House Democrats are seeking information from officials in key battleground states about their efforts to combat “lies and conspiracy theories” that could damage the integrity of federal elections as part of a broader investigation into the “weaponization of misinformation and disinformation” in the electoral process. The leaders of the House Oversight and Reform and House Administration committees sent letters on Wednesday to election officials in Florida, Arizona, Texas and Ohio — all Republican-led states — requesting the information while noting their concern about new laws affecting election administration. “The Committees are seeking to understand the scope and scale of election misinformation in your state, the impact that this flood of false information has had on election administration, the risks it poses for upcoming federal elections, and the steps that your organization and local election administrators have taken in response,” Oversight Chairwoman Carolyn B. Maloney (D-N.Y.) and House Administration Chairwoman Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) wrote to state election officials in the letters obtained by The Washington Post. “Our investigation also aims to identify steps that federal, state, and local governments can take to counter misinformation and prevent these lies from being used to undermine the legitimate vote count in future elections.”
Editorial: Big Lie pushes rural Nevada to make their elections slow, expensive and error-prone | Sheila Leslie/Reno Gazette Journal
As a 45-year Nevadan by choice, I’ve spent many happy days in our rural areas, working in human services and recreating in the gorgeous remote basin and range lands around Table Mountain, Mt. Jefferson and the Twin Rivers area of the Arc Dome Wilderness. I’ve worked with ranchers in frontier Eastern Nevada to fight various iterations of the Las Vegas water grab which threatened their land and livelihoods. I’ve helped small communities set up family resource centers to support their residents, financed with lots of local ingenuity and pride, and I’ve helped rural judges access resources for defendants living with a severe mental illness while simultaneously reducing their jail populations. Over these decades, I always found local officials and community leaders to be generous with their time and creative with their solutions. Even as an urban-based Nevadan from a much more liberal political perspective, I found plenty of common ground and genuine respect for different points of view. That’s why it’s been so incredibly disheartening to see the vast majority of rural Nevadans refuse to believe their own eyes when they saw violent insurrectionists invade the U.S. Capitol. It’s been hard to see them continually vote for climate change deniers even as they suffer from megadroughts and wildfires. And it’s been painful to watch our rural neighbors succumb to the lies and nonsense of Trumpism, buying into wild conspiracy theories that make no sense.
Full Article: Big Lie pushes rural Nevada to make their elections slow, expensive and error-proneRhode Island Senate approves early voting bill, online mail ballot applications | Katherine Gregg/The Providence Journal
Despite strong pushback from legislative Republicans — and the state GOP — the Senate on Tuesday approved a bill to make it easier to vote almost three weeks early and in absentia. The mostly party-line vote was 28 to 6, with House Majority Whip Maryellen Goodwin calling it a "great day for democracy" and Republican Sen. Elaine Morgan calling the legislation a "travesty" of democracy. (The only Democrat who broke ranks was Sen. Roger Picard.) Most basically, the legislation allows voters to cast ballots 20 days ahead of an election, and to apply for absentee ballots — also known as mail ballots — online, using a driver's license or state identification card number as their ID. It eliminates the required confirmation of two witnesses or a notary to the signing of a mail ballot. It also calls for the creation of a permanent list of nursing home residents — and others who are disabled "for an indefinite period" — to whom mail ballot applications would be sent automatically in every election. This would stop only if a local elections clerk received "reliable information that a voter no longer qualifies for the service" for whatever reason, including death.
Full Article: RI Senate approves early voting bill, online mail ballot applicationsWisconsin Assembly Speaker extends Gableman election review after pressure from Donald Trump | Molly Beck Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos is extending the taxpayer-funded contract of the former state Supreme Court justice leading a review of the 2020 election — a decision announced a day after former President Donald Trump sought to intimidate Vos by threatening a successful primary challenge if the review did not continue. In a statement Monday that did not name Vos directly, Trump suggested to his millions of supporters that the Rochester Republican will see a successful primary opponent if he does not extend former Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman's contract with the state Assembly. "Anyone calling themselves a Republican in Wisconsin should support the continued investigation in Wisconsin without interference," Trump said. "I understand some RINOs have primary challengers in Wisconsin. I’m sure their primary opponents would get a huge bump in the polls if these RINOs interfere," Trump said, using an acronym for "Republicans In Name Only." On Tuesday, Vos issued a statement announcing Gableman's office will remain open "as we guarantee the legal power of our legislative subpoenas and get through the other lawsuits that have gridlocked this investigation."
Full Article: Vos extends Gableman election review after pressure from Donald TrumpNational: In election misinformation fight, ‘2020 changed everything’ | Amanda Seitz/Associated Press
Beth Bowers grew up in the 1960s and 1970s with parents who marched in protests, wrote letters to members of Congress and voted in elections big and small. Her father, a World War II veteran, and her mother, an educational counselor, did not use social media sites in their lifetimes. But Bowers is sure they would be disheartened to see how easily falsehoods about the U.S. elections are disseminated online to millions and millions of people. That’s why the Evanston, Illinois, mom spends a few hours each week scouring Facebook groups for conspiracy theories or lies as part of a nationwide volunteer effort to debunk misinformation about voting. “The good thing about this work is, it’d be so easy to become incredibly cynical and hopeless, but I think we feel like this is something we can do and make a difference,” Bowers, 59, said in a phone interview. As voters ready for hundreds of elections of local and national importance this year, officials and voting rights advocates are bracing for a repeat of the misinformation that overwhelmed the 2020 presidential race and seeded distrust about the legitimacy of Democrat Joe Biden’s victory. It culminated in the storming of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 by angry supporters of then-President Donald Trump who believed his lies that the election was stolen from him.
Full Article: In election misinformation fight, '2020 changed everything' | AP NewsRussian Cyberattack Could Capitalize on Election Doubts | Matt Vasilogambros/Stateline
As the war in Ukraine continues, the United States is warning that Russia and aligned criminal groups may launch cyberattacks against critical American infrastructure, potentially including election systems ahead of November’s midterms. Election officials and cybersecurity experts worry that a disruption from Russia or other foreign actors may capitalize on plummeting confidence in election integrity among American voters, fueled by myths and disinformation that have saturated the country. Even with new protections, heightened awareness and information-sharing across all levels of government, widespread skepticism about election integrity makes a potential Russian cyberattack more concerning, said Noah Praetz, cofounder of the Elections Group, which consults with state and local election officials. An attack on a key jurisdiction, such as a county in a swing state, could put enough doubt in voters’ minds that the results can’t be trusted, even if votes weren’t changed in the attack, he said. The consequences of a cyber event, even if backup plans work, are probably worse than they were four years ago because confidence in elections is down,” said Praetz, who previously ran elections in Cook County, Illinois. “It’s a pretty precarious situation for our country right now.” Full Article: Russian Cyberattack Could Capitalize on Election Doubts | The Pew Charitable TrustsNational: Trump Allies Continue Legal Drive to Erase His Loss, Stoking Election Doubts | Maggie Haberman, Alexandra Berzon and Michael S. Schmidt/The New York Times
A group of President Donald J. Trump’s allies and associates spent months trying to overturn the 2020 election based on his lie that he was the true winner. Now, some of the same confidants who tried and failed to invalidate the results based on a set of bogus legal theories are pushing an even wilder sequel: that by “decertifying” the 2020 vote in key states, the outcome can still be reversed. In statehouses and courtrooms across the country, as well as on right-wing news outlets, allies of Mr. Trump — including the lawyer John Eastman — are pressing for states to pass resolutions rescinding Electoral College votes for President Biden and to bring lawsuits that seek to prove baseless claims of large-scale voter fraud. Some of those allies are casting their work as a precursor to reinstating the former president. The efforts have failed to change any statewide outcomes or uncover mass election fraud. Legal experts dismiss them as preposterous, noting that there is no plausible scenario under the Constitution for returning Mr. Trump to office.
Full Article: Trump Allies Are Still Feeding the False 2020 Election Narrative - The New York TimesNational: Trump-Aligned Sheriffs Target Election Officials | Jessica Pishko/Bolts
Christopher Schmaling, the sheriff of Racine County, Wisconsin, told the reporters gathered in his office on October 28, 2021 that he’d called a press conference “so that our citizens can better understand how the election law was broken.” Standing at a podium with large screens behind him blaring “ELECTION INTEGRITY”, Schmaling warned that the allegations might be difficult to follow at first. “This isn’t your typical criminal investigation, it’s complex—to be quite frank, it’s a bit challenging to understand at first,” he told the room full of reporters. But Schmaling promised that by the end of his office’s presentation, the public would “see firsthand that the election statute was in fact not just broken, but shattered by the members of the W.E.C., the Wisconsin Elections Commission.” Schmaling and Michael Luell, a sergeant in the sheriff’s office who had investigated a complaint about election malfeasance, spent more than an hour running reporters through a PowerPoint presentation, outlining what they claimed was devastating proof that state election commissioners had committed a crime. At first, the press event, which the sheriff’s office streamed live on its Facebook page, sounded more like a civics lesson than a criminal case, as Schmaling explained the makeup of the state’s election commission—six commissioners serving staggered five year terms, appointed by either legislative leaders or the governor. Full Article: Trump-Aligned Sheriffs Target Election Officials | BoltsNational: Election Officials Face Their Biggest Threat Yet — Jail Time | Ryan Teague Beckwith/Bloomberg
Over the last two years, local elections officials across the U.S. have faced a deadly pandemic, shortages of funding and workers, false claims of election fraud and even death threats. Now they could face prison, too. Under a spate of laws proposed or passed in at least 10 states, elections administrators could see criminal charges and penalties that include thousands of dollars in fines or even prison time for technical infractions of election statutes. In Arizona, a new law makes it a felony, punishable by up to 2 1/2 years in prison, followed by loss of voting rights or gun ownership, for an elections official to send a mail-in ballot to any voter who has not requested one. It’s now a felony in Kentucky, with a possible five-year prison term, for an official to accept a donation or “anything of value” to assist with an election. In Florida, elections officials could face up to $25,000 in fines if they leave a ballot drop box unsupervised. Broad new laws in Iowa and Texas make it a felony, with prison terms of up to five years in Iowa and up to two years in Texas, for elections officials who fail to follow a number of election procedures, while similar bills are pending in Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Oklahoma and South Carolina. Full Article: Republican Voter Laws Threaten U.S. Election Officials With Jail Time - BloombergNational: Voting rights for disabled people under attack from new election laws | Deborah Barfield Berry and Rick Rouan/USA Today
Teri Saltzman said she took her time to look over her ballot at home in Pflugerville, Texas, during the state's recent primary, using specialized glasses that magnified the small print. But Saltzman, who is legally blind, still missed the lines on the envelope flap that required her to fill in identification numbers needed for election officials to count her vote. “To this day, I am unsure that my vote was counted,” said Saltzman, 59. The addition of the lines was among the election changes lawmakers approved last year in Texas – one of several states where advocates say new laws could have an outsized impact on voters with disabilities. They worry that stricter identification requirements, restrictions on voting by mail, reducing the number of drop boxes and other changes could hurt access for people with disabilities in local and midterm elections. “We're not usually the target of voter suppression. Often people with disabilities just get caught in the crosshairs,’’ said Michelle Bishop, voter access and engagement manager for the National Disability Rights Network. Concerns about the fallout from those new laws come after turnout among voters with disabilities surged in the 2020 election. As election officials took steps to make the election safer during the pandemic, they also made it easier for people with disabilities to vote.
Full Article: Voting rights for disabled people under attack from new election lawsEditorial: The Other Way Trump Could Steal the White House in 2024 | Scott R. Anderson/Politico
The latest drip, drip, drip of news surrounding the effort to overturn the 2020 election underscores how much we still don’t know about the run-up to Jan. 6, 2021. But one thing that’s clear is that the procedural steps used to select the next president are ripe for abuse. Congress has finally begun to turn its attention to this issue, with a bipartisan group of lawmakers focused thus far on fixing the Electoral Count Act. The 1887 law regulates the process through which Congress counts the electoral votes after each presidential election; it also has a host of ambiguities, many of which were seized on by former President Donald Trump and his supporters to try to keep him in office despite his defeat. Congress is right to address vulnerabilities in our election process. But reformers can’t simply fight the last war if they truly want to protect the presidency. When counting the results of the 2024 presidential election, Trump’s supporters won’t control the vice presidency like they did in 2020. Hence, if they want to try and seize the White House again, they will have to use new strategies that use those political institutions they do control. At present, a House majority is perhaps the one thing Trump’s supporters seem most likely to run during the 2024 presidential election. But that alone might be enough to steal the presidency, unless and until Congress says otherwise.
Arizona lawsuit seeks to ban ballot-counting machines | Howard Fischer/Arizona Daily Star
Two Republicans seeking statewide office are asking a federal judge to block the use of machines to tabulate the votes in Arizona in the 2022 election. The machines are unreliable because they are subject to hacking, contend Kari Lake, a gubernatorial hopeful, and Mark Finchem, who is running for secretary of state. And the use of components in computers from other countries makes them vulnerable, they say. The is an even more basic problem, says Andrew Parker, the attorney who filed the lawsuit on their behalf. The tabulation of votes is an inherently governmental function, he said. Yet by using machines built and programmed by private companies the state has effectively farmed that out that obligation. And what’s worse, Parker said in his filings, is that the technology is kept secret from the public. “This lack of transparency by electronic voting machine companies has created a ‘black box’ system of voting which lacks credibility and integrity,” he wrote in a copy of the lawsuit furnished to Capitol Media Services.
Full Article: Lawsuit seeks to ban ballot-counting machines in Arizona | Govt-and-politics | tucson.com
Colorado county clerks reassure voters while watching for cyberattacks | Jessica Gibbs/Centennial Citizen
While local counties' clerks and recorders say they are still taking steps to unravel false claims of widespread election fraud two years after the 2020 presidential election and ahead of the June primaries, they are also on the lookout for potential cyberattacks after warnings from President Joe Biden that such attacks are increasingly likely. “It’s definitely nerve-wracking, but something that we are starting to get used to,” Adams County Clerk and Recorder Josh Zygielbaum said. “It’s the world we live in now, and we do everything we can to protect the system and to protect ourselves and our workers and our voters.” The cybersecurity threat level is similar to past elections, or the worst-case scenarios election offices have prepared for, metro area clerks said. “There is no question right now, every agency is indicating that the risk of Russian initiated cyber security threats has increased,” Jefferson County Clerk and Recorder George Stern said. But Stern said “long before we had internal threats to our elections,” cybersecurity and the security of election from foreign interference “has been top of mind,” Stern said. Regular probes from countries including Russia, Iran, North Korea and others are directed toward state and local election offices, looking for vulnerability in the system. Clerks said their offices partner with homeland security, the FBI, and state and local departments to monitor cyberthreats. Full Article: County clerks reassure voters while watching for cyberattacks | Centennialcitizen.netGeorgia election worker who was target of false 2020 accusations receives Profile in Courage Award | Mark Niesse/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A Fulton County elections worker targeted by harassment and conspiracy theories after the 2020 election, Wandrea “Shaye” Moss, has won the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award. Moss is one of five people being honored for their roles in protecting democracy. The recipients were announced Thursday by the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation. Former President Donald Trump and his supporters falsely accused Moss and her mother, Ruby Freeman, of rigging the election by counting absentee ballots stored in hidden “suitcases” at State Farm Arena on election night. Election investigations and publicly available videos showed no improprieties. Even after election officials debunked fraud allegations, Moss faced death threats and racist taunts, forcing her to go into hiding. “Despite the onslaught of random, undeserved, and malicious attacks, Moss continues to serve in the Fulton County Department of Registration & Elections doing the hard and unseen work to run our democracy,” the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation said.
Maine modernizes election administration with centralized voter registration | Shourjya Mookerjee/GCN
To make needed upgrades to its election systems and improve voter access, Maine is getting a modernized centralized voter registration and election management system. On April 15, Secretary of State Shenna Bellows signed a $1.8 million contract with Stonewall Solutions. The centralized system will help state and municipal-level election officials securely maintain voter rolls, facilitate absentee and in-person voting and capture voter participation history. Public-facing online portals will accommodate absentee ballot requests and tracking, online voter registration and voter information lookup, according to a release. A centralized system will also increase election security, better protect voters’ personally identifiable information and improve voter list maintenance and election administration consistency. Maine’s current system, which officials called the first statewide Central Voter Registration system, was launched in 2007, after the Help America Vote Act of 2002 identified issues in voting systems and voter access following the 2000 election. A June 2021 request for information for a central voter registration and election management system said the current system would not be able to accommodate potential future election law changes. Since there is no county-level election administration in Maine, elections require coordination between the state and the state’s approximately 500 municipalities, where voting takes place.
Full Article: Maine modernizes election administration with centralized voter registration - GCNMichigan appeals court dismisses DePerno’s Antrim County election claims | Dave Boucher/Detroit Free Press
A Michigan appeals court made quick work of efforts to review an election conspiracy case from Antrim County, unanimously dismissing most of the arguments made by lawyer and Republican attorney general candidate Matthew DePerno. It's the latest ruling from a Michigan court turning back legal efforts by supporters of President Donald Trump who continue to claim — without proof — that there was widespread misconduct in the 2020 presidential election. The three-judge Michigan Court of Appeals panel issued an order Thursday indicating it agreed that a lower court was right to dismiss DePerno's lawsuit, pointing to a series of issues with both DePerno's legal tactics and pleadings in a case that drew national attention.
Full Article: Michigan appeals court dismisses DePerno's Antrim Co. election claimsNevada: Esmeralda is latest rural county to try ditching electronic voting machines, move to hand counting | Sean Golonka/The Nevada Independent
Esmeralda County commissioners voted Wednesday to ask their county clerk to administer all future county elections using strictly paper ballots and hand-counting, the latest rural Nevada county to attempt to overhaul election administration in response to conspiracy theories about the 2020 election. The vote marks the second major shift away from electronic voting machines in rural Nevada, after Nye County commissioners made a similar request in March. Nye and Esmeralda counties could soon be joined by two more rural jurisdictions, Elko and Lyon, whose commissioners are set to discuss alternatives to electronic voting machines later this week. In tiny Esmeralda County, where there are a little more than 600 registered voters (more than half of whom are Republicans), county commissioners sided with Republican candidate for secretary of state and 2020 election denier Jim Marchant, who pitched the idea for the switch to paper ballots during the meeting on Wednesday. But LaCinda Elgan, Esmeralda County clerk and treasurer, pushed back on the presentation. She said the county’s voting machines have not been connected to the internet, and pointed to the litany of tests and security measures in place to ensure that votes are counted and recorded accurately. Elgan added that some voters in the county want to vote using an electronic voting machine. As in Nye County, the decision to move forward with the changes to election administration has been left up to Elgan, because the county clerk is elected and not appointed, meaning jurisdictional issues prevent the county commission from ordering the clerk’s office to take a specific course of action. Full Article: Esmeralda is latest rural county to try ditching electronic voting machines, move to hand counting - The Nevada IndependentNorth Carolina: Local election chief threatened by Republican leader seeking illegal access to voting equipment | Nathan Layne/Reuters
A local Republican Party leader in North Carolina threatened to get a county elections director fired or have her pay cut unless she helped him gain illegal access to voting equipment, the state elections board told Reuters. The party official, William Keith Senter, sought evidence to support false conspiracy theories alleging the 2020 election was rigged against former U.S. President Donald Trump. The previously unreported incident is part of a national effort by Trump supporters to audit voting systems to bolster the baseless stolen-election claims. Senter, chair of the Surry County Republican Party, told elections director Michella Huff that he would ensure she lost her job if she refused his demand to access the county's vote tabulators, the North Carolina State Board of Elections said in written responses to questions from Reuters. Senter was "aggressive, threatening, and hostile," in two meetings with Huff, the state elections board said, citing witness accounts.
Full Article: Exclusive: Local election chief threatened by Republican leader seeking illegal access to voting equipment | ReutersTennessee prosecutor drops all charges against Pamela Moses, jailed over voting error | Sam Levine/The Guardian
A Memphis prosecutor has dropped all criminal charges against Pamela Moses, the Memphis woman who was sentenced to six years in prison for trying to register to vote. Moses was convicted last year and sentenced in January. She was granted a new trial in February after the Guardian published a document showing that had not been given to her defense ahead of the trial. Moses was set to appear in court on Monday to find out whether prosecutors would pursue a retrial. The central issue in her case was whether she had known she was ineligible to vote when a probation officer filled out and signed a form indicating she was done with probation for a 2015 felony conviction and eligible to cast a ballot. Even though the probation officer admitted he had made a mistake, and Moses said she had no idea she was ineligible to vote, prosecutors said she knew she was ineligible and had deceived him. Moses stood in the lobby of the probation office while the officer went to his office to research her case for about an hour, he said at trial.
Full Article: Prosecutor drops all charges against Pamela Moses, jailed over voting error | Tennessee | The GuardianWisconsin judge orders Gableman’s office to stop deleting records in election investigation | Shawn Johnson/Wisconsin Public Radio
A Dane County judge has ordered former Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman to stop deleting records related to a Republican investigation of the 2020 election. Judge Frank Remington's order Thursday followed a request by the liberal watchdog group American Oversight. Last month, Remington ruled Gableman must turn over documents sought by American Oversight in an open records dispute. The latest court filing from the group showed that Gableman's Office of Special Counsel, or OSC, was deleting certain documents or text messages. American Oversight told Remington this was in violation of Wisconsin's open records law. "Alarmingly, OSC stated that it continues to delete records it deems irrelevant to the election investigation and declared itself exempt from any requirement to retain records," wrote American Oversight attorney Christa Westerberg. Full Article: Judge orders Gableman's office to stop deleting records in election investigation | Wisconsin Public RadioAmid false 2020 claims, GOP states eye voting system upgrade | Jonathan Matisse and Christina A. Cassidy/Associated Press
For years, Tennessee Democratic Senate Minority Leader Jeff Yarbro’s call to require the state’s voting infrastructure to include a paper record of each ballot cast has been batted down in the Republican-dominated Legislature. But as false claims still swirl around the 2020 presidential election — and some GOP voters remain distrustful of voting machines — Tennessee Republican lawmakers who have held off are coming around on a paper-backed mandate. A similar scenario is playing out in some of the five other states -- four of which are Republican-led -- that do not currently have a voting system with a paper record. The Tennessee GOP bill that is gaining traction would set a 2024 deadline for Tennessee to join the vast majority of states that already have voting systems that include a paper record of every ballot cast, so any disputed results can be verified. Yarbro said he’ll take the change, even if he doesn’t love the impetus for it. “I’m disappointed that it’s taken this long, and somewhat concerned over the rationale,” the Nashville lawmaker said. “But at the end of the day, this is good public policy.”
Full Article: Amid false 2020 claims, GOP states eye voting system upgrade | AP NewsIndiana flubs election security: taxpayers to spend $10+ million on questionable machines | Margaret Menge/Crosssroads Report
In March, Indiana made what may be seen for years to come as a colossal mistake for election integrity. With almost no discussion, a bill authored by Rep. Timothy Wesco, R-Osceola, was pushed through the Indiana General Assembly to add a paper audit trail to voting machines that are used in 57 of 92 Indiana counties. The problem is, the printers that are supposed to add that paper audit trail don’t produce real paper ballots that can be easily counted by hand in a post-election audit or recount. What they do is print on a roll of narrow, thermal paper that remains inside the machine. Shockingly, Rep. Wesco, the chairman of the House elections committee, appeared to lie about this in testimony before the Indiana Senate appropriations committee on February 24 — the last committee to hear the bill before it was to go to the full Senate to be voted on, saying “there is a ballot that is printed out that the voter verifies.” Wesco was refuting testimony from the one citizen who testified that day — Barbara Tully of Indiana Vote by Mail, who told the senators on the committee that no paper comes out of the machine — that the machines do not produce real paper ballots. A senator questioned Wesco, and he affirmed his testimony, saying “correct,” when the senator asked if the machine prints out a piece of paper that the voter can look at. Bizarrely, Wesco again reiterated what he’d said in his testimony, that this paper is inserted into another machine. Nothing like this happens with a VVPAT. Full Article:Indiana flubs election security: taxpayers to spend $10+ million on questionable machinesNational: ‘Defend democracy’: Democrats launch massive recruiting push for local election officers | Elena Schneider/Politico
A Democratic candidate recruiting group is pitching donors on an ambitious three-year program to find, train and support 5,000 candidates for local offices in charge of election administration, a sprawling national effort intended to fight subversion of future election results. The program would recruit candidates in 35 states for everything from county probate judges in Alabama to county clerks in Kansas and county election board members in Pennsylvania — all offices that handle elections and will be on voters’ ballots between now and 2024. Spearheading the effort is Run for Something, a Democratic group that launched soon after Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential victory to recruit candidates for local elections. Now, the group plans to raise $80 million over the next three years for this push, which would include at least a hundred staffers to support those candidates in-state, according to details and donor memos first shared with POLITICO. Amanda Litman and Ross Morales Rocketto, Run for Something’s co-founders, call the project “Clerk Work” — a way-down-the-ballot effort of the type that Democratic donors and national groups have traditionally struggled to focus on. But as Trump continues to promulgate election conspiracy theories, the role of little-known election administrators — charged with planning, implementing and certifying election results in a hyper-localized system — has suddenly emerged as a key part of safeguarding American democracy. The move is part of a broader Democratic Party shift toward increasingly prioritizing state-based races, a shift from the massive attention and financing that go toward federal campaigns. “Election subversion in 2024 is not going to be a mob storming the Capitol, it’s going to be a county clerk in Michigan or a supervisor of elections in Florida who decides to fuck the whole thing up,” Litman said. “The only way to make long-term democracy protection is by electing people who will defend democracy.”
National: Lawmakers worry 2020 will provide a blueprint for stealing a future election | Peter Nicholas/NBC
Both a federal judge and the top Republican on the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot have now reached the same stark conclusion: There is evidence to suggest Donald Trump’s effort to overturn the 2020 election could be a crime. Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., said last weekend that her panel had compiled enough facts to refer Trump to the Justice Department for criminal prosecution, while U.S. District Judge David Carter wrote last month that Trump and others undertook “a coup in search of a legal theory.” Neither has the power to bring charges against the former president. That’s up to Attorney General Merrick Garland, whose focus to date has largely been on the people who stormed the Capitol in a violent effort to keep Trump in power. Trump denies any wrongdoing, and his allies contend that Cheney has lost credibility as any sort of fair broker. Pointing to Cheney’s persistent criticism of Trump, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, a Republican, told NBC News: “I couldn’t see the point in it other than that she was angry and bitter.”
Full Article: Lawmakers worry 2020 will provide a blueprint for stealing a future electionNational: What Can Happen When An Election Official Believes The Big Lie | Kaleigh Rogers/FiveThirtyEight
Nine months after the 2020 election, the call came in. The Colorado secretary of state’s office was on the phone and wanted to know why the passwords for Mesa County’s election equipment were on the internet for anyone to see. But the powers that be in Mesa County didn’t even know the passwords had leaked. “We’re saying, ‘What are you talking about?’” recalled Mesa County Commissioner Scott McInnis. Images of screens displaying the passwords had been shared a few days earlier on the chat app Telegram by a QAnon leader. The Colorado secretary of state launched an investigation and issued an order for Tina Peters, the county clerk, to let them inspect the equipment and try to get to the bottom of what happened. But there was a problem. Peters wasn’t in Mesa County. She was on her way to South Dakota for a “Cyber Symposium” hosted by Mike Lindell, the CEO of MyPillow and one of the most prominent peddlers of the Big Lie. Data from Mesa County election equipment hard drives were later displayed at the symposium. The man talking about them was that same QAnon leader — Ron Watkins — the former administrator of the message board where Q, the shadowy figure behind the QAnon conspiracy movement, posted the bulk of their posts. Watkins is so deeply entangled with QAnon that many experts believe he may have been Q himself.
Full Article: What Can Happen When An Election Official Believes The Big Lie | FiveThirtyEightNational: 3 Existential Threats to Our Elections | Amisa Ratliff and Michael Beckel/Issue One
America’s elections face three existential threats in the coming years: An exodus of election officials, the potential of election manipulation, and inadequate funding of our critical election infrastructure. Congress and the states can help reduce these threats if they act now. In the wake of a massive and coordinated disinformation effort during the 2020 elections, election officials and election workers — who do the behind-the-scenes work of running our elections and ensuring their safety and accuracy — have faced threats of violence and harassment, which has led to an exodus of good people from these positions. At the same time, we’re seeing a wave of anti-democracy, conspiracy-minded candidates running for positions as election officials, and statehouses across the country are considering or passing bills that would place election administration under greater partisan control for their own political gain. Full Article: 3 Existential Threats to Our Elections - Issue OneNational: Midterms raise fears of Russian cyberattacks | Ines Kagubare/The Hill
Russia is likely to deploy a range of cyber weapons on the United States and its election systems during this year’s midterm election cycle, as tensions continue to escalate amid the ongoing war in Ukraine. Moscow has so far shown cyber restraint against the U.S. despite escalating sanctions that have damaged Russia’s economy, but experts predict the Kremlin will unleash a range of cyber weapons in an attempt to interfere in the 2022 midterms — from disinformation campaigns to efforts to hack into the election system. “I do think that the chances are higher that we see a ramp up in cyber activity by the Russians as the conflict drags on; it’s less of what I would have expected at this point, but the elections are certainly in play,” said Jamil Jaffer, founder and executive director of the National Security Institute at George Mason University. Russia’s overarching goal is to pit Americans against each other and micro-target specific voters, especially those living in swing states, with information that aligns with their preconceived beliefs. “The Russians’ goal is to create internal discord in the United States,” Jaffer said. Full Article: Midterms raise fears of Russian cyberattacks | The HillArizona: How a Trump ally got his unfounded voting-machine audit push in front of federal cyber agency | Betsy Woodruff Swan, Lee Hudson and Zach Montellaro/Politico
Donald Trump’s top pick to administer Arizona elections in 2024 is more than a garden-variety backer — he played a little-known but notable role in bolstering the former president’s push to subvert the 2020 ballot. It was the waning weeks of the Trump presidency when Arizona state Rep. Mark Finchem made an unusual request of the federal agency that deals with cybersecurity threats. Finchem, a longstanding Trump ally now running for Arizona secretary of state, asked the Department of Homeland Security agency to conduct “a full spectrum forensic examination” of voting machines. Finchem’s request was elevated to the acting director of DHS’ Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, Brandon Wales, at 7:59 a.m. on Christmas Eve 2020. And it got his attention. “We need to do a call on this today,” Wales wrote to several people eight minutes later, including the agency’s then-deputy chief external affairs officer. The emails to the DHS agency, known as CISA, are part of a tranche of new communications that show Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani and his allies’ attempts to get the federal government to help them reverse election results went even broader than previously known. American Oversight, a watchdog group, obtained the emails through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit and shared them with POLITICO.
Colorado: New election tool provides transparency to voting ballots | Angeline McCall/9news
A new online tool allows the public to access thousands of ballots in three different counties – El Paso and Pueblo counties piloted the program after the 2020 election to provide more transparency – Weld County launched the program shortly thereafter. The Ballot Image Audit Tool is available to anyone online after creating a username and password. In Weld County, the tool allows people all of the 64,000 ballots cast in the 2020 election. The goal of the tool is to allow people to see every ballot cast and how the ballot corresponds with the way it was recorded by the ballot machine. It also shows which ballot and choices were adjudicated, meaning which ones were looked at by the human eye because the machine could not clearly decipher them. "It’s all out there for the public to go and see, so that they can make sure and gain confidence in the elections," said Republican Weld County Clerk Carly Kappes, who continues to receive questions over the legitimacy of the election results. Kappes said she has been able to point people to the tool to verify the results themselves, which she hopes will help them to verify their concerns. "It has been something that I have had people go and look at," said Weld. "I can stand here all day. I can have those conversations with people that have the questions, but really at the end of the day, I want to provide them the tools for them to verify what I am saying."
Full Article: Public can look at election ballots with new online tool | 9news.com