Ohio: Franklin County examines 2020 Election, looks to future changes | Catherine Ross/WCMH

With the 2020 election in the rearview, the Franklin County Board of Elections is bracing for several changes in 2021. Thursday, the board was conducting its post-election audit to make sure all equipment and procedures worked properly. It was one of the final loose ends to tie on the election cycle. “It’s been an incredible year. We’re certainly glad it’s been completed and we’re putting it to a bookend,” said public information officer Aaron Sellers. Tuesday, the Board of Commissioners approved $2.5 million in funding for the Board of Elections to cover the costs of several things, including replacing the voter registration database and eventually replacing the county’s poll pads. Sellers explained the current voter registration system is 15 years old and increasingly costly to maintain. The board will be rolling out a new database ahead of the May 2021 Primary Election. On Election Day 2020, some polling locations experienced long lines when the electronic poll pads, used to scan voters’ IDs and find their voter information, were unable to download the large file. “The reason why we went to paper the morning of the election was associated with the inability to manage the amount of data that was associated with unprecedented voting activity,” explained Franklin County administrator Kenneth Wilson.

Full Article: Franklin County examines 2020 Election, looks to future changes | NBC4 WCMH-TV

Republican lawmakers hold up Wisconsin recount funds as counties finalize costs | Briana Reilly and Abigail Becker/The Capital Times

The Legislature’s powerful budget committee is, for now, refusing to reimburse Dane and Milwaukee county officials for their work in conducting the election recount President Donald Trump requested and paid for following his loss in Wisconsin. The panel, controlled by Republicans, officially paused the process last Friday after one member raised an objection to the ask, meaning the full Joint Finance Committee may have to meet before the dollars are passed on. The state already has $3 million from Trump’s campaign to cover what the counties’ estimated costs were for the recount. The identity of the lawmaker who raised the objection is unknown, but the offices of the committee’s co-chairs say it came about because only the initial estimate of the costs is available, while the final figures haven’t yet been completed or shared. “The committee simply needs more information,” co-chair Mark Born, R-Beaver Dam, said in a statement. “At the time the request was before the committee, and still today, we do not know the actual costs of the recount. Once those counties submit their receipts, we will have more information.” On Monday, Dane County Clerk Scott McDonell said in an email that the county is working through the billing process to determine a final cost for the recount. He had been waiting on a bill from the Madison Police Department, which he expected to be “significant.”

Full Article: Republican lawmakers hold up Wisconsin recount funds as counties finalize costs | Local Government | madison.com

Wisconsin Senate leader wants bill by July to allow absentee counting before Election Day | Molly Beck and Alison Durr/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The incoming leader of the state Senate is pushing legislation to allow election officials to count absentee ballots before Election Day — a change some election officials have sought for years. Republican state Sen. Devin LeMahieu, who will begin the new legislative session as Senate Majority Leader, said he wants the Legislature to expand the amount of time absentee ballots may be counted by July, according to the Associated Press. "I have no idea where my caucus would be at on that but I would think (it would pass),” LeMahieu, R-Oostburg, told the AP. “As long as it’s secure, I would think we could get there.” The proposal, which LeMahieu has previously pushed for unsuccessfully, comes in the wake of the November presidential election during which a massive influx of absentee ballots forced election officials in Milwaukee and elsewhere to count absentee ballots well after midnight because of a state law that requires election officials to wait until Election Day to begin counting.

Full Article: Senate leader wants bill by July to allow absentee counting before Election Day

Australia: Cyber attacks on elections growing amid concern for political parties | Anthony Galloway/Sydney Morning Herald

State actors are increasingly launching cyber attacks and disinformation campaigns to interfere in elections, as one Australian MP calls for political parties to be considered "critical infrastructure" so they can better fend off the attacks. New research says Russia is the most prolific state actor engaging in online interference against democratic elections, followed by China, which has significantly increased its cyber arsenal over the past two years, while Iran and North Korea are also offenders. All four countries have tried to interfere in the 2020 United States presidential election, using a combination of cyber attacks and online disinformation campaigns. Australian intelligence agencies found China was responsible for a cyber attack on Federal Parliament and its three main political parties last year, but kept the finding secret to avoid souring trade relations with Beijing. The Australian government also suspects China was probably behind a series of cyber raids this year on all levels of government, industry and critical infrastructure, including hospitals, local councils and state-owned utilities. New research by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute has identified 41 elections and seven referendums around the world between January 2010 and October 2020 where cyber-enabled foreign interference was identified, finding there has been a significant uptick over the past three years.

Full Article: Cyber attacks on elections growing amid concern for Australia's political parties

Bulgaria’s election watchdog shortlists six bidders in voting machines tender | The Sofia Globe

Bulgaria’s Central Election Commission (CEC) said late on December 16 that it shortlisted six of the eight bidders in the tender to purchase 9600 voting machines, worth 36 million leva, or about 18.4 million euro. The other two bidders were disqualified on the grounds that they represented the same consortium, which breached the terms of the tender, CEC said. The CEC will open the bids on December 18 but gave no deadline for picking the winner of the tender. In addition to the physical delivery, the contract includes the software used by the voting machines and its source code, so that it can be “modified for all types of elections envisioned in the Electoral Code, without the supplier’s input,” the CEC said earlier, when it announced the tender. Also included in the tender is servicing the voting machines for the parliamentary elections, due in spring 2021, and training elections officials in the use of the machines. Bulgaria’s rollout of machine voting has been plagued by repeated delays – after the CEC was unable to secure 13 000 machines ahead of the 2017 parliamentary elections, the National Assembly legislated that the number of voting machines used would increase with each election. About 3000 machines were used in the 2019 European Parliament election, but an Electoral Code provision that called for 6000 machines to be deployed in the local elections later that year was scrapped, on the grounds that it would complicate the electoral process.

Full Article: Bulgaria’s election watchdog shortlists six bidders in voting machines tender | The Sofia Globe

Philippines: Biometric election solution providers pitch on remote online voting systems | Heart Castañeda/Manila News

Biometric technology providers Voatz and Smartmatic will pitch their remote online voting systems as two of four companies being considered by the Philippines government in a four-day set of consultations, the Philippine Canadian Inquirer reports. Meetings between the Office for Overseas Voting (OFOV), the Commission on Elections (Comelec), and the four companies, which also include Dominion Voting Systems and Indra, are expected to wrap up this week. “The purpose of the consultation is to be able to gather enough information on online voting that can be presented to Congress for its consideration,” Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez said, according to the Inquirer. “If and when such a system is eventually put into action depends on Congress.” Jimenez also said the solutions may not be in place for the upcoming elections in 2022. The Philippines began automating its election system in 2010, and utilized vote counting machines in 2019.

Full Article: Biometric election solution providers pitch Philippines on remote online voting systems - Manila News

National: Former CISA Director Krebs again defends election security efforts | Benjamin Freed/StateScoop

Chris Krebs, who was fired last month as director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency by President Donald Trump after saying that the 2020 presidential election was “the most secure” in U.S. history, repeated that message as a private citizen Wednesday to the Senate Homeland Security Committee. Speaking during a session that the panel’s chairman, Ron Johnson, R-Wis., convened for the purposes of “examining irregularities” with the Nov. 3 election, Krebs held up the work done by his former agency and by state and local election officials who spent nearly four years replacing voting equipment, refining security practices and ensuring that nearly every ballot cast was recorded on paper. “There are a number of different computers, systems, machines involved in the entirety of the election process from registration to ballot design to ballot printing to actual voting, to tabulation,” Krebs said in response to Johnson asking about technologies used in the voting process. “But election officials are very careful that technology is not a single point of failure and that there are security controls before, during and after the process. As long as you have the paper — you can’t hack paper — you can run that process.” While Johnson and some of his fellow Republican members — as well as other witnesses, including some of the attorneys who’ve represented Trump in his unsuccessful lawsuits seeking to overturn his electoral loss — brought up evidence-free claims of fraud, much of the hearing focused on the misinformation about the voting process that’s flooded social media in the weeks since Election Day, as well as the threats and harassment received by election officials. Krebs said that while it’s “pretty straightforward” to debunk the claims, often promoted by the outgoing president and his supporters, that equipment manufactured by certain vendors switched people’s votes, their ongoing prevalence has had deleterious effects on democracy and on the people who conduct the election process. “We’re past the point where we need to be having conversations about the outcome of this election,” Krebs said. “I think continued assaults on democracy, and the outcome of this election, is ultimately corrosive to the institutions that support elections.”

Full Article: Former CISA Director Krebs again defends election security efforts

National: The key to future election security starts with a roll of the dice | Patrick Howell O’Neill/MIT Technology Review

We’re now six weeks past Election Day, and electors in every state followed the will of the voters and confirmed the victory of Joe Biden. But while the Electoral College made the results official, President Donald Trump is continuing to protest them, despite having lost dozens of court cases within the past month. In any case, Congress is slated to complete the process of electing Biden on January 6. President Trump’s attack on American elections accelerated a problem that already existed in the United States: the public doesn’t trust the vote. So how can we help more Americans believe in the most important function of our democracy? One of the states with the most contentious states votes in 2020 might have something to tell us. Georgia’s election was close. When it turned out that were only 12,000 votes separating Joe Biden from Donald Trump, the world turned its attention to the count there. The state’s election processes have changed significantly in just the last year, including a switch to more secure paper ballots and a law requiring a post-election audit, which was then used to examine this year’s tight presidential race. An audit is not a recount. Instead, it is a routine check of a portion of ballots, using statistical tests to root out anomalies. This is meant to increase everyone’s confidence that the outcome is correct. Georgia’s secretary of state, a Republican, ran the audit this year: it discovered and corrected a relatively small number of counting errors. That process was open and transparent, and the changes were too few to affect the results. In the end, it reaffirmed Joe Biden’s win in Georgia.

Full Article: The key to future election security starts with a roll of the dice | MIT Technology Review

National: Senate hearing elevates baseless claims of election fraud | Christina A. Cassidy and Mary Clare Jalonek/Associated Press

Republican senators on Wednesday further perpetuated President Donald Trump’s baseless claims of widespread voter fraud, two days after Democrat Joe Biden’s victory was sealed by the Electoral College. Lawmakers bickered heatedly at times during a committee hearing as Democrats pushed back against the unfounded allegations and a former federal cybersecurity official who oversaw election security said continued attempts to undermine confidence in the process were corrosive to democracy. The session, held by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee over Democratic protests, elevated the groundless claims of fraud to the highest levels of government and provided two of Trump’s lawyers with one more public opportunity to make the false assertions after repeatedly losing in court. The hearing mimicked those held in some battleground states with local lawmakers, where Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani led some Republicans in airing their election grievances without any proof. Those hearings were held after consistent legal defeats. GOP Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, the committee chairman and one of Trump’s fiercest defenders, said his goal was to have a bipartisan hearing to examine the election. But he repeated Trump’s assertions without evidence and focused heavily on the claims being made by the president’s team. There was no testimony from state or local election officials who conducted extensive checks to ensure the accuracy of the election before certifying the results. Those officials have said there was no indication of any widespread fraud.

Full Article: Senate hearing elevates baseless claims of election fraud

National: ‘Conspiracy theories and lies’: Democrats cry foul as GOP airs unsupported election claims | Kyle Cheney/Politico

A Republican-led Senate panel provided a three-hour platform for allies of President Donald Trump to dispute the results of the 2020 election, with the hearing at one point devolving into a shouting match between the top Republican and Democrat on the committee. Throughout the partisan clash, Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chair Ron Johnson argued the forum was simply to evaluate information, while Democrats like Gary Peters countered it was giving oxygen to conspiracy theories undermining U.S. democracy. GOP-called witnesses, including two Trump campaign lawyers described rampant fraud in Nevada, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, some of which had been considered and scrapped in court, others of which had no basis. The one witness called by Democrats, the Trump administration’s former top election security official Christopher Krebs, served as a counterweight. He urged Americans to put baseless election disputes behind them and warned that false conspiracy claims had fueled violent threats to election officials — including himself. “I think we’re past the point where we need to be having conversations about the outcome of this election,” said Krebs, who ran the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security agency until Trump fired him last month. The attacks from Trump and his GOP allies on the election, he said, are “ultimately corrosive to the institutions that support elections.”

Full Article: 'Conspiracy theories and lies': Dems cry foul as GOP airs unsupported election claims - POLITICO

National: Senate GOP has accepted Biden’s win but continues to push misleading fraud claims |  Karoun Demirjian/The Washington Post

Senate Republicans may be acknowledging President-elect Joe Biden’s victory over President Trump, but the politically charged fight over Trump’s fallacious claims about voter fraud rages on — and threatens to overshadow legitimate efforts to safeguard future elections. A Wednesday hearing of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee became a forum for Republicans, led by its departing chairman Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), to re-air Trump’s baseless case against the election results in swing states as the president cheered them on from a distance. Complaining that courts threw out Trump’s election lawsuits on mere “technicalities,” GOP senators and aligned witnesses warned that until their concerns were addressed, public trust in the security of the election process would not be restored. There is no evidence of significant or widespread voter fraud, as the president and his allies continue to insist. Trump’s own attorney general has made that clear while the courts overwhelmingly have dismissed his campaign’s unprecedented effort to overturn Biden’s victory. Across more than 50 cases, at least 88 judges — including 39 appointed or nominated by Republicans — have turned down Trump’s legal challenges in procedural rulings or decisions on their merits. Yet in the face of such resounding loss, the president and his most influential supporters remain undeterred, claiming fraud is a legitimate problem.

Full Article: Senate GOP has accepted Biden?s win but continues to push misleading fraud claims - The Washington Post

National: Russian hack reveals weaknesses in government cybersecurity protections | Joseph Marks/The Washington Post

A major Russian breach is prompting fears the government's cybersecurity protections have fallen dangerously behind. Lawmakers and experts are sounding alarms that billions of dollars' worth of custom-made government cybersecurity systems aren’t equipped to spot the most nefarious Russian hacker activity. And they’re warning the government is poorly organized to respond to such breaches once they come to light. “This really reinforced the need to double down on our cyber defensive strategy,” Rep. Jim Langevin (D-R.I.), co-founder of the Congressional Cybersecurity Caucus, told me. The breach is highlighting how years of efforts to create state-of-the-art cybersecurity protections within government have nevertheless failed to keep out sophisticated Russian hackers who’ve also been improving their game. Notably, the government has fallen behind at keeping tabs on the vast supply chain of technology that runs its computer systems, making it more vulnerable to attacks such as the recent one, which began with Russian hackers breaking into the Texas software company SolarWinds. The hackers then sent corrupted updates to customers including the State, Treasury, Commerce and Homeland Security departments, and probably to many other government agencies and companies as well. “It’s going to take far too long for the executive branch to inventory precisely where Orion [the SolarWinds system] is deployed and utilized and that demonstrates the critical importance of supply chain security,” Langevin said.

Full Are: The Cybersecurity 202: Russian hack reveals weaknesses in government cybersecurity protections - The Washington Post

National: Christopher Krebs tells GOP ‘move on’ from election fraud claims | Kristine Phillips/USA Today

Former election security chief Christopher Krebs said he has not seen anything that would change his opinion that the 2020 election was secure and urged Republicans to call out baseless claims of widespread voter fraud. "This is not the America I recognize. It's got to stop. We need everyone across the leadership ranks to stand up," Krebs said during a testimony Wednesday before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. "I would appreciate more support from my own party, the Republican Party, to call this stuff out and move on. … We have to move on."Krebs also defended local and state election officials who have been the subject of threats and harassment for refusing to back claims of massive fraud. He singled out Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and Gabriel Sterling, the state's voting implementation manager. "These are Republicans that are putting country over party," Krebs said. "They are being subjected to just horrific threats as a result." Krebs, who presided over an elaborate election security effort by the Department of Homeland Security, was fired by President Donald Trump last month as part of a post-election purge of top national security officials. Krebs' ouster follows the agency's declaration that the general election was the most secure in U.S. history.

Full Article: Christopher Krebs tells GOP 'move on' from election fraud claims

National: Guess which states saw the most election disinformation in 2020 | Tate Ryan-Mosley/MIT Technology Review

On November 3, Tina Barton ran into a problem. It was Election Day in the US and Barton, a Republican, was city clerk for Rochester Hills, Michigan, a conservative-leaning community near Detroit. As her team was uploading voting results, a technical issue resulted in the double counting of some votes. The error wasn't initially realized, but within 24 hours, it was noticed and reported to Oakland County officials. The voting data was quickly fixed, but by that time the entire country was looking at the state’s election results. The change was very public, and it generated a huge swell of misinformation. This was supercharged on November 6, when Ronna McDaniel, the chair of the Republican National Committee, flew to Oakland County and held a press conference. She claimed that 2,000 ballots had been counted as Republican before being “given” to Democrats in an accusation of election fraud. “If we are going to come out of this and say this was a fair and free election, what we are hearing from the city of Detroit is deeply troubling,” McDaniel said. Upset at how the situation was being misrepresented, Barton posted a video on Twitter refuting the claims. She’s been the Rochester Hills clerk for eight years, and when she spoke out against McDaniel, she knew she was putting her career on the line. In the video, which has since been deleted, Barton said, “I am disturbed that this is intentionally being mischaracterized to undermine the election process." Her remarks went viral, and they were met with threats and anger. In an email to MIT Technology Review, Barton said that “since Ms. McDaniel’s press conference, I have received threatening voice mails and messages.” One caller claimed to be on the way to Michigan. Barton upgraded the security system of her home.

Full Article: Guess which states saw the most election disinformation in 2020 | MIT Technology Review

Arizona Bill would permit outside parties to pay for election recounts | Jeremy Duda/Arizona Mirror

Anyone who thinks a recount of an election might change the outcome would have the opportunity to put their money where their mouth is under a new bill filed for the 2021 legislative session. Sen. J.D. Mesnard, R-Chandler, is reviving a proposal he sponsored two years ago that would permit outside parties to pay for recounts. State law currently only permits recounts under extremely narrow circumstances if races are particularly close. For a statewide contest, recounts are only triggered if the margin of victory is 200 votes or one tenth of one percent of the total votes for both candidates. Senate Bill 1010 would allow anyone to request a recount in a race, conducted either through the tabulation machines that election officials use to count ballots or a much more intensive hand count, regardless of the margin of victory. But whoever makes the request would have to foot the bill. The requester would have to post a bond for whatever amount a superior court judge deems sufficient to cover the costs. “It can be frustrating, at the very least, if you believe an outcome should’ve been different — whether you’re right or wrong, or have reason to believe it or not — to not be able to go in and verify that, and even be able to go in and pay for the cost of it. There’s no mechanism for doing that now,” Mesnard said. The proposal comes amid baseless allegations and conspiracy theories among supporters of President Donald Trump that Joe Biden’s win in the 2020 presidential election was the result of fraud, particularly Arizona and several other swing states that secured the former vice president’s victory.

Full Article: Bill would permit outside parties to pay for election recounts

Colorado lawmakers clash over election integrity hearing | Patty Nieberg/Associated Press

A top legal advisor to President Donald Trump was among those testifying at a Tuesday hearing called by Republican state lawmakers to look into any irregularities concerning Colorado’s mail-in voting system — a system praised by both major parties as among the nation’s safest and responsible for the largest turnouts in the U.S. in 2020. The reason for and timing of the Legislative Audit Committee hearing, called by Republican committee chair Rep. Lori Saine of Weld County, befuddled many, coming a day after the Electoral College certified Joe Biden’s presidential win. Saine told fellow lawmakers its goal was to put to rest “any doubt” about election irregularities in the state. “The election belongs to the people of Colorado and that question deserves our utmost focus and attention,” she said. Jenna Ellis, senior legal adviser to the Trump campaign, implored the panel to investigate Dominion Voting Systems, reiterating debunked claims that the company’s voting machines software altered the result of the presidential election. Elections officials have repeatedly denounced statements questioning Colorado’s election integrity, and Dominion has refuted claims about any deleted or changed votes. Secretary of State Jena Griswold noted in written testimony that Dominion software has been widely used in Colorado since 2015 and, in some districts, going back to the 1990s.

Full Article: Colorado lawmakers clash over election integrity hearing

Georgia: GOP launches legal war on absentee voting ahead of runoffs | Zach Montellaro and James Arkin/Politico

Federal judges in Georgia will hear arguments Thursday in Republican-led lawsuits to restrict absentee voting ahead of next month's Senate runoffs — the first salvos in a GOP effort to change voting rules for future elections following President Donald Trump’s loss in 2020. Republicans have filed three lawsuits in the state ahead of the Jan. 5 runoffs, in which hundreds of thousands of people have already voted by mail or in person for races that will decide control of the Senate in 2021. The suits primarily target the use of drop-boxes to return absentee ballots, as well as aiming to raise the threshold for signature verifiers to accept absentee ballots. The net result of the suits, which are backed by a combination of local, state and national Republican Party organizations, would make successfully voting by mail harder in Georgia, which Republicans say is necessary to protect the security of the elections — and others claim is an attempt to suppress votes for Democratic candidates. The legal efforts are likely just the start of a yearlong push by state Republicans to tighten voting rules in response to the 2020 election, which prompted unsubstantiated claims of widespread fraud from Trump, his supporters and other GOP leaders who are convinced that the contest wasn’t fair. Republican lawmakers in Georgia, Michigan and Pennsylvania, among others, have already announced their intention to seek changes to state election laws next year in response to perceived irregularities, and Trump’s opposition to mail voting in 2020 — coupled with the way those late-counted ballots broke against him in some key states — has destroyed the decades-long bipartisan consensus on expanding the practice.

Full Article: GOP launches legal war on absentee voting ahead of Georgia runoffs - POLITICO

Georgia: Loeffler won’t say whether she’ll formally challenge Biden’s win in Senate | Greg Bluestein/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler won’t say whether she’ll formally challenge President-elect Joe Biden’s victory when Congress convenes a day after twin Jan. 5 Georgia runoffs to decide control of the U.S. Senate. U.S. Sen. David Perdue won’t have a say even if he wins another term. The two Republicans have refused to acknowledge Biden’s victory and echoed President Donald Trump’s false assertions of widespread voter fraud. They’re under pressure not to alienate the president – and his loyal base – ahead of the high-stakes election. Shortly after she cast her ballot on Wednesday, Loeffler was noncommittal over whether she would join an effort by U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks of Alabama to challenge Biden’s victory when Congress meets to formally ratify the Electoral College vote on Jan. 6. The effort is doomed to fail. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has congratulated Biden on his victory and told his GOP colleagues Tuesday that he wouldn’t back the push to circumvent the voter’s will. Still, some supporters of the president have sought to cast Loeffler, who has relentlessly promoted her pro-Trump voting record, as a wild card who could join the challenge in the Senate. Pressed on her stance, Loeffler said Jan. 6 is a “long ways off.”

Full Article: Loeffler won’t say whether she’ll formally challenge Biden’s win in Senate

Georgia: Raffensperger, Sterling defend election from ‘disinformation’ | Susan McCord/Augusta Chronicle

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger continued efforts Wednesday to dispel disinformation about the Nov. 3 general election as voters turn out in record numbers for U.S. Senate runoffs Jan. 5. “The facts are on our side. There are those that are exploiting the strong feelings so many of President Trump’s supporters have for him,” Raffensperger said at a news conference. “Truth has been a casualty of the campaigns.” The president, Republicans nationwide and Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue have assailed Raffensperger, a lifelong Republican, for allegedly mishandling the election. Trump retweeted Tuesday that Raffensperger and Gov. Brian Kemp were “going to jail” for their roles. The National Republican Senatorial Committee said Tuesday that “Republicans are so concerned about the Georgia Secretary of State’s competence.” Republicans Loeffler and Perdue are in high-stakes runoffs with Democrats Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff. Wins by Warnock and Ossoff will shift control of Congress to Democrats. On Thursday, a federal judge in Augusta will hear one of the latest lawsuits alleging the potential for fraud in the use of absentee, mail-in ballots, an unsubstantiated claim raised in earlier suits on Trump’s behalf that judges have dismissed. It contends Raffensperger did not properly require signature matching in the general election and seeks to change the process and remove ballot drop boxes in the runoffs, for which advance voting started Monday.

Full Article: Raffensperger, Sterling defend Georgia election from 'disinformation'

Michigan: New Supreme Court filing includes blatantly wrong information about election | Dave Boucher/Detroit Free Press

A long-shot legal effort relying on conspiracy theories and inaccurate analyses to argue President Donald Trump actually won Michigan included additional blatantly false information in a new filing with the U.S. Supreme Court this week. The legal team, including attorney Sidney Powell, told the court the Republican-controlled Michigan Legislature backs its effort to allow a so-called GOP slate of Electoral College delegates cast the state's 16 electoral votes for Trump. This is wrong. On Monday, Republican leaders of the Michigan House and Senate publicly acknowledged President-elect Joe Biden won the election. The same day, the state's actual 16 Electoral College delegates voted for Biden, who received 154,000 more votes than Trump in Michigan. It's unlikely the Supreme Court will take up this or any of the legal claims from Powell and her team. Powell previously appeared at news conferences with Rudy Giuliani and other Trump attorneys, but the campaign has since sought to distance itself from her. Gregory Rohl, a Michigan attorney working with Powell, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday. The group of Republicans who incorrectly argue they can cast electoral votes for Trump were not allowed into the state Capitol on Monday. Powell and her team represent several people who would have served as GOP delegates to the Electoral College had Trump won Michigan.

Full Are: New Supreme Court filing has blatantly wrong information about Michigan

Michigan: Former election security chief for Trump knocks down Antrim County report | Todd Spangler/Detroit Free Press

A former Trump administration official who oversaw election security and was ousted after saying there were no widespread problems on Wednesday pointed out problems with a report claiming irregularities in Antrim County and cited as proof of corruption by President Donald Trump and others. Testifying before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, Chris Krebs, the former chief of the Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, called the report by Allied Security Operations Group throwing doubts on the election systems used in Antrim County "factually inaccurate." "It implies those systems are undependable," said Krebs, who explained that he went over the report the group issued as part of a lawsuit questioning the vote results in the county that has been used by Trump and his allies to widely suggest corruption. He said he could find nothing in it to support those claims. The Free Press, which has been following the Antrim County case, has looked closely at the Allied Security Operations Group report, which claims the county's equipment supplied by Dominion Voting Systems was "intentionally and purposefully designed with inherent errors to create systemic fraud and influence election results." In those reports, the Free Press has concluded that some of its claims — including one that suggested machines had a 68% error rateas if that percentage of the county votes had been misred, left untallied or changed — were false or misleading. Krebs said when he went over the report he was thrown by that claim of a 68% error rate and he saw it "repeated in social media by the (Trump) campaign, by the president." But as he looked more closely, he concluded that the number cited by the group is the number of alerts reported by the voting machines or tabulators, not necessarily errors or changes in the actual ballots as they were counted.

Full Article: Antrim County report debunked by former Trump election official

Editorial: Missouri GOP’s resolution to overturn the election is worse than baseless | St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Forty Missouri House Republicans have co-sponsored a resolution that is both un-Republican and un-American. It calls on Congress to reject election results in six other states, based on President Donald Trump’s fabricated claims of mass voter fraud. This cynical attack on democracy wouldn’t have the force of law even if it were to pass the full House, but it should stand as evidence that it isn’t just the president who has gone around the bend to a dangerous place; he has brought much of his party with him. To be clear: This has been the most closely vetted election in American history, with multiple vote recounts and dozens of lawsuits — and none of it has produced evidence to suggest significant irregularities, let alone mass fraud. Judge after judge has thrown out Trump’s cases. State election officials around America, including avowed Trump supporters, have repeatedly confirmed Joe Biden’s clear victory. Yet the Missouri GOP on Monday gave committee approval to HR2, declaring the House has “no faith in the validity of the results of the 2020 presidential election” in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, Georgia, Arizona or Nevada. It demands a “full and fair investigation” into alleged election irregularities — ignoring the multiple bipartisan reviews that already have occurred. Barring such a probe, it says, Congress should refuse to accept the electoral votes of those states, which would disenfranchise millions.The resolution claims those states’ election laws were “likely ignored and violated in numerous ways,” but offers no evidence beyond a bunch of vague conspiracy tropes. It argues that the low rejection rate among absentee ballots somehow proves something nefarious. It regurgitates a debunked analysis by InfoWars attorney Robert Barnes that supposedly proves fraud — crediting by name this infamous conspiracy monger whose “work” has included maligning the parents of the dead children of Sandy Hook.

Full Article: Editorial: Missouri GOP's resolution to overturn the election is worse than baseless. | Editorial | stltoday.com

New York: Judge tells counties to resolve Brindisi-Tenney election by start of new Congress | Mark Weiner/Syracuse Post-Standard

A judge today told election officials he wants to resolve disputes in the undecided House race between Rep. Anthony Brindisi and Claudia Tenney by the start of the new Congress on Jan. 3. It was the first time State Supreme Court Justice Scott DelConte set a goal for ending the review of challenged ballots in the 22nd Congressional District – a process that has dragged on for more than a month after the election. DelConte told lawyers for the eight counties in the district that he wants to meet with them privately Friday “to address the scheduling and logistics for resuming review of all challenged envelopes and ballots as safely and efficiently as possible.” The judge said his goal is to start reviewing disputed ballots on Monday, Dec. 21. Lawyers for Brindisi, D-Utica, and Tenney have raised objections about hundreds of absentee and affidavit ballots cast in the election, leaving it to DelConte to decide which votes are valid. For now, Tenney leads Brindisi by 12 votes out of more than 318,000 cast in the election, according to uncertified returns from the counties. Tenney, a Republican from New Hartford, led by 28,422 votes on election night. But her lead evaporated as election officials counted about 60,000 absentee ballots cast under new rules during the coronavirus pandemic.

Full Are: Judge tells counties to resolve Brindisi-Tenney election by start of new Congress - syracuse.com

Pennsylvania congressmen who wanted to throw out their own state’s votes still don’t acknowledge Biden’s win | Jonathan Tamari/Philadelphia Inquirer

The seven Republican congressmen from Pennsylvania who supported a lawsuit that would have thrown out their own state’s votes in the presidential race had little to say about the final outcome after the U.S. Supreme Court flatly rejected their effort and the Electoral College certified President-elect Joe Biden as the winner Monday. Three of the seven, Reps. Fred Keller, Dan Meuser, and Scott Perry, issued statements saying the amicus brief they signed, which supported a Texas lawsuit targeting Pennsylvania’s votes, was only trying to ensure the proper procedures were followed. Aides to the four others, Reps. John Joyce, Mike Kelly, Guy Reschenthaler, and Glenn Thompson, did not respond to emails and phone calls Monday and Tuesday requesting comment. None formally acknowledged what the Electoral College confirmed and has been clear for weeks: that Biden won. Perry has previously said he will mount a long-shot effort to block Pennsylvania’s presidential electors when Congress formally receives them Jan. 6. It’s unclear if others from the state will join him. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) congratulated Biden as the president-elect on the Senate floor Tuesday morning. The Texas lawsuit sought to dismiss the 6.9 million presidential votes cast in Pennsylvania and allow the GOP-controlled state legislature to instead award the state’s 20 Electoral College votes. The suit, supported by 126 House Republicans and 18 state attorneys general, sought similar remedies in Georgia, Michigan, and Wisconsin, also key battlegrounds Biden won. Several of the Pennsylvania congressmen who joined the brief are seen as potential candidates for Senate or governor in 2022.

Full Article: Pa. congressmen who wanted to throw out state’s votes still don’t acknowledge Joe Biden’s win

Virginia: Amanda Chase, Republican contender for governor, says Trump should declare martial law | Laura Vozella/The Washington Post

State Sen. Amanda F. Chase, a brash Republican gubernatorial contender who bills herself as "Trump in heels," called on President Trump on Tuesday to declare martial law to prevent his removal from office. One day after the electoral college formally confirmed former vice president Joe Biden’s victory over Trump, Chase (Chesterfield) doubled down on baseless allegations of election fraud in an early-morning Facebook post. “Not my President and never will be,” she wrote, referring to Biden. “The American people aren’t fools. We know you cheated to win and we’ll never accept these results. Fair elections we can accept but cheating to win; never. It’s not over yet. So thankful President Trump has a backbone and refuses to concede. President Trump should declare martial law as recommended by General Flynn.” Michael Flynn, the former national security adviser pardoned by the president, recently shared a Twitter post advocating that the president “temporarily suspend the Constitution” and declare martial law. In an interview Tuesday, Chase said she was holding out hope that Trump somehow would be declared the winner when the electoral college ballots are formally counted during a joint session of Congress on Jan. 6 — an all-but-impossible outcome, especially as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Tuesday publicly acknowledged Biden’s victory for the first time since the election. Barring that extremely unlikely turn of events, Chase thinks martial law is in order.

Full Article: Amanda Chase, Republican contender for Virginia governor, says Trump should declare martial law - The Washington Post

Washington: ‘Prepare for war’: A local GOP official goes all-in against election conspiracy theories | Danny Westneat/The Seattle Times

I’m a fan, for the most part, of the Republican leadership we have in this state right now. The party is so sidelined in blue Washington that its rudder right now is three people — the minority leaders of the state House and Senate (Rep. J.T. Wilcox of Yelm and Sen. John Braun of Centralia, respectively) and the Secretary of State, Kim Wyman. We’re lucky that all three are rational actors who value the norms of democracy, and who aren’t caterwauling off into crazed conspiracy theories about the election. “We have to stop this,” a frustrated Wilcox said Monday, about the continuing unsubstantiated cries of fraud that have led to threats against public officials following President Donald Trump’s loss. He added that he “believes in the results” of the ballot counts. Wilcox was responding specifically to a website called Enemies of the People that alleged Trump’s election was stolen. “Your days are numbered,” the site said. “Changing votes and working against the President is treason and patriotic Americans should never forget those who helped overthrow our democracy.” But that was an anonymous website. A bigger issue for the GOP is that this type of insane rhetoric is also ingrown in the party. In fact it’s being voiced right now by one elected Republican right here in Puget Sound.

Full Article: ‘Prepare for war’: A local GOP official goes all-in with election conspiracy theories | The Seattle Times

West Virginia: Harrison County Commission dismisses election contest; filers plan to appeal | JoAnn Snoderly/WV News

The Harrison County Commission on Wednesday dismissed an election contest complaint filed by the Harrison County Republican Executive Committee and the Republican candidate for County Commission.Republican Executive Committee Chair Virginia Rockwell told The Exponent Telegram later that the committee will “absolutely” appeal the decision to Harrison Circuit Court.Commissioners voted 2-to-1 to dismiss, with only Commissioner David Hinkle voting against Commissioner Patsy Trecost’s motion. In a letter to commissioners, attorney Michael Taylor, representing County Clerk and Commissioner-elect Susan Thomas, requested the commission dismiss the contest on the grounds that the filing was “deficient procedurally, factually and legally.” In the letter, Taylor claimed that a contest first requires a recount request unless there are allegations of fraud or illegality, or the candidate’s eligibility is in question. In this case, there were no such allegations, just procedural questions, so the lack of a recount would require dismissal, he wrote. According to Taylor, accepting the contest would also subject every race on the ballot — from the county to the federal level — to the challenge.

Full Article: Harrison County (West Virginia) Commission dismisses election contest; filers plan to appeal | WV News | wvnews.com

Wisconsin: Ron Johnson’s last hearing as chair of the Senate homeland security committee unfolds in post-election acrimony | Craig Gilbert/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Ron Johnson’s final hearing as chairman of the Senate homeland security committee was a divisive and bitter one, devolving at one point Wednesday into a near shouting match between the Wisconsin Republican and the panel’s top Democrat, Gary Peters of Michigan. “This is terrible what you’re doing to this committee,” Peters exclaimed to Johnson. “It is what you have done to this committee,” Johnson answered heatedly. The subject of that angry exchange — the two accused each other of spreading falsehoods — was the role of Russian disinformation, a source of bitter partisan feuding ever since the 2016 election. It was the 2020 election that was the official subject of Wednesday's hearing. And that provided plenty of acrimony as senators on both sides took turns airing their grievances about the presidential contest and its aftermath. Johnson, who acknowledged Tuesday that Democrat Joe Biden won the election, said Wednesday he hoped the hearing would be a noncontroversial probe into how to improve public confidence in elections. At the same time, he aired broad claims at the hearing of fraud and irregularities made by President Donald Trump's campaign that have repeatedly failed in court. … “We’re past the point where we need to be having conversations about the outcome of the election," said the Democrats' chief witness, Christopher Krebs, a homeland security official that was fired by Trump after he defended the security of the election. Krebs also bemoaned the threats of violence that have been made against local election officials for certifying the outcome of the election, saying: "This is not an America I recognize. It’s got to stop. We need everyone across the leadership ranks to stand up. I would appreciate more support from my own party, the Republican Party, to call this stuff out and to end it. We've got to move on. We have a president-elect."

Full Article: Senate hearing on election leads to acrimony over fraud allegations

Editorial: Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Hagedorn chose the rule of law over political pressure | Paul Higginbotham/Cap Times

A deeply divided Wisconsin Supreme Court dismissed President Trump’s claims of election irregularities by Dane County and Milwaukee County in the presidential and state elections earlier this week. The outcome of the Supreme Court’s decision is a reason for serious celebration. The wishes of Wisconsin voters have been given voice to a change in our government. The Supreme Court’s decision is notable for a few reasons, but two stand out. First, conservative Justice Brian Hagedorn authored the opinion for the majority. In his first term on the Supreme Court, Justice Hagedorn has demonstrated the sort of judicial independence we hope all judges and justices would display. This decision is notable for a second, and more disturbing reason — that three of the justices, Chief Justice Patience Roggensack, Rebecca Bradley, and Annette Ziegler — thought that upending a properly administered presidential election in a pique of partisan solidarity was acceptable. The partisan hacks of the Supreme Court failed to muster enough votes to overturn Wisconsin’s election, while sending a message to their far-right colleagues that they are ready and willing to ignore the law in a display of extreme judicial activism. The conservatives often excoriate liberal judges for judicial activism when a decision fails to meet their conservative and right-wing agenda. This time, though, reasonable heads prevailed, and a majority of the Supreme Court put a halt to President Donald Trump’s assault on Wisconsin’s election results. In his lawsuit, Trump sought to have over 220,000 votes tossed out based on alleged irregularities in how Dane County and Milwaukee County administered the election — an argument that could and should have been brought before the election.

Full Article: Paul Higginbotham: Justice Hagedorn chose the rule of law over political pressure | Column | madison.com

Michigan: Paper ballots verified election results, says Dominion CEO in Senate oversight hearing | Samuel Dodge/MLive.com

Dominion Voting Systems CEO John Poulos defended the integrity of his company’s tabulating machines Tuesday during a state Senate Oversight Committee hearing. The company has been the focus of a “disinformation campaign,” Poulos told committee members on Dec. 15, adding that he is not aware of any legal claim against his hardware or software that hasn’t been dismissed or deemed “inaccurate” in court. Even in the slim chance Dominion’s machines were compromised, he said, a hand count of the physical paper ballots would have shown disparities before the vote was certified by the Board of State Canvassers. “All the tabulator does is count the votes of the paper ballots that have been created and securely cast by the voters,” he said during his three-hour testimony. “The number reported by the machine can always be compared to a hand count of those original paper ballots. People can speculate about votes being switched or secret algorithms or glitches, but if any of that were true, the paper ballots wouldn’t match the machine count.” The state canvassing board certified the vote last month, and President Donald Trump has not requested a hand recount. Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson will conduct a post-election audit, while the Michigan Bureau of Elections and Antrim County officials will tally all ballots by hand there, as many allegations against Dominion center around initial disparities reported in the county on Nov. 3.

Source: Paper ballots verified election results, says Dominion CEO in Senate oversight hearing - mlive.com