North Carolina Republicans Calling For Change To State Board Of Elections | Coleen Harry/WFAE

The 2020 general election is notable in many ways. Turnout was a record 75% in North Carolina. A little more than 1 million people voted by mail-in ballots. But it could be the election that prompts state lawmakers to change who’s in charge of administering future elections. As co-chair of the N.C. Senate Elections Committee, Sen. Paul Newton, intends to propose an oversight board for the State Board of Elections. “I think we’re going to be looking at an oversight board that examines the Board of Elections to make sure they’re following the law,” said Newton, a Republican who represents parts of Cabarrus and Union counties. He said the State Board of Elections sidestepped the legislature in August when it signed off on a settlement that gave a six-day extension to how long mail-in ballots would be accepted. Instead of a Nov. 6 deadline, the board agreed ballots could be accepted until Nov. 12 as long as they were postmarked by Election Day, Nov. 3. “An elections board does not have the power to change state law. It shouldn’t,” Newton said. “Do we pass a law that says you need to follow the law? Well, in a sense, that’s what we’re left with.” The General Assembly approved the Nov. 6 date in June as part of legislation that made several accommodations to deal with the pandemic, including making it easier to vote with mail-in ballots. The legislation was lauded as an example of compromise between Democrats and Republicans.

Full Article: NC Republicans Calling For Change To State Board Of Elections | WFAE 90.7 – Charlotte’s NPR News Source

Pennsylvania: Trump allies ask Supreme Court to reverse ruling on mail-in ballots | Robert Barnes and Elise Viebeck/The Washington Post

President Trump’s allies said Tuesday that they have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to block a decision by Pennsylvania’s highest court dismissing a challenge of the state’s mail-in voting system. The lawsuit is one of many protesting the results in the swing state’s elections, and the Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Saturday said that the suit’s “extraordinary” request to throw out millions of ballots came too late. The Republican lawsuit challenged Act 77, the 2019 statute in Pennsylvania that allows voters to cast mail ballots for any reason. Their argument is that the law, passed by the Republican-led legislature and signed by the state’s Democratic governor, violated the state constitution’s requirements on who could receive a mail-in ballot. Trump’s allies asked the state court to invalidate all votes cast by mail in the general election — more than 2.5 million in total — or direct the state legislature to appoint its own slate of presidential electors. The state Supreme Court dismissed the case on Saturday, ruling that petitioners waited more than a year to sue, and only then after the results of the election were clear. “The want of due diligence demonstrated in this matter is unmistakable,” the justices wrote, noting that some of the petitioners included candidates for office who had urged supporters to cast their ballots by mail.

Full Article: Trump allies ask Supreme Court to reverse Pennsylvania ruling on mail-in ballots – The Washington Post

Texas GOP lawmakers target voter fraud, despite no proof of widespread problem | Karen Brooks Harper/The Texas Tribune

Fresh off a presidential election replete with accusations of election malfeasance but devoid of evidence of widespread fraud in Texas, local Republican leaders say the state needs more laws to protect the integrity of the state’s elections. To that end, GOP state lawmakers are heading into the next state legislative session with a fistful of anti-fraud bills aimed at an issue that experts — and even some conservatives — acknowledge isn’t much of a problem in the Lone Star State. Nearly a dozen pieces of legislation, all of them filed by Republicans, take aim at mail-in balloting, illegal voting and misbehaving elections officials — inspired by events and talking points from the previous election cycle. “Filing legislation that will prevent voter fraud ensures that we have fair elections,” said Rep. Briscoe Cain, R-Deer Park, a member of the House Elections Committee last session and author of several anti-fraud bills. “If people do not trust in the electoral process, they will not trust those who are elected.” Texas Democrats, who are focusing their efforts on legislation to expand voter access, counter that the bills are being filed as a way to sow mistrust in the process or make it harder to register and vote.

Full Article: Texas GOP lawmakers target voter fraud, despite no proof of widespread problem | The Texas Tribune

Wisconsin: GOP candidate says he was used without permission as a plaintiff in lawsuit to overturn election results | Molly Beck/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

A Republican candidate for Congress who lost his election on Nov. 3 says his name is being used without permission as a plaintiff in a federal lawsuit to make President Donald Trump the winner of Wisconsin’s presidential election, despite receiving fewer votes than President-elect Joe Biden. Derrick Van Orden, who narrowly lost to U.S. Rep. Ron Kind, said Tuesday he learned through social media posts about the lawsuit that his name was being used. “I learned through social media today that my name was included in a lawsuit without my permission,” Van Orden said in a statement. “To be clear, I am not involved in the lawsuit seeking to overturn the election in Wisconsin.” Former Trump attorney Sidney Powell filed a lawsuit in federal court on Tuesday on behalf of Van Orden and La Crosse County Republican Party chairman Bill Feehan. The suit seeks, among other relief, a new election for Van Orden and wants Gov. Tony Evers to certify the election for Trump instead of Biden. Powell and Feehan did not return phone calls.

Full Article: GOP candidate says he was used without permission as a plaintiff in lawsuit to overturn Wisconsin election results

Wisconsin: Trump sues to try to reverse election results | Patrick Marley and Molly Beck/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

President Donald Trump sued Wisconsin officials Tuesday in a last-ditch effort to reclaim a state he lost by about 20,700 votes. The Republican president filed his suit against Democratic Gov. Tony Evers and election officials a day after the governor and the head of the state Elections Commission certified Joe Biden had won the state’s 10 Electoral College votes. Trump has made little headway with lawsuits in other states and he faces an extraordinarily difficult path in Wisconsin. Time is running short. Under the federal “safe harbor” law, the results determined by the state will be respected if challenges to the outcome are resolved by Dec. 8. The Electoral College meets on Dec. 14, and Congress is to count the electoral votes on Jan. 6. Even if Trump changed the outcome in Wisconsin, Biden would remain on track to be sworn in next month because of his victories in other states. Wisconsin law says challenges to election results are to be brought in circuit court, but Trump filed his lawsuit with the state Supreme Court, where conservatives hold a 4-3 majority. The justices did not immediately say whether they would take the case. Trump is asking the high court to revoke Evers’ certification of the election and revive a partial recount of votes in Milwaukee and Dane counties, the most populous and liberal counties in the state. Trump paid $3 million for that recount, but the process ended up worsening his losing margin by dozens of votes.

Full Article: Trump sues to try to reverse Wisconsin’s election results

 

Wisconsin: Trump sues to try to reverse election results | Patrick Marley and Molly Beck/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

President Donald Trump sued Wisconsin officials Tuesday in a last-ditch effort to reclaim a state he lost by about 20,700 votes. The Republican president filed his suit against Democratic Gov. Tony Evers and election officials a day after the governor and the head of the state Elections Commission certified Joe Biden had won the state’s 10 Electoral College votes. Trump has made little headway with lawsuits in other states and he faces an extraordinarily difficult path in Wisconsin. Time is running short. Under the federal “safe harbor” law, the results determined by the state will be respected if challenges to the outcome are resolved by Dec. 8. The Electoral College meets on Dec. 14, and Congress is to count the electoral votes on Jan. 6. Even if Trump changed the outcome in Wisconsin, Biden would remain on track to be sworn in next month because of his victories in other states. Wisconsin law says challenges to election results are to be brought in circuit court, but Trump filed his lawsuit with the state Supreme Court, where conservatives hold a 4-3 majority. The justices told Evers to file a brief on the lawsuit by 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, signaling they want to decide quickly whether to take the case.

Full Article: Trump sues to try to reverse Wisconsin’s election results

National: Chris Krebs fiercely defends election while President Trump’s attacks on it get weirder | Joseph Marks/The Washington Post

Christopher Krebs last night offered a cool, rational defense of the election’s integrity in his first interview since President Trump fired him as the nation’s top election security official.  It was a stark contrast with President Trump, whose attacks on the 2020 contest are becoming increasingly fantastical. Krebs, who led the government’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, gave “60 Minutes” interviewer Scott Pelley a point-by-point refutation of the unfounded election fraud claims made by Trump and his allies, which he called “nonsense” and “farcical.” Those baseless claims include a conspiracy theory positing that Democrats operated a secret algorithm changing how machines recorded votes on an extensive scale and that votes were mysteriously tabulated overseas. Krebs’s bottom line: Such fraud claims fail the smell test because, as of 2020, there are paper records for 95 percent of ballots cast by American voters. And hand counts of those ballots in Georgia, Wisconsin and elsewhere show no significant difference between what was tabulated by machines. “The proof is in the ballots,” he said. “The recounts are consistent with the initial count. To me that’s further evidence, that’s confirmation that the systems used in the 2020 election performed as expected and the American people should have 100 percent confidence in their votes.” That’s been a consistent message for Krebs, who has trumpeted the importance of paper ballots and post-election audits as vital protections against election hacking or other malfeasance for more than three years. Trump, by contrast, has  frequently shifted his claims about election fraud depending on where he thinks he can gain an edge.

Full Article: The Cybersecurity 202: Chris Krebs fiercely defends election while President Trump’s attacks on it get weirder – The Washington Post

 

Judge: ‘Precious little proof’ in Georgia election fraud suit | Josh Gerstein/Politico

A judge handling an election-fraud lawsuit brought by allies of President Donald Trump said the case was backed by “precious little proof,” but went on to issue a restraining order aimed at blocking three Georgia counties from making any changes to their voting machines as he considers whether to permit a forensic examination of those systems, according to court records. U.S. District Court Judge Timothy Batten Sr. made the comments during an hour-long Sunday night court hearing on a lawsuit filed last week by Sidney Powell, a firebrand attorney who briefly joined Trump’s legal team in recent weeks before being dismissed from it. The hearing was held via Zoom and not announced in advance on the court’s docket or accessible to the press or public, but it was transcribed by a court reporter who provided the transcript to POLITICO on Monday evening. The transcript shows that Batten repeatedly wavered on whether to grant any relief to the Republican plaintiffs in the case, before settling on the narrow relief limited to three counties. Powell and her colleagues initially wanted all voting machines in the state impounded pending further court action, but the state’s lawyers said that would present a slew of problems, including preventing some local elections set for this week and potentially interfering with the pair of U.S. Senate runoff elections set for Jan. 5. “What the plaintiffs are seeking is basically going to take certain voting equipment out of the equation for the election scheduled to take place this Tuesday, as well as the election scheduled to take place on January 5th, because plaintiffs are wanting us to hold and basically mothball and preserve these machines at the county level — not in our possession, not in our custody and control,” Assistant Attorney General Russ Willard Sr. told Batten.

Full Article: Judge: ‘Precious little proof’ in Georgia election fraud suit – POLITICO

 

Trump campaign lawyer says former cybersecurity chief should be ‘shot’ | Matthew Choi/Politico

An attorney for President Donald Trump’s reelection efforts said on Monday that Chris Krebs, the former head of U.S. cybersecurity, should be “shot” for going against the president’s conspiracy theories and declaring the 2020 elections as secure. “Anybody who thinks the election went well, like that idiot Krebs who used to be the head of cybersecurity,” said Trump campaign lawyer Joe DiGenova, “that guy is a class A moron. He should be drawn and quartered. Taken out at dawn and shot.” DiGenova made the remarks on a Monday episode of the “The Howie Carr Show,” which has a history of showcasing Trump’s claims and allies. During the show, DiGenova also listed a number of allegations of mass election irregularities — a phenomenon that elections officials in states across the country agreed was not an issue — in his team’s improbable effort to extend the Trump presidency. Trump fired Krebs nearly two weeks ago after the former director of the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency attested that the 2020 elections were among the safest in history. The president, whose personnel decisions have a record of being weighted by his perception of loyalty, fired Krebs by tweet, insisting that the election had been stolen from him.

Full Artidle: Trump campaign lawyer says former cybersecurity chief should be ‘shot’ – POLITICO

 

National: Amber McReynolds, CEO of national voting institute, receives threats since election | Caroline Gregor/9News

The CEO of Vote From Home Institute, a nonpartisan nonprofit dedicated to expanding convenient voting options for all voters, and former Denver Elections director, Amber McReynolds, has received disturbing threats on social media since the Nov. 3 election. McReynolds said the majority of these threats have come from people on Twitter. “Social media is definitely the place where a lot of this happens,” McReynolds said. “That’s not different than cyber bullying and some other tactics where these platforms, that were supposed to bring people together, are used for nefarious purposes and to target individuals.” McReynolds was an elections official in Denver for 13 years, and served as director of elections from 2011 to 2018. In 2018, she left the Denver Elections office to head up the Vote From Home Institute. There, she works on policy design with all states to improve the voting experience across the country, such as implementation of vote by mail expansions. She said that she, as well as other election workers across the state and country, have received threats relating to conspiracy theories about this year’s election. The clerk and recorder in Jefferson County said they have received more threats than usual this year. Denver, Boulder and La Plata counties clerk and recorders have all said they haven’t received any threats.

Full Article: CEO of national voting institute receives threats since election | 9news.com

 

National: Trump raises more than $150 million appealing to false election claims | Josh Dawsey and Michelle Ye Hee LeeThe Washington Post

President Trump’s political operation has raised more than $150 million since Election Day, using a blizzard of misleading appeals about the election to shatter fundraising records set during the campaign, according to people with knowledge of the contributions. The influx of political donations is one reason Trump and some allies are inclined to continue a legal onslaught and public affairs blitz focused on baseless claims of election fraud, even as their attempts have repeatedly failed in court and as key states continue to certify wins for President-elect Joe Biden. Much of the money raised since the election is likely to go into an account for the president to use on political activities after he leaves office, while some of the contributions will go toward what’s left of the legal fight. The people with knowledge of the fundraising amounts spoke on the condition of anonymity to disclose internal numbers. The Trump campaign declined to comment. The surge of donations is largely from small-dollar donors, campaign officials say, tapping into the president’s base of loyal and fervent donors who tend to contribute the most when they feel the president is under siege or facing unfair political attacks. The campaign has sent about 500 post-election fundraising pitches to donors, often with hyperbolic language about voter fraud and the like.

Full Article: Trump raises more than $150 million appealing to false election claims – The Washington Post

 

National: Trump Raises $170 Million as He Denies His Loss and Eyes the Future | Shane Goldmacher and Maggie Haberman/The New York Times

President Trump has raised about $170 million since Election Day as his campaign operation has continued to aggressively solicit donations with hyped-up appeals that have funded his fruitless attempts to overturn the election and that have seeded his post-presidential political ambitions, according to a person familiar with the matter. The money, much of which was raised in the first week after the election, according to the person, has arrived as Mr. Trump has made false claims about fraud and sought to undermine public confidence in the legitimacy of President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s victory. Instead of slowing down after the election, Mr. Trump’s campaign has ratcheted up its volume of email solicitations for cash, telling supporters that money was needed for an “Election Defense Fund.” In reality, the fine print shows that the first 75 percent of every contribution currently goes to a new political action committee that Mr. Trump set up in mid-November, Save America, which can be used to fund his political activities going forward, including staff and travel. The other 25 percent of each donation is directed to the Republican National Committee. A donor has to give $5,000 to Mr. Trump’s new PAC before any funds go to his recount account.

Full Article: Trump Raises $170 Million as He Denies His Loss and Eyes the Future – The New York Times

 

National: Wisconsin and Arizona make it official as Trump fails to stop vote certification in all six states where he contested his defeat | Amy Gardner, Emma Brown and Rosalind S. Helderman/The Washington Post

Wisconsin and Arizona on Monday became the last two of six states where President Trump has contested his defeat to finalize their vote counts, dealing a fresh blow to his quest to overturn President-elect Joe Biden’s victory as a chorus of Republicans and Democrats offered support for the election’s integrity. Trump and his allies vowed to continue pressing legal claims challenging the election results in several states, but such efforts have met with resounding failures in the courts across the country. Monday’s certifications brought to a close a key period in which Trump and his advisers had said they would be able to derail Biden’s win. Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs (D) certified her state’s election results alongside the Republican governor and attorney general. Several hours later, the Democratic chairwoman of the Wisconsin Elections Commission, Ann Jacobs, completed her state’s canvass and declared Biden the winner of the state’s 10 electoral votes, a declaration that Democratic Gov. Tony Evers promptly certified. Their actions brought Biden one step closer to an official victory on Dec. 14, when the electoral college meets. While Trump has kept up a stream of baseless claims that the election was corrupted by fraud, a growing number of state officials on both sides of the aisle pushed back against that notion.

Full Article: Wisconsin and Arizona make it official as Trump fails to stop vote certification in all six states where he contested his defeat – The Washington Post

 

National: Former Trump lawyer Sidney Powell still pushing conspiracy-filled election lawsuits | Olivia Rubin and Matthew Mosk/ABC

Sidney Powell may no longer be part of President Donald Trump’s officially sanctioned legal team, but the veteran litigator who has become a champion of unfounded global conspiracy theories has not slowed in her effort to persuade the federal court system to reverse the outcome of the 2020 elections. “We will prevail,” Powell wrote on Twitter this week. “Patriots are united like never before to shine the light of Truth across our land.” Since filing a suit in Georgia last week, Powell has added a federal lawsuit in Michigan and plans another in Wisconsin, according to another lawyer on the team. Each case alleges a complex plot involving shadowy foreign interests, the company that sells electronic voting machines, Republican elected officials, and Democratic poll workers — all allegedly in cahoots to steal the election from Trump. The effort has garnered Powell public praise from Trump and turned her into a heroine in the conspiratorial corners of the internet. It has also garnered ridicule from officials in both parties, with longtime Trump ally Chris Christie calling the legal effort a “national embarrassment.” Aides to Democratic President-elect Joe Biden called it a “sideshow.” The company at the center of Powell’s claims, Dominion Voting Systems, issued a statement last week saying it intends to hold Powell “and those aiding and abetting her fraudulent actions, accountable for any harm that may occur as a result.” And election law advocates from both parties said that even if her cases are swiftly dismissed, as they expect them to be, they are no laughing matter.

Full Article: Former Trump lawyer Sidney Powell still pushing conspiracy-filled election lawsuits – ABC News

 

Editorial: Trump’s latest Fox News rant was one of his most dangerous. Republicans can’t ignore it. | The Washington Post

President Trump’s Sunday Fox News rant ranks as one of the most dangerous of his presidency, and that is saying something. Mr. Trump issued claim after incoherent claim about vote rigging — machines switched thousands of votes, dead people voted, mail-in ballots were “phony,” poll watchers “weren’t allowed.” The United States just conducted probably the most secure, transparent presidential vote in its history; Mr. Trump calls it “the most messed-up election we have ever seen.” Proving there is no core national institution he will not besmirch, Mr. Trump attacked the judicial system for failing to ratify his lies and suggested that the Justice Department and the FBI are in on the conspiracy. Either the president is delusional, or he is willing to knowingly tear down the democracy to deny that he is a loser. Either way, everyone else in a position of trust has a responsibility to defend the nation’s democratic system against Mr. Trump’s sustained assault. Some Republicans, mostly at the state and local levels, have done so, at times under extreme public scrutiny, counting the votes and refusing to manipulate the electoral process to overturn the popular will. For conscientiously overseeing the vote in his state — and standing up for its integrity against baseless attacks from Mr. Trump and the state’s two U.S. senators — Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and his family have received threats. He and other election officials have had to accept security details. “It’s time to stand up and be counted,” Mr. Raffensperger said. “Are you going to stand for integrity? Or are you going to stand for the wild mob? You wanted to condemn the wild mob when it’s on the left side. What are you going to do when it’s on our side?”

Full Article: Opinion | Trump’s latest Fox News rant was one of his most dangerous. Republicans can’t ignore it. – The Washington Post

 

Arizona certifies election results with Biden, Kelly winning | Andrew Oxford/Arizona Republic

Arizona officials certified the results of the state’s election on Monday, confirming Democratic President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in the state and clearing the way for Mark Kelly to take his seat in the U.S. Senate this week. Secretary of State Katie Hobbs touted high turnout despite the election unfolding in the middle of a pandemic. Voters cast more than 3.2 million ballots and turnout neared 80%, a 23% increase from the midterm election two years ago and an 8% increase from the last presidential election in 2016, Hobbs said. “Despite the unprecedented challenges, Arizonans showed up for our democracy,” Hobbs said. “Every Arizona voter has my thanks and should know they can stand proud that this election was transparency, accuracy and fairness in accordance with Arizona’s laws and election procedures, despite numerous unfounded claims to the contrary.” Hobbs, a Democrat, signed the official election results in the old state Capitol in Phoenix along with the state’s Republican governor and attorney general, Doug Ducey and Mark Brnovich, and Supreme Court Chief Justice Robert Brutinel. Ducey expressed confidence in the election process. “We do elections well here in Arizona. The system is strong and that’s why I bragged on it so much,” he said.

Full Article: Arizona certifies election results with Biden, Kelly winning

 

Georgia: Judge freezes voting machines in three counties | Josh Gerstein/Politico

A judge assigned to a Republican-led lawsuit alleging widespread fraud in the presidential election in Georgia issued an order late Sunday night blocking plans to wipe or reset voting machines used in three counties in the state. U.S. District Judge Timothy Batten Sr. revealed in his four-page directive that he held a hearing via Zoom Sunday evening on the suit — one of two cases filed in federal courts last week by Sidney Powell, an outspoken Texas attorney who joined President Donald Trump’s legal team earlier this month only to be dismissed from it a few days later. The hearing was not announced on the court’s docket and appears not to have been open to the press or public. It seems to have focused on claims that the election results in Georgia were wildly inaccurate due to use of machines from a leading vendor of voting equipment — Dominion Election Systems. Powell has alleged, based on scant evidence, that the firm’s foreign ties allowed hostile governments to meddle in the U.S. election via a conspiracy that involved both Democratic and Republican U.S. officials. While many Democratic and some Republican officials have dismissed Powell’s claims as a fantasy, some GOP leaders are also warning that the effort to stoke doubt about the just-completed election could depress Republican turnout in a pair of runoff elections set for Jan. 5 in Georgia that could determine whether the GOP or Democrats control the U.S. Senate for the next two years.

Full Article: Judge freezes voting machines in three Georgia counties – POLITICO

 

Georgia: Judge directs state officials not to reset voting machines | Zack Budryk/The Hill

A federal judge on Sunday barred state officials from resetting voting machines used in three Georgia counties. In the four-page order, District Judge Timothy Batten, a George W. Bush appointee, barred officials from “altering, destroying, or erasing, or allowing the alteration, destruction, or erasure of, any software or data on any Dominion voting machine in Cobb, Gwinnett, and Cherokee Counties.” Attorney Sidney Powell, who brought the suit against Gov. Brian Kemp (R), Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) and four other election officials, has alleged without evidence that Dominion election systems were tampered with by foreign governments. In a hearing on Sunday, the state officials argued that they do not have authority over county elections officials. Batten agreed to receive a brief from Kemp and Raffensperger detailing their opposition to a “forensic inspection” of the machines, and also ordered the defendants to provide the plaintiffs with the state’s contract with the company. However, he also certified the temporary hold for appeal, allowing Raffensperger and Kemp to immediately appeal the decision to the 11th Circuit. He noted in an order on Monday morning that the case may benefit from an appeal, appearing to acknowledge jurisdictional questions about the lawsuit.

Source: Judge directs state officials not to reset Georgia voting machines | TheHil

 

Georgia: Kemp to Trump: Law blocks him from ‘interfering’ with elections | Greg Bluestein/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

 

Gov. Brian Kemp’s office responded Monday to President Donald Trump’s demands to help him overturn Georgia’s election results with a reminder that state law “prohibits the governor from interfering in the election.” The Georgia Republican has become a favorite target of Trump, who said Sunday he was “ashamed” that he endorsed him in 2018 and tweeted Monday that the “hapless” governor should use non-existent “emergency powers.” “Georgia law prohibits the governor from interfering in elections. The Secretary of State, who is an elected constitutional officer, has oversight over elections that cannot be overridden by executive order,” said Kemp spokesman Cody Hall. “As the governor has said repeatedly, he will continue to follow the law and encourage the Secretary of State to take reasonable steps – including a sample audit of signatures – to restore trust and address serious issues that have been raised.” The governor has been largely silent for weeks over Trump’s attacks, which have escalated after he became the first Republican to lose Georgia in a presidential vote in nearly 30 years. He said in a previous interview that he understands Trump’s “frustration” but that the law clearly sets out his duties. The criticism could haunt Kemp through the 2022 midterms, when he is gearing up to face Stacey Abrams in a likely rematch. It appears increasingly possible that he might first have to survive a primary challenge from a Trump-backed adversary — perhaps Doug Collins, a four-term congressman now leading the president’s Georgia recount effort.

Full Article: Kemp to Trump: Georgia law blocks him from ‘interfering’ with elections

 

Iowa: Scott County OKs congressional race recount results, despite ballot discrepancy | Tom Barton/Quad-City Times

Nearly four weeks after the election, Republican Mariannette Miller-Meeks is poised to be declared the official winner — by just six votes — in what has become the closest congressional race in the country, flipping a seat held by Democrats for the past 14 years. The Scott County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Monday to certify the results of a county recount in the uncalled Iowa 2nd congressional district race, despite an unexplained 131-ballot discrepancy between the number of absentee ballots counted on election day and those counted by the recount board. A state canvassing board is scheduled to meet Monday afternoon, the legal deadline under Iowa Code, to certify the results of the race, following a districtwide recount in all 24 counties, and officially declare Miller-Meeks as the winner of the race. However, there is still a possibility of legal challenges brought by the campaign of Democrat Rita Hart, which would set in motion a proceeding before a judicial panel.

Full Article: Scott County OKs Iowa congressional race recount results, despite ballot discrepancy | Lee-wire | globegazette.com

 

Michigan: Trump allies to judge: Force Governor to overturn election | Dave Boucher/Detroit Free Press

Allies of President Donald Trump want a federal court in Michigan to force state leaders to set aside election results and award its 16 electoral votes to the president. A separate conservative group also wants the Michigan Supreme Court to invalidate the results that show President-elect Joe Biden won the state. The latest lawsuit, filed in the Eastern District of Michigan and before the state’s highest court, rely on unfounded allegations of widespread fraud and misconduct that judges in the state and across the country have previously rejected. Neither has a high likelihood of success. There is no evidence of mass fraud or wrongdoing that affected election operations in Michigan or elsewhere. Biden earned roughly 154,000 more votes than Trump in Michigan. Last week, the Michigan Board of State Canvassers formally certified the results. But the federal lawsuit, filed by Trump-affiliated attorney Sidney Powell and a cadre of other lawyers, wants a judge to force Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson to “decertify” those results. They want to act before Dec. 14, when the Electoral College is set to meet and Biden will receive the more than 270 votes needed to formally secure the presidency.

Full Article: Trump allies to Michigan judge: Force Whitmer to overturn election

 

New Hampshire Officials Study How Post-Election Audits Would Work Here, As In Dozens of Other States | Casey McDermott/New Hampshire Public Radio

New Hampshire is in the minority of states that don’t routinely audit their election results. But on Monday, the Secretary of State’s office tested out how such an audit might work in future races. Teams from two election technology companies — Clear Ballot and Nordic Innovation Labs  — ran a test audit on the results of five local races from 2018, in a public session at the State Archives. (A recording of the session can be viewed online here.) A new law requires the Secretary of State’s office “to study the use of high speed, optical/digital scan ballot counting devices for use in conducting post-election audits of electronic ballot counting devices used in state and federal elections.” As noted in the bill’s legislative history, New Hampshire’s lack of post-election audits has been identified in some outside reports as a potential security risk.

Full Article: N.H. Officials Study How Post-Election Audits Would Work Here, As In Dozens of Other States | New Hampshire Public Radio

 

Pennsylvania statehouse Republican groups cling to baseless election claims as lawmaking and legal chances fade | Sam Dunklau/WITF

Pennsylvania’s state lawmaking session ended Monday, and with it, any chance for legislative intervention seeking to overturn the state’s election results. Despite courts dismissing two separate election-related lawsuits over the weekend, some Republican lawmakers have spent the session’s closing days pushing evidence-free claims about a fraudulent election. On the House side, more than 20 state representatives signed on to a co-sponsorship memo for a resolution calling on state leaders to delay vote certification — which occurred last week in the presidential race. A similar resolution was introduced in the Senate. Both resolutions include baseless claims of “substantial irregularities” with mail-in voting and accuses the Department of State and state Supreme Court of infringing on the legislature’s ability to determine election matters. House GOP leaders said Saturday there isn’t enough time left in the session to consider it, but have vowed to “further investigate” the election when the next session begins in January. “Our chamber voted to call for a complete audit of the election, a process we plan to see completed into the next session as well,” House Speaker Bryan Cutler said in a statement.

Full Article: Statehouse Republican groups cling to baseless election claims as lawmaking and legal chances fade | WITF

 

Texas: ‘I refuse to be afraid.’ Appeal filed in Tarrant County woman’s illegal voting conviction | Kaley Johnson/Fort Worth Star-Telegram

The American Civil Liberties Union of Texas filed a petition Monday to appeal the five-year sentence of a woman who was convicted of voter fraud in Tarrant County. The ACLU and other legal representatives requested that the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals review the case of Crystal Mason, whose illegal voting conviction in Tarrant County has become widely controversial. Three justices on the Court of Appeals for the Second District of Texas denied Mason’s first appeal in March, although it agreed she did not know she was ineligible to vote. Now the ACLU will try to take the case — which ACLU legal director Andre Segura called, “one of the most important voting rights cases in modern Texas history” — through the next appeals process. In the 2016 election, Mason submitted a provisional ballot, later saying she was not aware she could not vote while on federally supervised release. Her ballot was not counted — provisional ballots are meant to allow a voter to cast a potential ballot even if their name does not appear on the list of registered voters. The ballot is examined later for validity. Nearly 4,500 other people submitted provisional ballots in Tarrant County in the 2016 election. Of those, 3,990 provisional ballots were rejected, the Texas Tribune reported. But in March 2018, Mason was convicted and sentenced to five years in prison for illegal voting. And while she appealed her case last year, the Second District Appeals Court upheld her conviction after a hearing in Tarrant County in September 2019.

Full Article: Crystal Mason’s legal team appeals illegal voting conviction | Fort Worth Star-Telegram

 

Wisconsin confirms Biden’s win as Trump says he will bring a lawsuit | Patrick Marley/Milwaukee Jouranl Sentinel

The Democrat leading Wisconsin’s elections board confirmed Joe Biden’s victory in the state Monday as Republicans contended she should have waited to act because of a likely lawsuit from President Donald Trump.   Ann Jacobs, the chairwoman of the Wisconsin Elections Commission, verified Biden’s win by about 20,700 votes a day after the completion of a partial recount that found dozens more votes for Biden. She finalized the vote totals just hours after Arizona’s secretary of state certified Biden won that state, further narrowing the Republican president’s chances of persuading courts to give him a second term. Trump has said he will bring a lawsuit in Wisconsin by Tuesday. During the recount, his campaign unsuccessfully tried to throw out 238,00 votes cast in Dane and Milwaukee counties, the state’s most liberal places. As have past election officials, Jacobs on Monday signed a statement of canvass to confirm who won the election. It showed Biden had 20,682 more votes than Trump out of about 3.3 million cast. “I have examined this statement and I am now signing it as the official state determination of the results of the Nov. 3, 2020, election and the canvass,” Jacobs said during a 4-minute-long live-streamed event with Meagan Wolfe, the director of the commission.

Full Article: Wisconsin recount: Elections leader confirms Biden’s win

 

National: In Key States, Republicans Were Critical in Resisting Trump’s Election Narrative | Peter Baker and Kathleen Gray/The New York Times

The telephone call would have been laugh-out-loud ridiculous if it had not been so serious. When Tina Barton picked up, she found someone from President Trump’s campaign asking her to sign a letter raising doubts about the results of the election. The election that Ms. Barton as the Republican clerk of the small Michigan city of Rochester Hills had helped oversee. The election that she knew to be fair and accurate because she had helped make it so. The election that she had publicly defended amid threats that made her upgrade her home security system. “Do you know who you’re talking to right now?” she asked the campaign official. Evidently not. If the president hoped Republicans across the country would fall in line behind his false and farcical claims that the election was somehow rigged on a mammoth scale by a nefarious multinational conspiracy, he was in for a surprise. Republicans in Washington may have indulged Mr. Trump’s fantastical assertions, but at the state and local level, Republicans played a critical role in resisting the mounting pressure from their own party to overturn the vote after Mr. Trump fell behind on Nov. 3. The three weeks that followed tested American democracy and demonstrated that the two-century-old system is far more vulnerable to subversion than many had imagined even though the incumbent president lost by six million votes nationwide. But in the end, the system stood firm against the most intense assault from an aggrieved president in the nation’s history because of a Republican city clerk in Michigan, a Republican secretary of state in Georgia, a Republican county supervisor in Arizona and Republican-appointed judges in Pennsylvania and elsewhere. They refuted conspiracy theories, certified results, dismissed lawsuits and repudiated a president of their own party, leaving him to thunder about a supposed plot that would have had to include people who had voted for him, donated to him or even been appointed by him. The desperate effort to hang onto office over the will of the people effectively ended when his own director of the General Services Administration determined that Joseph R. Biden Jr. is the president-elect and a judge Mr. Trump put on the bench chastised him for ludicrous litigation.

Full Article: In Key States, Republicans Were Critical in Resisting Trump’s Election Narrative – The New York Times

 

National: 20 days of fantasy and failure: Inside Trump’s quest to overturn the election | Philip Rucker, Ashley Parker, Josh Dawsey and Amy Gardner/The Washington Post

The facts were indisputable: President Trump had lost. But Trump refused to see it that way. Sequestered in the White House and brooding out of public view after his election defeat, rageful and at times delirious in a torrent of private conversations, Trump was, in the telling of one close adviser, like “Mad King George, muttering, ‘I won. I won. I won.’ ” However cleareyed that Trump’s aides may have been about his loss to President-elect Joe Biden, many of them nonetheless indulged their boss and encouraged him to keep fighting with legal appeals. They were “happy to scratch his itch,” this adviser said. “If he thinks he won, it’s like, ‘Shh . . . we won’t tell him.’ ” Trump campaign pollster John McLaughlin, for instance, discussed with Trump a poll he had conducted after the election that showed Trump with a positive approval rating, a plurality of the country who thought the media had been “unfair and biased against him” and a majority of voters who believed their lives were better than four years earlier, according to two people familiar with the conversation, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations. As expected, Trump lapped it up. The result was an election aftermath without precedent in U.S. history. With his denial of the outcome, despite a string of courtroom defeats, Trump endangered America’s democracy, threatened to undermine national security and public health, and duped millions of his supporters into believing, perhaps permanently, that Biden was elected illegitimately.

Full Article: Inside Trump?s failed quest to overturn the election – The Washington Post

 
 

National: Trump’s Election Attack Ends December 14 – Whether He Knows It or Not | Lily Hay Newman/WIRED

In the weeks since his loss to Joe Biden, President Donald Trump and his reelection campaign have attempted to cast doubt on the validity of the 2020 election and filed numerous unsuccessful lawsuits in multiple states over alleged voter fraud and election administration infractions. Trump has not conceded and has given no indication that he will, breaking with centuries of precedent in the United States. When the head of the General Services Administration finally released delayed federal transition resources to Biden on Monday, President Trump simply tweeted that “the GSA does not determine who the next President of the United States will be.” That job falls to the Electoral College. In spite of the Trump campaign’s vows to continue the fight, the wheels of the American election process have kept turning. More than half the states have already certified their results, meaning they have committed their electoral votes according to their state election outcomes. On Monday, Trump campaign legal adviser Jenna Ellis said in a statement that “certification by state officials is simply a procedural step.” But this framing ignores the next phase of the process underpinned by certification: On December 14, Electoral College members will formally cast their votes based on their states’ certified results, resolving any possible ambiguity that Biden is the president-elect. “It’s over on December 14,” says Elaine Kamarck, founding director of the Brookings Institute’s Center for Effective Public Management and a senior fellow in its Governance Studies Program. “We forget that the electors are actual people, but they go to their state capitals and sign their ballots. Then the US Senate opens them, reads them out, and does the count on January 6, but there’s nothing else the Senate can do. Once they’re signed on the 14th and are on their way to Washington, that’s the end of the game.” The Trump campaign may well continue into next year with its claims that the election results were fraudulent, but there won’t be any obvious legal or political paths remaining to challenge the results or attempt to overturn the outcome after December 14. So far, every state is on track to certify in time. Even in states like Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Nevada, where the Trump campaign has made specific allegations of fraud, the campaign’s lawsuits have been roundly dismissed, and all three states wrapped up their certifications at the beginning of the week.

Full Article: Trump’s Election Attack Ends December 14—Whether He Knows It or Not | WIRED

 

National: Dominion Voting Systems Employees Threatened, Including Bounty Placed On One Worker, Amid Election Controversy | Emily Czachor/Newsweek

Employees at Dominion Voting Systems, a manufacturing company that produces hardware and software used to tabulate votes electronically, are facing extensive harassment as unsubstantiated allegations of fraudulent election activity continue to circulate. The company supplied software to support voting processes in 28 U.S. states during the general election, several of which were considered key battleground states in the race for president. Democratic presidential challenger Joe Biden, now the President-elect, won a majority of popular and electoral votes by margins that many recognized as a combined landslide. Following initial ballot tallies, and even after states began to certify official results, Republican incumbent Donald Trump sought to invalidate the election’s outcome and went to great lengths in his efforts to do so. Dominion Voting Systems became a leading target in the Trump campaign’s multi-pronged attempt to contradict ballot counts across the country in the weeks trailing Election Day. As multiple lawsuits aiming to disqualify votes and suspend states’ certification procedures met prompt dismissals in court, the campaign’s legal team broadened its attacks on election officials to include machinery they used to tabulate ballots, as well as companies from which the electronic tools were purchased.

Full Article: Dominion Voting Systems Employees Threatened, Including Bounty Placed On One Worker, Amid Election Controversy

 

National: With Recounts, States Mix Civics, Spectator Sport and a Bit of Tedium | Sara Randazzo and Alexa Corse/Wall Street Journal

By the time Travis Weipert reported to the office Nov. 4, he knew his work as steward of the elections in Johnson County, Iowa, was far from over. The two candidates vying for the local congressional seat in the previous day’s election were separated by less than a percentage point. A recount, he sensed, was inevitable. “We knew to buckle up for a long ride,” Mr. Weipert said. After ping-ponging for a few days, the districtwide results showed Republican Mariannette Miller-Meeks ahead of Rita Hart, the Democratic candidate, by 47 votes out of more than 394,400 cast. Ms. Hart called for a recount Nov. 12, kicking off a process that is still under way and that Iowa hadn’t undertaken for a race of this scale in more than a century. By Friday, Ms. Miller-Meeks’s lead had narrowed to just eight votes. This year’s drawn-out election cycle, spurred in part by the rise of mail-in ballots cast during the coronavirus pandemic, has been even longer in states where initial tallies showed races ending in razor-thin margins. Recounts in Iowa, Wisconsin, Georgia and elsewhere have involved legions of local election officials and volunteer election workers, who must follow exacting and at times arcane methods designed to ensure every vote gets counted properly. They are counting ballots in tight races up and down the ballot, not just for president. For the public and the candidates, the recounts become part civics lesson, part spectator sport.

Full Article: With Recounts, States Mix Civics, Spectator Sport and a Bit of Tedium – WSJ