Texas risked ballot secrecy in bid for election transparency | Natalia Contreras, Karen Brooks Harper and William Melhado/The Texas Tribune

Texas’ efforts to make elections more transparent allows the public — in limited instances — to pierce the anonymity of the ballot and find out how people voted, undermining the secrecy essential to free elections. The choices voters make in the private voting booth can later be identified in some cases using public, legally available records, a review by Votebeat and The Texas Tribune found. Since 2020, requests for such records have skyrocketed, fueled by unsubstantiated concerns about widespread voter fraud, and Texas lawmakers have supported changes to make election records easier to access soon after elections. County elections administrators, trying to fulfill activists’ demands for transparency, have also made information public that can make it easier to determine how specific people voted. Read Article

Virginia board considers ousting GOP election official accused of sharing voting machine info | Graham Moomaw/Virginia Mercury

Two members of the Charles City County Electoral Board have asked Virginia officials to begin the process of removing the third member of the board, who is accused of sharing sensitive election machine information with a local GOP leader. In a May 14 letter to the Virginia State Board of Elections, election officials in Charles City — a small community between Richmond and Williamsburg — formally requested the ouster of local Electoral Board Member Maria A. Kinney, a Republican who just joined the board in January. The cause listed in the request was “severe dereliction of duties,” including a claim Kinney allowed a former Charles City County GOP chair, Irene Churins, to view election equipment passwords during an accuracy test. Read Article

Wisconsin: Constitutional amendment on election workers draws input from liberal, conservative groups | Henry Redman/Wisconsin Examiner

A constitutional amendment passed by Wisconsin voters in April that limits who is allowed to work on tasks related to the administration of an election has drawn questions from across the state on how it should be interpreted. In recent weeks, both liberal and conservative groups have weighed in on the state Department of Justice’s effort to provide clarity. The amendment was one of two approved by voters in April. Both drew criticism from Democrats that they sprouted from Republican conspiracy theories involving false claims of voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election. One amendment banned the use of outside money for funding election administration. The other amendment, which passed in this year’s spring election with 58% of the vote, states that “only election officials designated by law may perform tasks in the conduct of primaries, elections, and referendums.” Election officials across the state have been seeking clarity on how the restriction should be applied. Read Article

‘Uncharted terrain’: How officials, campaigners and fact-checkers tackle AI’s influence on elections around the world | Mark Scott/Politico

When it comes to artificial intelligence’s role in elections, it’s easy to get lost in a sea of buzzwords, tech industry jargon and murky political activity. AI-generated deepfakes. Large language models. Recommendation algorithms powering social media. But behind the rise of this emerging technology lies a sea of election officials, civil society groups and fact-checking organizations from Peru to the Philippines — all trying to corral potential abuses of AI while, at the same time, attempting to harness the technology to improve how elections operate worldwide. It’s not an easy task. Ever-changing technical advances, limited budgets and breathtaking hysteria around what AI can supposedly do have created endless difficulties for those on the front line of protecting global elections from AI-fueled disinformation. Read Article

Michigan: ‘There’s no fraud here’: how a Republican official is addressing election denialism in his rural county | Alice Herman/The Guardian

Abe Dane would be the first to admit he had concerns about election fraud during the 2020 election. He believed the elections in his own county, where he had worked the polls, were clean – but he wasn’t sure about other counties in the state, where unfounded claims of fraud swirled in 2020. That was before he took a position in local election administration. Now, with first-hand experience, Dane, the director of elections in Hillsdale County, Michigan, is confident in the process. It’s convincing others that’s the challenge now. Read Article

National: AI could offer ‘enhanced opportunities’ to interfere in 2024 election, DHS warns | Sean Lyngaas/CNN

Artificial intelligence tools for creating fake video, audio and other content will likely give foreign operatives and domestic extremists “enhanced opportunities for interference” as the 2024 US election cycle progresses, the Department of Homeland Security said in a recent bulletin distributed to state and local officials. A variety of “threat actors” will likely try to use generative AI — or AI that creates fake content — to influence or “sow discord” during the US election cycle, says the May 17 bulletin, which was produced by the DHS Office of Intelligence and Analysis. While a “large-scale attack on the election is less likely” because of the “higher risk of detection and the decentralized and diverse nature of the voting system,” the bulletin says, “threat actors might still attempt to conduct limited operations leading to disruptions in key election battleground areas.” Read Article

National: Election deniers moving closer to GOP mainstream as Trump allies fill Congress, report shows | Nicholas Riccardi and Lisa Mascaro/Associated Press

In the hours after the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, Ohio’s then-Republican senator, Rob Portman, voted to accept President Joe Biden’s win over the defeated former president, Donald Trump, despite Trump’s false allegations that Biden only won because of fraud. But as Trump charges toward his rematch with Biden in 2024, Portman has been replaced by Sen. JD Vance, a potential vice presidential pick who has echoed Trump’s false claims of fraud and said he’ll accept the results this fall only “if it’s a free and fair election.” South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, other possible VP picks, also declined to object to Biden’s victory over Trump, but have been less committal this year. Rubio said recently if “things are wrong” with November’s election, Republicans won’t stand by and accept the outcome. Read Article

National: Smartmatic alleges Newsmax has deleted evidence in lawsuit over false vote-rigging claims | Sarah Fitzpatrick/NBC

Smartmatic alleges that Newsmax has destroyed evidence in the voting machine company’s lawsuit against the right-wing news channel over false claims that Smartmatic helped “rig” the 2020 election, according to court documents made public this week. Lawyers for Florida-based Smartmatic allege that Newsmax engaged in a “cover-up” by destroying texts and emails of key executives that would demonstrate the network’s knowledge that voting fraud claims being pushed by former President Donald Trump and his allies were untrue. Smartmatic says the deletions occurred after Newsmax had received notice to preserve evidence for the pending suit. Read Article

National: New Effort Aims to Improve Election Tech Vulnerability Tests | Jule Pattison-Gordon/Government Technology

A new program is trying to get election system companies to collaborate with security researchers on better vulnerability testing. In September, the Information Technology-Information Sharing and Analysis Center (IT-ISAC) convened interested security researchers and voting system companies for a three-day forum. The event aimed to build trust among participants, and it included a day and a half during which researchers tested not-yet-deployed election technologies from participating companies, the IT-ISAC announced in a new report. Election Systems & Software, Hart InterCivic and Unisyn Voting Solutions all provided their choice of equipment, such as electronic pollbooks, digital ballot scanners and ballot marking devices. Some providers gave researchers credentials so they could mimic insider compromise. Read Article

Arizona: Election officials are role-playing AI threats in preparation for November | By Lauren Feiner/The Verge

It’s the morning of Election Day in Arizona, and a message has just come in from the secretary of state’s office telling you that a new court order requires polling locations to stay open until 9PM. As a county election official, you find the time extension strange, but the familiar voice on the phone feels reassuring — you’ve talked to this official before. Just hours later, you receive an email telling you that the message was fake. In fact, polls must now close immediately, even though it’s only the early afternoon. The email tells you to submit your election results as soon as possible — strange since the law requires you to wait an hour after polls close or until all results from the day have been tabulated to submit. This is the sort of whiplash and confusion election officials expect to face in 2024. The upcoming presidential election is taking place under heightened public scrutiny, as a dwindling public workforce navigates an onslaught of deceptive (and sometimes AI-generated) communications, as well as physical and digital threats. Read Article

Georgia prosecutors appeal dismissal of some charges against Trump in election interference case | Associated Press

A Georgia prosecutor on Thursday appealed a ruling dismissing some of the criminal charges against former President Donald Trump and other defendants in an election interference case. The notice of appeal filed by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis does not say why an appeals court should reverse the March dismissal. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee quashed six counts in the indictment, including three against Trump, saying the counts did not allege sufficient detail regarding the nature of the violations. The ruling was a setback Willis, though it left much of the sweeping indictment intact. Read Article

Idaho: ‘Very organized chaos’: A look at vote counting at the Ada County Elections Office | Sarah Cutler/Yahoo

You voted in Tuesday’s primary election in Ada County. You stopped by your precinct, filled out a paper ballot and fed it into a voting machine. Of course, you got an “I Voted” sticker for the road. Your job was done, but then what happened? At the Ada County Elections Office, dozens of people were gearing up to do their jobs as part of what appeared to be a well-oiled machine — other than a few complaints about the cookie selection in the workers’ break room. The Idaho Statesman visited Tuesday night to get a look behind the scenes of the county’s vote-counting process. Here’s how it played out. Read Article

Michigan: Election officials grapple with sweeping voting changes and a presidential election | Fredreka Schouten/CNN

This year, voting will be far easier for Michigan residents – thanks to new laws that establish early voting, automatically send out absentee ballots to voters who requested them and mandate that every community has least one drop box in which to return those ballots. But the changes have made running elections in this crucial presidential battleground much harder – leading some to worry about burnout among the state’s more than 1,500 local clerks, who must juggle increasingly complex election responsibilities with other duties, ranging from town record-keeping to licensing pets. “We just put a Ferrari engine inside a Model T car,” Michael Siegrist, the clerk of Canton Township, said of the sweeping effort to modernize elections in a state that still conducts balloting under a decades-old, hyperlocal system. Read Article

New Hampshire authorities charge Democratic operative behind Biden AI robocall | Derek B. Johnson/CyberScoop

New Hampshire authorities on Thursday indicted the Democratic political operative Steve Kramer for his role in creating and distributing an AI-generated robocall that impersonated President Joe Biden and urged the state’s voters to not cast their ballots in January’s primary election. Kramer, who has admitted to being behind the creation of the robocall, was indicted on 13 counts of felony voter suppression and 13 misdemeanor counts of impersonating a political candidate. New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella said he believes the charges “send a strong deterrent signal to anyone who might consider interfering with elections, whether through the use of artificial intelligence or otherwise.” Read Article

New York: Push grows to mandate paper ballots as counties eye touch-screen voting |  Kate Lisa/Spectrum News

Election policy advocates and good-government groups want the Legislature to change state law to mandate paper ballots be made available to New York voters as more counties plan to transition to touch-screen voting machines the state Board of Elections certified last year. After nearly 14 years, New York’s voting machines need an update — and it’s raising questions about how a possible switch to all touch-screen voting in New York elections will impact election security after news reports both Nassau and Suffolk counties on Long Island will spend millions of dollars to purchase the touch-screen ballot devices next year. As the technology emerges across several U.S. states, advocates say New York lawmakers must take action to protect voters’ ability to have a choice in how they cast their ballot. Read Article

North Carolina justices say those who helped file voting fraud allegations are protected from suit  | Gary D. Robertson/Associated Press

The North Carolina Supreme Court on Thursday threw out a defamation lawsuit against attorneys who assisted voters with submitting some 2016 ballot complaints, saying the fraud allegations they helped make were broadly protected within the protest process. The 5-0 ruling overturns the decision of a lower appeals court that determined only those actively participating in the process were shielded from liability. It’s also a court victory for a legal defense fund for then-Republican Gov. Pat McCrory’s campaign, which also was sued. Four registered voters had sued in 2017 for libel and for damages, saying they were wrongly accused of voter fraud by pro-McCrory forces just after the close election that was ultimately won by Democrat Roy Cooper. Read Article

Ohio Governor Mike DeWine calls for lawmakers to get Joe Biden on ballot. Calls situation ‘absurd’. | Anthony Shoemaker and Erin Glynn/Columbus Dispatch

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine called for a special session of the Legislature to get President Joe Biden on the November ballot. The special session will begin Tuesday, May 28. During an unexpected press conference on Thursday, DeWine called on lawmakers to pass legislation to get Biden on the ballot and to prohibit campaign spending by foreign citizens on ballot issues. DeWine ordered the special session under Article III, Section 8 of the Ohio Constitution. The issue keeping Biden off the ballot is because the current law says Ohio officials must certify the November ballot on Aug. 7, 90 days before the election, but Biden won’t be nominated until the Democratic National Convention on Aug. 19 in Chicago. Read Article

Oregon: U.S. Supreme Court won’t hear  lawsuit that sought to end mail voting | Julia Shumway/Oregon Capital Chronicle

On the eve of Oregon’s primary election, a group of Republican candidates and election deniers learned they won’t get to make their case to the U.S. Supreme Court to end Oregon’s mail voting system. The high court on Monday declined to hear an appeal from plaintiffs, including state Sen. Dennis Linthicum, the leading Republican candidate for secretary of state, in a case that sought to overturn the method Oregon voters have used to vote in every election for decades. The Supreme Court didn’t give a reason for declining to hear the case, Thielman v. Fagan. Marc Thielman, a former school superintendent who captured 8% of the vote in his sixth-place finish in the 2022 Republican gubernatorial primary, led several other Republicans in suing then-Secretary of State Shemia Fagan in October 2022. Read Article

Pennsylvania election directors like new mail ballot materials, even as some voters filled them out improperly | Ford Turner/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Scores of April primary election mail ballots were rejected in some areas of Pennsylvania because voters failed to put the last two digits of the year on newly redesigned ballot materials – but that didn’t stop officials from giving the redesign a thumbs-up. The redesign, announced by the administration of Gov. Josh Shapiro late last year, was intended to decrease voter confusion associated with mail ballots, which debuted on a broad scale in 2020. Among other things, the redesign involved easily identifiable secrecy envelopes, standardized full-page instructions with graphics, and a pre-filled “20” at the beginning of the ‘year’ space on the outside or “declaration” envelope. Secretary of State Al Schmidt earlier this month said counties reported a 13.5% decrease from 2023 in mail ballots rejected for the reasons that the state had tried to address. Read Article

Texas: Texas election chiefs face pressure to get details right after judge orders new election in close race | Natalia Contreras/The Texas Tribune

A judge’s decision to order a new election in a close Harris County race from 2022 is putting election officials statewide on notice: Any type of error — large or small — has the potential to trigger a challenge and disqualify votes if the margins are narrow enough. Some of the problems that prompted the judge’s order occur frequently around the state, especially in high-turnout elections, election officials told Votebeat. With the prospect of election outcomes being negated because of paperwork errors, they said, there’s now added pressure to train election workers and strictly follow procedure. “We have been stressing the importance of paperwork needing to be filled out properly,” said Trudy Hancock, elections administrator in Brazos County. “We emphasize to our workers how important this is, that we get public records requests and that we’re already being questioned about why something wasn’t done properly. We’re telling our workers that people are looking at this.” Read Article

Wisconsin: Milwaukee election shakeup triggers doubts about whether new leader is ready to run 2024 vote | Alexander Shur/Votebeat

Several members of Milwaukee’s election staff have voiced concerns to the mayor’s office about the inexperience of the new leader chosen to replace the Election Commission’s recently ousted executive director. The new head, Paulina Gutiérrez, became deputy director of the commission in 2023 and had worked in several other positions in city and state government before that. But during her tenure at the commission, she has not worked a federal general election. In addition to staff members raising concerns in a meeting with the mayor’s chief of staff and Gutiérrez herself, two employees wrote letters to the mayor’s office noting their doubts about whether she is equipped to lead the commission during a critical time in Wisconsin’s largest city, said a person close to the commission who requested anonymity to avoid professional consequences. Read Article

National: Nearly 80 officials overseeing elections in 7 swing states doubt 2020 results | Madeleine May and Caitlin Huey-Burns/CBS

A new CBS News investigation found there are nearly 80 officials working in election oversight positions across seven battleground states, including Nevada, who don’t believe the 2020 election results, refused to certify the election, publicly supported the actions taken on Jan. 6, 2021 in the U.S. Capitol riots or have pushed election conspiracies.  Washoe County, Nevada, is a battleground county in a critical battleground state and may hold the keys to congressional contests, and potentially the presidency. But in this cycle, one of the most consequential races in the state is that of county commissioner. That commissioner would wield the swing vote on a panel that — among other responsibilities — oversees elections in Washoe. Members appoint the county’s top election official, set the budget for elections and ultimately certify statewide election results. Read Article

National: Physical threats are biggest risk facing the 2024 election | Derek B. Johnson/CyberScoop

2024 could turn out to be the year in which artificial intelligence upends the U.S. election, but at America’s largest cybersecurity conference, federal officials charged with protecting the vote said they are most concerned with a far more analog threat: physical violence directed at election administrators.  While many election officials are concerned about issues of disinformation — both AI-generated and not — physical security threats on or around Election Day to polling places, ballot counting centers and locations where equipment is stored are top of mind. “That’s where we’ve concentrated a lot of our efforts this year,” Brandon Wales, executive director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, told reporters at the RSA Conference. U.S. election officials are already facing a tsunami of physical threats, harassment, doxing and swatting attacks — in which police are called to a person’s residence on phony pretenses — and the risk of violence is only exacerbated by persistent and false online narratives that American elections are in one way or another rigged, experts caution. Read Article

National: These federal grants can help ease multiplying election threats | Chris Teale/Route Fifty

A ransomware attack on Coffee County, Georgia’s voter registration system highlighted the vulnerabilities faced by election offices ahead of the presidential election. Although the Georgia Registered Voter Information System remains uncompromised, the incident underscores the need for robust cybersecurity measures, especially as threats target more than just voting infrastructure. Reports from cybersecurity firms, such as Mandiant, stress the importance of hardening systems against attacks despite the chronic underfunding of election services. While some federal funds and grants are available, the high turnover of election officials hampers awareness and access to these resources. To address these challenges, election offices must be strategic in securing funding and support to enhance their cybersecurity and physical security capabilities. Read Article

National: Justice Department to seek tougher sentences for AI-fueled election crimes | Sean Lyngaas/CNN

Federal prosecutors will pursue tougher sentences in cases in which artificial intelligence is used to commit an election-related crime, including threatening violence against election workers and voter suppression, Deputy US Attorney General Lisa Monaco said Monday. The Justice Department policy change is an effort to keep pace with a chaotic information environment ahead of the 2024 presidential election, as AI tools have made it much easier to mimic politicians’ voices and likenesses to spread false information. The new policy applies to cases in which AI makes the election-related crime “more dangerous and more impactful,” Monaco said. Read Article

National: Lawmakers fret over who will report foreign election interference  | Derek B. Johnson/CyberScoop

When the U.S. government has credible evidence of a foreign nation interfering in an American election, who is responsible for sounding the alarm and what processes are in place to ensure it’s done in a responsible, nonpartisan manner? That question was top of mind for Senators on both sides of the aisle at a Wednesday hearing, when they sharply questioned Biden administration officials about their plans for notifying the public about a foreign power meddling in U.S. politics. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., the ranking Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, noted that when a hurricane is headed toward the United States, the National Hurricane Center takes the lead to issue warnings “and people — Republicans, Democrats no matter who you’re going to vote for — are going to take the appropriate steps.” How that notification process works for foreign interference efforts is less clear, and the potential for political blowback in the heat of a national election is vast. Read Article

National: Lawmakers want EAC to develop guidance on AI’s risk to elections | Edward Graham/Nextgov/FCW

Bipartisan legislation introduced by a quartet of House lawmakers would push the nation’s top election administration agency to develop voluntary guidelines that address the potential impact of artificial intelligence technologies on the voting process. The bill would require that the Election Assistance Commission release public recommendations around the use of AI tools on the administration of elections. According to the proposal, the EAC’s voluntary guidelines should address “the risks and benefits” of AI on election administration; the cybersecurity risks of these technologies; how AI-generated and shared content can affect the sharing of accurate election information; and how AI-generated disinformation can undermine trust in the voting process. Read Article

National: Now armed with AI, America’s adversaries will try to influence election, security officials warn | David Klepper and Eric Tucker/Associated Press

America’s foreign adversaries will again seek to influence the upcoming U.S. elections, top security officials warned members of the Senate Wednesday, harnessing the latest innovations in artificial intelligence to spread online disinformation, mislead voters and undermine trust in democracy. But the U.S. has greatly improved its ability to safeguard election security and identify and combat foreign disinformation campaigns since 2016, when Russia sought to influence the election, U.S. Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines testified to the Senate Intelligence Committee. Read Article

Arizona judge says new voting rulebook meets state law, dismisses suit from national Republicans | Sasha Hupka Mary Jo Pitzl/Arizona Republic

A judge has ruled against the Republican National Committee in a lawsuit that challenged Arizona’s new voting rulebook and alleged it would allow election fraud. The suit, filed in February, is one of several from Republicans questioning the state’s new Elections Procedures Manual. That document serves as a guide to election management for county officials statewide and is produced every election cycle by the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office. Read Article

Arkansas Supreme Court overturns ruling challenging state election laws  Antoinette Grajeda/Arkansas Advocate

The Arkansas Supreme Court on Thursday reversed a lower court’s ruling and dismissed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of four election-related laws approved by the state Legislature in 2021.  The laws require voters who cast a provisional ballot to provide a photo ID by the Monday following an election for their vote to be counted, prohibit people from standing within 100 feet of a polling location, require county clerks to verify the voter’s signature on an absentee ballot application with the voter’s registration application, and shorten the deadline for in-person absentee ballot delivery. Read Article