. Halderman is an expert for plaintiffs in a lawsuit seeking to replace Georgia’s voting system that prints out paper ballots, instead using paper ballots filled out by hand. U.S. District Judge Amy Totenberg said in a court teleconference Thursday that she will review a version of Halderman’s report that redacts sensitive information and decide whether to make it public by Monday. Totenberg said she was displeased that the report, which has been discussed in public court hearings but remains under seal, became a “political football.” “I’m unhappy with the political treatment of the report,” Totenberg said. “… The entire purpose of having hearings was to maximize transparency but at the same time be mindful of the risks involved of disclosure.”

Full Article: Judge might reveal report on potential voting equipment flaw

Trump Supporters Left Death Threats for Election Workers. We Called Back. | Madeleine May/Vice

“Well, Tennessee is watching you, Mr. Rick,” a voicemail said. “I’m just right over the border. We’re watching you all closely.” Another one had a similar message: “Hey Rick, watching this video of you on YouTube. You need to get your act together or people like me really may go after people like you.” And yet another: “I hope they hang your fucking ass.” After the 2020 presidential election, hundreds of threatening messages, emails, and voicemails were left for elections workers across the country. This is especially true in election hotspots like Georgia’s Fulton County, where officials were harassed for months over the phone and by email. Local law enforcement has not held anyone accountable, and some workers fear continued harassment in future elections. Importantly, these calls weren’t anonymous. Instead, they were made by people from across the country who believe the false conspiracy that the 2020 election was stolen from former President Donald Trump—and that election workers in Fulton County were to blame for massive electoral fraud. VICE News called them back. These messages were sent without shame: Of the threatening messages reviewed by VICE News, almost all contained the phone numbers, email addresses, or names of the people who had sent or left them. None regretted leaving threatening messages or expressed remorse that their words had caused election workers to fear for their lives. 

Full Article: Trump Supporters Left Death Threats for Election Workers. We Called Back.

National: Justice Dept. tells states they can use federal grant money to protect election workers | Matt Zapotosky/The Washington Post

The Justice Department on Wednesday told states they could spend federal law-enforcement grant money on protection for election workers, who have faced a plethora of threats in the aftermath of the 2020 election. In a letter Wednesday, Kristen Mahoney, acting director of the Bureau of Justice Assistance, told state officials administering a law-enforcement grant program that they could use the funds “to deter, detect, and protect against threats of violence against election workers, administrators, officials, and others associated with the electoral process.” Top officials also discussed the possibility in a meeting with election officials and workers, who have pressed the Justice Department to do more to provide for their safety and investigate and prosecute those making threats. Last week, the Justice Department’s election threats task force brought its first criminal case against a Texas man accused of threatening election and other government workers in Georgia. Those included Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R), according to people familiar with the investigation who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss details not included in the indictment. The head of the Justice Department’s criminal division said at the time the task force has received more than 850 referrals of potentially harassing and offensive statements, resulting in dozens of open investigations or efforts to mitigate danger.

Full Article: Election threats: Federal grants can pay for protecting elections workers – The Washington Post

National: Election officials renew push for more financial assistance | Benjamin Freed/StateScoop

A group of current and former election officials said Tuesday that state and local administrators continue to need more financial resources to improve voting processes, particularly audits verifying the accuracy of elections at a time when disinformation and distrust are rising. During a virtual event hosted by the Center for Tech and Civic Life, a Chicago nonprofit made up of technologists and data analysts, speakers said states, counties and municipalities that run elections still face significant expenses. “Equipment costs, those are major for counties,” said Chris Hollins, the former clerk of Harris County, Texas. The county, which contains Houston, purchased 12,000 new voting machines — touchscreen interfaces that print paper records — in early 2021 for about $54 million. But, Hollins noted that Harris — home to 2.4 million voters — “is fortunate to be well resourced.”

Full Article: Election officials renew push for more financial assistance

National: Read the never-issued Trump order that would have seized voting machines | Betsy Woodruff Swan/Politico

Among the records that Donald Trump’s lawyers tried to shield from Jan. 6 investigators are a draft executive order that would have directed the defense secretary to seize voting machines and a document titled “Remarks on National Healing.” POLITICO has reviewed both documents. The text of the draft executive order is published here for the first time. The executive order — which also would have appointed a special counsel to probe the 2020 election — was never issued. The remarks are a draft of a speech Trump gave the next day. Together, the two documents point to the wildly divergent perspectives of White House advisers and allies during Trump’s frenetic final weeks in office. It’s not clear who wrote either document. But the draft executive order is dated Dec. 16, 2020, and is consistent with proposals that lawyer Sidney Powell made to the then-president. On Dec. 18, 2020, Powell, former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn, former Trump administration lawyer Emily Newman, and former Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne met with Trump in the Oval Office. In that meeting, Powell urged Trump to seize voting machines and to appoint her as a special counsel to investigate the election, according to Axios.

Full Article: Read the never-issued Trump order that would have seized voting machines – POLITICO

National: Jan. 6 Panel and State Officials Seek Answers on Fake Trump Electors | Luke Broadwater and Alan Feuer/The New York Times

Law enforcement officials, members of Congress and the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol are digging deeper into the role that fake slates of electors played in efforts by former President Donald J. Trump to cling to power after he lost the 2020 election. In recent days, the state attorneys general in Michigan and New Mexico have asked the Justice Department to investigate fake slates of electors that falsely claimed that Mr. Trump, not Joseph R. Biden Jr., had won their states. Representative Mark Pocan, Democrat of Wisconsin, wrote to Attorney General Merrick B. Garland on Friday demanding an investigation into the same issue in his state. And this week, members of the House committee scrutinizing the Jan. 6 riot said that they, too, were examining the part that the bogus electoral slates played in Mr. Trump’s scheme to overturn the election. “We want to look at the fraudulent activity that was contained in the preparation of these fake Electoral College certificates, and then we want to look to see to what extent this was part of a comprehensive plan to overthrow the 2020 election,” Representative Jamie Raskin, Democrat of Maryland and a member of the committee, told reporters on Capitol Hill. “There’s no doubt that those people were engaged in a constitutional fraud on the public and on the democracy,” he added in a separate interview, referring to the bogus electors.

Full Article: Jan. 6 Panel and State Officials Seek Answers on Fake Trump Electors – The New York Times

National: Pro-Trump death threats prompt bills in 3 states to protect election workers | Peter Eisler/Reuters

In Vermont, lawmakers are considering bills to make it easier to prosecute people who threaten election officials. In Maine, proposed legislation would stiffen penalties for such intimidation. In Washington, state senators voted this month to make threatening election workers a felony. The measures follow a Reuters series of investigative reports documenting a nationwide wave of threats and harassment against election administrators by Donald Trump supporters who embrace the former president’s false voting-fraud claims. Sponsors and supporters of the legislation in all three states cited Reuters reporting as an impetus for proposing tougher enforcement. Washington state Senator David Frockt, a Seattle Democrat, said the reports “gave us more evidence” to build support for legislation to hold accountable those who threaten election officials. In Maine, a bill authored by Democratic state Representative Bruce White would enhance penalties for anyone who “intentionally interferes by force, violence or intimidation” with election administration. Secretary of State Shenna Bellows cited the Reuters reporting in testimony supporting the bill. “This is unacceptable,” she said, noting that two municipal clerks in Maine were threatened with violence.

Full Article: Pro-Trump death threats prompt bills in 3 states to protect election workers | Reuters

National: Defending 2022 Elections from Misinformation, Cyber Threats | Jule Pattison-Gordon/Government Technology

With the anniversary of the misinformation-fueled Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol attack just weeks in the past, and the 2022 midterms looming, Congress members called a hearing last week to examine the nation’s election security needs. Cyber threats are becoming ever more sophisticated, presenting a constant challenge — especially for local governments with slim resources. Meanwhile, mis- and disinformation drum up public ire against elections officials, threaten residents’ abilities to vote freely and encourage those public officials who buy into the false narratives to tamper with elections, according to witnesses, whose backgrounds included areas like voting rights, cybersecurity and public policy. State and local election officials can only achieve so much cybersecurity without federal help, said Matt Masterson, former senior cybersecurity advisor for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). Certain threats — like a hypothetical software supply chain compromise impacting election systems software — are too advanced, he said. There is currently no federal framework to guide state and local officials’ efforts to procure secure election software, said Brennan Center for Justice senior counsel Gowri Ramachandran. She said Congress can encourage a safer election IT market by restricting federal procurement to only those vendors meeting certain standards — thus creating a financial incentive. But even vendors’ abilities are limited against the kinds of sophisticated attacks that breached SolarWinds, said Masterson.

Full Article: Defending 2022 Elections from Misinformation, Cyber Threats

National: Republicans Want New Tool in Elusive Search for Voter Fraud: Election Police | Michael Wines/The New York Times

Reprising the rigged-election belief that has become a mantra among their supporters, Republican politicians in at least three states are proposing to establish police forces to hunt exclusively for voter fraud and other election crimes, a category of offenses that experts say is tiny at best. The plans are part of a new wave of initiatives that Republicans say are directed at voter fraud. They are being condemned by voting rights advocates and even some local election supervisors, who call them costly and unnecessary appeasement of the Republican base that will select primary-election winners for this November’s midterms and the 2024 presidential race. The next round of voting clashes comes after the apparent demise of Democratic voting rights legislation in Washington on Thursday. It is a reminder that while the Democratic agenda in Washington seems dead, Republican state-level efforts to make voting harder show no sign of slowing down. Supporters say the added enforcement will root out instances of fraud and assure the public that everything possible is being done to make sure that American elections are accurate and legitimate. Critics say the efforts can easily be abused and used as political cudgels or efforts to intimidate people from registering and voting. And Democrats say the main reason Republican voters have lost faith in the electoral system is because of the incessant Republican focus on almost entirely imagined fraud. The most concrete proposal is in Florida, where Gov. Ron DeSantis asked the State Legislature last week for $5.7 million to create a 52-person “election crimes and security” force in the secretary of state’s office. The plan, which Mr. DeSantis has been touting since the fall, would include 20 sworn police officers and field offices statewide.

Full Article: Republicans Want New Tool in Elusive Search for Voter Fraud: Election Police – The New York Times

National: Dominion sees no chance of settling suits against pro-Trump lawyers Giuliani, Powell | Jan Wolfe and Helen Coster /Reuters

Dominion Voting Systems Corp has told a court there is “no realistic possibility” that the voting machine manufacturer will reach settlements in its billion-dollar defamation lawsuits against Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell, lawyers who worked for former President Donald Trump. Dominion and another voting software firm, Smartmatic, have brought several lawsuits against people who spread conspiracy theories related to their voting machines after the 2020 presidential election that Trump lost to President Joe Biden. “Given the devastating harm to Plaintiffs, the lack of remorse shown by Defendants, and the fact that many of them continue to double down on their lies, Plaintiffs do not believe any realistic possibility of settlement exists,” Denver-based Dominion said in a filing on Monday in federal court in Washington. Lawyers for Giuliani and Powell said in the same filing that their clients may be open to settlement talks once the exchange of evidence, or “discovery,” is complete. “Powell and Giuliani have nothing to show remorse for and dispute that they have lied about anything,” the defense lawyers said.

Full Article: Dominion sees no chance of settling suits against pro-Trump lawyers Giuliani, Powell | Reuters

Editorial: Democrats, Want to Defend Democracy? Embrace What Is Possible. | Larry Diamond/The New York Times

Like many scholars of democracy, I have strongly supported both the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and the Freedom to Vote Act. Both are necessary (though not sufficient) to secure the most precious rights in any democracy — the right to vote and the right to have one’s vote counted fairly and accurately. Most supporters of these bills believed the urgent need for them justified lifting the Senate filibuster and passing them on a purely partisan vote. But with the refusal of Democratic Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema (or any Republican senators) to vote to suspend the filibuster, it’s clear that these bills will not pass this Congress. The only remaining option is to pare back the reform cause to a much narrower agenda that can command bipartisan support. Democrats must recognize that politics is the art of the possible, and democratic responsibility demands that we not sacrifice what is valuable and possible on the altar of the unattainable. That means supporting the bipartisan efforts to reform the Electoral Count Act. This work is now taking shape in bipartisan negotiations among moderate senators convened by Susan Collins, Republican of Maine. The new bill would fix some of the most dangerous vulnerabilities in the 1887 Electoral Count Act — some of which we saw in the 2020 election — that could enable a future Congress (or a rogue vice president) to reverse the vote of the Electoral College in certain states or to plunge the process of counting electoral votes into such chaos that there would be no way of determining a legitimate winner. Such a deadlock could precipitate a far larger and more violent assault on the democratic order than what we saw on Jan. 6. Reducing the risk of such a calamity is a democratic imperative.

 

Full Article: Opinion | Democrats, Want to Defend Democracy? Embrace What Is Possible. – The New York Times

Arizona Republicans propose major changes to elections after GOP review finds no fraud | Jane C. Timm/NBC

Arizona Republicans have put forth two dozen bills this month that would significantly change the state’s electoral processes after the GOP’s unorthodox review of millions of ballots affirmed President Joe Biden’s victory and turned up no proof of fraud. Proposals introduced in the state House or the Senate would add an additional layer to the state’s voter ID requirement, such as fingerprints, and stipulate the hand counting of all ballots by default. Other legislation would require that paper ballots be printed with holograms and watermarks. Republican legislators argue that the proposals, part an ongoing surge of GOP-led election changes enacted or under consideration across the country, are necessary to enhance election security and prevent fraud. Official counts, audits and accuracy tests have confirmed the election results in Arizona and elsewhere without finding evidence of widespread fraud, and states with Republican and Democratic leaders have certified the results as accurate. Former President Donald Trump, who continues to promote the lie that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him, was unable to prove any of the claims in court. A coalition of federal agencies involved in election security, alongside representatives of election officials from each state, said the election was “the most secure in American history.”

Full Article: Arizona Republicans propose major changes to elections after GOP review finds no fraud

Colorado: A second county election official is accused of a security breach | Saja Hindi/Denver Post

Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold’s office is investigating a second county clerk over a possible elections security breach and has ordered Elbert County Clerk and Recorder Dallas Schroeder to turn over information related to allegations that he copied a voting system hard drive. The Democratic secretary of state ordered the Republican county clerk to appear at a deposition Feb. 7 to explain how the copy of the 2021 Dominion Voting Systems hard drive was made after Griswold’s office said Schroeder did not respond to an email request and an election order requiring the disclosure of information about the “potential security protocol breach.” She also asked that video surveillance of voting equipment be turned on and that no one access the voting equipment unaccompanied. “As Secretary of State, my top priority is to ensure that every eligible Coloradan – Republican, Democrat, and Independent, alike – has access to secure elections and I will always protect Colorado’s election infrastructure,” Griswold said in a statement. The secretary of state’s office said it doesn’t believe the “unauthorized imaging has created an imminent or direct security risk to Colorado’s elections” because of when it took place. This is not the first time the secretary of state’s office has launched an investigation over copies of election equipment hard drives. Last year, Griswold’s office sued Republican Mesa County Clerk and Recorder Tina Peters over allegations of a security breach, resulting in a judge barring Peters from overseeing the 2021 election, and the secretary of state’s office is also trying to stop Peters from overseeing the 2022 election. Peters is still facing multiple lawsuits, ethics investigations and a grand jury investigation of a possible elections breach in her office. Schroeder is part of a lawsuit against Griswold’s office calling for an “independent forensic audit” of the 2020 election, a common refrain for those pushing baseless claims of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election. As part of the filings, the secretary of state’s office said Schroeder signed an affidavit, dated Jan. 7, which states that he “made a forensic image of everything on the election server, and I saved the image to a secure external hard drive that is kept under lock and key in the Elbert County elections office” before the “trusted build” process took place. The “trusted build” is a routine update against vulnerabilities, according to the secretary of state’s office.

Full Article: A second county election official in Colorado is accused of a security breach

Georgia: Atlanta DA granted request for grand jury to probe Trump alleged 2020 election interference | Kevin Johnson/USA Today

Judges granted a Georgia prosecutor’s request to seat a special grand jury to help criminally investigate former President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the state’s 2020 election results during the waning days of his administration. Atlanta-area District Attorney Fani Willis made the request last week, citing the need for additional authority to compel witnesses to testify by subpoena. In a brief order Monday, Fulton County Chief Superior Court Judge Christopher Brasher said a majority of local judges agreed to authorize the panel for  a year’s term beginning May 2. “The special purpose grand jury shall be authorized to investigate any and all facts and circumstances relating directly or indirectly to alleged violations of the laws of the State of Georgia, as set forth in the request of the District Attorney … ” the order stated. Willis has said that her office had “received information indicating a reasonable probability” that the 2020 election was “subject to possible criminal disruptions.” “As a result, our office has opened an investigation into any coordinated attempts to unlawfully alter the outcome of the 2020 elections in this state,” Willis said in a formal request for the panel.

Full Article: Grand jury to probe Trump efforts to overturn 2020 Georgia election

Georgia and Voting Rights: Deep Distrust Over a Plan to Close Polling Places | Richard Fausset/The New York Times

The showdown over voting rights in the U.S. Senate may be over for now. But the issue is still smoldering in a stretch of Northeast Georgia countryside where local officials recently introduced a plan to close seven polling sites and consolidate them into one. The proposal in Lincoln County has attracted the attention and ire of major voting rights groups and suspicion among some Black residents who say the effort is just the latest example of voter suppression in a state where Republicans recently passed a restrictive new law. Hundreds of upset residents have filed protest petitions that could cause local officials to scale it back. But local officials say the current polling spots are in need of modernization — and that in a county where about two-thirds of the 7,700 residents are white, the plan is simply an effort to make it easier to manage elections. The remaining site would be located close to the polling place that currently serves the county’s one majority-Black precinct. “They seem to think that I’m trying to stop Black people from voting,” said the elections director, an African American woman named Lilvender Bolton. She would administer the plan that was under consideration last week by a mostly Republican-appointed board of two Black members and three white ones. In Georgia, a state where razor-thin voting margins have helped swing the White House and control of the Senate, any effort to change the process of voting has become fiercely contested. And after recent efforts by Republicans in Georgia and around the country to restrict voting, suspicions are high.

Full Article: Georgia and Voting Rights: Deep Distrust Over a Plan to Close Polling Places – The New York Times

Indiana House restores 2024 deadline for counties to install paper backups on voting machines | Brandon Smith/IPB

The Indiana House has reversed course, restoring language in a bill that will move up the deadline for counties to install a vital election security measure. Current law requires counties to have paper backup systems for their electronic voting machines by 2030. A bill this session, HB 1116, would move that date up to July 2024. But the House Ways and Means committee eliminated that change because it costs money – about $12 million. Then, on the House floor Thursday, Ways and Means Chair Tim Brown (R-Crawfordsville) put the July 2024 deadline back into the bill.

Full Article: House restores 2024 deadline for counties to install paper backups on voting machines

Michigan: New GOP canvassers who embrace election myths raise prospect of chaotic certification | Clara Hendrickson/Detroit Free Press

In counties across Michigan, the GOP is filling election canvassing boards responsible for tallying the vote count with people who have embraced falsehoods and misinformation about fraud in the 2020 election. The bipartisan boards have the routine task of double checking the vote totals submitted by municipalities and signing off on the county-level results before turning them over to the state board to certify statewide contests, as well as those that cross county lines. But the appointment of several GOP canvassers who still question Joe Biden’s victory over Donald Trump in 2020 raises the risk that these boards could become a partisan bottleneck in the effort to certify the results of future elections. In Wayne County, home to the largest number of Michigan voters, the GOP nominated Robert Boyd to the canvassing board. Boyd has called the results of the 2020 presidential election “inaccurate” and has said he would not have approved the county results. In Antrim County, the site of a brief tallying error on election night that fed fanciful conspiracy theories about vote manipulation, Marvin Rubingh is now on the board as GOP canvasser. Rubingh has called former President Donald Trump’s false and widely debunked claims that the election was stolen “a credible accusation.”

Full Article: PolitiFact | New GOP canvassers in Michigan who embrace election myths raise prospect of chaotic certification

Nevada: Election official departures rising amid burnout, angry voters, new requirements | Sean Golonka/The Nevada Independent

More Nevadans than ever made their voices heard in the 2020 election, spurred by intense interest in the presidential race and helped by law changes that vastly expanded paths to register and multiplied voting options that led hundreds of thousands of Nevadans to vote by mail, while many more opted to vote in person. But the changes — and burdens — for the backend infrastructure and workforce that runs Nevada’s elections was far greater. Election clerks, registrars and the secretary of state’s office were forced to simultaneously run in-person and mail-in elections, while facing pushback from a vocal contingent of voters frustrated by public health precautions and widespread misinformation. For years, state and local election officials largely went about their business out of the spotlight, but in the weeks and months following the 2020 election — as lies and conspiracies proliferated — they faced increasing hostility and attempts to undermine their work. The rise in violent threats has sparked a national exodus of election workers. Dozens of local election officials in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin have left their positions in the past 14 months. In Nevada, similar changes are happening. By the 2024 election, new faces will make up more than a third of Nevada’s 17 top county election officials.

Full Article: Election official departures rising amid burnout, angry voters, new requirements – The Nevada Independent

Texas man charged with threatening election, government officials in Georgia | Matt Zapotosky/The Washington Post

A Texas man was arrested Friday and charged with threatening election and other government officials in Georgia, in the first case brought by a Justice Department task force formed to combat such threats, authorities said. In an indictment, federal prosecutors alleged that Chad Christopher Stark, 54, posted a message on Craigslist on Jan. 5, 2021, saying it was “time to kill” an official, whose name is not included in the court documents. “Georgia Patriots it’s time for us to take back our state from these Lawless treasonous traitors. It’s time to invoke our Second Amendment right it’s time to put a bullet in the treasonous Chinese [Official A]. Then we work our way down to [Official B] the local and federal corrupt judges,” Stark wrote, according to the indictment. Georgia officials, in particular, were targeted by hostile messages after they refused to back President Donald Trump’s bogus claims of election fraud. Trump called Georgia’s Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) the “enemy of the people” after the election went against him, and he urged Raffensperger in a phone call to “find” enough votes to overturn his defeat.

Full Article: Chad Christopher Stark charged with threatening Georgia election officials – The Washington Post

Wisconsin: Election Systems & Software won’t comply with Republican subpoena | Scott Bauer/Associated Press

A Nebraska-based voting machine company told the Republican-hired attorney leading an investigation into the 2020 presidential election in Wisconsin that it will not comply with subpoenas issued seeking a broad array of information. Attorneys for Election Systems & Software told former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman in a letter dated Jan. 21 that it would not comply, calling the subpoenas issued last month a “quintessential fishing expedition.” The letter was obtained Thursday by The Associated Press after it was first reported on by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Gableman has subpoenaed the mayors of Wisconsin’s five largest cities, the state’s top elections official, an immigrant rights group, ES&S and Dominion Voting Systems as part of his ongoing probe ordered after President Joe Biden narrowly defeated Donald Trump in the battleground state. Subpoenas to the elections commission, Voces de la Frontera and mayors of Green Bay and Madison are being fought in court. ES&S made clear it will not comply, telling Gableman in the letter that the company “is under no obligation to respond to any of the subpoenas.” The letter was signed by attorneys Michael Cox, Daniel Fischer and Michael Maistelman.

Full Article: Voting machine company won’t comply with Wisconsin subpoena | AP News