California bar urged to probe Trump 2020 election adviser David G. Savage/Los Angeles Times
A group of prominent lawyers, including former governors and judges, urged the California bar on Monday to launch an investigation into John C. Eastman’s role in advising President Trump on how he could overturn his election defeat, including by having his vice president refuse to count the electoral votes in seven states won by President Biden. Eastman, a former law professor and dean at Chapman University in Orange County, emerged as a key legal advisor to Trump in the weeks after it was apparent he had been defeated in the November election. He wrote two legal memos that advised Vice President Mike Pence he could decide the results in several states were disputed and therefore that their electoral votes would go uncounted. Doing so would have turned Trump from a loser to the winner. Trump repeatedly pressed Pence to follow Eastman’s advice. But Pence understood correctly that the Constitution gave the the vice president a quite limited role. He presides in Congress on the day when the electoral votes are counted, but he has no role beyond opening the envelopes and announcing the state-by-state results. Despite Trump’s pressure, Pence decided he would follow the law, not the advice from Eastman. Full Article: California bar urged to probe Trump 2020 election adviser - Los Angeles TimesIdaho Election denialists smacked down by secretary of state | Reid Wilson/The Hill
Conspiracy theorists pushing misinformation about the 2020 elections took their allegations to Idaho, and Idaho officials pushed right back. Top Gem State election administrators in Secretary of State Lawrence Denney’s (R) office said late Wednesday they had visited two counties to conduct a hand recount of last year’s presidential contest after hearing from readers of a website linked to MyPillow chief executive Mike Lindell, widely discredited for spreading easily disprovable misinformation in recent months. Denney’s office said it received allegations, in the form of screenshots of a report published on Lindell’s site, that vote tallies in all 44 of Idaho’s counties showed evidence of “electronic manipulation.” The only problem: At least seven of Idaho’s 44 counties do not use any electronic steps in their vote-counting process, making the claims impossible. Those counties, all small rural areas, still count ballots by hand, bypassing electronics or machines altogether. That process is feasible because there are so few ballots cast. Full Article: Election denialists smacked down by Idaho secretary of state | TheHillIllinois: DuPage County Board to Put Election Equipment to Vote Again | Megann Horstead/Naperville Community Television
The DuPage County Board is preparing to put election equipment to a vote again in the coming weeks after rejecting a bid from a vendor over what some officials describe as a questionable procurement process. A decision made last month to deny awarding the contract to Hart InterCivic has prompted the county to take another look at its vendor selection process. Chairman Dan Cronin said the county is committed to addressing the issue that arose, but he did not specify what went wrong. A vote on election equipment failed along party lines with the county board’s Democrats expressing confidence in Hart InterCivic and what the vendor offers and Republicans taking issue with it. Potential county board action to consider another bid comes as officials face continuing backlash from DuPage County residents at a recent meeting for failing to commit to the purchase and implementation of new election equipment. Full Article: DuPage County Board to Put Election Equipment to Vote Again | NapervilleMichigan Poll Challengers Are Suing Dominion With Dershowitz’s Help | Madison Hall/Business Insider
A group of eight Michigan poll challengers is suing Dominion Voting Systems after the company sent them cease and desist letters. First reported by The Daily Beast, the group is being led by a former "Stop the Steal" attorney, Kurt Olsen, who attempted to convince the US Department of Justice to file a lawsuit regarding the 2020 election to the Supreme Court as part of an effort to undermine President Joe Biden's electoral victory. Famed Democratic attorney and former lawyer for President Donald Trump, Alan Dershowitz, is also a part of the group's counsel. He told The Daily Beast he's an "adviser and consultant on the First Amendment issues of this case." The state of Michigan allows for interest groups and political parties to appoint "election challengers" to challenge a voter's eligibility or an election inspector's actions. Eight of the state's challengers from the 2020 presidential election said they received cease and desist letters from Dominion after they inquired about potential irregularities in the election despite never mentioning Dominion in their formal challenges. Full Article: Michigan Poll Challengers Are Suing Dominion With Dershowitz's HelpMontana: GOP legislators push for special panel to probe elections | Sam Wilson/Helena Independent Record
An overwhelming majority of Montana’s GOP legislators are urging their leadership in the state House and Senate to appoint a special committee to investigate the security of the state’s election system, an effort spearheaded by Republican legislators who are pushing theories of widespread voting fraud. The decision to appoint a special select committee, as requested in the Wednesday letter signed by 86 of the GOP’s 98 lawmakers, rests entirely in the hands of Senate President Mark Blasdel and House Speaker Wylie Galt, both Republicans. Galt didn't return phone calls requesting comment on the letter, which asks for a response from them by Oct. 6, and Blasdel declined to comment when reached Friday. The letter proposes forming a GOP-majority committee, in which each party gets seats relative to their numbers in each chamber. Republicans hold 67 of 100 House seats and 31 of 50 Senate seats. “Many of our constituents have reached out to us with questions about Montana election security,” the letter states. “… The Select Committee would conduct hearings about the process and security of Montana elections and propose future changes if needed; including legislation.”
Full Article: GOP legislators push for special panel to probe Montana elections | 406 Politics | helenair.com
Oregon county clerks inundated with calls for audit of 2020 presidential election | Bill Poehler/Salem Statesman Journal
Eleven months after the 2020 election, county clerks in Oregon are getting a new round of calls and emails disputing the results. Marion County Clerk Bill Burgess said the requests for audits and canvasses of election results in the county have been coming since June. But he said they've picked up in the past few weeks following an audit of a county's election results in Arizona. “People, they’ll come and they’ll start asking the question and then they won’t wait for an answer,” Burgess said. “They’ll start railing away and sometimes with a lot of obscenity and all, too.” In the 2020 presidential election, voters in Marion County swung to Democrat Joe Biden over Republican Donald Trump by 49.2% to 48%, a margin of 1,870 votes out of 164,308. That was a reversal from the 2016 election when Trump carried the county. Burgess said the calls and emails have also become threatening, including some he's forwarded to the FBI in the past few weeks. He said some of his election staff don't want their photo taken for fear of being tracked. “It seems to go in waves,” he said. “Sometimes you can’t tell if these are direct threats or not.”
Full Article: Spike in calls for Oregon audit of 2020 election after Arizona recountPennsylvania Republican made a big claim to defend the party’s election review. There’s no evidence for it. | Jonathan Lai and Andrew Seidman/Philadelphia Inquirer
Days after Pennsylvania Republicans subpoenaed Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration for millions of voters’ personal information, including the last four digits of their Social Security numbers, the head of the Senate GOP acknowledged the request was “intrusive.” But, Senate Majority Leader Kim Ward said, the subpoena simply demanded the same records the administration had already disclosed to third parties. Not only that, but those outside groups could have compromised the voter rolls, she suggested last month: “We don’t know what information they could add to the system. We don’t know what information they could take from the system.” It was a striking claim. Trump supporters have been pushing similar claims for months, and the Republican senator leading the party’s new election review has said lawmakers will be “digging into” the issue. But there’s no evidence to support it. A top Pennsylvania elections official said in sworn testimony earlier this year that outside groups had no such access. House Republicans investigating the matter accepted his explanation. Rep. Seth Grove (R., York), House Republicans’ point person on elections, said he’s concluded there’s nothing to it: “Just because you read it on the internet doesn’t mean it’s true.”
Full Article: Defending subpoena for Pennsylvania Republican election review, Kim Ward misstates factsPennsylvania: Deadline passes in GOP’s election ‘investigation’ subpoena | Marc Levy/Associated Press
The deadline passed Friday for Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration to comply with a subpoena from a Republican-controlled state Senate committee pursuing what the GOP calls a “forensic investigation” of last year’s presidential election, as a state court sorted through three legal challenges. Wolf’s administration and Senate Republicans remained silent in the matter Friday. The court was expected to set up an expedited briefing schedule in one or all of the cases. Challengers, including Senate Democrats and state Attorney General Josh Shapiro, have sought broadly to block the subpoena, saying it is an abuse of legislative power, and in particular have challenged its request for the driver’s license numbers and partial Social Security numbers of roughly 9 million registered voters. Republicans maintain that they are attempting to find and fix problems in last year’s presidential election and this year’s primary election. Democrats accuse them of helping perpetuate baseless claims that former President Donald Trump was cheated out of victory. It’s not clear whether Wolf’s administration can be forced to comply with a Senate subpoena. The subpoena comes as Trump and his allies pressure battleground states to investigate ballots, voting machines and voter rolls for fraud. Democrats say it is part of a national campaign to take away voting rights and undermine both democracy and elections. Democrat Joe Biden beat Trump in Pennsylvania by more than 80,000 votes, according to certified results.
Full Article: Deadline passes in GOP's election 'investigation' subpoenaSouth Carolina elections director steps down three months earlier than planned. Here’s why | Joseph Bustos/The State
South Carolina’s state elections director, who announced her resignation in May after she pushed for COVID-19 health precautions before the 2020 election, has stepped down three months ahead of her original leave date. Marci Andino’s last day on the job was Friday, Oct. 1, said state elections’ spokesman Chris Whitmire, adding she’s accepted a new job as the director of the Elections Infrastructure Information Sharing and Analysis Center, part of the nonprofit Center for Internet Security. Andino notified the five-member State Elections Commission of her planned move on Sept. 15, though she had initially planned to stay on through the end of December. Voter Services Director Howard Knabb will serve as interim director until commissioners find a permanent replacement, Whitmire said. ... Last year, and what ultimately led to her departure, Andino pushed for expanded access to absentee early voting and mail-in options as a way to limit the spread of COVID-19. She also asked lawmakers to allow voters to request absentee ballots online and to remove the witness signature requirement on absentee ballots. Full Article: SC elections director steps down early to take new job | The StateWisconsin: Michael Gableman issues subpoenas for election records | Molly Beck Patrick Marley/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
The attorney overseeing Assembly Republicans' review of the 2020 election served subpoenas Friday demanding records and interviews with officials from the state and at five cities about private funds used to help run the election. The subpoenas — the first to be issued by state lawmakers in decades — are the most significant step yet in former Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman's probe into the November contest that elected President Joe Biden. Recounts and court rulings have repeatedly found Biden defeated former President Donald Trump in Wisconsin by 0.6 percentage points. Gableman is seeking to take testimony at a Brookfield office on Oct. 15 with Meagan Wolfe, the director of the state Elections Commission, and officials in Madison, Milwaukee, Green Bay, Racine and Kenosha. With his subpoenas, Gableman is seeking information about private grants to help conduct elections that have long frustrated Republicans. So far he has not sought ballots or voting machines — an idea that has raised far more serious concerns for clerks because of their legal duty to maintain custody of them. "We are still analyzing it and do not have any comment at this time," Wolfe said in a statement. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos of Rochester this summer hired Gableman as Republicans in other states pursued similar partisan reviews. Gableman, who contended last year without evidence that bureaucrats stole the election, has a taxpayer-funded budget of about $680,000.
Full Article: Michael Gableman issues subpoenas for Wisconsin election recordsNational: There’s a Bipartisan Voting Rights Bill. Yes, Really. | Maggie Astor/The New York Times
A bipartisan elections bill is the rarest of creatures, one many Americans have never seen in the wild. Congressional Democrats are united behind sweeping voting rights legislation that won’t pass the Senate so long as the filibuster exists, because Republicans are united against it. Republican legislators in Texas, Georgia, Florida and elsewhere have passed numerous voting restrictions over united Democratic opposition. But on one sliver of voting issues, it seems lawmakers might — might! — be able to agree. The Native American Voting Rights Act, or NAVRA, was introduced in the House last month by Representatives Tom Cole, Republican of Oklahoma, and Sharice Davids, Democrat of Kansas. Senator Ben Ray Luján, Democrat of New Mexico, introduced companion legislation in the Senate. It would let tribes determine the number and location of voter registration sites, polling places and ballot drop boxes on their reservations; bar states from closing or consolidating those sites without tribal consent; require states with voter identification laws to accept tribal ID; and create a $10 million grant program for state-level task forces to examine barriers to voting access for Native Americans. The bill — endorsed by many Native American tribes, as well as advocacy groups such as the Native American Rights Fund, the National Congress of American Indians and Four Directions — is in the earliest stages of the legislative process. It hasn’t even had a committee hearing. Congress has been rather preoccupied with matters like stopping the government from shutting down or defaulting on its debt. While the broad voting rights measures are a high priority for Democrats, NAVRA is much lower on the list. And there is no telling how many Republicans besides Mr. Cole will get on board.
Georgia: Department of Homeland Security Cyber Office Wants to See Secret Voting Machine Vulnerability Report | Shannon Vavra and Jose Pagliery/The Daily Beast
A cybersecurity official at the Department of Homeland Security has shown interest in seeing a copy of a report alleging “severe” vulnerabilities in Georgia’s voting machines—a report that a federal judge has decided to keep secret. As The Daily Beast reported last month, U.S. District Judge Amy Totenberg ordered the report—authored by a renowned computer security academic—to remain sealed. Although the report only discusses the potential for future election interference, her restrictions appear to be driven by a desire to avoid fueling unfounded right-wing conspiracy theories that Donald Trump beat Joe Biden in 2020. But now the Streisand effect is in full swing, as the report’s secrecy is attracting even more attention from two camps: the federal agency tasked with helping protect elections and state election officials around the country who are also relying on these machines in certain jurisdictions. According to an email exchange filed in court documents, University of Michigan computer science professor J. Alex Halderman reached out directly to the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) one week after The Daily Beast’s reporting and quickly heard back from the department’s election security director. “Yes, CISA would be willing to receive the report regarding possible vulnerabilities in election infrastructure,” wrote Geoffrey Hale, who leads the agency’s so-called “Election Security Initiative,” according to the court filing. Full Article: Department of Homeland Security Cyber Office Wants to See Secret Voting Machine Vulnerability ReportNational: Election Security Problems Still Must Be Addressed | Susan Greenhalgh and J. Alex Halderman
Since last November, Donald Trump and his allies have attempted to undermine our democratic framework with a relentless barrage of lies, fantasies and falsehoods about imaginary vote-rigging schemes. They have enabled supporters of the former president to grasp onto the most arrant nonsense and farcical theories to convince themselves that Trump did not lose to President Joe Biden by 7 million votes nationwide and 74 Electoral College votes. It shouldn't need saying, but the lies are not true. As the Department of Justice, the Department of Homeland Security and Republican and Democratic election officials have affirmed, there is no evidence whatsoever of large-scale electoral fraud. Joe Biden beat Donald Trump. Period. But the fact that the presidential outcome was correct this time does not mean that our elections are well enough secured. Plenty has been written about how the Big Lie is corroding public trust and tearing at the fabric of our democracy. But in addition to these obvious harms, Trump' insidious disinformation is also inhibiting legitimate and necessary election security reforms. Well before the 2020 election, bipartisan investigations from the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee documented significant weaknesses in U.S. voting equipment. These findings only confirmed what previous studies from state election officials and academic researchers revealed—voting machines are computers with inherent vulnerabilities and weak security protocols. Full Article: Election Security Problems Still Must Be Addressed | OpinionNational: The Push For Internet Voting Continues, Mostly Thanks To One Guy | Miles Parks/NPR
By 2028, Bradley Tusk wants every American to be able to vote on their phones. It's a lofty goal, and one that most cybersecurity experts scoff at. But it's a quest that the venture capitalist and former political insider continues to chip away at. His nonprofit, Tusk Philanthropies, announced a $10 million grant program Thursday to fund the development of a new internet-based voting system that he says will aim to win over security skeptics, who have long been wary of votes being cast via digital networks rather than through the paper ballots or ATM-type machines that most Americans currently use. NPR is the first to report on the announcement. "My goal is to make it possible for every single person in this country to vote in every single election on their phone," Tusk said in an interview with NPR. Tusk was Uber's first political adviser, and he is also a former staffer for Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. He has already bankrolled a number of small-scale mobile-phone voting pilot projects across the U.S. over the past few years, in which voters with disabilities and Americans living abroad from a select few districts have been able to return their ballots digitally. However, the vendors that conducted those pilots have faced heavy scrutiny for security flaws in their systems as well as for a general lack of transparency around their software, as the source code for the underlying technology has remained private. Full Article: Despite Security Concerns, Online Voting Gets $10 Million Push : NPRArizona: ‘We won’: Trump and his allies barrel ahead with election lies despite review confirming his loss | Jeremy Herb and Fredreka Schouten/CNN
The Cyber Ninjas failed to prove fraud in the Arizona 2020 election, but former President Donald Trump's election fraud crusade is now proceeding as if they'd won -- pushing for more "forensic audits" and restrictive voting in that state and elsewhere across the country. Trump's allies are already demanding a new review of another Arizona county won by President Joe Biden. They are launching more partisan ballot reviews in other states following the Arizona playbook after passing laws making it harder to vote earlier this year. And they are calling for decertification of Arizona's 2020 election despite the lack of fraud, as part of a larger effort to validate Trump's "Big Lie" and undermine the 2020 election results. The lesson they're taking from Arizona's Maricopa County ballot review is not that they failed and should stop, but rather that they should try to avoid the negative scrutiny that hounded the Cyber Ninjas' review and "do it better" in states like Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, even if there's no evidence of fraud, said Sarah Longwell, a conservative publisher and executive director of the conservative group Defending Democracy Together. "It has nothing to do with auditing votes," Longwell told CNN. "It has to do with creating a cloud of suspicion around the elections and keeping their fraud narrative front and center."
Arizona Secretary of State’s Ability to Defend Election Laws Restored By Judge’s Ruling | Mary Ellen Cagnassola/Newsweek
Republican-passed laws in Arizona that ban schools form requiring masks and restrict the ability of local governments to enact COVID-19 requirements were dismantled by a judge Monday, a devastating blow to a nationwide GOP effort to limit pandemic rules. The decision by Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Katherine Cooper could create a path for Arizona cities and countries to enact mask requirements, if it withstands an impending appeal. Nearly 30 public school systems ignored the laws and required masks for students and staff. Republican Governor Doug Ducey's office called the ruling "clearly an example of judicial overreach." "Arizona's state government operates with three branches, and it's the duty and authority of only the legislative branch to organize itself and to make laws," C.J. Karamargin said in a statement. "Unfortunately, today's decision is the result of a rogue judge interfering with the authority and processes of another branch of government." Full Article: Arizona Secretary of State's Ability to Defend Election Laws Restored By Judge's RulingCalifornia Governor Newsom signs bill to make voting by mail permanent in California | Emily Deruy/Marin Independent Journal
In a move that cements California’s future as a vote-by-mail state, Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday signed a bill that makes permanent what Golden State voters experienced during the pandemic elections of 2020 and last month’s recall: Every active registered voter will receive a ballot in the mail for every election. Advocates hailed the new law — Assembly Bill 37 from Menlo Park Assemblymember Marc Berman — as a way to make it more convenient for people to vote, which could increase participation in elections. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, at least five other states — Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Utah and Washington — already conduct elections by mail. California’s more permissive voting system stands in stark contrast to efforts in other states to tighten voting requirements. Earlier this year, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed a bill passed by the state’s Republican-dominated legislature that included new ID mandates and banned around-the-clock early voting. Georgia recently passed a law requiring voters to provide their driver’s license number or other form of ID to get or return an absentee ballot. “As states across our country continue to enact undemocratic voter suppression laws, California is increasing voter access, expanding voting options and bolstering elections integrity and transparency,” Newsom said in a statement. Full Article: Gov. Newsom signs bill to make voting by mail permanent in California – Marin Independent JournalColorado Judge to rule on Mesa County Clerk case next month | Charles Ashby/ Grand Junction Daily Sentinel
A planned hearing today to discuss any potential disagreements in the facts behind the case of whether Mesa County Court Tina Peters should be temporarily barred from conducting this fall’s election has been canceled. Instead, District Judge Valerie Robison will decide the case between Secretary of State Jena Griswold and Peters and her deputy, Belinda Knisley, solely on the legal briefs that have been filed to her court, and issue her ruling by Oct. 13, possibly before. That’s several days after the first day that county clerks can mail ballots to voters, which they can do on Oct. 8. Robison’s decision will be based on multiple briefs and exhibits filed by Peters’ attorney, former Secretary of State Scott Gessler, Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser and Mesa County attorney Todd Starr over the past week. While Gessler argues that Peters was merely doing her job and should remain doing it, Weiser said Peters and Knisley committed extreme violations of election security protocols that make them both untrustworthy to conduct the upcoming election. Starr, meanwhile, simply argues that the county commissioners had little choice but to appoint former Secretary of State Wayne Williams to oversee the county’s elections when Griswold issued an order last month to appoint Mesa County Treasurer Sheila Reiner to head it. In those briefs, Gessler admits that Peters had allowed a non-county employee access to sensitive election equipment, saying she was within her rights to bring in a computer expert. Full Article: Judge to rule on Peters case next month | Western Colorado | gjsentinel.comGeorgia: High-stakes election tests Fulton County amid state takeover threat | Mark Niesse, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Fulton County is running an election for its life in this November’s race for Atlanta mayor. If the county stumbles, Georgia’s government might take over.Fulton will try to prove itself after 2020 elections scarred by slow results, long lines, lost absentee ballot requests and constant criticism from Republican President Donald Trump and his supporters. But the county will be challenged by the higher standards required of Georgia’s new voting law, which demands quick ballot counting, greater transparency and investigations of discrepancies. Failure comes with potential consequences, including the replacement of Fulton’s majority-Democratic elections board with an appointee by Republicans. Republican Georgia legislators have already launched a performance review of the heavily Democratic county, a step under the state’s voting law toward ousting its election board, which oversees polling place locations, staffing and certification of results. The Republican-controlled State Election Board could then install its own county elections superintendent. Full Article: High-stakes election tests Fulton amid state takeover threat
Idaho Election Officials Reject Fraud Claims After Hand Recounts | James Dawson/Boise State Public Radio
Idaho’s top election officials are refuting claims that the results of the 2020 presidential race were rigged in the state, conducting recounts in two counties within the past week. The Idaho Secretary of State’s office said it recently investigated claims that votes cast for former President Donald Trump were electronically switched for President Joe Biden. Trump won Idaho with nearly 64% of the vote. The assertions from MyPillow CEO and Trump ally Mike Lindell, dubbed “The Big Lie," have been found to be baseless in other states. They raised red flags for Idaho state officials. “There’s illogical arguments that are made and they’re made on such a blanket level, it’s almost impossible to comprehend how something like that could be pulled off,” said Chief Deputy Secretary of State Chad Houck. For example, at least seven of Idaho’s counties, which run their own elections, have no electronic components to their vote counting process. And no voting machine certified for use in Idaho can be connected to the internet or accessed remotely over something like Bluetooth. “That was a huge red flag, and one we knew we could either prove or disprove fairly directly,” Houck said. All votes in the state are also recorded on paper to preserve an audit trail. The secretary of state’s office conducted hand recounts in Butte and Camas counties last week. They found a 10-vote discrepancy in the two counties – well short of Lindell’s claims of 116 and 54 votes respectfully that supposedly swapped to Biden. Another partial recount is set for Bonner County Saturday. Full Article: Idaho Election Officials Reject Fraud Claims After Hand Recounts | Boise State Public RadioIdaho Secretary of State refutes Mike Lindell’s statewide election manipulation claims | KMVT
Staff from the Idaho Secretary of State’s office visited two Idaho counties last week following receipt of information that alleged statewide manipulation of Idaho’s election results. “The office of the Idaho Secretary of State takes free, fair, and accurate elections seriously,” says Secretary of State Lawerence Denney, “so when we are presented with allegations that come with specific details which we can examine, we want to do so.” The document in question, dubbed “The Big Lie” and shared publicly by a website bearing the copyright of Michael J. Lindell, claims that votes actually cast for Donald J. Trump had been switched electronically and recorded as votes for Joseph Biden. “Once we had the document in hand, we immediately believed there was something amiss,” says Chief Deputy Secretary Chad Houck. “This document alleged electronic manipulation in all 44 counties. At least 7 Idaho counties have no electronic steps in their vote counting processes,” states Houck, “That was a huge red flag, and one we knew we could either prove or disprove fairly directly.” Houck, along with members of the IDSOS Elections team, visited Camas and Butte counties, the 42nd and 43rd smallest counties on the list on Sept. 23rd. Not suspecting any issues, these two counties were selected due to their small size, and ease of recount.
Full Article: Idaho Secretary of State refutes Mike Lindell’s statewide election manipulation claimsSplit Michigan Legislature Approves Election-Related Bills | Michigan News | David Eggert/Associated Press
The Michigan Legislature on Thursday passed election bills that would limit who can access the state voter file, keep voting equipment from being connected to the internet and require election challengers to receive training. The legislation sent to Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer was supported by majority Republicans and opposed by all but one Senate Democrat and many House Democrats. The bills blocking outside groups' access to the voter database and prohibiting the connection of electronic pollbooks or voting systems to the internet would codify existing practice. “It's a good idea to take this bill and take the best practices and put them into law so they can't be changed," Sen. Ruth Johnson, a Holly Republican and former secretary of state, said of the internet-connection legislation. Full Article: Split Michigan Legislature Approves Election-Related Bills | Michigan News | US NewsOhio’s top elections official rejects fraud claims | Marty Schladen/Ohio Capital Journal
A spokesman for Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose said the office didn’t want to get dragged in last week when a fellow Republican echoed former President Donald Trump’s baseless fraud claims and called for an audit of Ohio’s 2020 election. But the state’s top election official won’t condemn Trump or say whether he’ll support the former president if he runs again in 2024. And despite his assertion that “it’s easy to vote and hard to cheat in Ohio,” LaRose wouldn’t comment on restrictions that forced large-county voters to wait hours to cast early ballots last year. Former state Treasurer Josh Mandel is one of many Republicans eagerly trying to take up the Trump mantle in the race to succeed retiring U.S. Sen. Rob Portman, who is also a Republican. Trump has lied relentlessly about his 7 million-vote loss in the 2020 election. His challenges have failed in more than 60 court proceedings and repeated reviews of the vote in states where the contest was close have upheld the legitimacy of President Joe Biden’s win. Even a highly partisan “audit” of Arizona’s results last week confirmed Biden’s victory there. But that didn’t stop Trump from lying about it, too. Full Article: Ohio's top elections official rejects fraud claims - Ohio Capital JournalTennessee: Chancellor Rules Against Shelby County Election Commission in Round One of Voting-Machine Dispute | Jackson Baker/Memphis Flyer
A Shelby County court has denied the request of the Shelby County Election Commission to force the Shelby County Commission to fund its call for the purchase of ES&S electronic voting machines to replace the county’s existing election machinery. Both bodies agree that the old voting machines must be replaced, but have disagreed on what should replace them, with the county commission maintaining that, as the entity empowered to pay for and to “adopt” the replacement devices, its twice-expressed official preference for devices employing paper ballots should prevail over the Election Commission’s choice of the $5.4 million ES&S ballot-marking devices, as recommended by Election Administrator Linda Phillips. After a hearing Thursday afternoon, Chancellor Gadson W. Perry denied the Election Commission’s petition for a writ of mandamus, which would have forced the issue in the EC’s favor. The judge cited contradictions in specific Tennessee statutes, with one of the several laws discussed in the hearing concretely giving the EC the right to select election machinery, while another, just as firmly, supported the county commission’s contention that its control of funding precluded a “duty” to rubber-stamp the EC’s choice.
Full Article: Memphis Flyer | Chancellor Rules Against EC in Round One of Voting-Machine Dispute