Warren Stewart – Page 130 – The Voting News

Wisconsin: I’m frankly amazed’: Another judge orders Republicans to prevent destruction of records in Gableman election review | Patrick Marley/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

May 6, 2022

A second judge Wednesday ordered Wisconsin Republicans to prevent the destruction of public records as they review the 2020 election at taxpayer expense. Dane County Circuit Judge Valerie Bailey-Rihn said she was compelled to issue the order but was astonished she had to do it because the review is being overseen by former state Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman. "I'm frankly amazed that I have to say don't destroy records that are subject to an open records request or order that to occur. I think all of us know what the law is," Bailey-Rihn said at the end of a 30-minute hearing. She said as a former justice Gableman should know what the records law requires and has an ethical obligation to follow it. Gableman has contended he is exempt from retaining records because the lawmakers who hired him are not required to hold onto records under state law. Bailey-Rihn issued her order two weeks after Dane County Circuit Judge Frank Remington issued a similar order in another open records lawsuit. Those two lawsuits and a third one were brought by American Oversight, a liberal group that has been tracking the Assembly review of the presidential election. A month ago, Bailey-Rihn found Assembly Speaker Robin Vos of Rochester in contempt of court for failing to release records about the election review. She will determine later whether Vos has now met his obligations and whether he should be fined.

Full Article: Judge orders Wisconsin Republicans to retain election review records

Trump allies breach U.S. voting systems in search of ‘evidence’ | Alexander Ulmer and Nathan Layne/Reuters

April 29, 2022

Eighteen months after Donald Trump lost the White House, loyal supporters continue to falsely assert that compromised balloting machines across America robbed him of the 2020 election. To stand up that bogus claim, some Trump die-hards are taking the law into their own hands – by attempting, with some success, to compromise the voting systems themselves. Previously unreported surveillance video captured one such effort in August in the rural Colorado town of Kiowa. Footage obtained by Reuters through a public-records request shows Elbert County Clerk Dallas Schroeder, the county’s top election official, fiddling with cables and typing on his phone as he copied computer drives containing sensitive voting information. Schroeder, a Republican, later testified that he was receiving instructions on how to copy the system’s data from a retired Air Force colonel and political activist bent on proving Trump lost because of fraud. That day, Aug. 26, Schroeder made a “forensic image of everything on the election server,” according to his testimony, and later gave the cloned hard drives to two lawyers. Schroeder is now under investigation for possible violation of election laws by the Colorado secretary of state, which has also sued him seeking the return of the data. Schroeder is defying that state demand and has refused to identify one of the lawyers who took possession of the hard drives. The other is a private attorney who works with an activist backed by Mike Lindell, the pillow mogul and election conspiracy theorist.

Full Article: Trump allies breach U.S. voting systems in search of 'evidence'

National: Talk of martial law, Insurrection Act draws notice of Jan. 6 committee | Jacqueline Alemany, Josh Dawsey and Tom Hamburger/The Washington Post

April 29, 2022

Three days before Joe Biden’s inauguration, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene texted White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows. She told him that some Republican members of Congress believed the only path for President Donald Trump to change the outcome of the 2020 election and stay in power was for him to declare martial law. The text from Greene (R-Ga.), revealed this week, brought to the fore the chorus of Republicans who were publicly and privately advocating for Trump to try to use the military and defense apparatus of the U.S. government to strong-arm his way past an electoral defeat. Now, discussions involving the Trump White House about using emergency powers have become an important — but little-known — part of the House Jan. 6 committee’s investigation of the 2021 attack on the Capitol. In subpoenas, document requests and court filings, the panel has demanded information about any Trump administration plans to use presidential emergency powers to invoke martial law or take other steps to overturn the 2020 election. Interviews with committee members and a review of the panel’s information requests reveals a focus on emergency powers that were being considered by Trump and his allies in several categories: invoking the Insurrection Act, declaring martial law, using presidential powers to justify seizing assets of voting-machine companies, and using the military to require a rerun of the election. “Trump’s invocation of these emergency powers would have been unprecedented in all of American history,” said J. Michael Luttig, a conservative lawyer and former appeals court judge.

Full Article: Talk of martial law, Insurrection Act draws notice of Jan. 6 committee - The Washington Post

National: Trump’s lies helped prompt one critical election reform | Joseph Marks/The Washington Post

April 29, 2022

Texas, Mississippi, Louisiana, Tennessee and Indiana are all belatedly making moves to require paper records for all votes cast in their states — a vital shift to ensure votes weren’t manipulated by hackers or altered by digital glitches. But there's a catch. The moves were spurred in large part by former president Donald Trump’s false claims about fraud and manipulation in the 2020 election and his baseless crusade against voting machine companies — rather than by legitimate concerns spurred by Russian interference in the 2016 contest. It may be the only security-enhancing effect of Trump’s wild and baseless claims that his election loss was illegitimate — and election security advocates are celebrating it even as they’re dubious about the impetus. “I don’t condone bizarre claims about past elections or fearmongering about how we operate elections, but if people have to resort to misguided beliefs to come to true beliefs, things could be worse,” Mark Lindeman, director of the group Verified Voting, told me. “It’s really valuable to have paper ballots, and we don’t care how people come to that conclusion,” Lindeman said.

Full Article: Trump's lies helped prompt one critical election reform - The Washington Post

National: GAO: EAC Can Decide on State Funding for Election Officials’ Security | Lisbeth Perez/MeriTalk

April 29, 2022

The U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) has been given full discretion to decide if states can allocate funds from the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA) to provide security services for state or local election officials, according to a recent report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO). In December 2021, the EAC reached out to GAO to determine whether states may use certain grant funds made available to them under HAVA to provide “physical security services and social media threat monitoring” in connection with election activities. HAVA authorizes the use of grant funds for states to improve the administration of elections for Federal office. However, the law does not explicitly authorize nor prohibit the use of funds for security services. GAO stated in its decision that “if not otherwise specified in the law, an expense is authorized where it bears a reasonable, logical relationship to the purpose of the appropriation to be charged.” “Here, a decision to allow the use of grant funds for the physical security services and social media threat monitoring would be within EAC’s legitimate range of discretion,” the report says. “Congress vested in EAC the authority to administer the HAVA grants [but] also vested in EAC the authority to determine whether a particular grant expenditure helps ‘improv[e] the administration of elections for Federal office.’” Full Article: GAO: EAC Can Decide on State Funding for Election Officials’ Security – MeriTalk

National: Digital Response launches new election program | Benjamin Freed/StateScoop

April 29, 2022

The U.S. Digital Response, the nonprofit civic-tech group that sprung up during the COVID-19 pandemic to assist local governments with online service delivery, is adding a new program focused on developing tools to help election officials. The effort will see the organization’s engineers and managers work with county- and local-level election administrators on using open-source technologies to build products like poll-location search tools, election information websites and applications that help officials manage poll workers. “What we specialize in is simple tools that make an impact that are quick,” Priya Garg, one of the heads of the organization’s new elections program, told StateScoop. U.S. Digital Response has offered its assistance to election administrators since its founding in 2020, when it developed poll-locator tools for tribal voters in Arizona and built an app for Harris County, Texas, to recruit and organize poll workers in the country’s third-biggest voting jurisdiction. The beefed-up elections program is the product of a major grant USDR recently received from the Center for Tech and Civic Life, a nonprofit group of election-minded technologists that received $350 million from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, in 2020. U.S. Digital Response leaders declined to disclose the value of the grant, only saying that it was a “multi-million-dollar” award capable of sustaining the group’s work for several years. Full Article: U.S. Digital Response launches new election program

National: Cyber agency director says election security a top priority ahead of midterms | The Hill

April 29, 2022

, the head of the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), told lawmakers on Thursday that election security is a top priority for her agency, as it anticipates Russian interference in the upcoming midterm elections. Easterly, who was testifying before the House Committee on Appropriations on the agency’s budget request, said midterm election security “is obviously one of our top priorities,” adding CISA was focused on guiding states and localities to combat disinformation campaigns — a tactic the Russians are expected to deploy. “We are here to help and make sure that all state and local election directors have the resources that they need to ensure the integrity of their election security,” Easterly said. Easterly was responding to a question from Rep. (D-Ill.), who asked how the agency plans to defend the integrity of the election given previous attempts from Russians to penetrate voter registration databases and steal personal data. Full Article: Cyber agency director says election security a top priority ahead of midterms | The Hill

National: Mark Meadows’ 2,319 text messages reveal Trump’s inner circle communications before and after January 6 | Jamie Gangel, Jeremy Herb and Elizabeth Stuart/CNN

April 29, 2022

CNN has obtained 2,319 text messages that former President Donald Trump's White House chief of staff Mark Meadows sent and received between Election Day 2020 and President Joe Biden's January 20, 2021 inauguration. The vast trove of texts offers the most revealing picture to date of how Trump's inner circle, supporters and Republican lawmakers worked behind the scenes to try to overturn the election results and then reacted to the violence that effort unleashed at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. The logs, which Meadows selectively provided to the House committee investigating the January 6 attack, show how the former chief of staff was at the nexus of sprawling conspiracy theories baselessly claiming the election had been stolen. They also demonstrate how he played a key role in the attempts to stop Biden's certification on January 6. The never-before-seen texts include messages from Trump's family -- daughter Ivanka Trump, son-in-law Jared Kushner and son Donald Trump Jr. -- as well as White House and campaign officials, Cabinet members, Republican Party leaders, January 6 rally organizers, Rudy Giuliani, My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell, Sean Hannity and other Fox hosts. There are also text exchanges with more than 40 current and former Republican members of Congress, including Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio, Mo Brooks of Alabama and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia.

Full Article: Mark Meadows' 2,319 text messages reveal Trump's inner circle communications before and after January 6 - CNNPolitics

National: GOP lawmakers were deeply involved in Trump plans to overturn election, new evidence suggests | Kyle Cheney and Nicholas Wu/Politico

April 29, 2022

Republican members of Congress were heavily involved in calls and meetings with former President Donald Trump and his top aides as they devised a strategy to overturn the election in December 2020, according to new evidence filed in federal court late Friday. Deposition excerpts filed by the Jan 6. select committee — part of an effort to force former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows to appear for an interview — suggest that some of Trump’s top allies in Congress were frequently present in meetings where a handful of strategies to prevent then-President-elect Joe Biden from taking office were discussed, including efforts to replace the leadership of the Justice Department with figures who would sow doubts about the legitimacy of the election. Lawmakers who attended meetings, in person or by phone, included Reps. Scott Perry (R-Pa.), Louie Gohmert (R-Texas), Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) and numerous members of the House Freedom Caucus, according to Cassidy Hutchinson, an aide to Meadows who provided key testimony about the conversations and meetings Meadows had in December 2020.

Full Article: GOP lawmakers were deeply involved in Trump plans to overturn election, new evidence suggests - POLITICO

National: New Details Underscore House G.O.P. Role in Jan. 6 Planning | Luke Broadwater and Alan Feuer/The New York Times

April 29, 2022

It was less than two weeks before President Donald J. Trump’s staunchest allies in Congress would have what they saw as their last chance to overturn the 2020 election, and Representative Scott Perry, Republican of Pennsylvania, was growing anxious. “Time continues to count down,” he wrote in a text message to Mark Meadows, then the White House chief of staff, adding: “11 days to 1/6 and 25 days to inauguration. We gotta get going!” It has been clear for more than a year that ultraconservative members of Congress were deeply involved in attempts to keep Mr. Trump in power: They joined baseless lawsuits, spread the lie of widespread election fraud and were among the 147 Republicans who voted on Jan. 6, 2021, against certifying President Biden’s victory in at least one state. But in a court filing and in text messages obtained by CNN, new pieces of evidence have emerged in recent days fleshing out the degree of their involvement with the Trump White House in strategy sessions, at least one of which included discussions about encouraging Mr. Trump’s supporters to march to the Capitol on Jan. 6, despite warnings of potential violence. Some continued to push to try to keep Mr. Trump in office even after a mob of his supporters attacked the complex. “In our private chat with only Members, several are saying the only way to save our Republic is for Trump to call for Marshall law,” Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, Republican of Georgia, wrote to Mr. Meadows on Jan. 17, 2021, misspelling the word “martial.”

Full Article: New Details Underscore House G.O.P. Role in Jan. 6 Planning - The New York Times

Editorial: The Republican blueprint to steal the 2024 election | J. Michael Luttig/CNN

April 29, 2022

Nearly a year and a half later, surprisingly few understand what January 6 was all about. Fewer still understand why former President Donald Trump and Republicans persist in their long-disproven claim that the 2020 presidential election was stolen. Much less why they are obsessed about making the 2024 race a referendum on the "stolen" election of 2020, which even they know was not stolen. January 6 was never about a stolen election or even about actual voting fraud. It was always and only about an election that Trump lost fair and square, under legislatively promulgated election rules in a handful of swing states that he and other Republicans contend were unlawfully changed by state election officials and state courts to expand the right and opportunity to vote, largely in response to the Covid pandemic. The Republicans' mystifying claim to this day that Trump did, or would have, received more votes than Joe Biden in 2020 were it not for actual voting fraud, is but the shiny object that Republicans have tauntingly and disingenuously dangled before the American public for almost a year and a half now to distract attention from their far more ambitious objective. That objective is not somehow to rescind the 2020 election, as they would have us believe. That's constitutionally impossible. Trump's and the Republicans' far more ambitious objective is to execute successfully in 2024 the very same plan they failed in executing in 2020 and to overturn the 2024 election if Trump or his anointed successor loses again in the next quadrennial contest.

Full Article: Opinion: The Republican blueprint to steal the 2024 election - CNN

Arizona GOP candidates sue to block use of voting machines in upcoming midterms | Michael McDaniel/Courthouse News Service

April 29, 2022

Republican candidates for Arizona governor and secretary of state sued state and county officials to bar the use of electronic voting machines ahead of the midterm election in November. In the federal complaint filed Friday and made available Monday, gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake and secretary of state candidate Mark Finchem claim an injunction to stop the use of voting machines is necessary since the “voting system does not reliably provide trustworthy and verifiable election results.” Former President Donald Trump has endorsed Lake and Finchem in their respective races. Lake and Finchem want a federal judge to prohibit the use of electronic voting machines in the state in the upcoming 2022 midterm elections. They claim voting on paper ballots and hand-counting those votes is the only efficient and secure method for proceeding. The candidates claim there is a history of voting machine failure in Arizona and abroad. Additionally, they contend state officials neglected security procedures and claim Dominion Voting Systems, a voting software company, lied and ignored a state legislative subpoena inquiring about the data relating to the 2020 presidential election in Arizona. Dominion is not named as a defendant in the complaint. Lake announced the lawsuit at one of her political rallies in Morristown, Arizona, in March alongside the founder and CEO of MyPillow, Mike Lindell. Lindell teased a class-action suit at the rally, with over 300 plaintiffs supposedly committed. Full Article: Arizona GOP candidates sue to block use of voting machines in upcoming midterms | Courthouse News Service

Georgia restores automatic voter registration after sharp decrease in 2021 | Mark Niesse/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

April 29, 2022

The sudden drop in voter registrations stood out to Richard Barron, Fulton County’s former elections director, when he first noticed it in February 2021. Without explanation, the number of registration applications had dramatically declined, from 35,000 the previous February to less than 6,000 in the same month a year later. Similar decreases happened across Georgia throughout last year. Barron suspected something had changed with Georgia’s automatic registration program, which was supposed to sign up eligible voters by default at driver’s licenses offices unless they opt out. He said his staff called and emailed the secretary of state’s office several times but didn’t find answers. It turned out the Georgia Department of Driver Services had shut off automatic voter registration when it redesigned its website early last year as part of a broader technology overhaul. Instead of registering drivers by default, the new website required drivers to click “Yes” or “No” when asked whether they wanted to sign up.

Full Article: Georgia restores automatic voter registration after sharp decrease in 2021

Michigan Republican resigns from GOP post citing ‘delusional lies’ | Craig Mauger/The Detroit News

April 29, 2022

Tony Daunt, a longtime Michigan Republican insider, resigned Tuesday night from the GOP's state committee, saying party leaders had made the coming election a test of "who is most cravenly loyal" to former President Donald Trump. Daunt, who is one of two Republican members of the Board of State Canvassers, made the comment in an email addressed to Judy Rapanos, chairwoman of the 4th Congressional District Republican Committee. The message was obtained by The Detroit News. For five years, Daunt has been one of about 100 members of the Republican Party's state committee, a panel that helps guide the party's decisions. But that ended Tuesday with his immediate resignation, three days after a contentious GOP convention in Grand Rapids.

Full Article: Michigan Republican resigns from GOP post citing 'delusional lies'

North Carolina counties prepare voting systems for early voting | Jordan Wilkie/Carolina Public Press

April 29, 2022

North Carolina counties finished testing their voting machines and election reporting systems last week in preparation for voting, which begins in person on Thursday ahead of the May 17 primary. Voting in modern elections relies on a series of computers to count and report votes. North Carolina counties completed the voting machine review, called “logic and accuracy” testing, and a mock election to make sure results uploads were running smoothly by April 21, according to the state’s election calendar. “We conduct these tests to ensure that tabulation and results reporting go smoothly on election nights, and so county board staff are comfortable with the process,” said Pat Gannon, spokesperson for the N.C. State Board of Elections. That North Carolina combines its testing of logic and accuracy with mock elections to prepare for elections is a great practice, according to Mark Lindeman, director of Verified Voting, a Philadelphia-based nonprofit organization dedicated to elections security. Full Article: NC counties prepare voting systems for early voting - Carolina Public Press

Nevada Voter ID, mail voting rollback ballot questions likely dead after court rulings | Riley Snyder and Michelle Rindels/The Nevada Independent

April 29, 2022

A pair of Carson City judges struck what appeared to be fatal blows to proposed GOP-backed voting initiatives on Monday, invalidating efforts to roll back the Democrat-backed universal vote by mail law passed in 2021 and a measure implementing voter identification requirements. In separate rulings, Senior Judge Frances Doherty blocked the effort to file a referendum against AB321, the measure passed by lawmakers in 2021 to permanently implement universal mail-in ballot. In a separate case, Senior Judge William Maddox ruled that the voter ID initiative’s description of effect — a 200-word summary — was argumentative and ordered a new description be written, effectively scrapping all signatures collected at this point. “On both proposed initiatives, the courts agreed with us that the descriptions provided to potential Nevada voters were deceptive and inaccurate, and could not go forward,” Wolf Rifkin attorney Bradley Schrager, who represented the plantiffs, said in a statement. “In both instances, people with agendas undermining confidence in our elections were found to be misleading the voters about their ballot measures. Today the justice system made clear that such tactics are not tolerable.” Both measures were sponsored by Repair the Vote, a political action committee led by former Nevada Republican Club President David Gibbs. In a brief interview Monday, Gibbs said there was virtually no chance of getting the signatures needed to qualify the measures for the ballot by a deadline in the next few weeks. Full Article: Voter ID, mail voting rollback ballot questions likely dead after court rulings – The Nevada Independent

Editorial: Big Lie pushes rural Nevada to make their elections slow, expensive and error-prone | Sheila Leslie/Reno Gazette Journal

April 29, 2022

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-prone

Rhode Island Senate approves early voting bill, online mail ballot applications | Katherine Gregg/The Providence Journal

April 29, 2022

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 applications

Wisconsin Assembly Speaker extends Gableman election review after pressure from Donald Trump | Molly Beck Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

April 29, 2022

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 Trump

National: In election misinformation fight, ‘2020 changed everything’ | Amanda Seitz/Associated Press

April 25, 2022

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 News

Russian Cyberattack Could Capitalize on Election Doubts | Matt Vasilogambros/Stateline

April 25, 2022

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 Trusts

National: Democrats ask officials in Florida, Arizona, Texas and Ohio details about election disinformation | Jacqueline Alemany/The Washington Post

April 25, 2022

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.”

Full Article: Democrats ask officials in Florida, Arizona, Texas and Ohio details about election disinformation - The Washington Post

National: Trump Allies Continue Legal Drive to Erase His Loss, Stoking Election Doubts | Maggie Haberman, Alexandra Berzon and Michael S. Schmidt/The New York Times

April 25, 2022

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 Times

National: Trump-Aligned Sheriffs Target Election Officials | Jessica Pishko/Bolts

April 25, 2022

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 | Bolts

National: Election Officials Face Their Biggest Threat Yet — Jail Time | Ryan Teague Beckwith/Bloomberg

April 25, 2022

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 - Bloomberg

National: Voting rights for disabled people under attack from new election laws | Deborah Barfield Berry and Rick Rouan/USA Today

April 25, 2022

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 laws

Editorial: The Other Way Trump Could Steal the White House in 2024 | Scott R. Anderson/Politico

April 25, 2022

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.

Full Article: Opinion | The Other Way Trump Could Steal the White House in 2024 - POLITICO

Arizona lawsuit seeks to ban ballot-counting machines | Howard Fischer/Arizona Daily Star

April 25, 2022

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

April 25, 2022

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.net

Georgia election worker who was target of false 2020 accusations receives Profile in Courage Award | Mark Niesse/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

April 25, 2022

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.

Full Article: Georgia election worker who was target of false 2020 accusations receives Profile in Courage Award

Author Archives: Warren Stewart