Pennsylvania GOP Lawmakers Make Clear They Won’t Overturn The Election As Trump Wants | Alison Durkee/Forbes

Republican state lawmakers in Pennsylvania will not make any attempt to overturn the state’s popular vote by appointing their own presidential electors, the legislature’s leadership said in a statement Thursday, killing the Trump campaign’s hopes of contesting President-elect Joe Biden’s win in the state even as other Pennsylvania Republicans take an election challenge to the U.S. Supreme Court. Pennsylvania Senate President Pro Tempore Jake Corman, House Speaker Bryan Cutler, Senate Majority Leader Kim Ward and House Majority Leader Kerry Benninghoff said they “cannot take steps to appoint electors for this election,” as the Trump campaign has expressly asked state lawmakers to do. The Trump campaign pushed the tactic at a recent unofficial hearing with some Pennsylvania Republicans and has asked the courts to order that lawmakers step in, as part of a broader long-shot strategy targeting GOP-led legislatures in battleground states that elected Biden. The lawmakers said the state legislature “lacks the authority...to overturn the popular vote” by appointing its own electors and would violate Pennsylvania’s Election Code and Constitution if they did, as well as set a bad precedent.

Full Article: Pennsylvania GOP Lawmakers Make Clear They Won’t Overturn The Election As Trump Wants

Pennsylvania: US Supreme Court again asked to block Biden win | Marc Levy/Associated Press

Fresh off another rejection in Pennsylvania’s courts, Republicans on Thursday again asked the U.S. Supreme Court to block President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in the battleground state, while the state’s lawyers say fatal flaws in the original case mean justices are highly unlikely to grant it. Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly of northwestern Pennsylvania and the other plaintiffs are asking the high court to prevent the state from certifying any contests from the Nov. 3 election, and undo any certifications already made, such as Biden’s victory, while its lawsuit is considered. They maintain that Pennsylvania’s expansive vote-by-mail law is unconstitutional because it required a constitutional amendment to authorize its provisions. However, in a sign that the case is likely too late to affect the election, Justice Samuel Alito ordered the state’s lawyers to respond by Dec. 9, a day after what is known as the safe harbor deadline. That means that Congress cannot challenge any electors named by this date in accordance with state law. Biden beat President Donald Trump by more than 80,000 votes in Pennsylvania, a state Trump had won in 2016. Most mail-in ballots were submitted by Democrats. Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court threw out the case Saturday. Kelly’s lawyers sought an injunction Tuesday in the U.S. Supreme Court, then withdrew it while they asked the state’s high court to halt any certifications until the U.S. Supreme Court acts. The state’s justices refused Thursday, and Kelly’s lawyers promptly refiled the case in the U.S. Supreme Court.

Full Article: Supreme Court again asked to block Biden win in Pennsylvania

Wisconsin high court declines to hear Trump election lawsuit | Scott Bauer/Associated Press

A split Wisconsin Supreme Court on Thursday refused to hear President Donald Trump’s lawsuit attempting to overturn his loss to Democrat Joe Biden in the battleground state, sidestepping a decision on the merits of the claims and instead ruling that the case must first wind its way through lower courts. The defeat on a 4-3 ruling was the latest in a string of losses for Trump’s post-election lawsuits. Judges in multiple battleground states have rejected his claims of fraud or irregularities. Dissenting conservative justices said the decision would forever “stain” the outcome of the election. Trump asked the Wisconsin Supreme Court to disqualify more than 221,000 ballots in the state’s two biggest Democratic counties, alleging irregularities in the way absentee ballots were administered. His lawsuit echoed claims that were earlier rejected by election officials in those counties during a recount that barely affected Biden’s winning margin of about 20,700 votes. Trump had wanted the conservative-controlled Wisconsin Supreme Court to take the case directly, saying there wasn’t enough time to wage the legal battle by starting first with a lower court given the looming Dec. 14 date when presidential electors cast their votes. But attorneys for Democratic Gov. Tony Evers and the state Department of Justice argued the the lawsuit had to start with lower courts. Swing Justice Brian Hagedorn joined three liberal justices in denying the petition without weighing in on Trump’s allegations.

Full Article: Wisconsin high court declines to hear Trump election lawsuit

Wisconsin: Trump sues in federal court to put state lawmakers in charge of election outcome | Molly Beck/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

President Donald Trump and his allies are bombarding state and federal judges across the country with lawsuits seeking to change the outcome of the presidential election — the latest in a Wisconsin federal court. Trump called on a federal judge late Wednesday to respond to the case within 48 hours as the president seeks to find a foothold in a courtroom before the Electoral College meets in 11 days to finalize the election for President-elect Joe Biden. The lawsuit by the Trump campaign challenges absentee voting in Wisconsin by arguing it discriminates against "able-bodied" voters, that broad availability of voting by mail contradicts the Wisconsin Legislature's disfavor of such voting, and because ballot drop boxes were not manned. "While everyone understands that public officials working in cities and towns across Wisconsin are dedicated and selfless, it should not be a moment of pride that the Wisconsin Elections Commission offered so little guidance that absentee ballots could be intermingled with library books and utility bills," the suit argues. On Thursday, the case was assigned to Judge Brett Ludwig in the eastern district court in Milwaukee. Trump named Ludwig to the seat earlier this year to fill the long-vacant seat of Judge Rudolph Randa, who died in 2016. The U.S. Senate confirmed Ludwig on Sept. 9. That action came hours before the Wisconsin Supreme Court declined to hear a separate case filed by Trump attorneys. That case, which seeks to nullify more than 200,000 votes cast in Milwaukee and Dane counties, is likely to be refiled in state circuit court.

Full Article: Trump files federal court challenge to Wisconsin election outcome

Alaska: Lawsuit challenges new ranked-choice voting ballot measure | James Brooks/Anchorage Daily News

The Alaskan Independence Party, its chairman and two Anchorage residents are suing the state of Alaska to overturn Ballot Measure 2, a sweeping election reform initiative that would install ranked-choice voting in Alaska’s general elections. Their lawsuit, filed Tuesday, claims that the measure would violate the plaintiffs’ rights “to free political association, free speech, right to petition, right to due process” and other rights guaranteed by the Alaska and U.S. constitutions. Filed against the state of Alaska and the Alaska Division of Elections, the lawsuit requests that the measure be nullified, that it not be used in future elections, and for “costs, damages, and attorney fees as may be appropriate.” If plaintiffs win, Alaska would keep its existing elections system. Attorney Ken Jacobus, also one of the plaintiffs, said he wrote the lawsuit broadly in hopes that other plaintiffs will join. Christine Hutchison, a member of the Alaska Republican Party Central Committee, said she will request that the party’s leaders discuss the lawsuit at their next meeting on Dec. 7. Hutchison shared her thoughts Tuesday afternoon as a caller on the KSRM Kenai talk radio show hosted by the Independence Party’s chairman, Bob Bird. Earlier this year, Republican Party chairman Glenn Clary told lawmakers that if the measure passed, his party would consider a legal challenge.

Full Article: Lawsuit challenges Alaska’s new ranked-choice voting ballot measure - Anchorage Daily News

National: Calls for martial law and US military oversight of new presidential election draws criticism | Howard Altman , Davis Winkie , Sarah Sicard , Meghann Myers , and Leo Shane III/Military Times

The idea that the U.S. military would oversee a new nationwide presidential election — ordered under martial law by President Donald Trump — is “insane in a year that we didn’t think could get anymore insane,” a defense official tells Military Times. Yet retired Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn promoted that exact idea Tuesday evening when he tweeted a press release from an Ohio-based conservative political organization. Calling former Vice President Joe Biden’s Nov. 3 victory over Trump “fraudulent,” the Ohio-based “We The People Convention” took out a full-page ad in the Washington Times on Tuesday urging Trump to “immediately declare a limited form of Martial Law, and temporarily suspend the Constitution and civilian control of these federal elections, for the sole purpose of having the military oversee a re-vote.” The organization called for the revote to include only registered voters with photo IDs, to be limited to only paper ballots, to be hand counted and with members of both Democrat and Republican parties observing. “Unfortunately, we are at the point where we can only trust our military to do this because our corrupt political class and courts have proven their inability to act fairly and within the law,” the group argued. The White House did not respond to a request for comment about the call for martial law. But during a press briefing Wednesday afternoon, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany referred to Flynn as “a valiant hero who served his country both on the battlefield and then in government” but did not reference his calls for military action in response to the election results.

Full Article: Calls for martial law and US military oversight of new presidential election draws criticism

National: Krebs describes threats to election officials as ‘undermining democracy’ | Maggie Miller/The Hill

Christoper Krebs, the nation’s former top cybersecurity official, said Wednesday that recent threats against election officials were “undemocratic” and “undermined democracy.” “I’ve received death threats, a number of these officials have received death threats, and to me, there aren’t good words to describe how un-American and undemocratic it is that the actual individuals responsible for the process of this most sacred democratic institution of elections are the ones that are getting the blowback here,” Krebs, the former director of the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), said during a virtual event hosted by The Washington Post. "We are actively undermining democracy. We are actively undermining confidence in the electoral process," Krebs said. Krebs was fired by President Trump last month after pushing back against Trump’s unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud and election interference through CISA’s “rumor control” webpage, and after CISA signed on to a statement with state and local officials calling the 2020 election the “most secure in American history.” His comments came two days after Joe diGenova, an attorney for Trump’s reelection campaign, appeared on “The Howie Carr Show” and called for Krebs to be “drawn and quartered” and “taken out at dawn and shot” due to Krebs’s comments backing the high security of the election. The attorney later walked back his comments and said they were made “in jest,” according to a statement given to the National Review, though Krebs in a separate interview on NBC’s “Today” threatened legal action.”

Source: Krebs describes threats to election officials as 'undermining democracy' | TheHill

National: Trump Delivers 46-Minute Diatribe on the ‘Rigged’ Election From White House | Michael D. Shear/The New York Times

President Trump on Wednesday released a 46-minute videotaped speech that denounced a “rigged” election and was filled with lies the day after his own attorney general joined election officials across the country in attesting to his defeat. Mr. Trump recorded what he said “may be the most important speech I’ve ever made” in the Diplomatic Room of the White House and delivered it behind a lectern bearing the presidential seal. He then posted a two-minute version on Twitter, with a link to the full version on his Facebook page. The president once again refused to concede defeat in his bid for re-election almost a month after Election Day, repeating a long list of false assertions about voter fraud and accusing Democrats of a conspiracy to steal the presidency. Twitter quickly labeled the post “disputed.” Facebook added a note that President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr., who received almost 81 million votes and 306 electoral votes, is the projected winner of the election. The video, which a White House official said was recorded last week, was the in-person embodiment of Mr. Trump’s staccato tweets over the past three weeks: one falsehood after another about voting irregularities in swing states, attacks on state officials and signature verifications, and false accusations against Democrats. The president’s rambling assertions in the video were drastically undercut on Tuesday, when Attorney General William P. Barr told The Associated Press that despite inquiries by the Justice Department and the F.B.I., “to date, we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in the election.”

Full Article: Trump Delivers 46-Minute Diatribe on the 'Rigged' Election From White House - The New York Times.

 

 

National: Election officials warn Trump’s escalating attacks on voting are putting their staffs at risk | Michelle Ye Hee Lee and Emma Brown/The Washington Post

Intensifying attacks on the integrity of the vote by President Trump and his allies are fueling deep alarm among state and local officials, who have watched with dread in recent weeks as election workers have been targeted by fast-spreading conspiracy theories. They echoed calls by Gabriel Sterling, a top Republican election official in Georgia who on Tuesday urged Trump and other GOP politicians to tamp down their baseless claims of widespread fraud. In an impassioned statement, Sterling blamed the president for “inspiring people to commit potential acts of violence.” He noted that a 20-year-old contractor for Dominion Voting Systems has been besieged with online attacks after QAnon supporters falsely claimed a video showed him manipulating voting data, when he was in fact simply using a computer and thumb drive. Similar threats have cropped up across the country since Election Day. In Arizona, authorities are investigating calls for violence against the family and staff of Secretary of State Katie Hobbs (D). In Vermont, state election officials received multiple voice mails Tuesday from an individual who urged violence against the staff — including execution by firing squad, according to the secretary of state’s office. “When it rises to the level of obscenities being shouted at my staff on a regular basis, or threats of physical violence, it has gone too far,” Vermont Secretary of State Jim Condos (D) said in a statement to The Washington Post. “The conspiracy theories and unfounded rhetoric being pushed by the President and his team only serve to inspire this dangerous behavior, and deepen the divide between the American people — THIS HAS TO STOP.”

Full Article: Election officials warn Trump’s escalating attacks on voting are putting their staffs at risk - The Washington Post

National: For Trump supporters primed to disbelieve defeat, challenging the election was a civic duty | Dennis Wagner, Ryan Miller, Nick Penzenstadler, Kevin McCoy, and Donovan Slack/USA Today

In the days after the election, Trump’s allies and attorneys mobilized to stop the counting, delay certification of the results and challenge the legitimacy of ballots. People like Seely provided statements about what they saw, heard and suspected. These statements were the foundation upon which the lawsuits were built. In Michigan, Arizona, Pennsylvania and Georgia – all swing states – they swore they had witnessed poll workers filling out blank ballots, changing votes, processing and backdating flawed ballots, delivering suspicious trunks to counting rooms and blocking, ignoring or intimidating GOP monitors. Many of those allegations crumbled under scrutiny. Their beliefs have not. Those who submitted statements under penalty of perjury reflect a cross-section of America: blue- and white-collar workers, homemakers, retirees, students, military personnel. Their statements generally seem sincere and straightforward.

Full Article: Meet the Americans involved in Trump lawsuits challenging the election

National: Army Hits Back Against False Claim that Soldiers Died in CIA Op to Nab Election Servers | Gina Harkins/Military.com

A retired Air Force three-star general reignited baseless conspiratorial claims about U.S. troops' involvement in clandestine missions in the wake of the presidential election -- claims an Army official said are 100% false. No Special Forces soldiers were killed while seizing computer servers in Germany as part of a CIA operation after the presidential election. There was, in fact, no mission of the sort. And members of the 305th Military Intelligence Battalion are not "the Kraken" that an attorney for President Donald Trump said last month she'd be unleashing. The unit is not involved in any post-election missions supporting the White House -- a move that would be highly unlikely considering it's an entry-level training battalion where new soldiers who haven't yet picked up their military occupational specialty are assigned. "The allegations are false," an Army official told Military.com. Retired Lt. Gen. Thomas McInerney made the claims last weekend on a show hosted by Brannon Howse on the far-right WVW Broadcast Network, which streamed the discussion on YouTube. The claims quickly spread on social media, with users tying the retired general's comments to unsubstantiated allegations of fraud during November's presidential election. WVW Broadcast Network did not respond to requests for comment from McInerney or Howse. The network also did not respond to questions about whether it would issue a correction about the claims made about soldiers dying in Germany or picking up missions for the CIA and White House.

Full Article: Army Hits Back Against False Claim that Soldiers Died in CIA Op to Nab Election Servers | Military.com

Editorial: If William Barr can admit Trump lost, why can’t other Republicans? | Jennifer Rubin/The Washington Post

The Post reports: “Attorney General William P. Barr told the Associated Press on Tuesday that he has ‘not seen fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in the election,’ undercutting claims that President Trump and his allies have made — without evidence — of widespread and significant voting irregularities.” Barr also batted down the incoherent and utterly false assertion from Trump’s lawyers that, as he put it during an interview with the Associated Press, “machines were programmed essentially to skew the election results.” Clearly, the attorney general has come a long way from his efforts to foment the false assertion that voting by mail was inherently vulnerable to fraud. While some may feel tempted to praise Barr for acknowledging reality, the critical issue is why he so enthusiastically joined Trump’s attempt before Nov. 3 to delegitimize our election. Moreover, why has he not admonished Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) and Trump for seeming to put pressure on state election officials to refuse certifying valid results? And why did he appoint U.S. Attorney John Durham on Tuesday as special counsel into the origins of the Russia probe — an outrageously partisan and likely illegal move that guarantees the investigation will continue into the incoming Biden administration? Barr apparently needs reminding that, without hope of cover from the president, his hyperpoliticization of the Justice Department (e.g., spinning the Mueller report, intervening in the Michael Flynn case) might come under scrutiny in the next administration. In any case, a voice of sanity — once more from outside D.C. — reminds us just how irresponsible congressional Republicans have been by remaining silent about Trump’s ongoing efforts to undermine the election. Georgia voting official Gabe Sterling, a Republican, denounced the president’s behavior as well as the public suggestion from Trump lawyer Joe diGenova that fired cybersecurity official Christopher Krebs be “executed.” (DiGenova later implausibly claimed he was joking).

Full Article: Opinion | If William Barr can admit Trump lost, why can’t other Republicans? - The Washington Post

Arizona: Trump supporters file federal suit seeking to overturn election results | Local news | Howard Fischer/Arizona Daily Star

Supporters of President Trump filed suit in federal court Wednesday in their latest bid to throw out the certified popular vote results that awarded Arizona’s 11 electors to Joe Biden. The lawsuit alleges “widespread ballot fraud,” due in part to Dominion Voting Systems machines used in Maricopa County, which they assert were designed purposely to take votes away from Trump. Attorney Sidney Powell specifically blames that on Eric Coomer, an executive with the company, and “his visceral and public rage against the current U.S. president.” She said it is part of a criminal conspiracy. Dominion officials have repeatedly said the company’s software and hardware are secure. The lawsuit, filed on behalf of Arizona GOP Chairwoman Kelli Ward, among others, also claims poll watchers were unable to adequately monitor that the signatures on envelopes of mail-in ballots were verified. It refers to “biased and partisan Maricopa County poll referees.” It also says not enough people were allowed to observe the process. Overall, the lawsuit claims, there were at least 412,494 illegal ballots counted in Arizona, far more than Biden’s 10,547-vote margin over Trump.

Full Article: Trump supporters file federal suit seeking to overturn Arizona's election results | Local news | tucson.com

Florida: Republican election official rips ‘baseless’ and ‘destructive’ voter fraud conspiracies | Steve Contorno/Tampa Bay Times

Brian Corley, the Pasco County Supervisor of Elections and a Republican, issued a blistering condemnation on Wednesday of the “baseless claims and misinformation intent upon undermining the election results” that have emanated from his party in the last month. In a lengthy statement, Corley called on Americans to accept the results of “the most secure, transparent election in history.” As Corley made clear, that result is that Joe Biden is the president-elect and will be sworn into office Jan. 20. “It’s time to stop the destructive rhetoric and to stop prioritizing politics at the expense of our country’s founding principles,” Corley said in the statement. Corley was compelled to speak, he wrote, after watching Georgia election official Gabriel Sterling on Tuesday plead for President Donald Trump to stop inflaming conspiracies about the election. In a speech that has been watched by millions of people in the past 24 hours, Sterling warned that “someone is going to get killed” if Trump doesn’t back away from the baseless attacks on voting, election workers and Republicans who dare to suggest he lost.

Full Article: Republican election official in Florida rips 'baseless' and 'destructive' voter fraud conspiracies

Georgia: Voting rights groups sue over removal of registered voters | David Wickert/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

 

Voting rights groups filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday that accuses the Georgia secretary of state’s office of improperly removing nearly 200,000 people from the state’s voter registration list last year. The lawsuit says the state removed tens of thousands of voters from the list because it believed they had moved away when, in fact, they had not. It also challenges a “use it or lose it” provision in state law that allows Georgia to purge voters who do not cast ballots for many years. That allowed the state to remove tens of thousands more voters, the lawsuit says. The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Atlanta by the Black Voters Matter Fund, the Transformative Justice Coalition and the Rainbow Push Coalition. Latosha Brown, a co-founder of the Black Voters Matter Fund, said at a press conference Wednesday announcing the lawsuit that the purge amounted to “massive-scale voter suppression.” The secretary of state disputed the claim of a faulty voter purge when it first arose in September, and it did so again Wednesday. Gabriel Sterling, Georgia’s voter system manager, said the office follows federal rules for maintaining its voter registration list. “Let’s not call it a purge,” Sterling said. “It’s federally mandated list maintenance.” Georgia maintains a database of millions of registered voters. It must keep the list up to date to prevent anyone not eligible to vote in Georgia from casting a ballot. It removes voters from the list if they have died, moved away, been convicted of a felony or failed to vote or contact election officials for many years.

Full Article: Voting rights groups sue Georgia over removal of registered voters

Georgia: Trump Allies Discourage Residents From Voting In January Runoff : Biden Transition Updates | Alana Wise/NPR

Georgia allies of President Trump continue to push baseless accusations of voter fraud in an attempt to have the election results overturned, following weeks of news networks, legal bodies and state certification boards affirming the election win for President-elect Joe Biden. At a rally Wednesday, they went even further, discouraging Georgia residents from voting in the Jan. 5 Senate runoff election. Lin Wood, an attorney and prominent Trump supporter in the state, falsely alleged that the election had been "rigged." In a free-wheeling, conspiracy-laden "Stop the Steal" rally speech, Wood also spoke against Republican Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, and urged rally attendees not to vote for the two in the runoff election. "Do not be fooled twice. This is Georgia, we ain't dumb. We're not going to go vote on January 5th on another machine made by China. You're not going to fool Georgians again," Wood said, pushing the unfounded conspiracy theory that voting machines had been compromised in the Nov. 3 election. "Why would you go back and vote in another rigged election? For God's sake, fix it. You got to fix it before we'll do it again," he continued to resounding cheers from the audience.

Full Article: Trump Allies Discourage Georgia Residents From Voting In January Runoff : Biden Transition Updates : NPR

Iowa Democrat to challenge 6-vote loss in appeal to US House | Ryan J. Foley/Associated Press

A Democratic congressional candidate who trailed by six votes after a recount said Wednesday she will forgo further legal challenges in Iowa and instead appeal directly to the U.S. House for additional recount proceedings. Rita Hart’s campaign had until Wednesday afternoon to contest the election under Iowa law following Monday’s certification of results in which Republican Mariannette Miller-Meeks was declared the winner of the closest House race in decades. An election contest in Iowa would have set in motion the formation of a five-judge panel that would have been required to rule on who won the race by Tuesday, Dec. 8. Hart’s campaign said that quick timeline would not allow enough time to review all the ballots, including thousands of unexamined undervotes and overvotes and a small number of others that were not counted for a variety of reasons. Instead, the campaign said that Hart would file an election contest with the U.S. House under the Federal Contested Elections Act in the coming weeks. Such a filing, due within 30 days after Monday’s certification, will trigger a proceeding in front of the House Committee on Administration that would allow Hart to gather testimony and evidence.

Full Article: Iowa Democrat to challenge 6-vote loss in appeal to US House

Michigan: Trump, Giuliani continue to peddle baseless election conspiracies | Clara Hendrickson/Detroit Free Press

In a longshot bid to overturn the results of the November election won by President-elect Joe Biden, President Donald Trump and his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani continued to peddle baseless conspiracy theories of election fraud Wednesday. In a speech Trump gave at the White House and remarks Giuliani made before the House Oversight Committee in Michigan, the two leveled a number of false allegations about absentee ballots counted in Detroit. The allegations have already been discredited by election officials and in court. But that didn't stop Trump from falsely claiming that he won the election in Michigan when in fact he lost the state by more than 154,000 votes. Appearing before the oversight committee Wednesday evening, Giuliani, who is in charge of the Trump campaign's election-related litigation, repeated wild claims that election software changed votes and that votes were counted overseas. He spent most of his time questioning people who said they witnessed election fraud at the TCF Center in Detroit, where Detroit election workers processed and counted absentee ballots cast by the city's voters. Their allegations were already brought forward in a lawsuit whose account of the events that took place at the TCF Center was rejected as inaccurate and lacking credibility in court. The House committee launched a joint investigation with the Senate Oversight Committee into the November election the same day major television networks declared that Biden won the presidency.

Full Article: Trump, Giuliani continue to peddle baseless election conspiracies

New Hampshire: Gardner Holds Onto Role As Nation’s Longest Serving Secretary of State | Casey McDermott/New Hampshire Public Radio

Wednesday marked another career milestone for New Hampshire Secretary of State Bill Gardner, who sailed without opposition into a 23rd term, upholding his position as the longest-serving Secretary of State in the nation. The moment stood in sharp contrast to the start of Gardner's most recent term, when he just barely fended off a challenge from former Democratic gubernatorial candidate Colin Van Ostern. Joining the Legislature for an unprecedented outdoor Organization Day, held on an athletic field at the University of New Hampshire to accommodate concerns about COVID-19, Gardner started off his latest term by asked the newly seated lawmakers to appreciate the historical significance of the task ahead. “You’ll have something for your children, your grandchildren, that you’re going to remember and pass onto them,” Gardner said. “At a time when there were a lot of struggles, a lot of anxiety, a lot of disagreement, but we’re getting through it. And it’s going to be up to all of you to do your share as part of that and honor the great state that all our voters have honored, and have chosen you to represent them in this biennium.”

Full Article: Gardner Holds Onto Role As Nation's Longest Serving Secretary of State | New Hampshire Public Radio

New York: 12 Votes Separated These House Candidates. Then 55 Ballots Were Found. | Luis Ferré-Sadurní and Jesse McKinley/The New York Times

After all the votes had been counted in a heated House rematch in Central New York, only 12 votes separated Claudia Tenney, a former Republican congresswoman, from Representative Anthony Brindisi, a Democrat. But the razor-thin margin is far from the only reason the race is engulfed in chaos. There was the case of the missing Post-it notes, which had mysteriously fallen off a stack of disputed ballots, making it unclear whether they had been counted and why they had been challenged. The scandal has been christened “StickyGate” by local media. Now comes the disclosure that 55 in-person ballots, apparently “mislaid and never counted,” according to a lawyer for the Chenango County Board of Elections, were found by elections workers in that county. Eleven of the ballots are invalid, officials said, because the voters weren’t registered. Of the remaining 44 ballots, more were cast by Republicans, which should favor Ms. Tenney, who holds the 12-vote lead. The bombshell revelation was but the latest twist in a race — the second closest House contest in the nation — that will ultimately be decided by the courts and could take weeks to resolve if it leads to a recount. The fate of the race is of utmost importance for House Democrats, who are holding on to a slim majority after a disconcerting election cycle in which 12 Democratic incumbents have suffered defeat.

Full Article: 12 Votes Separated These House Candidates. Then 55 Ballots Were Found. - The New York Times

North Carolina: Federal appeals court backs voter ID law | Travis Fain/WRAL

A 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel unanimously reversed a lower court's ruling on voter ID on Wednesday, paving the way to require photo identification in the state's next elections. The panel of three judges said the lower court made numerous errors and "abused its discretion" in blocking the state from requiring photo ID during the November elections, a requirement voters wrote into the North Carolina constitution in 2018. U.S. District Judge Loretta Biggs blocked implementation a year ago, pointing in part to past evidence of racial discrimination in North Carolina and a previous federal court decision to block a 2013 voter ID law as discriminatory. The 4th Circuit judges acknowledged in their opinion Wednesday that there is "a long and shameful history of race-based voter suppression in North Carolina," but they said courts must presume legislatures act in good faith when laws are passed. "The outcome hinges on the answer to a simple question: How much does the past matter?" the judges said in their opinion. "A legislature’s past acts do not condemn the acts of a later legislature, which we must presume acts in good faith." The judges also said Biggs' decision to block voter ID during the past elections was riddled with "fundamental legal errors."

Full Article: Federal appeals court backs NC voter ID law :: WRAL.com

Ohio tea party leader urges Trump to suspend the Constitution, declare martial law to hold new vote | Jeremy Pelzer/Cleveland Plain Dealer

A prominent Ohio tea party leader has taken out a full-page ad in the Washington Times calling on President Donald Trump to temporarily suspend the Constitution and declare martial law to stage a “re-vote” of the 2020 presidential election. The ad, placed by Tom Zawistowski of the We the People Convention, drew swift criticism from at least one top Ohio Republican. In the ad, Zawistowski states that when Democrat Joe Biden is formally elected the next president, as is expected, Trump should order the U.S. military to oversee a new election for federal candidates using only paper ballots. Zawistowski cited unfounded claims of voter fraud, many of which have been vocally pushed by Trump himself. Trump’s campaign has filed dozens of lawsuits in battleground states narrowly won by Biden, though those suits have mostly been thrown out or withdrawn. “Without a fair vote, we fear, with good reason, the threat of a shooting civil war is imminent,” the ad states, adding a vague warning that if Trump doesn’t declare martial law, “We will also have no other choice but to take matters into our own hands, and defend our rights on our own.” Zawistowski, also the executive director of the Portage County Tea Party, has been one of Ohio’s most visible tea party leaders. Known in Ohio political circles as “Tom Z.,” he ran unsuccessfully for Ohio Republican Party chair in 2013.

Full Article: Ohio tea party leader urges Trump to suspend the Constitution, declare martial law to hold new vote - cleveland.com

Pennsylvania Republicans Say Supreme Court Could Yet Upend Vote | Bob Van Voris/Bloomberg

Pennsylvania Republicans who sued to block additional steps to certify the state’s election results claim there’s a “reasonable possibility” the U.S. Supreme Court will take up their long-shot appeal and a “fair prospect” the justices will rule in their favor. Republican plaintiffs led by U.S. Representative Mike Kelly on Wednesday asked the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to grant an emergency delay of its ruling allowing state officials to complete their certification of results in favor of President-elect Joe Biden and other candidates. They said the status quo needed to be preserved while they try to appeal their case to the U.S. Supreme Court. Though President Donald Trump has often mused that the Supreme Court and its 6-3 conservative majority could deliver the election to him, legal experts doubt the court will get involved in any election disputes, especially since Biden’s electoral vote lead is large enough that no one case would change the results. Pennsylvania has argued that certification of Biden’s victory over Trump is complete, but the plaintiffs claim there are several steps that remain. The Electoral College vote to certify the presidential election results doesn’t take place until Dec. 14. The lawsuit claimed that a 2019 expansion of mail-in voting in the state was illegal under the state constitution. A Pittsburgh judge initially granted them an injunction, but the state supreme court overturned that decision and threw the case out on Saturday.

Full Article: Pennsylvania Republicans Say Supreme Court Could Yet Upend Vote - Bloomberg

Vermont elections team receives threats as Trump continues to claim fraud | Kit Norton/VTDigger

The Vermont Secretary of State’s Office has received threats against its elections team, with messages from an unnamed individual saying workers who oversaw the 2020 election process should be executed by firing squad. Election officials across the country, including in key battleground states like Georgia, have also received death threats as President Donald Trump continues to allege widespread voter fraud and a rigged process that resulted in his overwhelming defeat by President-elect Joe Biden. State and national election officials have found no fraud, and courts have rejected virtually all of Trump’s challenges. The threat against the Vermont Secretary of State’s Office occurred Tuesday, the same day that a top election official in Georgia chastised Trump for questioning the integrity of that state’s election results and creating an environment in which people feel emboldened to harass and threaten the officials who oversee the vote totals.

Full Article: State elections team receives threats as Trump continues to claim fraud - VTDigger

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers attorneys claim Donald Trump engaging in ‘a shocking and outrageous assault on our democracy’ | Bill Glaubner/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Attorneys for Gov. Tony Evers blasted President Donald Trump's push to toss out ballots in Milwaukee and Dane counties as "a shocking and outrageous assault on our democracy." "The relief he seeks is wrong as a matter of law, incorrect as a matter of fact, and mistaken as a matter of procedure," Evers' attorneys wrote Tuesday night in response to the Trump lawsuit to overturn election results in Wisconsin and claim the state's 10 electoral votes. President-elect Joe Biden defeated Trump by about 20,700 votes in the Nov. 3 election and after a partial recount paid for by the Trump campaign. The victory was certified Monday by Evers and the head of the Wisconsin Elections Commission. Trump sued Wisconsin election officials Tuesday, asking the Wisconsin Supreme Court to revoke Evers' certification of the election and review a partial recount of votes in Milwaukee and Dane counties. Trump's lawsuit challenged more than 220,000 ballots cast in Dane and Milwaukee counties, alleged election officials broke the law by continuing the long-standing practice of early voting, allowed voters to avoid the voter ID law by labeling themselves indefinitely confined, allowed clerks to fill in missing information on absentee ballot envelopes and collected absentee ballots in Madison parks.

Full Article: Gov. Tony Evers attorneys claim Donald Trump engaging in 'a shocking and outrageous assault on our democracy'

Wisconsin: Timing Key In Arguments Against Trump’s State Election Lawsuit | Shawn Johnson/Wisconsin Public Radio

Democrats fighting the Trump campaign's efforts to overturn Wisconsin's election results called the lawsuit "an affront to the voters of Dane and Milwaukee Counties" and a "shocking and outrageous assault on democracy" in briefs filed Tuesday with the state Supreme Court. But the heart of their case could rest on a much simpler argument: The president's lawsuit was filed in the wrong place, and at the wrong time. The Trump campaign seeks to throw out more than 220,000 absentee ballots cast in Dane and Milwaukee counties, including more than 170,000 ballots that were cast in person before Election Day. Clerks who accepted those ballots relied on guidance handed down by the Wisconsin Elections Commission, some of which had been in place since 2011. In a brief filed on behalf of Gov. Tony Evers, attorney Jeff Mandell argued that the time to challenge those guidelines was before the election, not after. "President Trump chose to lie in the weeds for months nursing unasserted grievances with WEC, county, and municipal policies, and even a decision of this Court, only to spring out after the election and invoke those grievances in an effort to nullify the exercise of the right to vote by more than 200,000 Wisconsinite(s) who cast their ballots in good faith," Mandell wrote. " Nothing could be more damaging to the exercise of a critical constitutional right than retroactively nullifying that right entirely."

Full Article: Timing Key In Arguments Against Trump's State Election Lawsuit | Wisconsin Public Radio

‘Someone’s going to get killed’: GOP election official in Georgia blames President Trump for fostering violent threats | Amy Gardner and Keith Newell/The Washington Post

A top Republican election official in Georgia lashed out at President Trump during a news conference Tuesday in Atlanta, blaming him for a flood of threats that have besieged his office and calling on the president and other Republicans to condemn the behavior. Gabriel Sterling, a voting systems manager for Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, was visibly angry and shaken as he approached a lectern in the Georgia Capitol. “Mr. President, you have not condemned these actions or this language,” he said. “Senators, you have not condemned this language or these actions. . . . Stop inspiring people to commit potential acts of violence.” He added: “That shouldn’t be too much to ask for people who ask us to give them responsibility.” Sterling’s public chastisement represents one of the strongest rebukes yet of Trump’s baseless attacks on the election’s integrity by a member of his own party. The episode revealed a fissure that has been widening within the Republican Party for weeks as Trump has claimed falsely, again and again, that President-elect Joe Biden won through election fraud. Although more and more local and state Republicans have acknowledged Biden’s victory — and said they have seen no evidence of widespread fraud — most national GOP officials, including Georgia’s two U.S. senators seeking reelection in twin runoffs on Jan. 5, have refused to do so.

Full Article: ‘Someone’s going to get killed’: GOP election official in Georgia blames President Trump for fostering violent threats - The Washington Post

Trump’s Pennsylvania allies appeal legal bid to overturn the election to Supreme Court, even as Barr says there’s no evidence of widespread fraud | Jeremy Roebuck/Philadelphia Inquirer

Even as the nation’s top prosecutor said Tuesday that the U.S. Justice Department had not uncovered evidence of widespread voting fraud that would have changed the outcome of the 2020 election, President Donald Trump and his allies in Pennsylvania persisted with their unsupported claims of a stolen election and sought to revive rejected legal bids to overturn the results. Rep. Mike Kelly (R., Butler), one of Trump’s top boosters in Congress, turned to the U.S. Supreme Court, asking it to issue an emergency order decertifying the state’s returns, which declared President-elect Joe Biden the victor by some 81,000 votes. Meanwhile, Rudy Giuliani, the president’s lawyer, continued his barnstorming of battleground states that started with a raucous GOP rally in Gettysburg last week by announcing plans for a similar event on “election irregularities” in Michigan on Wednesday. But despite the continued refusal of the president and his allies to concede his loss, Attorney General William Barr broke significantly with them Tuesday during an interview with the Associated Press, saying there was little reason to doubt the results. He said: “We have not seen fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in this election.”

Full Article: Trump’s Pa. allies appeal legal bid to overturn the election to SCOTUS, even as Barr says there’s no evidence of widespread fraud

More and More Republican Officials Are Standing Up to Trump and His Effort to Overturn the Election | Richard L. Hasen/Slate

On Monday, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey added his name to the list of Republican officials who have acted admirably to uphold the rule of law following President Donald Trump’s unprecedented attacks on the election, appearing to ignore a phone call from the White House while certifying his state’s critical 11 Electoral College votes for President-elect Joe Biden. Along with a number of Federalist Society-aligned judges, other GOP governors, and lower-ranking Republican election officials, Ducey and others have earned this praise in the wake of Trump’s ongoing—and ultimately futile—effort to overturn the 2020 election. We can thank principled people on the right for helping to assure that we will have a peaceful transition of power between Trump and Biden. And given the extremely dangerous rhetoric still coming from some high-profile Trump supporters—including suggestions that the president declare martial law, call off elections, or have former government officials who have vouched for the election’s integrity shot—those with progressive politics and democratic ideals need the continued support of ideological adversaries who are similarly committed to the rule of law. The last few months have been surreal for those of us in the business of analyzing American election law and explaining it to the public. Never before have we had a president or presidential candidate who has consistently made false and outrageous claims of vote rigging and election fraud. Trump’s false claims did not stop after it became apparent that Joe Biden had rather comfortably won election in the Electoral College by a 306–232 margin (and with at least a 6 million popular vote margin). They did not stop when Trump lost almost every single one of his election-related lawsuits around the country. And they likely won’t stop when Trump leaves office in January. Trump has convinced millions of his most ardent supporters that the election was stolen, and this will help to delegitimize the Biden presidency in their eyes. Although Trump’s attempts to overturn the election have been sometimes comically bad and based upon either unproven claims of fraud and irregularities or outlandish legal theories, the reason that these outrageous claims did not work is that most people across the political spectrum who play a role in the counting of ballots and in certifying the results have complied with the rule of law.

Full Article: The Republican officials who have gone against Trump.

National: Trump voter fraud claims target counties with more Black, Latino votes | Kristine Phillips/USA Today

In courtrooms across the country, judges have issued one withering rebuke after another, rejecting President Donald Trump's campaign's efforts to invalidate millions of votes and cast doubt on the election he lost. By Monday, all swing states had certified Democrat Joe Biden's victory, even as the president and his allies continued to challenge the results. To many, the series of events proved that the election system survived an unprecedented challenge. Yet some fear the damage to democracy has been done, particularly to communities of color. Trump and his allies have spent weeks telling the public that massive voter fraud and irregularities occurred in big cities and counties with large populations of Black and Latino voters. These sweeping allegations raised concerns among voting rights experts that the president is perpetuating a harmful perception: that voters of color are the culprit in an unfounded – but widely believed – conspiracy to rig the election, and their votes should be invalidated. Trump's effort to blame cities, such as Detroit and Philadelphia, ignores a critical point: Suburbs and exurbs in swing states propelled Biden to victory – not urban centers, where Trump won more votes than he did four years ago.

Full Article: Trump voter fraud claims target counties with more Black, Latino votes