National: Attacks from within seen as a growing threat to elections | Christia A. Cassidy/Associated Press

Election officials preparing for this year’s midterms have yet another security concern to add to an already long list that includes death threats, disinformation, ransomware and cyberattacks — threats from within. In a handful of states, authorities are investigating whether local officials directed or aided in suspected security breaches at their own election offices. At least some have expressed doubt about the 2020 presidential election, and information gleaned from the breaches has surfaced in conspiracy theories pushed by allies of former President Donald Trump. Adding to the concern is a wave of candidates for state and local election offices this year who parrot Trump’s false claims about his loss to Democrat Joe Biden. “Putting them in positions of authority over elections is akin to putting arsonists in charge of a fire department,” said Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat and former law school dean who serves as Michigan’s top elections official. Experts say insider threats have always been a concern. But previously, the focus was mostly on what a volunteer poll worker or part-time employee could do to a polling place or county system, said Ryan Macias, who advises officials at the federal, state and local levels on election security. Now the potential harm extends to the very foundation of democracy — conducting fair elections.

Full Article: Attacks from within seen as a growing threat to elections | AP News

Arizona Republicans continue pushing voting restrictions, risking backfire | Kirk Ziegler/NPR

By last count at the Arizona State Capitol, close to a hundred voting bills have been introduced, part of a nationwide push by far-right Republican controlled legislatures to pass restrictive voting laws. The swing state of Arizona is front and center — home to 10% of all the proposed legislation — despite two audits showing no problems with the 2020 Presidential Election. One of those, done by the Florida firm, Cyber Ninjas, actually handed more votes to President Biden, who narrowly won Arizona. Critics of the so-called voter reform push see it as part of a slide toward authoritarianism. But State Rep. John Fillmore, an architect of some of the bills currently pending in Arizona, disputes claims that Republicans want to suppress votes. “I want every American to have the opportunity to vote,” Fillmore said one sunny morning on the plaza in front of the Arizona House of Representatives. Fillmore represents one of Arizona’s most conservative districts around Apache Junction, in the suburban desert east of Phoenix. The businessman often seen in a bolo tie says many of the proposed bills, which range from measures to require all ballots be hand counted to restrictions on ballot drop off boxes, are a response to concerns by his constituents.

Full Article: Arizona Republicans continue pushing voting restrictions, risking backfire : NPR

Colorado: Election conspiracy groups target county clerks, seeking access to voting equipment | Saja Hindi/The Denver Post

For an hour and a half, El Paso County Clerk and Recorder Chuck Broerman met with a small group of people that showed up at his office to talk about what they insisted were deep-rooted security and fraud problems within Colorado’s election systems. Problems that Broerman, a Republican, and other election officials have repeatedly said don’t exist. Among the visitors was 2020 election denier Shawn Smith of an effort called the U.S. Election Integrity Plan — a group that claims election irregularities and fraud in the 2020 elections in Colorado. One of their requests to Broerman during the meeting in May: give access to the county voting equipment and allow a third party to conduct “a forensic audit.” Broerman declined, but he described to them in detail the redundant systems of election security measures to show why elections in his county are secure and reliable. The clerk said Smith, of Colorado Springs, then responded, “Clerk Broerman, we will either do this with you or through you.” “I took that as a threat that if I didn’t do that, that there would be repercussions for not doing what they wanted me to do,” he said. That wasn’t the last Broerman heard from this group or others. He, like other local elections officials across the country, have been facing increased pressure from people trying to cast doubt on the integrity of U.S. elections using unfounded claims of election fraud, spreading the lie that former President Donald Trump won the 2020 election.

Full Article: Colorado county clerks defend against voter fraud claims

Georgia’s race to oversee voting pits an election denier against an election defender | Miles Parks/NPR

Over cheeseburgers, onion rings and fried chicken salads, people shared what they’d heard. Something “crooked” was going on across the country. In California, for instance, Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom hadn’t actually won his recall election last year by the 3 million votes that was reported. “They found boxes of ballots months later, all for the other guy,” someone whispered. The TV over the bar at the Flying Machine restaurant in Lawrenceville, Ga., was turned to Fox News, and Republicans gathered to talk about what they’ve been talking about for much of the past year and a half: voter fraud. “How many feel that the 2020 elections were a little sketchy?!” asked DeKalb County GOP Chair Marci McCarthy, to cheers. “Everybody should be raising their hands!” The restaurant event was the 12th and final stop in a three-day “election integrity” tour put on by one of the nation’s preeminent election deniers, Rep. Jody Hice, R-Ga. Hice objected to the 2020 election results at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, just hours after it had been stormed by a violent pro-Trump mob. And now, the former pastor is running to oversee voting in Georgia as the secretary of state.

Full Article: Georgia secretary of state race pits Hice against Raffensperger : NPR

Michigan clerks ask lawmakers to ‘put politics aside,’ pass election changes before November | Samuel J. Robinson/MLive.com

Two associations representing Michigan clerks are calling for lawmakers to put politics aside in favor of bipartisan changes to the state’s election procedures. A letter signed by Delta Township Clerk Mary Clark, president of the Michigan Association of Municipal Clerks and Menominee County Clerk Marc Kleiman, president of the Michigan Association of County Clerks, laid out what needs to happen before the November 2022 election this fall. “As we face another major election year with insufficient funding, continued high volume of absentee voting, and increased scrutiny due to the 2020 cycle, we need our leadership to focus on problem-solving rather than political wins and losses,” leaders wrote in their letter. “There is no doubt that Americans are divided over the past election; but improvements that lead to better run elections have the power to lessen the tensions of mistrust and unite us in a common goal of accessible and secure elections.” Bipartisanship has been absent from conversations regarding election rule changes since the November 2020 election, when former President Trump and his remaining allies cast doubt on the election results through a series of unfounded allegations that have failed to hold up in courtrooms across the nation. Though most Republicans in the Michigan Legislature concede President Joe Biden won fairly, they remain committed to overhauling voting laws based on concerns expressed by those within their base who do not trust the November 2020 election results.

Full Article: Michigan clerks ask lawmakers to ‘put politics aside,’ pass election changes before November – mlive.com

Nebraska Secretary of State Evnen: ‘No credible evidence’ that voting machines have been mistaken | Paul Hammel/Nebraska Examiner

Nebraska Secretary of State Robert Evnen, in often emphatic terms, rejected allegations Wednesday that the state’s ballot-counting machines could be hacked by “foreign adversaries.” Evnen, testifying toward the end of an afternoon-long public hearing, said Nebraska’s ballot-counting machines are never connected to the internet and are designed so they cannot be connected to the internet, so they cannot be “hacked.” He said the machines were recently certified by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, an independent U.S. government agency created by the Help America Vote Act of 2002. Beyond that, Evnen said each machine is subject to three runs of “test decks” of ballots before each election, to ensure their accuracy. “There is no credible evidence to show our ballot counting machines have rendered a false result,” said the secretary, whose office conducts the state elections. Evnen testified before the Legislature’s Government, Military and Veterans Affairs against a bill that would require extensive testing of each ballot-counting machine prior to an election to assure that it could not be somehow connected to the internet. Evnen, a conservative Republican seeking re-election this year, said Legislative Bill 1121 was unnecessary and would be an “astronomical” waste of taxpayer money. “I believe in the rule of law. I have dedicated my entire life and career to the rule of law,” Evnen said.

Full Article: Evnen: ‘No credible evidence’ that voting machines have been mistaken

Nevada lawmakers split on regulations enshrining switch to mostly mail election | Sean Golonka and Jacob Solis/The Nevada Independent

Lawmakers on the Legislative Commission approved most, but not all, of more than two dozen largely technical election regulations Monday that had drawn staunch opposition from state Republicans. During the meeting, Deputy Secretary of State for Elections Mark Wlaschin told the commission that the regulations — including what some may consider controversial changes amid the election integrity policy climate — were clarifying laws that already existed, including some major changes passed last year. Approval came ahead of a Feb. 28 deadline for those regulatory changes to be in place for the 2022 primaries in June. The commission, a panel of legislators charged with giving final approval to proposed regulations from state agencies, is composed of six Republican and six Democratic lawmakers, which allows for partisan disagreements to sink certain regulations — such as the college student vaccine mandate, which failed to pass in December. A majority of the election regulations — 18 of 30 — were approved without further discussion, and another four were approved unanimously after concerns raised by commission members were addressed by Wlaschin. But not every regulation made it through the process unscathed. Two were held up after the commission deadlocked on votes, with Democrats in support and Republicans in opposition.

Full Article: Lawmakers split on regulations enshrining switch to mostly mail election – The Nevada Independent

New Jersey bills advance to allow early counting of vote-by-mail ballots, increase poll worker pay | Michelle Brunetti Post/Press of Atlantic City

Bills to increase poll worker pay and allow elections officials to begin opening and processing mail-in ballots 10 days before Election Day were passed out of a Senate committee Thursday. Under S856, early votes may begin to be counted 24 hours after the conclusion of the early voting period, and elections officials can begin opening the inner envelopes and canvassing each mail-in ballot 10 days prior to Election Day. The Senate State Government, Wagering, Tourism & Historic Preservation Committee passed the bill, with only state Sen. Vince Polistina, R-Atlantic, voting against it. “Rather than allow the potential release of information, why not get more machines and people (to count the votes on Election Day),” Polistina said. “Let’s get the right number of machines and people.” Currently, mail-in ballots cannot begin to be counted until Election Day, and early votes cast during the early voting period can only be counted after the polls close. Disclosure of results prior to the close of polls on the day of the election is a crime of the third degree.

Full Articl: Bills advance to allow early counting of vote-by-mail ballots, increase poll worker pay | Govt-and-politics | pressofatlanticcity.com

South Carolina House effort to expand early, no-excuse voting gets unanimous support | Emily Bohatch/The State

House Republicans rejected a push from within their own party Wednesday to close the state’s primary elections, and instead unanimously advanced a bipartisan proposal that would add two weeks of excuse-free early voting and allow local election offices to count ballots early. Lawmakers passed the bill, sponsored by House Speaker Jay Lucas, R-Darlington, in the wake of a record breaking number of absentee ballots cast in 2020. South Carolina offered no-excuse absentee voting because of the ongoing pandemic. As a result, more than a million residents took advantage. Under current law, South Carolina voters can only cast absentee ballots if they meet certain criteria, such as a disability or older than 65 years old. The House bill would set a permanent, no-excuse necessary in-person voting period Monday through Saturday, 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., in the two weeks ahead of general elections, primaries, primary runoffs, special and municipal elections. Voters who look to vote absentee by mail, however, would still be required to have an excuse. The bill also contains provisions that would allow election workers to begin tallying absentee ballots one day earlier than is currently allowed. Specifically, election workers would be allowed to look at outer envelopes of returned absentee ballots the Sunday before Election Day, and they would be allowed to begin counting ballots the Monday morning before.

Full Article: SC lawmakers expand early voting, quash move to close primaries | The State

Tennessee: Shelby County Election and County Commission chairs propose voting machine compromise to end lawsuit | Katherine Burgess/Memphis Commercial Appeal

The chairs of the Shelby County Election Commission and Shelby County Commission have come up with a compromise on voting machines that they hope will lead to the end of litigation between their two bodies, Election Chairman Brent Taylor announced Monday. Whether that will happen hinges on the votes of the members of the two commissions, with election commissioners voting in support of the plan Monday night. The compromise is simple, Taylor described Monday: Voters at the polls will be offered the choice between using a ballot marking device or filling out a hand-marked paper ballot. “What both the County Commission and Election Commission want to make sure of is the election workers do not couch this in a way where we’re exhibiting a preference to where they cast their ballot,” Taylor said. Later that day, Taylor announced his resignation from the Election Commission and that he would be announcing his plans in the coming week. A Republican who has served on both the Memphis City Council and the Shelby County Board of Commissioners, he is expected to seek further public office. Taylor said the proposed compromise arose from conversations with County Commission Chairman Willie Brooks Jr., who was not present at the news conference Monday in which Taylor announced the proposed solution.

 

Full Article: Shelby County Election, County Commission chairs: voting machines

Texas: Travis County not saying what led to website crash on election night | Ryan Autullo Sarah Asch/Austin American-Statesman

As Travis County voters fired up their digital devices Tuesday night to check the results of the county’s Democratic and Republican primaries, they encountered what would be the most perplexing development of the evening: There were no results to be found. As results from the early voting period began to flow in from other major Texas counties, in Travis County — home to some of the world’s most powerful technology corporations — there was nothing but an error message on the Travis County clerk’s office elections website. “Error establishing a database connection,” the site showed. The website remained down for about 40 minutes, at which time the clerk’s office said on social media that its information technology department was working to publish the results on Travis County’s main website. About 10 minutes later, after nearly an hour with voters and candidates not knowing what was happening in the races, the results were finally posted. It’s still not clear what caused the problem — no Travis County officials would discuss it or answer questions on Wednesday, despite multiple requests for comment from the American-Statesman. Travis County spokesman Hector Nieto referred questions to the county clerk’s office. Victoria Hinojosa, an executive assistant in the clerk’s office who handles media requests, did not respond to multiple messages left Wednesday.

Full Article: Travis County not saying what led to website crash on election night

Wisconsin: Gableman report calls for decertifying 2020 election. The Legislature’s nonpartisan lawyers say that’s not possible. | Shawn Johnson/Wisconsin Public Radio

The special counsel hired by Wisconsin Republicans to investigate the 2020 presidential election told lawmakers Tuesday that they “ought to take a very hard look” at decertifying the election, a move that has been widely dismissed as legally impossible. Former state Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman also said private grants used to run the election constituted “election bribery” and called on lawmakers to “eliminate and dismantle” the Wisconsin Elections Commission. The commission’s administrator, he said, should be fired. The suggestions to lawmakers come a week after the state Assembly held what Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, said was likely the final session day of the year. Vos, who hired Gableman last year, had also billed these recommendations as Gableman’s final report. But Gableman, who acknowledged some uncertainty over his own contract with the Legislature, vowed that his investigation would continue. “This will not end today,” Gableman said at the start of the hearing. “This is an important topic, and there’s a lot of work to do. And I will be back.” Gableman’s assertion that the Legislature should — or even could — decertify the presidential election has next to no support, either in the judicial system where he once served, or among lawmakers from either party in the Wisconsin Legislature.

Full Article: Gableman report calls for decertifying 2020 election. The Legislature’s nonpartisan lawyers say that’s not possible. | Wisconsin Public Radio

Louisiana: Amid national controversy, commission to select new voting system | Mark Ballard/The Advocate

Born from the widespread, if incorrect, fears that American elections are tainted, the Voting Systems Commission met five times over the past six months. The commission’s work could conclude Wednesday when it votes on recommendations to Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin on how to conduct Louisiana elections into the future. Many conservatives argued to the commission that they want to replace voting machines with hand-marked paper ballots that are counted by hand. And that method is among the four options to be considered Wednesday by the commission. But an abundance of problems attends that system, not the least of which is disenfranchising disabled voters without sight or use of their hands. “My preference at this point is ballot marking devices (that prints a paper receipt) that the voters can verify and then put into an electronic scanner that maintains an electronic copy of it and a paper copy for audit purposes and tabulates it, so that we can have election results on election night,” Ardoin said in an interview. “I prefer that option because it gives us an opportunity to provide for our disabled individuals to be able to vote as independently as possible.” It’s a method he sought in two failed proposals before controversy over the 2020 presidential election results turned the temperature high on the issue. Ardoin has no idea of how much that system would cost, even a ballpark figure. He suspects it’ll be very expensive. “That’s why the law says ‘recommendations to the secretary.’ I’ve got to be able to make responsible decisions. I might want a Porsche, but I might only be able to afford a mid-sized van,” Ardoin said.

Full Article: Amid national controversy, commission to select new voting system for Louisiana | State Politics | theadvocate.com

District of Columbia: New legislation could bring mobile voting but experts warn that the technology isn’t ready | Lauren Lumpkin/The Washington Post

New proposed legislation could bring mobile voting to the District, a measure that supporters say would enfranchise more eligible voters throughout the city. Meanwhile, some experts warn that the type of technology needed to support mobile voting on such a large scale isn’t ready and could further erode the public’s trust in elections. In December, several groups signed a letter to District officials urging them “not to adopt, test or develop internet voting of any kind.” … “The appeal is obvious. We all can agree that if there’s a safe way to make it as easy as possible for eligible voters to vote, we should do it. People very much want mobile voting to be that,” said Mark Lindeman, a director at Verified Voting, which focuses on election technology. “But we haven’t figured out a way to do it safely and verifiably.” Part of the problem stems from the way the Internet was created, Lindeman said. “The Internet still is, foundationally, what is was built to be by academics going back to the 1970s, and academics weren’t really thinking of building a system that was private and secure,” Lindeman said. Their priority, instead, was sharing information as quickly as possible. During an age in which millions of Americans bank and shop online, casting votes on the Internet may seem safe enough for some. But J. Alex Halderman, a University of Michigan professor and electronic voting expert, said standards for voting should be higher. “In banking, a certain amount of fraud is just accepted as the cost of doing business. But that’s just not how we view elections. We want there to be no fraud in elections,” Halderman said. “Frankly, it’s phenomenally retrograde to consider Internet voting in the present moment because we know sophisticated attackers have our election systems in their sights.”

Full Article: District bill could bring mobile voting to city in 2024 – The Washington Post

Utah bill to end default mail-in voting fails in raucous hearing | Bridger Beal-Cvetko/Deseret News

A bill that would have returned Utah to in-person voting by default failed to advance from committee on Wednesday after opponents argued that it could disenfranchise voters and had few discernible security benefits. HB371, sponsored by Rep. Phil Lyman, R-Blanding, was heard in the House Government Operations Committee before an at times rambunctious crowd of supporters who filled five separate overflow rooms. Committee vice chairman Rep. Norm Thurston, R-Provo, had to repeatedly remind them to refrain from outbursts. Lyman said his bill was a necessary step to protect Utah elections from fraud and reinstate voter faith in elections. From a security standpoint, “our elections are pretty wide open,” he said — a claim that lacks evidence and Utah election officials contest. Although the bill would require voters to specifically request an absentee ballot be mailed to them, Lyman said the key provision in the bill was one that would require an independent audit after each election. He falsely claimed that precincts in Salt Lake and San Juan counties saw voter turnout as high as 200-300% in recent years and said that matching voter rolls to mail-in ballots “becomes really problematic.” “In essence, what we’re doing … is we’re blanketing communities with ballots assuming that the people that we’re sending them to are legitimate on the voter rolls, whether they requested it or not,” he said.

Full Article: It’s time to ‘get down to what’s real’: Utah bill to end default mail-in voting fails in raucous hearing | KSL.com

National: Election Workers Are in Crisis. Will Congress Actually Help? | Sam Brody/Daily Beast

Defiance County, Ohio, does not loom large in the story of the 2020 presidential election. This rural slice of northwest Ohio—population 38,000—went for Donald Trump by more than 30 percentage points. The county has long favored Republicans, and it hasn’t been competitive in a very long time. But for the people who run elections in Defiance County, the job has never been harder. “In the last three years, this job has basically tripled,” said Tonya Wichman, the county elections director. It’s not just the endless stream of calls and letters. It’s what they entail for election workers these days: near-constant harassment and denigration from people who, largely spurred on by Trump’s election fraud conspiracies, have developed a toxic distrust of the election system and those who run it. “It’s a disheartening thing… to have people tell you how bad you do your job when you’re going above and beyond what they expect from you,” Wichman says. “They’re listening to people speak about our jobs without asking us about our jobs.” In response, the Defiance County elections office has upgraded every aspect of its security, and there is an additional physical barrier between staff and those who walk in. They instruct poll workers what to do if they see a suspicious car at a voting location, which Wichman says has not been necessary before. Wichman stresses that election workers love what they do and are committed to protecting the integrity of the system—no matter what. But for some in the field, the work has simply become too overwhelming.

Full Article: Election Workers Are in Crisis. Will Congress Actually Help?

National: Judges are narrowing voting protections. Some fear lasting damage | Carrie Johnson/NPR

The nation’s premier tool to protect voting rights is in mortal danger, threatened on multiple fronts by the Supreme Court and lower-ranking federal judges, scholars and civil rights advocates say. The latest blow to the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965 came this week in Arkansas, where a federal judge appointed by former President Donald Trump dismissed a case over new statehouse maps. The NAACP and the American Civil Liberties Union argued that the maps diluted the power of Black voters. But the judge said he found no way for the outside advocates to proceed. “Only the Attorney General of the United States can bring a case like this one,” wrote Judge Lee Rudofsky. The ACLU said the decision flouts decades of precedent and vowed to appeal. “This ruling was so radical that there was no choice but to appeal it,” said Sophia Lin Lakin, deputy director of the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project. “Private individuals have brought cases under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act to protect their right to vote for generations.”

Full Article: The Supreme Court takes on another Voting Rights Act case : NPR

Just what Arizona needs: an imaginary ballot box to combat imaginary election fraud | Laurie Roberts/Arizona Republic

Comes now the latest in the Republicans’ unrelenting and at times unhinged assault against Arizona’s elections. Today’s victim: Arizona’s wildly popular early voting system, a decades-old program that was lauded as a national model until Donald Trump lost an election and Republican leaders lost their minds. Senate Bill 1571 would bar voters who receive early ballots from dropping them in the mail. Instead, we’d have to take our ballots to a “smart” drop box. One that doesn’t exist. This plan comes courtesy of Sen. Kelly Townsend, an Apache Junction Republican who is hoping to convince Tucson that she should represent them in Congress next year. This bill is, at least, a step up from her earlier efforts to outright ignore the results of an election. This time, she’s just trying to make it harder for people to vote in the first place. All this, in the name of eliminating all that supposed fraud that not even the Senate’s own ninja auditors could find after an exhaustive examination of Arizona’s 2020 election.

Full Article: An imaginary ballot box to fight imaginary fraud? Genius plan!

Colorado election officials continue to face threats as lawmakers pursue new protections | Scott Franz/KUNC

Election workers in Adams County are putting on bulletproof vests before they head to the office. More than 150 miles away in Salida, the clerks in the Chaffee County clerk and recorder’s office now talk to residents through bulletproof glass and walls. “It’s like it’s so beyond the pale, the craziness,” Chaffee County Clerk Lori Mitchell said last week after describing the range of threats and misinformation she and her staff are still facing following the 2020 election. “I think that’s why it’s hard to combat back because it’s like, ‘Oh my God, what the heck is going on?’” Mitchell said the threats against her office started on social media. They also targeted a worker at a ballot processing machine company that has been the focus of unfounded claims of fraud. “We did all the proper channels of reporting (the threats) to the sheriff and to the FBI and whatever we had to do,” she said. “But it still was very unnerving for me and my family.” Things got worse last summer. Mitchell was driving about a block away from her office in Salida, a small town on the banks of the Arkansas River surrounded by sprawling ranches and mountains. She said she noticed something alarming.

Full Article: Colorado election officials continue to face threats as lawmakers pursue new protections | KUNC

Delaware lawsuit filed to stop early voting | Melissa Steele/Cape Gazette

A lawsuit challenging early voting in Delaware based on a conflict with the state’s constitution was filed Jan. 24 in Delaware Chancery Court. Filed by former Attorney General M. Jane Brady’s legal group on behalf of an election inspector, the lawsuit states that Delaware’s early voting laws, set to take effect in 2022, conflict with and violate the Delaware Constitution because those laws expand the administration of the general election beyond its constitutionally designated day. Per the state constitution, the state’s general election is to be held on a Tuesday after the first Monday in the month of November for an election year. Brady, however, said provisions in the constitution only apply to the general election, not primary elections or special elections, such as the one planned March 5 for the 4th District representative seat. “The language of the constitution itself and court decisions make clear that the provisions we feel are being violated only apply to the general election,” she said. Permanent absentee voting law also violates the constitution, according to the lawsuit. “[Statutes] grant eligibility to vote by absentee ballot indefinitely, and without consideration of the applicant’s eligibility at each subsequent election, as required by the constitution,” the suit states.

Full Article: Lawsuit filed to stop early voting in Delaware | Cape Gazette

District of Columbia: New Bill Would Bring Mobile Voting To D.C. | Martin Austermuhle/DCist

A new bill in the D.C. Council would allow voters to cast ballots from their phones, tablets, or computers, which proponents say would simplify the voting process and enfranchise residents who are otherwise likely to sit out elections. The bill was introduced Friday by Councilmember Brooke Pinto (D-Ward 2) and seven of her colleagues, and follows a push launched late last year by venture capitalist and former political operative Bradley Tusk to make D.C. the first place in the country to formally adopt mobile voting. … “There is currently no internet technology available that allows for the secure transmission of voted ballots while also maintaining voter privacy and ballot verifiability,” wrote Mark Lindeman, an expert on voting security and audits with Verified Voting, a nonpartisan group that focuses on elections and technology, in a recent letter to legislators in Rhode Island considering a bill to allow ballots to be returned over the internet. Additionally, local critics could point to D.C.’s checkered history with various technological advances. In mid-2020, the elections board quietly killed off its unreliable app that allowed voters to register to vote or change their registration; last month the board unveiled its first web-based option for online voter registration, though plans for another app have been delayed. Earlier this month, DC Health discontinued a new web portal that was supposed to allow residents to get access to their COVID-19 vaccine records after the system sent the wrong personal information to some people.

Full Article: New Bill Would Bring Mobile Voting To D.C. | DCist

Florida bill creating election police unit ready for Senate floor | Renzo Downey/Florida Politics

The Senate could soon vote to establish an election crimes investigations unit, ban ranked-choice voting, change vote-by-mail forms and more. After more than two hours of discussion, the Senate Appropriations Committee voted nearly along party lines Thursday to send an elections bill (SB 524) that contains several of Gov. Ron DeSantis’ “election integrity” priorities to the Senate floor. Despite bipartisan agreement the 2020 election was possibly the smoothest in Florida’s recent history, the bill is Republicans’ second follow-up measure to strengthen Florida’s voting laws. The legislation, sponsored by St. Augustine Republican Sen. Travis Hutson, proposes many changes to several areas of Florida election laws. “I don’t want one illegal vote in the state of Florida, and I don’t think we should be afraid of our elections being too secure,” Hutson told the committee. Gulf Breeze Republican Sen. Doug Broxson suggested the measure is insurance for the future rather than a reaction to the past. “We’re really looking to the future, to the reality of what seems to be a changing landscape across the country on election procedure,” Broxson told the committee. But Democrats, like Jacksonville Sen. Audrey Gibson, contested the bill’s purpose. “All this is stoking fear. It is wanting to cause division, not only in this state, but in this country,” Gibson said.

Full Article: Bill creating election police unit ready for Senate floor

Michigan: Cross Village election data “cloning” case ends with misdemeanor plea | Mardi Link/Traverse City Record Eagle

A woman who faced felony charges after she was accused of plotting to “clone” voting data in Cross Village Township, pleaded no contest Tuesday to a single misdemeanor charge of creating a disturbance. Tera Jackson agreed in 90th District Court to plead no contest, and in exchange the prosecutor dropped two felony charges — common law fraud and unauthorized access of a computer — agreed to a delayed sentence and possible expungement. “The court will enter a conviction to the misdemeanor without you telling me exactly what you did, okay?” explained 86th District Court Judge Michael Stepka. “That’s how no contest works,” Stepka said. “You’ll still have a conviction for creating a disturbance, do you understand that?” “My understanding is, that goes away,” Jackson said, “after the successful — yeah, me continuing my life as I always have, not being a criminal.” Stepka presided as a visiting judge in response to a Feb. 3 order from the state court administrator’s office, he said. Ninetieth District Court Judge Angela Lasher, who was challenged unsuccessfully in the 2020 election by Jackson’s attorney, Robert A. Banner, recused herself from the case.

Full Article: Cross Village election data “cloning” case ends with misdemeanor plea | News | record-eagle.com

Nevada: National Guard, ‘stealth paper ballots’ proposed for Washoe County elections | Mark Robison/Reno Gazette Journal

Commissioner Jeanne Herman is proposing big changes in the way elections are handled in Washoe County — including ensuring the Nevada National Guard is present at every polling location as soon as the 2022 primary — in an effort to preserve the “purity” of voting in Nevada’s second-largest county. All 20 measures in Herman’s resolution, dated Feb. 16, came from suggestions made during 4½ hours of public comment at a recent county commission meeting attended by more than 350 people, she said. “The people need to have a voice to be heard and be satisfied that we have looked at the situation with care and are living up to our job as commissioners,” Herman told the RGJ Friday morning. The resolution will be discussed by the commission at its Tuesday, Feb. 22, meeting, which begins at 10 a.m. Go here to view the agenda; the resolution is listed as item No. 14.

Full Article: National Guard, ‘stealth paper ballots’ proposed for Washoe elections

New Hampshire bill to reprogram automated voting machines has support from election officials | Kevin Landrigan/The New Hampshire Union Leade

The state’s top election official and town clerks have endorsed a bipartisan bill to reprogram automated voting machines to detect ballots that have votes for too many candidates for a single office. Currently, if the machine detects an “overvote” it doesn’t count the votes for anyone for that race, though it does process the rest of the ballot. This change, if it had been made before the 2020 election, would have immediately flagged the absentee ballots that were incorrectly read by Windham voting machines on Election Day because of folds through one of the candidates’ names, said state Rep. Marjorie Porter, D-Hillsborough, the chief architect of the reform measure. Porter said the post-2020 election summary tapes of votes from other towns she and others have seen led her to believe many more votes were invalidated as the machines wrongly read them as overvotes. “This leads me to believe the shadow issue found in Windham may have been more widespread than we know,” Porter told the House Election Laws Committee Wednesday. The amended bill Porter presented would require that these machines kick out any ballot that appears to have votes for too many candidates for a single office. “Our machines can be programmed at no additional cost to reject the ballot, much like that change machine returns the crinkled dollar you try to put in at the laundromat,” Porter said. This ballot would then be placed in an “auxiliary bin” to be hand-counted by local election officials after the polls have closed.

Full Article: A bill to reprogram automated voting machines has support from election officials

Oregon: New bill introduced to better protect elections officials | Madison LaBerge/KOTI

With elections officials across the country facing increasing threats, including in southern Oregon, a new bill is under consideration in Salem. House Bill 4144 is gaining support from elections officials across the state. It would exempt elections officials from disclosing their addresses in public records. Jackson County’s own elections clerk supports the legislation. “Written in these huge, probably six to eight, possibly even 10 foot letters were: ‘VOTE DON’T WORK’ and then just south of that ‘NEXT TIME BULLETS.’ And it literally just, it threw me off,” said Chris Walker, the Jackson County elections clerk, going into her 14th year. She said threatening vandalism was found in the parking lot across the street from the elections office, just one day after the county certified the 2020 elections results. “I can’t believe the stuff we’ve heard about happening around the country, it’s here and now in our own county — in Jackson County. It was very disheartening, and very disturbing, as well,” said Walker.

Full Article: New bill introduced to better protect elections officials – KOBI-TV NBC5 / KOTI-TV NBC2

Oregon legislature passes election worker safety bill | Jamie Parfitt/KGW

A bill aimed at shielding Oregon’s election workers from intimidation and threats has now passed both chambers of the legislature, heading to Governor Kate Brown’s desk for a signature. House Bill 4144 allows election workers to keep their home addresses from public disclosure, and makes the crime of harassment against an election worker punishable by a maximum 364 days in prison and a $6,250 fine — upgrading it from a Class B misdemeanor to a Class A misdemeanor. The 2020 election became a particular hotbed of hostility and harassment, much of it directed at the workers and elected officials who oversee vote-counting throughout the country. While Oregon was far from the worst example, there were enough incidents that some lawmakers and county clerks felt that something had to be done. Jackson County Clerk Chris Walker, a nonpartisan elected official, championed HB 4144 after her office became the target of threats. Shortly after the 2020 election, someone painted a message in a nearby parking lot: “vote don’t work” and “next time bullets.”

Full Article: Oregon legislature passes election worker safety bill | kgw.com

Tennessee: New evidence undermines case against Black US woman jailed for voting error | Sam Levine/The Guardian

I have an update in my reporting on the case of Pamela Moses, the 44-year-old Black Lives Matter Activist in Memphis who was sentenced to six years in prison for trying to register to vote. The case has attracted significant national attention because many see Moses’ sentence as too severe and a clear example of disparities in the US criminal justice system. The prosecution’s case is built around the argument that Moses knew she was ineligible to vote because she was on probation, and people on felony probation in Tennessee cannot vote. Indeed, a few months before she tried to register, a judge had issued an order telling Moses her probation was ongoing. But nevertheless, prosecutors argued, she convinced a probation officer into signing a form saying she was eligible to vote and then knowingly submitted the document knowing it was false. “You tricked the probation department into giving you documents saying you were off probation,” W Mark Ward, the judge who sentenced Moses, said in January. Moses, for her part, told me she did not know she was ineligible and her lawyers have said she went to the probation office genuinely seeking clarity about whether she could vote. A new email I obtained through a public records request adds to evidence undercutting the claim that Moses tricked the officer.

Full Article: New evidence undermines case against Black US woman jailed for voting error | US voting rights | The Guardian

Texas firm Authentix backs GOP push for high-tech ‘fraud-proof’ ballots | Rosalind S. Helderman/The Washington Post

Holographic foil. Special ink designed to be sensitive to temperature changes. Nearly invisible “stealth numbers” that can be located only using special ultraviolet or infrared lights. Those are among the high-tech security features that would be required to be embedded on ballots under measures proposed in at least four states by Republican lawmakers — all promoters of false claims that the 2020 election was marred by mass fraud — in an attempt to make the ballots as hard to counterfeit as passports or currency. But the specialized inks and watermarks also would limit the number of companies capable of selling ballot paper — potentially to just one Texas firm with no previous experience in elections that consulted with the lawmakers proposing the measures. Mark Finchem, an Arizona state representative spearheading the initiative, said in an interview that he developed ideas for the proposals after discussions with executives of Authentix, a company in Addison, Tex. The firm has since hosted other GOP lawmakers at its office and given presentations about the idea to legislators in two states, according to participants and social media posts.

Full Article: Texas firm Authentix backs GOP push for high-tech ‘fraud-proof’ ballots – The Washington Post