Pennsylvania Republicans say the new budget funds a new election audit bureau. Democrats say no way. | Jonathan Lai/Philadelphia Inquirer

The bipartisanship didn’t even last a day. Pennsylvania lawmakers reached a state budget deal with the governor Friday — and by Saturday, Democrats and Republicans were already disagreeing over one small but politically charged item. The fight, of course, concerned one of the most heated topics these days in Harrisburg and elsewhere: elections. It’s not in the legislative text, but Republicans who control the General Assembly say the roughly $40 billion budget includes extra money for the state Auditor General’s Office, with the understanding that it will fund a new Bureau of Election Audits. Democrats say there’s no such agreement, even informally, and that they oppose a new audit bureau. While they await the signature of Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat, lawmakers are fighting over the basic facts of a bipartisan agreement they just struck. “I do not trust that the increased funding … will be used on legitimate audits in the public interest, but rather on the continuation of partisan witch hunts that damage our political process and besmirch the integrity of the men and women of our county elections’ offices,” State Sen. Sharif Street (D., Philadelphia) wrote Monday in a letter to Wolf calling on him to veto the added money. Wolf can decrease specific items in the budget, removing what Republicans say is informally earmarked for creating an audit bureau.

Full Article: Pennsylvania budget deal sparks partisan fight over proposed election audit bureau

Wisconsin GOP leaders say Trump is ‘misinformed’ after the former president claimed they are hiding election corruption | Molly Beck/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Former President Donald Trump’s election loss loomed over the state Republican Party’s annual gathering as legislative leaders celebrated their investigation into the contest just hours after the man who spurred those questions berated them for not doing enough. The convention closed with a symbolic and unsuccessful effort by a small group of delegates to oust Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, underscoring divisions within Wisconsin Republicans over whether and how far to litigate the outcome of the 2020 presidential election. Vos, a Republican from Rochester, announced at Saturday’s convention session he was hiring at taxpayer expense a former conservative Supreme Court justice to oversee an investigation by retired police detectives into the election — the third such review Vos has called for. But just hours beforehand, Trump issued a statement seeking to turn the GOP faithful against Vos and the Legislature’s Republican leaders by accusing them of covering up election corruption because the review was not broad enough in the former president’s view.

Full Article: Trump claims Wisconsin GOP leaders tried to ‘cover up’ election fraud

‘Like a Wild West’: One Man’s Journey Into the Heart of America’s Voting Industry | Ben Wofford/Politico

When President Donald Trump began spreading the conspiracy theories about why Joe Biden beat him in November’s election, he swung at all the glitzy targets: The media, Democrats, China. But he saved his most spectacular accusations for a more obscure and implausible target: The companies that make America’s voting machines. Over the winter, Trump publicly harangued Dominion Voting, a small company with a headquarters in Denver, and another company called Smartmatic, which barely has a footprint in the United States. Week after week, Trump’s lawyers cast them as the hub of a grandiose conspiracy to alter the vote, one machine at a time. The wonky set of experts and academics who actually study U.S. voting infrastructure watched in shock. It was obvious the Big Lie about the election was patently absurd. And when it came to voting machines, it was also ironic: Precisely thanks to the serious efforts of Trump’s own Department of Homeland Security, the 2020 contest was, at least technologically speaking, the most secure election in modern history. Yet these experts also understood that voting companies were an easy mark for a reason. By just about any measure, they are some of the murkiest and inscrutable firms in the civilian private sector. … In March, Caulfield’s study on prices was published by Verified Voting. In various corners of the election world, the analysis was instantly hailed as a breakthrough. “This information, on this scale, hasn’t been widely available to anyone,” says Lindeman, Verified Voting’s co-director. “Until this report was provided, no one really knew much at all.”

‘Like a Wild West’: One Man’s Journey Into the Heart of America’s Voting Industry – POLITICO

National: House panel includes $500 million election security grant in proposed appropriations bill | Maggie Miller/The Hill

The House Appropriations Committee on Wednesday included $500 million for election security grants in one of the proposed appropriations bills for next year. The proposed fiscal 2022 Financial Services and General Government bill would give $500 million to the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) to distribute to states and territories to help address election security concerns. This includes moving to voting machines with voter-verified paper ballots and improving election administration. The EAC would be given 45 days to distribute the funds once the bill is signed into law. The election security grant is $400 million above the $100 million the EAC requested as part of its fiscal 2022 funding request. Congress has approved more than $800 million in election security grants since 2018, and the coronavirus stimulus bill signed into law by former President Trump in early 2020 included $400 million to help election officials address voting challenges from the COVID-19 pandemic. The House Appropriations Committee last year attempted to do more, and included $500 million in the fiscal 2021 EAC funding, which the House approved along party lines. The funding was not approved by the Senate amid Republican opposition.

Full Article: House panel includes $500 million election security grant in proposed appropriations bill | TheHill

New York: Rudy Giuliani’s law license suspended in connection with efforts to overturn 2020 election | Shayna Jacobs, Rosalind S. Helderman and Devlin Barrett/The Washington Post

New York state suspended Rudolph W. Giuliani from practicing law on Thursday, months after the former New York mayor battled to overturn the settled results of November’s election on behalf of President Donald Trump. The committee of First Department Appellate Division judges that made the determination said Giuliani is not fit to continue practicing law after he “communicated demonstrably false and misleading statements to courts, lawmakers and the public at large in his capacity as lawyer for [Trump] and the Trump campaign in connection with Trump’s failed effort at reelection in 2020.” The panel issued a 33-page opinion on the matter. The court’s disciplinary committee, which fielded multiple complaints against Giuliani and is overseeing arguments in the case, found that his conduct “immediately threatens the public interest and warrants interim suspension from the practice of law,” the opinion said. The suspension represents one of the first serious attempts to impose consequences on Trump or his top allies for spreading falsehoods about the election results, rhetoric that has continued unabated since President Biden’s victory was certified. It comes, too, as Trump and Giuliani face separate criminal investigations in New York.

Full Article: Rudy Giuliani’s law license suspended in connection with efforts to overturn 2020 election – The Washington Post

National: Senate Republicans block debate on elections bill, dealing blow to Democrats’ voting rights push | Mike DeBonis/The Washington Post

Senate Republicans banded together Tuesday to block a sweeping Democratic bill that would revamp the architecture of American democracy, dealing a grave blow to efforts to federally override dozens of GOP-passed state voting laws. The test vote, which would have cleared the way to start debate on voting legislation, failed 50-50 on straight party lines — 10 votes short of the supermajority needed to advance legislation in the Senate. It came after a succession of Democrats delivered warnings about what they said was the dire state of American democracy, accusing former president Donald Trump of undermining the country’s democratic system by challenging the results of the 2020 election in a campaign that prompted his supporters in numerous state legislatures to pass laws rolling back ballot access. “Are we going to let reactionary state legislatures drag us back into the muck of voter suppression? Are we going to let the most dishonest president in history continue to poison our democracy from the inside?” Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said before the vote. “Or will we stand up to defend what generations of Americans have organized, marched, fought and died for — the sacred, sacred right to vote?” But Republicans stood firmly together in opposition, following the lead of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who on Tuesday lambasted the Democrats’ bill, known as the For the People Act, as “a transparently partisan plan to tilt every election in America permanently in [Democrats’] favor” and as “a recipe for undermining confidence in our elections.”

Full Article: Senate Republicans filibuster voting rights bill – The Washington Post

National: Senate voting and ethics overhaul stalls, but Democrats united in vote | Kate Ackley and Katherine Tully-McManus/Roll Call

West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin III voted with his party Tuesday in favor of debating Democrats’ signature overhaul of elections, campaign finance and ethics laws, but the measure’s path to enactment still remains improbable. Republicans, as expected, opposed a procedural vote that would have let the Senate begin debate and given Manchin a chance to change a sweeping bill he had said earlier this month he would vote against. Senators voted 50-50 along party lines, leaving the motion short of the needed 60 votes for adoption. GOP senators called the bill a power grab by the other side of the aisle and argued it would give too much control to the federal government over elections. Democrats said they planned to press ahead, as  allied outside interest groups mounted a fresh round of pressure campaigns, including to end the legislative filibuster. “This is the beginning and not the end,” said Sen. Amy Klobuchar, chairwoman of the Rules and Administration panel, which has jurisdiction over election and campaign issues. Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer said that anyone who views the debate over the bill, known as the For the People Act, as just another partisan fight between Republicans and Democrats is missing the larger point.

Full Article: Senate voting and ethics overhaul stalls, but Democrats united in vote

National: Inside the ‘shadow reality world’ promoting the lie that the presidential election was stolen | Rosalind S. Helderman, Emma Brown , Tom Hamburger and Josh Dawsey/The Washington Post

The slickly produced movie trailer, set to ominous music, cuts from scenes of the 2020 election to clips of allies of former president Donald Trump describing a vast conspiracy to steal the White House. “The Deep Rig,” a film financed by former Overstock.com chief executive Patrick Byrne for $750,000, is set to be released online this weekend — the latest production by a loosely affiliated network of figures who have harnessed right-wing media outlets, podcasts and the social media platform Telegram to promote the falsehood that the 2020 election was rigged. The baseless assertion, backed by millions of dollars from wealthy individuals, is reverberating across this alternative media ecosphere five months after Trump and many of his backers were pushed off Facebook and Twitter for spreading disinformation that inspired a mob to attack the U.S. Capitol. While largely unnoticed by Americans who have accepted the fact of President Biden’s victory, the deluge of content has captured the attention of many who think the election was rigged, a belief that is an animating force inside the Republican Party. In this world, ballot reviews like a Republican-commissioned recount now underway in Arizona are about to begin in other key swing states. Conspiracy theories that grow more dizzyingly complex by the day will soon be proven, showing that China or other foreign powers secretly flipped votes for Biden. Trump will be restored as president in months.

Full Article: Inside the ‘shadow reality world’ promoting the lie that the presidential election was stolen – The Washington Post

National: Trump allies ask judge to dismiss lawsuits over false claims Dominion voting machines were rigged | Ann E. Marimow/The Washington Post

President Donald Trump’s former lawyers and allies urged a federal judge in Washington on Thursday to throw out a trio of billion-dollar defamation lawsuits filed by Dominion Voting Systems over false claims that the company’s technology was used to rig the 2020 presidential election. Dominion says the falsehoods spread by former Trump attorneys Sidney Powell and Rudolph W. Giuliani, in addition to MyPillow chief executive Mike Lindell, amounted to a “viral disinformation campaign” that damaged the company’s reputation and its business and led to death threats against employees. In each of the lawsuits, Dominion uses the defendants’ words against them, citing dozens of public statements they made in media appearances and at public events spreading the lie that the voting-machine company helped steal the election from Trump. U.S. District Judge Carl J. Nichols seemed skeptical Thursday of the argument from Lindell’s attorney that the Republican donor was merely opining on the important issue of election security. “The public debate about election security is not the same as saying a particular company intentionally committed voter fraud,” Nichols said.

Full Article: Trump allies ask judge to dismiss lawsuits over false claims Dominion voting machines were rigged – The Washington Post

National: Rick Scott blocks Senate vote on top cyber nominee until Harris visits border | Maggie Miller/The Hill

Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) on Wednesday blocked a proposed unanimous consent vote on President Biden’s nominee to lead the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) until Vice President Harris visits the U.S.-Mexico border later this week. Scott made clear on the Senate floor that he is not opposed to Jen Easterly serving as CISA director but said the block is meant to hold the Biden administration accountable for addressing migration concerns at the southern border. “This isn’t about Ms. Easterly. This isn’t about cybersecurity,” Scott said. “I am here today because families in my state of Florida and across our nation deserve accountability, and President Biden has shown a total lack of accountability when it comes to addressing the border crisis.” Scott voted in favor of approving Easterly following her nomination hearing before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee but announced at the time that he would place a hold on Senate votes on all nominees for Department of Homeland Security (DHS) positions until Biden visited the U.S.-Mexico border.

Full Article: Rick Scott blocks Senate vote on top cyber nominee until Harris visits border | TheHill

Editorial: The Really Big Fight on Voting Rights Is Just Around the Corner | Richard H. Pildes/The New York Times

With the For the People Act on indefinite hold after a filibuster by Republicans in the Senate on Tuesday, the Voting Rights Act is about to return to center stage in Washington. The Supreme Court will soon decide a case on how a crucial part of the landmark law applies to voting laws challenged as racially discriminatory. The country is already roiling with controversies over whether a variety of post-2020 state voting changes reflect legitimate policy concerns or racially discriminatory ones. In Congress, Senators Joe Manchin and Lisa Murkowski have turned a spotlight on the Voting Rights Act with their endorsement of a version of the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. It would reaffirm Congress’s central role in protecting the right to vote against racially discriminatory changes and give the Justice Department (or, in Mr. Manchin’s version, the federal courts) the critical power to approve changes that are legitimate and block those that are invidious. The John Lewis Act might well offer the best chance of new national legislation protecting the right to vote in America, and its significance is best seen in historical context, especially that of two Supreme Court cases. The John Lewis Act would restore provisions of the Voting Rights Act (Sections 4 and 5) that were effectively invalidated by the 2013 case Shelby County v. Holder. When enacted in 1965, these provisions identified certain parts of the country and put their voting systems under a regime of federal control. These areas had to submit voting changes to the federal government, which had the power to block a proposal if it would diminish minority voter power. The federal government does not normally have veto power over state laws, but Section 5 created one.

Full Article: Opinion | The Really Big Fight on Voting Rights Is Just Around the Corner – The New York Times

Arizona ‘audit’ security practices revealed in fresh records | Jerod MacDonald-Evoy/Arizona Mirror

Documents released by the Arizona Senate shed new light on agreements between the legislative chamber and the groups providing private security services to the audit of Maricopa County’s 2020 election results. Among the documents is a contract requiring the Senate to make a $20,000 “contribution” to the Arizona Rangers, a nonprofit law enforcement support agency. Mike Droll, the State Commander for the Arizona Rangers, said he wasn’t sure if the Senate had paid the money and said it was the only agreement between the Rangers and the Senate he was aware of. The documents were obtained under Arizona public records law and published by American Oversight, a nonprofit government watchdog organization. The Phoenix New Times reported that the Senate has only made one payment in relation to the audit, and it is not to the Arizona Rangers. “We are out there to donate our services and time to the community,” Droll said to the Arizona Mirror, adding that the agreement “wasn’t contingent on how many hours of service” the organization’s members provided. The agreement between the Rangers and the Senate is signed by Droll and Senate President Karen Fann, and strikes out the word “compensation” and replaces it with the hand-written word “contribution.

Full Article: Arizona ‘audit’ security practices revealed in fresh records

Arizona election audit could lead to executions, if OAN gets its way | Laurie Roberts/Arizona Republic

We now approach the end game of Arizona’s election audit which – in some minds, at least – is not just about exposing the (supposed) conspiracy to overthrow Donald Trump. Next up: Mass executions. The Daily Beast reports a One America News Network host is calling for the execution of potentially thousands of Americans who he claims were involved in stealing the election in Arizona and elsewhere. OAN is the far-right media outlet that is working as the official broadcast sponsor of the Arizona Senate’s audit. It’s bad enough that Senate President Karen Fann’s “unbiased, independent” auditors have teamed up with a fringe media outlet that has led the charge in peddling conspiracy theories, one whose reporter, Christina Bobb, is a former Trump administration official who is now raising money to help fund the audit. Now Arizona’s audit partner is telling us that “radical Democrats left fingerprints all over the country, providing a trail of evidence that the 2020 election was not only tampered with, but was actually overthrown.” The host goes on to suggest potentially thousands of people should be executed once the evidence of their “coup” is unearthed in Arizona and in other audits that will follow. Gee, and here I thought Fann told us the audit was simply about determining if Arizona’s election laws need to be tightened.

Full Article: Arizona election audit could lead to executions, if OAN gets its way

Editorial: No fraudits allowed: I banned fraudulent election audits so Colorado won’t become Arizona | Jena Griswold/USA Today

More than seven months have passed since Election Day. The Department of Homeland Security, FBI, U.S. Cyber Command and Republican U.S. attorneys in the Justice Department have all said that the 2020 election was secure. Yet, some elected officials continue to discredit the election results for their own political advantage. With more than 400 voter suppression bills introduced across the nation and election misinformation reaching a crescendo, the urgency to save our nation and democracy is palpable. And now, on top of it all, we also have to contend with the emergence of “fraudits.” Fraudits, or fraudulent election audits, started in Arizona, where Republican legislators hired a partisan firm with no election experience to conduct a faulty, insecure audit. What they might not have realized were the associated costs. Giving an unaccredited, inexperienced company access to voting equipment creates major security issues, so much so that Arizona will likely need to spend more than $6 million to replace compromised voting equipment. But the costs aren’t the point. The point of the fraudit is to erode confidence in the 2020 election as a means to justify passing voter suppression bills, so that politicians get to pick their voters instead of the other way around. The fraudit is so popular that the Maricopa County arena hosting it is now a tourist destination for those seeking to replicate fraudits around the country and continue the attack on fair elections.

Full Article: No fraudits allowed: I banned fraudulent election audits so Colorado won’t become Arizona

Georgia judge throws out most of case alleging counterfeit ballots in Fulton County – ruling may scuttle absentee ballot inspection | Mark Niesse/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A judge dismissed most of a lawsuit Thursday seeking a deep inspection of Fulton County absentee ballots from last year’s presidential election, a review pursued by voters trying to find fraud. Superior Court Judge Brian Amero’s ruling jeopardizes the prospects for the ballot inspection to continue, though a plaintiff in the lawsuit said he believes it will soon move forward. The case is an attempt to scrutinize 147,000 absentee ballots based on claims by Republicans who suspected there were counterfeit ballots during a manual recount of November’s election results. Election officials have said there’s no indication of fraud after multiple recounts and investigations. An attorney for the Fulton elections board said the ruling prevents the possibility for an in-person review of absentee ballots using high-powered microscopes in the Georgia World Congress Center, as sought by those who believe fraud produced Democrat Joe Biden’s 12,000-vote win in Georgia over Republican Donald Trump. “That litigation is finished,” said Don Samuel, a prominent Atlanta attorney hired by the Fulton elections board. “Is there going to be an audit? Not right now. … There’s no discovery permitted. There’s no lawsuit pending anymore.”

Full Article: Judge’s ruling may scuttle Georgia absentee ballot inspection

Michigan Republican-led investigation rejects Trump’s claim that Nov. 3 election was stolen | Clara Hendrickson Dave Boucher/Detroit Free Press

An investigation led by Michigan Republican lawmakers found no basis for claims by former President Donald Trump and his allies that there was widespread fraud in the 2020 election, a Michigan Senate report released Wednesday concludes. The results of the inquiry by the Michigan Senate Oversight Committee, chaired by a Republican and comprised of a GOP majority, are the latest repudiation of conspiracies and lies revolving around Michigan’s election results. “The Committee found no evidence of widespread or systemic fraud in Michigan’s prosecution of the 2020 election,” the report states. “Citizens should be confident the results represent the true results of the ballots cast by the people of Michigan.” Months after his presidency ended with a deadly assault on the U.S. Capitol and a second impeachment attempt, Trump continues to falsely assert that the election was stolen from him and has targeted Michigan’s senators, among others, to uphold the lie. In a May 7 statement, Trump said Michigan’s senators “should be run out of office” if they haven’t “started their review of the Fraudulent Presidential Election of 2020.” But the Senate Oversight Committee launched its election inquiry nearly eight months ago, convening during a rare Saturday hearing at about the same time that major networks and other news organizations declared Joe Biden won the presidency.

Full Article: Michigan Senate investigation rejects Trump’s claims of stolen election

Michigan: Election prompts support for Antrim County Clerk, report of no fraud and audit request | News | Mardi Link/Traverse City Record-Eagle

Hours after state Republican lawmakers released a report showing investigators found no evidence to support repeated claims made by former President Donald Trump of widespread election fraud in Michigan, a trio of county clerks stood on the lawn of the Antrim County Courthouse and pledged support of County Clerk Sheryl Guy. “When I heard the nonsense about Sheryl, I said this doesn’t even make sense,” Genesee County Clerk and former Democratic lawmaker John Gleason said, of the repeated criticisms lodged over Guy’s handling of the 2020 presidential election. “They were waiting to ambush somebody,” Gleason said. “And I think they were prepared, and I think that’s why they’ve done what they did to our nation’s capital and I think that’s what they’re doing to Sheryl.” Also in attendance were Muskegon County Clerk Nancy Waters and Midland County Clerk Ann Manary. “She is our Sheryl,” Waters said, praising Guy for showing her the ropes when she was first elected in 2009.

Full Article: Election prompts support for clerk, report of no fraud and audit request | News | record-eagle.com

New York: Rudy Giuliani’s Law License Suspended Over False Election 2020 Statements | Deanna Paul/Wall Street Journal

A New York court suspended Rudy Giuliani’s state law license Thursday after concluding that he made “demonstrably false and misleading statements” in his effort to reverse the results of the 2020 election in favor of former President Donald Trump. Mr. Giuliani, the former mayor of New York City, represented Mr. Trump as his personal attorney beginning in 2018 with the Russia investigation. After the 2020 election, Mr. Giuliani led a legal team that laid out sprawling and unsupported allegations of a conspiracy between Democratic officials and foreign governments to steal the presidential election for Joe Biden. “These false statements were made to improperly bolster [Giuliani’s] narrative that due to widespread voter fraud, victory in the 2020 United States presidential election was stolen from his client,” the New York appellate division wrote in an order based on the findings of a continuing investigation by its attorney-grievance committee. It is unusual for the appellate division to suspend a lawyer’s license before the grievance committee completes its investigation, ethics lawyers said. The 33-page order said the court acted now because Mr. Giuliani’s conduct threatened the public interest, citing Mr. Giuliani’s “past, persistent and pervasive dissemination of these false statements in the media.” “This is not a situation where the uncontroverted misconduct consisted of only a few isolated incidents,” the court wrote.

Full Article: Rudy Giuliani’s New York Law License Suspended Over False Election 2020 Statements – WSJ

As Pennsylvania House advances doomed election overhaul, Senate GOP charts different course to voter ID, other changes | Marie Albiges/Philadelphia Inquirer

The Pennsylvania House passed an election overhaul bill Tuesday that creates stricter voter ID requirements and early voting in 2025, despite opposition from most Democrats and a promised veto from Gov. Tom Wolf. The state Senate is poised to take up the measure in the coming days, but Republican lawmakers in the chamber are charting a separate path that would advance the priorities of county election officials while putting stricter voter ID requirements on a future ballot. The topic has emerged as a partisan sticking point in Harrisburg. Currently, only first-time voters and those casting ballots at a new polling precinct are required to show ID. Roughly three-quarters of respondents to a recent Franklin & Marshall College poll of Pennsylvania voters said they favor requiring all voters to show photo ID. Democrats call any new such ID restrictions “voter suppression,” while Republicans say it makes elections more secure. The reality is more complicated, with a 2019 study showing such laws don’t reduce already-rare fraud or voter turnout. House lawmakers spent more than three hours Tuesday debating Rep. Seth Grove’s 150-page election bill, which also places limits on drop boxes; requires more comprehensive audits of ballots, machines, and processes; and calls for the state to reimburse each county for electronic poll books.

Full Article: As Pa. House advances doomed election overhaul, Senate GOP charts different course to voter ID, other changes

Texas Gov. Abbott calls special session, setting stage for GOP to revive voting restrictions | Jane C. Timm/NBC

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is calling lawmakers back to Austin on July 8 for a special legislative session, where a controversial election legislation Democrats have decried as voter suppression is expected to be back on the agenda. Democrats blocked a sweeping election bill in the final hours of the legislative session last month by staging a rare walkout and breaking quorum. Abbott, who had told lawmakers the legislation was one of his top priorities, responded furiously and vowed to force lawmakers back to Austin for a special session. The governor’s office did not confirm that the July 8 session would include election legislation, but Abbott had previously said he planned to call two special sessions: one focused on elections and bail reform, followed by a second session in September or October focused on redistricting and allocating federal coronavirus funds throughout the state.

Full Article: Texas Gov. Abbott calls special session, setting stage for GOP to revive voting restrictions

Wisconsin Republican using thousands in taxpayer money to investigate 2020 election: report | Caroline Vakil/The Hill

Two retired police officers hired by Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R) to investigate the state’s 2020 vote count are being paid thousands of dollars in taxpayer money. The Associated Press reported details of the contracts on Thursday, citing documents it obtained. News of the hires was first announced last month. The contracts show that the investigators hired so far, Mike Sandvick and Steve Page, are each being paid $3,200 per month over three months, or about $9,600 total, to look into “potential irregularities and/or illegalities” in last year’s presidential election, the AP reported. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel had reported in May that the state’s top Republican would be hiring retired police officers to look into specific areas of the 2020 election. The AP reports that Vos plans on hiring a third investigator and an attorney to handle the investigation.

Full Article: Top Wisconsin Republican using thousands in taxpayer money to investigate 2020 election: report | TheHill

National: How Republican States Are Expanding Their Power Over Elections | Nick Corasaniti and Reid J. Epstein/The New York Times

Lonnie Hollis has been a member of the Troup County election board in West Georgia since 2013. A Democrat and one of two Black women on the board, she has advocated Sunday voting, helped voters on Election Days and pushed for a new precinct location at a Black church in a nearby town. But this year, Ms. Hollis will be removed from the board, the result of a local election law signed by Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican. Previously, election board members were selected by both political parties, county commissioners and the three biggest municipalities in Troup County. Now, the G.O.P.-controlled county commission has the sole authority to restructure the board and appoint all the new members. “I speak out and I know the laws,” Ms. Hollis said in an interview. “The bottom line is they don’t like people that have some type of intelligence and know what they’re doing, because they know they can’t influence them.” Ms. Hollis is not alone. Across Georgia, members of at least 10 county election boards have been removed, had their position eliminated or are likely to be kicked off through local ordinances or new laws passed by the state legislature. At least five are people of color and most are Democrats — though some are Republicans — and they will most likely all be replaced by Republicans.

Full Article: How Republican States Are Expanding Their Power Over Elections – The New York Times

National: Democrats scramble to unify before election bill brawl | Jordain Carney/The Hill

Democrats are racing against the clock as they try to strike an internal deal on a sweeping election overhaul that can unify their 50 members. The Senate will vote Tuesday on the For the People Act, legislation that is guaranteed to hit a Republican filibuster and fall short of the 60 votes needed to advance. But Democrats hope that by banding together they can shift the public spotlight on GOP opposition after weeks of headlines about their own divisions. Speaking from the Senate floor on Thursday, Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) previewed the strategy, arguing that the Republican Party had become a “hornet’s nest of conspiracy theories and voter suppression in the states” and that “the Democratic Party is the only party standing up for democracy right now.” “Next week, the Senate will have this debate. Democrats will bring forward legislation to protect voting rights and safeguard our democracy. And we are going to see where everyone stands. Everyone,” Schumer said.

Full Article: Democrats scramble to unify before election bill brawl | TheHill

National: Senate Democrats brace for bill’s defeat amid GOP resistance | Clare Foran and Lauren Fox/CNN

Senate Democrats are on track to suffer a stinging defeat Tuesday with Republican opposition expected to sink a voting and election bill that Democrats have made a signature priority, an outcome that will underscore the limits of the party’s power with the narrowest possible Senate majority. Democrats have set up a key test vote on the bill that they have pitched as a necessary counter to state-level efforts to restrict voting access, but Republicans have united against it, decrying it as a partisan power grab and a federal overreach into state voting and election systems. Democrats have also faced pushback over the legislation from a member of their own caucus: pivotal swing vote Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia. Failure of the bill to move forward would be a major blow for Democrats that will likely trigger a fresh outpouring of calls from progressives to eliminate the legislative filibuster, which requires most bills to get the votes of at least 10 Republicans given the current Senate makeup. But the votes are not there to eliminate the filibuster with Manchin and several other moderate Democrats opposed. The effort by Democrats to pass the voting legislation comes in the aftermath of former President Donald Trump’s “Big Lie” that the 2020 presidential election was stolen and as Republican-controlled legislatures have pressed ahead with new state laws imposing limits on voting. As of May, state legislators in 48 states had introduced more than 380 bills with restrictive voting provisions, according to a tally from the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University.

Full Article: Voting rights: Senate Democrats brace for bill’s defeat amid GOP resistance – CNNPolitics

National: ‘Unreasonably’ long lines to vote would be eliminated under proposal from Democratic lawmakers | Alex Woodward/The Independent

In the wake of Republican election losses and the GOP’s unfounded narrative of widespread voter fraud, more than a dozen states have passed sweeping elections reform laws that make it harder to vote, including criminalising handing out food and water to people waiting in long lines to cast their ballot at the polls. Democratic US Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley have introduced a bill that intends to push back on those efforts. The legislation would “end hours-long lines at polling places that suppress hundreds of thousands of American votes, and to restore our Constitutional rights to vote in free and fair elections”. Scenes of long lines at voting precincts across the US have dominated Election Day coverage in recent years. Roughly 3 million voters waited 30 minutes or longer to cast their ballot in the 2018 elections, surpassing the acceptable threshold for wait times set by the Presidential Commission on Election Administration, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. With the widespread closures of Election Day polling locations and the consolidation of voting precincts, voting rights advocates have warned that longer wait times could suppress voters who now face diminishing options to vote early or by mail to avoid crowded in-person voting.

Full Article: ‘Unreasonably’ long lines to vote would be eliminated under proposal from Democratic lawmakers | The Independent

National: ‘Italygate’ election conspiracy theory was pushed by two firms led by woman who also falsely claimed $30 million mansion was hers | Jon Swaine and Emma Brown/The Washington Post

Late last December, as President Donald Trump pressed senior officials to find proof of election fraud, White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows emailed acting attorney general Jeffrey Rosen a letter detailing an outlandish theory of how an Italian defense contractor had conspired with U.S. intelligence to rig the 2020 presidential contest. The letter, which was among records released by Congress this past week, was printed under the letterhead of USAerospace Partners, a little-known Virginia aviation company. In early January, a second Virginia firm, the Institute for Good Governance, and a partner organization released a statement from an Italian attorney who claimed that a hacker had admitted involvement in the supposed conspiracy. According to the conspiracy theory known as “Italygate,” people working for the Italian defense contractor, in coordination with senior CIA officials, used military satellites to switch votes from Trump to Joe Biden and swing the result of the election. Though her name was not mentioned in either document, both Virginia organizations are led by Michele Roosevelt Edwards, according to state corporate filings reviewed by The Washington Post. Edwards is a former Republican congressional candidate who built a reputation as an advocate for the Somali people and as someone who could negotiate with warlords and pirates in the war-torn region.

Full Article: ‘Italygate’ election conspiracy theory was pushed by two firms led by woman who also falsely claimed $30 million mansion was hers – The Washington Post

American Samoans are the latest victims of these ignorant Supreme Court rulings | Steve Vladeck/MSNBC

The principle that anyone born in the United States is an American citizen is enshrined in the 14th Amendment. But in a divided decision Tuesday, a federal appeals court reaffirmed the unique inapplicability of the citizenship clause to one of America’s six federal territories— American Samoa, the only one of the six where birthright citizenship does not currently apply. The ruling in Fitisemanu v. United States doesn’t just rest on a deeply flawed understanding of the 14th Amendment. It also breathes new life into a long since discredited distinction that the Supreme Court drew in the early 20th century — one in which territories that just happened to be predominantly white received full constitutional protections, while those that were not … didn’t. … One might wonder why it’s such a big deal that a federal appeals court has held that 50,000 Americans aren’t constitutionally entitled to birthright citizenship. The answer is two-fold: First, to reach that result, the court had to both ignore the original purpose and context of the citizenship clause and revive the deeply problematic rationale of the Insular Cases. Second, and more fundamentally, one of the two central goals of the post-Civil War amendments was to hard-wire into the Constitution the idea that there’s only one class of American — to repudiate not only the institution of slavery, but also the caste system it created. The more that contemporary courts recognize circumstances in which our compatriots are not treated as equals, the more they open the door to additional erosions of this fundamental ideal.

Full Article: American Samoans are the latest victims of these ignorant Supreme Court rulings

Arizona election review is not simply an exercise in ‘transparency’ | Philip Bump/The Washington Post

There’s a guy at work who doesn’t like you. Who has never liked you. He sees you as a threat and is convinced that you’ve been able to succeed because you’ve done something underhanded — what, he can’t say, but that doesn’t stop him from spreading rumors around your workplace anyway. Last year, you were both up for promotion. The new position was an important role in the company and both of you went through repeated interviews with company officials scrutinizing your work records. You emerged on top. Your nemesis’s crusade against you suddenly went into overdrive. Worse, he got his best friend, who works in human resources, to open an investigation of your bid for the role — an investigation led by your nemesis’s friend, someone who in the past has publicly agreed with your nemesis’s allegations. The H.R. guy gets to work, assuring everyone that he’ll explore every rumor anyone has raised about you — solely, he assures you with solemnity, to be able to rule everything out. The claim your nemesis made about your having worked remotely from the International Space Station for a month? He has a device that will detect the presence of jet fuel residue. The H.R. guy asks that you step out of your workspace for a week or two and he takes possession of your work computer and all of your files so that he can examine every aspect of how you’ve performed. He has never done this sort of investigation before, but he insists that he will be objective in his review.

Full Article: Why the Arizona election review is not simply an exercise in ‘transparency’ – The Washington Post

Arizona ‘Auditors’ promised to screen workers, but QAnon promoters and Capitol rioters were hired | Jerod MacDonald-Evoy/Arizona Mirror

The Arizona election ‘audit’ has employed a failed candidate who has espoused QAnon beliefs and a man who was at the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riot of Donald Trump supporters who tried, but failed, to overturn the election. The Arizona Mirror was able to identify the audit workers through their social media postings, media coverage of the audit and through interviews with people who know them. How they were hired is unclear, and their work on the audit — where they both counted ballots and worked as “observers” tasked with monitoring the proceedings — flies in the face of the pledge that audit leaders made to ensure conspiracy theorists and those who spread falsehoods about election fraud in 2020 wouldn’t be allowed near the 2.1 million ballots being recounted. Auditors insisted in April that all volunteers would face a background check, including an examination of their social media postings. “Everybody went through a full background check. (We) made sure there was nothing on their social media to make sure they had no wrong opinions one way or the other,” Cyber Ninjas CEO Doug Logan said at an April 22 press conference the day before the audit began. It isn’t clear whether those background checks actually happened or if they have been imposed consistently throughout the months-long audit, which has run weeks behind schedule and faced staffing shortages. Audit spokespeople professed not to know or didn’t answer the Arizona Mirror’s questions about who was hired.

Full Article: ‘Auditors’ promised to screen workers, but QAnon promoters and Capitol rioters were hired

Colorado Secretary of State Says County Clerks Facing Death Threats Amid Push for ‘Sham’ Election Audits | Jason Lemon/Newsweek

Some county clerks in Colorado have received death threats as supporters of former President Donald Trump call for election audits, according to the secretary of state there. President Joe Biden handily won Colorado over former President Donald Trump by a double-digit margin of more than 13 points. But Trump supporters in the western state appear to have been misled by the former president’s baseless claims that the 2020 election was “rigged” or “stolen” by Democrats—leading some to demand audits and recounts. “Some clerks are getting death threats,” Colorado’s Secretary of State Jena Griswold, a Democrat, told The Colorado Sun newspaper for an article published Friday. “Some counties are being called to do these third-party, unsecure sham audits.” Griswold adopted an emergency rule this week limiting access to voting equipment in Colorado to officials who have passed background checks. In addition to passing a background check, the new rule only allows employees of a county’s elections office, the secretary of state’s office or a voting system vendor to access the equipment, as well as appointed election judges.

Full Article: County Clerks Facing Death Threats Amid Push for ‘Sham’ Election Audits, Says Colorado SOS