Virginia counties shift election procedures to head off conspiracy theorists | Zach Montellaro/Politico 

Recent polls have the high-stakes Virginia governor’s race as a neck-and-neck contest between Terry McAuliffe and Glenn Youngkin — and that means it could take days to determine the winner. The vast majority of Virginia’s votes are expected to be counted on Election Day, and the state has made improvements to election laws earlier this year that will likely expedite the election night process — including some changes made, at least partially, to prevent conspiracy theories about the count from taking hold. But exceedingly close elections can take longer to resolve, including recounts. And in this case, Virginia law allows mail ballots postmarked by Election Day to be counted if they arrive by Nov. 5, three days later. Former President Donald Trump and some of his supporters have already begun warning of voter fraud and laying the groundwork to question the veracity of Virginia’s elections after undermining faith in the 2020 results with a series of baseless claims. “The Virginia governor's election — you better watch it,” Trump said in an interview with John Fredericks, a popular conservative radio host in the state, in September. “You have a close race in Virginia, but it’s not close if they cheat.”

Full Article: Virginia counties shift election procedures to head off conspiracy theorists - POLITICO

Virginia: Election-Rigging Claims Fuel Governor’s Race | Alexa Corse and Joshua Jamerson/Wall Street Journal

Former President Donald Trump’s push to relitigate the results of the 2020 election has become a focal point in the closely watched Virginia governor’s race between Republican Glenn Youngkin and Democrat Terry McAuliffe. With recent polls showing their race essentially tied, Mr. McAuliffe has made the issue a key plank of his case against Mr. Youngkin, tying the Republican nominee to the former president and his unsupported claims of widespread voter fraud. Mr. Trump’s claims helped spark the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol. Mr. Youngkin has highlighted Democrats’ questioning of the results of the 2000 presidential race and the 2018 Georgia governor contest. Mr. Biden carried Virginia by 10 points last year, and the outcome was confirmed by a statewide audit. Audits and lawsuits across the country have turned up no evidence of widespread fraud in the 2020 election. Mr. Trump has endorsed Mr. Youngkin, a former Carlyle Group Inc. executive and political newcomer. The former president has continued to focus on false claims of election fraud, and recently said that Republicans shouldn’t vote next year if his concerns aren’t addressed. Full Article: Election-Rigging Claims Fuel Virginia Governor’s Race - WSJ

Wisconsin is ready to move on from the election. Why can’t Gableman? | Barry C. Burden and Trey Grayson/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

It’s been almost a year since the 2020 election, local elections are on the agenda this year and the 2022 midterms are right around the corner. And yet, bad-faith actors in Wisconsin can’t seem to focus on moving the state forward. They are stuck on the misunderstandings and falsehoods about the 2020 election. Some of these same unfounded suspicions led to a violent insurrection in our nation’s Capitol in January. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, State Rep. Janel Brandtjen and former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman, all Republicans, have created an embarrassing, chaotic mess as they subject the state to a dangerous disinformation campaign that undermines the work of trusted election officials, is costing taxpayers at least $680,000, and casts doubt on the state's history of free, fair and secure elections. Just as we — along with other leaders — have warned, Wisconsin is at risk of turning into a Cyber Ninjas-style mess. We’ve taken a close look at the trend of so-called 2020 election reviews popping up across the country. Make no mistake: They are a waste of time, energy and taxpayer money. And they leave our elections less secure and the public less rather than more confident in the election system. There’s a reason bipartisan leaders and election experts alike have alled out the dangers of this sort of “investigation.” As we outlined in a report this summer, the Cyber Ninjas operation in Arizona is not credible and suffered from an array of problems: lack of transparency, lack of impartiality, problematic contracting, faulty ballot review processes, unacceptable built-in error, insufficient security and false allegations. And now anti-democratic leaders in Wisconsin are driving the state down a similar, chaotic path. Full Article: Wisconsin is ready to move on from the election. Why can’t Gableman?

National: How to Fight False Election Information and Other Problems | Jule Pattison-Gordon/Government Technology

With 2021 municipal races days away, former Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) director Chris Krebs discussed the challenges to retaining voter trust in the face of mis- and disinformation, during a Harvard Kennedy School event Thursday. Protecting election systems from cyber and physical attacks was only one battle within the election security war in 2020 — the other, more difficult conflict was defending mindsets against false narratives about what had taken place. “We spent three and a half years working on threat modeling, trying to figure out every possible disruption that could be launched against the election,” Krebs said. ”We were thinking through, ‘You know, it's not the technical attacks that are keeping us up at night, because we think we've got a pretty resilient system with good indicators’ … It came down to the perception hack that we were most worried about.” ... As fear spreads, it can quickly transform into real-world threats, with this summer’s ransomware attack on Colonial Pipeline serving as a prime example, Krebs said. When the pipeline shut down, a panicked public made runs on gas supplies, accelerating shortages and exacerbating the problem. Full Article: How to Fight False Election Information and Other Problems

Florida: ‘Tone down the rhetoric’: Elections officials tell politicians to chill out | Lawrence Mower/Tampa Bay Times

Florida’s elections supervisors have a message for elected officials: “Tone down the rhetoric.” In a plea to officials at “all levels of government,” the group representing the state’s Republican and Democratic county elections officials are asking them to denounce “false claims” surrounding last year’s election. “During and after the 2020 Presidential Election, the integrity of our democracy has been challenged by misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation that sows discord and undermines trust in America’s electoral process,” the memo states. “Many of us have been threatened by our fellow citizens who have been led astray by these deceptions. “Instead of standing idly by, we ask all candidates and elected officials to tone down the rhetoric and stand up for our democracy.” The memo was considered extraordinary for the Florida Supervisors of Elections, the organization representing the officials overseeing elections in the state’s 67 counties. Despite Florida’s turbulent history with elections, supervisors have largely stayed out of the limelight, even while Florida legislators were passing a contentious voting reform bill this year. Thursday’s memo is overdue, said Marion County Elections Supervisor Wesley Wilcox, president of the Florida Supervisors of Elections. “In hindsight, we probably should have done it 8 or 9 months ago,” Wilcox said. “But it needs to be done, just to protect the foundation of this democracy.”

Full Article: ‘Tone down the rhetoric’: Florida elections officials tell politicians to chill out

National: Jan. 6 Protest Organizers Say They Participated in ‘Dozens’ of Planning Meetings With Members of Congress and White House Staff | Hunter Walker/Rolling Stone

As the House investigation into the Jan. 6 attack heats up, some of the planners of the pro-Trump rallies that took place in Washington, D.C., have begun communicating with congressional investigators and sharing new information about what happened when the former president’s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol. Two of these people have spoken to Rolling Stone extensively in recent weeks and detailed explosive allegations that multiple members of Congress were intimately involved in planning both Trump’s efforts to overturn his election loss and the Jan. 6 events that turned violent. Rolling Stone separately confirmed a third person involved in the main Jan. 6 rally in D.C. has communicated with the committee. This is the first report that the committee is hearing major new allegations from potential cooperating witnesses. While there have been prior indications that members of Congress were involved, this is also the first account detailing their purported role and its scope. The two sources also claim they interacted with members of Trump’s team, including former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, who they describe as having had an opportunity to prevent the violence. The two sources, both of whom have been granted anonymity due to the ongoing investigation, describe participating in “dozens” of planning briefings ahead of that day when Trump supporters broke into the Capitol as his election loss to President Joe Biden was being certified. “I remember Marjorie Taylor Greene specifically,” the organizer says. “I remember talking to probably close to a dozen other members at one point or another or their staffs.” Full Article: Two Jan. 6 Planners Cooperate With Committee, Name MAGA Congress Members - Rolling Stone

National: Ahead of Jan. 6, Willard hotel in downtown D.C. was a Trump team ‘command center’ for effort to deny Biden the presidency | Jacqueline Alemany, Emma Brown, Tom Hamburger and Jon Swaine/The Washington Post

They called it the “command center,” a set of rooms and suites in the posh Willard hotel a block from the White House where some of President Donald Trump’s most loyal lieutenants were working day and night with one goal in mind: overturning the results of the 2020 election. The Jan. 6 rally on the Ellipse and the ensuing attack on the Capitol by a pro-Trump mob would draw the world’s attention to the quest to physically block Congress from affirming Joe Biden’s victory. But the activities at the Willard that week add to an emerging picture of a less visible effort, mapped out in memos by a conservative pro-Trump legal scholar and pursued by a team of presidential advisers and lawyers seeking to pull off what they claim was a legal strategy to reinstate Trump for a second term. They were led by Trump’s personal lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani. Former chief White House strategist Stephen K. Bannon was an occasional presence as the effort’s senior political adviser. Former New York City police commissioner Bernard Kerik was there as an investigator. Also present was John Eastman, the scholar, who outlined scenarios for denying Biden the presidency in an Oval Office meeting on Jan. 4 with Trump and Vice President Mike Pence. They sought to make the case to Pence and ramp up pressure on him to take actions on Jan. 6 that Eastman suggested were within his powers, three people familiar with the operation said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to describe private conversations. Their activities included finding and publicizing alleged evidence of fraud, urging members of state legislatures to challenge Biden’s victory and calling on the Trump-supporting public to press Republican officials in key states.

Full Article: Willard hotel was Trump team 'command center' for denying Biden presidency ahead of Jan. 6 - The Washington Post

National: GOP uses voters to push election reforms in unlikely states | Marc Levy/Associated Press

Republicans have succeeded this year in passing a range of voting restrictions in states they control politically, from Georgia to Iowa to Texas. They’re not stopping there. Republicans in at least four states where Democrats control the governor’s office, the legislature or both — California, Massachusetts, Michigan and Pennsylvania — are pursuing statewide ballot initiatives or veto-proof proposals to enact voter ID restrictions and other changes to election law. In another state, Nebraska, Republicans control the governor’s office and have a majority in the single-house legislature, but are pushing a voter ID ballot measure because they have been unable to get enough lawmakers on board. Republicans say they are pursuing the changes in the name of “election integrity,” and repeat similar slogans — “easier to vote, harder to cheat.” Democrats dismiss it as the GOP following former President Donald Trump’s false claims that widespread fraud cost him the election. They say Republicans have tried to whip up distrust in elections for political gain and are passing restrictions designed to keep Democratic-leaning voters from registering or casting a ballot. “It’s depressing that this is the way that (the Trump) wing of the Republican Party thinks they have to win, instead of trying to win on issues or beliefs,” said Gus Bickford, the Democratic Party chairman in Massachusetts. “They just want to suppress the vote.”

Full Article: GOP uses voters to push election reforms in unlikely states

National: Democrats weigh changes in filibuster to pass voting rights legislation after GOP opposition | Matthew Brown/USA Today

After another failed vote to advance voting rights legislation last week, Democratic lawmakers are debating the merits changes in the filibuster rule that many in the party see as essential. "The most important vote right now in the Congress of the United States is the vote to respect the sanctity of the vote, the fundamental basis of our democracy," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said in an interview on CNN's "State of the Union." "If there were one vote that the filibuster could enable to go forward, that would be the vote," Pelosi said. In a CNN town hall Thursday, President Joe Biden said: “I also think we’re going to have to move to the point where we fundamentally alter the filibuster. The idea, for example, my Republican friends say that we’re going to default on the national debt because they’re going to filibuster that and we need 10 Republicans to support us is the most bizarre thing I ever heard." The shift in attitude toward the rule comes after Senate Republicans filibustered the Freedom to Vote Act, a pared-back voting rights package pushed by Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., who aggressively courted Republican votes for the bill. The failed vote was the third voting rights package filibustered by Republicans this year.

Full Article: Pelosi, Biden call for filibuster reform on voting rights bills

Alabama: MyPillow’s Mike Lindell again questions election: Secretary of State says state ‘didn’t have any issues’ | William Thornton/AL.com

Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill on Friday once again swatted away suggestions by MyPillow founder and CEO Mike Lindell that hundreds of thousands of votes were flipped from Donald Trump to Joe Biden during the 2020 presidential election in Alabama. “The thing we have maintained is that we didn’t have any issues, any irregularities, any inconsistences, any probing, any concerns that was introduced at any level to us,” Merrill said by telephone Friday. Last month, Lindell said in a video that while Alabama is a “role model as to how elections should go,” its voting system was “hacked…just like every other state,” possibly by accessing machines remotely through Bluetooth technology. Lindell did not offer any evidence of his claims in the video or provide details on who he thought was involved. He said at that time that 100,000 votes were changed in the state and “every single county was affected.” Donald Trump garnered 1.4 million votes in Alabama, compared to more than 849,000 for Joe Biden last November. At that time, Merrill said what Lindell was alleging was not possible.

Full Article: MyPillow’s Mike Lindell again questions Alabama election: John Merrill says state ‘didn’t have any issues’ - al.com

Arizona GOP Chair Kelli Ward Pushes for Election Audits in Each of State’s 15 Counties | Andrew Stanton/Newsweek

Arizona Republican Party Chair Kelli Ward is calling for election audits in every county in the state, even after an audit of Maricopa County upheld the results of the 2020 presidential election. Some Republicans have insisted that former President Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential election due to widespread voter fraud in battleground states like Arizona, even though no substantive evidence has been presented to support the allegations. Audits have also been called in several other states over such unproven claims. In a new video entitled "Special Update," Ward claims an analysis of election results in Pima County found inconsistencies. Pima is the state's second-largest county and home to Tucson, a Democratic stronghold. Ward said there should be an audit of not only Pima County but every county in the state. "I've been asking for full audits of all 15 of Arizona's counties," she said. "We the people will not back down. We will not waver." The push for more audits comes days after Trump also called for a review in Pima County. In a statement released October 15, the former president claimed that an analysis of mail-in ballots indicates there were "fictitious votes" cast in the county. Full Article: Arizona GOP Chair Kelli Ward Pushes for Election Audits in Each of State's 15 Counties

Colorado Supreme Court denies Peters appeal | Charles Ashby/Grand Junction Sentinel

Peters’ attorneys Wednesday, letting stand a district court ruling that bars her and Deputy Clerk Belinda Knisley from overseeing this fall’s elections. In a terse order, the court said it would not accept jurisdiction in the matter. The appeal, filed by Peters’ attorney Scott Gessler, tried to argue that neither the Colorado statutes nor existing case law gave District Judge Valerie Robison the authority to approved the replacement of Peters as the county’s designated election official, saying that would be an unprecedented move that could open the door for future secretaries of state to do the same for clerks they don’t like. Robison ruled last week after the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office filed a lawsuit temporarily prohibiting Peters and Knisley from overseeing the election while local, state and federal investigations into allegations the two, and others, breached election security protocols.
Full Article: Colorado Supreme Court denies Peters appeal | Western Colorado | gjsentinel.com

Florida’s 67 election supervisors urge voters to reject election falsehoods, audits | National | Steven Lemongello/Orlando Sentinel

Florida’s 67 county elections supervisors wrote a letter to voters Monday urging them to reject falsehoods about the 2020 election and reaffirming the integrity of the state’s voting system. The plea, issued by the Florida Supervisors of Elections, comes after GOP county committees in Lake and Brevard counties called for an Arizona-style “forensic audit” spurred by former President Donald Trump’s false claims of election fraud. It was sent days after the supervisors, headed by Marion County election head Wesley Wilcox, issued a statement to Florida’s elected officials and candidates urging them to tamp down the rhetoric. “The strength of our nation rests on the ability that ‘We the People’ have a voice in its governance and are confident in the integrity of our elections,” Monday’s letter states. “In this hour, public trust in our elections is being systematically undermined, to the detriment of all Americans.” The letter says before and after the 2020 presidential election, “the integrity of our democracy has been challenged by misinformation, disinformation and malinformation that sows discord and undermines trust in America’s electoral process.” Full Article: Florida’s 67 election supervisors urge voters to reject election falsehoods, audits | National | union-bulletin.com

Michigan clerk banned from running Nov. 2 election over tabulator concerns | Beth LeBlanc/The Detroit News

The Michigan Bureau of Elections has prohibited a local clerk in Hillsdale County from administering next week's election after the bureau said the clerk failed to comply with state requirements regarding voting equipment in Adams Township. Adams Township Clerk Stephanie Scott denied the allegations and is exploring her options with outside counsel after the bureau's notice said a violation of the prohibition could result in a misdemeanor. "As a supervisor, I don’t know that she does have the authority given that it's an elected position," Scott, the first-term clerk, said about Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson. Benson in a Monday statement said Adams Township voters deserve an election administered in accordance with state and federal laws. “I am confident that the Hillsdale County Clerk's Office will administer the election in a manner that ensures that it is legal, transparent and secure," she said. Scott refused to perform preventive maintenance or perform and sign off on public accuracy testing on township voting equipment, according to the Michigan Bureau of Elections. She also is alleged to have failed to confirm that she would use certified Hart Intercivic Inc. voting equipment, the township's current vendor, for future elections.

Full Article: Elections bureau bans clerk from running Nov. 2 election over tabulator concerns

Nevada Republican Kirk Hartle, who claimed someone stole his late wife’s ballot, charged with voter fraud | Amy B Wang/The Washington Post

Donald Kirk Hartle looked troubled last November. It was a few days after Election Day and the Las Vegas man was telling a local news station that someone had stolen his late wife’s mail-in ballot and returned it to Clark County election officials, according to Nevada’s online ballot tracker. “That is pretty sickening to me, to be honest with you,” Hartle said in an interview then with KLAS 8 News Now. “It was, uh, disbelief. It just — it made no sense to me.” Hartle noted that his late wife, Rosemarie, had died in 2017, but remained on the voter rolls. The signature on the returned ballot had matched what election officials had on file for Rosemarie, KLAS 8 News Now reported at the time, leaving Hartle to wonder “who took advantage of his grief” and how had they pulled it off? Nearly a year later, there appears to be an answer. On Thursday, the Nevada attorney general’s office announced it had filed two charges of voter fraud against Hartle, alleging that he forged his late wife’s name to vote with her ballot. Both charges — one for voting using the name of another person and another for voting more than once in the same election — are category D felonies that each can carry a prison sentence of up to four years, along with a fine of up to $5,000. “Voter fraud is rare, but when it happens it undercuts trust in our election system and will not be tolerated by my office,” Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford, a Democrat, said in a statement. “I want to stress that our office will pursue any credible allegations of voter fraud and will work to bring any offenders to justice.”

Full Article: Nevada Republican Kirk Hartle, who claimed someone stole his late wife’s ballot, charged with voter fraud - The Washington Post

Pennsylvania’s election audit on hold amid lawsuit | Christen Smith/The Center Square

Pennsylvania’s election audit remains on hold this week as Senate Republicans defend their subpoena for voter records that Democrats contested in Commonwealth Court as unconstitutional. “Our filing on Friday is scheduled as part of an expedited review petition to the court that is designed to resolve the court case as quickly as possible,” said Sen. Cris Dush, R-Wellsboro, of the audit on Thursday. Dush leads the Senate Intergovernmental Operations Committee charged with handling the controversial probe. In its Sept. 15 subpoena, the committee asked for personal identifying information – including names, birth dates, addresses and partial social security numbers – for up to 9 million registered voters. Dush said the information will help auditors verify the identity of each and every resident who voted in the 2020 general election and 2021 primary election. Five days later, Democrats filed a legal challenge in Commonwealth Court against what they called a constitutional overreach that jeopardizes the safety of voters’ personal information. Attorney General Josh Shapiro, who is running to succeed Gov. Tom Wolf in 2022, joined in the challenge the following week. Full Article: Pennsylvania’s election audit on hold amid lawsuit

Texas GOP leader pays illegal voting ‘bounty’ to Democrat in Pennsylvania | Associated Press

The conservative Texas Republican leader who pledged bounties to those who prove fraud at the polls has paid a liberal Democratic poll watcher who reported illegal voting by a Pennsylvania Republican. Tipster Eric Frank deposited a $25,000 check from Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s campaign this week, and Patrick may be on the hook for more bounties, The Dallas Morning News reported Thursday. Frank reported Ralph Thurman, a 72-year-old registered Republican, after seeing him vote twice on Election Day, once for himself and once for his son, who was a registered Democrat. Frank told The News that he would have reported anyone he saw voting illegally, regardless of party. Having come from a family of Democratic operatives, however, he said he sees the irony of the situation. “It’s my belief that they were trying to get cases of Democrats doing voter fraud. And that just wasn’t the case,” Frank said. “This kind of blew up in their face.”

Full Article: Texas GOP leader pays illegal voting 'bounty' to Democrat

Editorial: No proof? No problem. The right wing is trying to dismantle Utah’s top-in-the-U. S. election system | Robert Gehrke/Salt Lake Tribune

Perhaps the most remarkable thing about Rep. Steve Christiansen’s conspiracy peddling presentation to his fellow legislators Wednesday was that he did the entire thing as a space alien. Of course, I can’t PROVE he’s an extraterrestrial from outer space. But a lot of questions have been raised and some people believe so. I can’t really prove how many people believe it. There’s this poll, but you can’t see it, and it is true that this particular pollster’s reputation is abysmal. That is the standard of proof that Christiansen relies on when making his unfounded claims that Utah’s election was rife with fraud and needs a full forensic audit. “I believe there was fraud in the 2020 election. I can’t prove it, which is why we need to have an audit,” he said Wednesday. Christiansen’s tales are beyond fiction. They’re beyond fantasies. They are outright lies.

Full Article: No proof? No problem. The right wing is trying to dismantle Utah’s top-in-the-U. S. election system, Robert Gehrke writes

Virginia Democrats sue USPS over delayed delivery of election-related material | Kiely Westhoff and Veronica Stracqualursi/CNN

The Virginia Democratic Party filed a lawsuit against the US Postal Service Friday, alleging local branches failed to deliver and process election-related material ahead of its high-stakes gubernatorial race, a claim the government agency has rebutted. The Virginia Democrats said delays "threatening to disenfranchise thousands of Virginia voters" to election-related mail across Albemarle County, which includes the city of Charlottesville, James City County, which is adjacent to Williamsburg, and the area of Portsmouth near Norfolk, are "particularly egregious," according to the lawsuit. Friday's lawsuit was filed less than two weeks before the closely watched governor's race between Terry McAuliffe and Glenn Youngkin. Democrats are hoping to hold onto the governor's mansion and maintain control of the state legislature, while Youngkin seeks to be Virginia's first Republican to win a statewide election since 2009. USPS told CNN it is not aware of any delays in the delivery and processing of election-related material across Virginia.

Full Article: Virginia Democrats sue USPS over delayed delivery of election-related material - CNNPolitics

Washington Secretary of State Kim Wyman will be named to Biden administration election-security post | Jim Brunner/The Seattle Times

Washington Secretary of State Kim Wyman is expected to be named to a key election-security position in the Biden administration, according to a report by CNN. Wyman, a Republican, is set to be appointed to lead the Department of Homeland Security’s efforts to protect elections from foreign and domestic interference, CNN reported, citing anonymous sources. Wyman’s office did not immediately dispute the CNN report. “The Office of the Secretary of State cannot confirm the information included in the CNN article,” Wyman spokesperson Kylee Zabel said in an email. Wyman didn’t respond to interview requests, and Zabel said she would not be available on Monday. Potential appointees in presidential administrations are often told not to talk until their role is formally announced. If she does take the new position, Wyman would be charged with leading DHS’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, CNN reported, saying the appointment would not be official until White House paperwork is completed. The White House did not respond to a request for comment. The reported appointment would put Wyman, a nationally regarded expert on mail-in balloting and security, in a position working with elections officials across the U.S. at a time when many of her fellow Republicans have followed former President Donald Trump in fanning baseless conspiracy theories about the 2020 election. Full Article: Report: Washington Secretary of State Kim Wyman will be named to Biden administration election-security post | The Seattle Times

Wisconsin auditors find voting machines work properly, say election officials should adopt formal rules on drop boxes | Patrick Marley Molly Beck/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Legislative auditors released a report Friday that contended the state Elections Commission should adopt formal rules if it wants to continue to allow cities to have ballot drop boxes — a move that would clear the way for lawmakers to try to bar their use.  The report by the Legislative Audit Bureau was not meant to assess the outcome of the 2020 election, but it noted that none of the machines it reviewed counted votes incorrectly. One of the Republican lawmakers who oversees audits for the Legislature said the review showed the 2020 election was "largely safe and secure" but also revealed the need for changes to the state’s voting systems. The bureau released its findings and recommendations without first allowing the state Elections Commission to review its analysis and respond, which has been the bureau's practice for years. The report is one of two that have been ordered by Republican lawmakers. The other is being conducted on behalf of Assembly Republicans by former state Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman, who claimed without evidence last year that the election was stolen.

Full Article: Wisconsin election audit finds voting machines worked properly

National: Supply Chain Issues, Poll Worker Shortages Worry States Ahead of Elections | Andrea Noble/Route Fifty

Poll worker shortages and supply chain issues are among the problems state and local elections officials are contending with as they prepare for the upcoming Nov. 2 elections. Ohio recruited and trained a record number of poll workers ahead of last year’s presidential election, despite concern that the coronavirus pandemic had made it harder to find people for the job. But recruiting enough people to staff voting sites across the state has proven more difficult this year. Ohio is short about 17,000 workers from its 42,000-person goal, according to Secretary of State Frank LaRose. “As this year’s important November election approaches, we’re still a long way away from ensuring a full complement of poll workers to staff our thousands of polling locations across the state,” LaRose said in a public service announcement released this month to drum up support. “If you volunteered to serve as a poll worker last year or have ever wondered what it’s like to serve your community and perform an important patriotic duty in a time of need, Ohio voters need you.” Ohio took several steps last year to increase recruitment, including implementation of a rule change that allows attorneys to earn continuing education credits by working the polls. The state also created an online poll tracker that shows the number of vacancies in each county that need to be staffed. Poll worker recruitment has also been a challenge in states, including New Jersey. To help, Gov. Phil Murphy signed an executive order boosting poll worker pay from $200 to $300 on Election Day. Lawmakers approved $400-a-day payments for poll workers to staff the primary election earlier this year.

Source: Supply Chain Issues, Poll Worker Shortages Worry States Ahead of Elections – Route Fifty

National: Plan to let troops cast ballots over the internet draws opposition from security experts | Leo Shane III/Air Force Times

A group of election security experts is urging lawmakers to drop plans in the annual defense authorization bill which would allow online ballot casting for troops serving overseas, saying the security concerns outweigh the potential benefits. “There are solutions to improve military and overseas voting without expanding dangerously insecure voting technology,” the group wrote in a letter to members of the Senate Armed Services Committee this week. “We believe that servicemembers deserve the highest standard of safe and verifiable voting. For the foreseeable future, internet voting cannot meet that standard, and places military voters’ votes — and the trustworthiness of elections themselves — at risk.” The effort, which includes groups like Protect Democracy and the U.S. Vote Foundation as well as 27 former state election officials and academics, comes as the Senate is preparing to complete its draft of the massic defense policy bill in the next few weeks.

Full Article: Plan to let troops cast ballots over the internet draws opposition from security experts

National: Senate Democrats ask for details on threats against election workers | Jordain Carney/The Hill

Senate Democrats are pushing the Department of Justice (DOJ) for details on threats against election workers and any related probes. Senate Rules Committee Chairwoman Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and 19 other Democratic senators sent a letter to the Justice Department on Monday asking for updates from the Election Threats Task Force, which the DOJ formed earlier this year to combat threats against election workers.  "We must ensure that election workers are able to do their jobs free from threats, intimidation, or other improper influence. While Congress must pass stronger protections for election workers ... we also urge the Justice Department to take additional action under existing law," the senators wrote in the letter, which was obtained exclusively by The Hill ahead of its release. "It is for this reason that we respectfully request an update on the actions that the Department’s Task Force has taken so far and on its plans to facilitate the reporting, investigation, and prosecution of threats against election officials and election workers," they added. The Democratic senators are asking for details on the number of threats against election workers, volunteers or their family members and how many completed or ongoing investigations those threats have spawned.

Full Article: Senate Democrats ask for details on threats against election workers | TheHill

National: Advocates worry democracy is eroding on Biden’s watch | shley Parker, Tyler Pager and Amy Gardner/The Washington Post

Voting rights advocates meet once every week or two with White House officials via video conference, and in almost every session, an advocate speaks up to say that President Biden must do more, that American democracy is under threat and the president is not meeting the challenge. At one such meeting earlier this year, a Biden aide responded that Democrats would simply have to “out-organize” the other side, according to multiple advocates familiar with the exchange who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe a private meeting. The comment infuriated advocates, who believe they are watching former president Donald Trump actively and perhaps permanently undermine faith in U.S. elections. “There’s been a lot of anger and frustration with that line from the White House, which was communicated as a response to advocates wanting the White House to do more,” said Aaron Scherb, legislative director of Common Cause, a longtime pro-democracy group. Scherb conceded that the White House’s urgency has significantly amped up in recent days, as voting rights legislation comes up for debate on Capitol Hill, and White House officials denied the activists’ account of the meeting. But the ongoing frustration is widespread among activists and many Democrats who fear Biden is missing the urgency of the moment. In the nine months since Biden took office, GOP officials throughout the country have baselessly challenged the 2020 results, conducting elaborate and clumsy audits. States have restricted voting, often in ways activists say will hurt disadvantaged communities, and have changed their procedures to allow political influence over future elections.

Full Article: Advocates worry democracy is eroding on Biden's watch - The Washington Post

National: Biden: Fight for voting rights ‘far from over,’ a day after third bill fails in the Senate | Rebecca Morin/USA Today

“At the end of the day, if we don’t make this happen, it’s going to rest at the feet of not only the president but members of the Senate,” Derrick Johnson, president and CEO of the NAACP, said in an interview with USA TODAY. “Democrats need to stand up and protect our democracy, and anything less is a failure.” Senate Republicans this week blocked advancement and debate of the Freedom to Vote Act , which would have created federal rules to protect mail-in voting, expand early voting, ensure same-day voting registration and make Election Day a federal holiday. The bill failed by a 49-51 vote.It was the third time this year Republicans voted unanimously to block voting-rights legislation. “They’re afraid to even just debate the bills in the U.S. Senate, as they did again yesterday, even on a bill that includes provisions as they’ve traditionally supported,” Biden said Thursday. “It’s unfair. It’s unconscionable. It’s un-American.” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said this week that Democrats will have to determine an “alternative path forward” after the defeat of the latest legislation, but did not offer any details as to what the path could be.

Full Article: Biden highlights voting rights during Martin Luther King ceremony

National: DOJ: ‘Lionizing’ Jan. 6 rioters fueling future political violence | Kyle Cheney/Politico

The Justice Department said Monday that people “lionizing” the Jan. 6 rioters are heightening the risk of future political violence. “Indeed, the risk of future violence is fueled by a segment of the population that seems intent on lionizing the January 6 rioters and treating them as political prisoners, heroes, or martyrs instead of what they are: criminals,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Roman wrote in a court filing, “many of whom committed extremely serious crimes of violence, and all of whom attacked the democratic values which all of us should share.” The statement came as part of a 28-page argument supporting the pretrial detention of Cody Mattice, a defendant charged with ripping down metal barricades and assaulting police during the attack on the Capitol. It’s an indirect broadside at Republicans who have sought to whitewash the violence committed by supporters of former President Donald Trump during the assault on the Capitol. Trump himself has argued alternately that his supporters were “hugging and kissing” police — rather than committing the approximately 1,000 assaults prosecutors say occurred — and has baselessly claimed that left-wing agitators caused the violence.

Full Article: DOJ: ‘Lionizing' Jan. 6 rioters fueling future political violence - POLITICO

Editorial: John Eastman’s legal theory created for Trump is still alive. The Jan. 6 committee should kill it. | Greg Sargent/The Washington Post

As the Jan. 6 select committee kicks into high gear, one big thing it will examine is the role played by Mike Pence in the final days of Donald Trump’s effort to overturn his presidential reelection loss and remain in power illegitimately. As vice president, Pence ultimately rebuffed Trump’s pressure on him to halt the congressional count of electors and declare Trump winner. Whether he did so after seriously entertaining this scheme, and what other bad actors pressured him to execute it, are things we need to learn about. But we also need to do something else: We must kill off the dangerous legal theory that Trump and his co-conspirators hatched to justify that scheme, so it never rises again. Some new reporting on Pence’s role, combined with a new analysis of that legal theory, should give us the hook for this. It’s important, because there are new signs this legal theory remains alive, though in staggering zombie form. The theory is the one in the now-notorious Trump coup memo. Lawyer John Eastman outlined a scheme for Pence to ignore federal law and refuse to count President-elect Joe Biden’s electors, making Trump winner. Eastman discussed the theory with Trump and Pence a couple days before Jan. 6. Pence was unpersuaded. A new book by reporter David M. Drucker adds more detail to Pence’s handling of Trump’s pressure. As Drucker reports, Pence’s top advisers — counsel Greg Jacob and chief of staff Marc Short — deeply researched the theory and decided Pence should disavow it, which he did on Jan. 6.

Full Article: Opinion | John Eastman’s legal theory created for Trump is still alive. The Jan. 6 committee should kill it. - The Washington Post

Arizona: Trump now claims voter fraud in Pima County; officials say he’s wrong | Sam Kmack/Arizona Daily Star

Former President Donald Trump released a statement on Friday claiming there was voter fraud in Pima County’s 2020 election, which county officials have denied. The claim follows the nearly year-long audit in Maricopa County that found President Joe Biden had won by slightly more votes than previously thought. Trump and Arizona Republicans had said for months that the taxpayer-funded audit would flip the election results in favor of Trump. Trump’s new statement points to an influx of mail-in votes that gained the lead for Biden in Pima County, which Trump asserts were fraudulent. He’s made similar claims about other states and counties since last November. Friday’s note also claims that “publicly available data” shows two Pima voting precincts had a ballot return rate greater than 100%, and says that a new election should be called or Trump should be declared the winner in Arizona’s 2020 election. County officials have outright denied the claims of voter fraud. They point out that both Republicans and Democrats were involved in counting Pima County’s ballots multiple times and the results were certified by officials representing both parties in the state.
Full Article: Trump now claims voter fraud in Pima County; officials say he's wrong | Local news | tucson.com

Colorado: Trumpist county clerk barred after leak of voting-system passwords to QAnon | Jon Brodkin/Ars Technica

A Colorado judge on Wednesday barred Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters from supervising elections due to the leak of voting-system BIOS passwords to QAnon conspiracy theorist Ron Watkins. Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold and Mesa County registered elector Heidi Jeanne Hess had petitioned the court for a ruling that Peters and Deputy Clerk Belinda Knisley are unable to perform the functions of the Designated Election Official for the November 2021 election. The "court determines that the petitioners have met the burden of showing that Peters and Knisley have committed a breach and neglect of duty and other wrongful acts," Mesa County District Court Judge Valerie Robison wrote in Wednesday's ruling. "As such, Peters and Knisley are unable or unwilling to appropriately perform the duties of the Mesa County Designated Election Official. The court further determines substantial compliance with the provisions of the code require an injunction prohibiting Peters and Knisley from performing the duties of the Designated Election Official." In August, Watkins released photos of information on Dominion's Election Management Systems (EMS) voting machines, including an installation manual and "BIOS passwords for a small collection of computers, including EMS server and client systems," as we reported at the time. While Watkins, a former 8chan administrator, was trying to prove that Dominion can remotely administer the machines, the documents actually showed "a generic set of server hardware, with explicit instructions to keep it off the Internet and lock down its remote management functions." Peters, who promoted Trump's conspiracy theory that voting machines were manipulated to help Joe Biden win the 2020 election, "'holed up' in a safe house provided by pillow salesman and conspiracy theorist Mike Lindell" when the FBI began investigating her, according to an August 19 Vice News article. Her location was described as a "mystery" for a while, but she appeared at an event in Grand Junction, Colorado, last month. Full Article: Trumpist county clerk barred after leak of voting-system passwords to QAnon | Ars Technica