Wisconsin lawmakers unveil bipartisan election overhauls | Harm Venhuizen/Associated Press

Wisconsin lawmakers unveiled bipartisan plans on Thursday to address problems that have disrupted how elections have been administered in the presidential battleground state since 2020. Among other changes, the proposals would prevent last-minute polling site closures, better protect election officials and enact stricter military voting requirements to deter fraud. The bills add to a growing list of proposals from a group of Democrats and Republicans focused on making the state’s elections safer and more secure. Their efforts stand in stark contrast to bills put forth by GOP lawmakers during the last legislative session that sought to limit local clerks’ power and make it harder to vote. One of the bills announced Thursday would raise the penalty for intentionally harming an election official from a misdemeanor to a felony and prohibit public access to records containing an election official’s address. It would also protect election officials from losing their jobs for reporting suspicious activity and fraud. Elections and the people who run them have increasingly become the targets of threats and misinformation in recent cycles, with one in six election officials nationwide reporting that they had been personally threatened, according to a 2022 survey by the Brennan Center for Justice.

Full Article: Wisconsin lawmakers unveil bipartisan election overhauls | AP News

National push to bolster security of key election technology | Christina A. Cassidy/Associated Press

An effort to create a national testing program for technology central to U.S elections will be launched later this year, aiming to strengthen the security of equipment that has been targeted by foreign governments and provided fertile ground for conspiracy theories. So far, states have been left on their own to evaluate the technology that provides the backbone of election operations: voter registration databases, websites used to report unofficial results on election night and electronic pollbooks, which are used instead of paper rolls to check in voters at polling places. The nonprofit Center for Internet Security hopes to provide the nation’s first uniform testing program for the technology, similar to one for voting machines. Its goal is to start the voluntary service in September as a way to help boost the security and reliability of the technology before the 2024 presidential election. In 2020, 15 states, including Arizona, Florida and Nevada, did not require any type of electronic pollbook testing or certification, according to federal data. “This is a critical need being filled at a critical time,” said Chris Wlaschin, senior vice president for Election Systems & Software, a leading voting machine manufacturer that also produces electronic pollbooks. “I think as more election officials learn about it, the more they’re going to ask for it.”

Full Article: National push to bolster security of key election technology | AP News

Roy Saltman, election expert who warned of hanging chads, dies at 90 | Michael S. Rosenwald/The Washington Post

Roy G. Saltman, who as the federal government’s top expert on voting technology wrote a prescient but little-read report warning about hanging chads on punch-card ballots, more than a decade before the issue paralyzed the nation during the 2000 presidential election recount in Florida, died April 21 at a nursing home in Rockville, Md. He was 90. The cause was complications from several recent strokes, said his grandson Max Saltman. Like legions of Washington bureaucrats who are vital figures in their narrow fields but largely unknown to the wider public, Mr. Saltman toiled in obscurity for decades at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, where he wrote several reports examining the history of voting devices and the problems with them. In a 132-page report published in 1988, Mr. Saltman detailed how hanging chads — the tiny pieces of cardboard that sometimes aren’t totally punched out on ballots — had plagued several recent elections, including a 1984 race for property appraiser in Palm Beach County, Fla. “It is recommended,” Mr. Saltman wrote, “that the use of pre-scored punch card ballots be ended.”

Full Article: Roy Saltman, election expert who warned of hanging chads, dies at 90 – The Washington Post

National: Massive turnover in local election officials likely before 2024, says new survey | Jane C. Timm/NBC

A new survey from the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law predicts huge turnover in local election officials before the 2024 election. According to the survey, 12% of local officials began working in their roles after the 2020 election and 11% said they were very or somewhat likely to quit before next year’s election. A small number fell into both categories: new employees who suggested they will leave. Such turnover — about 1 in 5 of all election workers — is significant, the Brennan Center said, and equivalent to one to two election officials’ leaving office every day since the 2020 election. Harassment and threats may be driving some of the departures. Thirty percent of respondents said they’d been personally harassed, abused or threatened, while 22% said they personally knew of election officials who had left their jobs “at least in part because of fear for their safety, increased threats, or intimidation.” (Just 4% of respondents said they knew “many” election officials who were quitting for that reason; the rest said they knew “one or two.”)

Full Article: Massive turnover in local election officials likely before 2024, says new survey 

National: Testimony Suggests Trump Was at Meeting About Accessing Voting Software in 2020 | Richard Fausset and Danny Hakim/The New York Times

Former President Donald J. Trump took part in a discussion about plans to access voting system software in Michigan and Georgia as part of the effort to challenge his 2020 election loss, according to testimony from former Trump advisers. The testimony, delivered to the House Jan. 6 committee, was highlighted on Friday in a letter to federal officials from a liberal-leaning legal advocacy group. Allies of Mr. Trump ultimately succeeded in copying the elections software in those two states, and the breach of voting data in Georgia is being examined by prosecutors as part of a broader criminal investigation into whether Mr. Trump and his allies interfered in the presidential election there. The former president’s participation in the discussion of the Georgia plan could increase his risk of possible legal exposure there. A number of Trump aides and allies have recounted a lengthy and acrimonious meeting in the Oval Office on Dec. 18, 2020, which one member of the House Jan. 6 committee would later call “the craziest meeting of the Trump presidency.” During the meeting, then-President Trump presided as his advisers argued about whether they should seek to have federal agents seize voting machines to analyze them for fraud.

Full Article: Testimony Suggests Trump Was at Meeting About Accessing Voting Software in 2020 – The New York Times

National: The pessimist’s case on the state of American democracy | Zach Montdellaro/Politico

The 2022 election was cast as a defining moment for the future of American democracy, as ballots were filled with election conspiracy-minded candidates running for the offices that actually oversee elections. Most of the focus — including from yours truly — was on the very top of the pyramid: secretaries of state, who in most states serve as the chief election official. A cadre of Trump-aligned election deniers ran for that position in battleground states across the country. Every single one of them lost, either in a Republican primary or to a Democrat in November. At the time, it was framed as a big victory for “lowercase d” democrats — the collective wins of election officials who aren’t likely to entertain a Trumpian attempt to overthrow an election were viewed as a critical bulwark for the security of the 2024 results. Don’t be so sure. A new report shared first with Nightly from Informing Democracy — an under-the-radar research nonprofit of election experts, researchers, and lawyers — argues that while it was a normative good that those top-of-the-ticket candidates lost, people are missing the forest for a few particularly tall trees.

Full Article: The pessimist’s case on the state of American democracy – POLITICO

National: Smartmatic defeats patent lawsuit from voting machine rival ES&S | Blake Brittain/Reuters

Voting technology company Smartmatic USA Corp on Tuesday fended off a patent infringement lawsuit brought by competitor Election Systems & Software LLC, persuading a federal judge that the last patent remaining in the case is invalid. U.S. District Judge Richard Andrews in Delaware said the voting-machine patent covered unpatentable abstract ideas related to “the individual steps of voting.” “Our position has been vindicated and we look forward to putting this matter behind us,” Smartmatic general counsel Colin Flannery said in a statement. Representatives for ES&S did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Omaha, Nebraska-based ES&S sued the U.S. branch of London-based Smartmatic in Delaware in 2018. It said Smartmatic infringed two patents related to improved voter-assistance terminals and ballot-marking devices in voting machines that allow for “more accurate, secure, and efficient voting,” especially for users with physical impairments. ES&S said it learned of Smartmatic’s alleged infringement when the companies both submitted bids for a project to modernize Los Angeles County’s voting system, which Smartmatic won.

Full Article: Smartmatic defeats patent lawsuit from voting machine rival ES&S | Reuters

National: A second firm hired by Trump campaign found no evidence of election fraud | Josh Dawsey/The Washington Post

Former president Trump’s campaign quietly commissioned a second firm to study election fraud claims in the weeks after the 2020 election, and the founder of the firm was recently questioned by the Justice Department about his work disproving the claims. Ken Block, founder of the firm Simpatico Software Systems, studied more than a dozen voter fraud theories and allegations for Trump’s campaign in late 2020 and found they were “all false,” he said in an interview with The Washington Post. “No substantive voter fraud was uncovered in my investigations looking for it, nor was I able to confirm any of the outside claims of voter fraud that I was asked to look at,” he said. “Every fraud claim I was asked to investigate was false.” Block said he recently received a subpoena from special counsel Jack Smith’s office and met with federal prosecutors in Washington, but he declined to discuss his interactions with them. Block said he contemporaneously sent his findings disputing fraud claims in writing to the Trump campaign in late 2020.

Full Article: A second firm hired by Trump campaign found no evidence of election fraud – The Washington Post

National: Fox to hand over documents for 2nd voting machine lawsuit | Bobby Caina Calvan/Associated Press

Fox News agreed Wednesday to hand over thousands of documents to voting machine company Smartmatic, which is suing the network for defamation in a case similar to Dominion Voting Machines’ just-settled lawsuit. Smartmatic says Fox bears financial responsibility for airing false allegations that the company rigged the 2020 presidential election against former President Donald Trump. Last week, Fox agreed to pay Dominion nearly $800 million to avert a trial, although the ultimate cost to the media company is likely to be much lower. Smartmatic wants a $2.7 billion judgment, which far exceeds the $1.6 billion Dominion sought in its suit. No date has been set, and the case might not go to court for a couple of years. Smartmatic said in court filings that Fox “slow-rolled its production” of transcripts and other material that were created during the Dominion suit, and that Smartmatic had received just a small fraction of the more than 52,000 documents it requested as part of the discovery process.

Full Article: Fox to hand over documents for 2nd voting machine lawsuit | AP News

Arizona: Cochise County’s pick for elections director, Bob Bartelsmeyer, spread false claims | Jen Fifield/Votebeat Arizona

Cochise County is close to hiring an elections director who has repeatedly shared false claims about widespread election fraud on Facebook, including claims that the 2020 presidential election was rigged against former President Donald Trump. Bob Bartelsmeyer, currently the elections director in La Paz County, was chosen by Cochise County Recorder David Stevens for the spot. The county supervisors are set to appoint him at their Tuesday meeting, according to a meeting agenda posted on the county website. “Please join me by posting ‘Trump legally won by landslide’” one post shared by Bartelsmeyer in December 2020 said. “REVEALED: ‘Simple Math’ Shows Biden Claims 13 MILLION More Votes Than There Were Eligible Voters Who Voted in 2020,” read another. In Cochise, Bartelsmeyer would be working for a southern Arizona county where the Republican-controlled Board of Supervisors is considering GOP-backed changes to the county’s elections. Proposals include pursuing a potential plan to get rid of the county’s vote-counting machines because of false claims of vote switching that are similar to those shared by Bartelsmeyer in 2020.

Full Article: Cochise County’s pick for elections director, Bob Bartelsmeyer, spread false claims – Votebeat Arizona – Nonpartisan local reporting on elections and voting

California: Shasta County votes to spend millions manually counting ballots — and not all voters are happy | Jenavieve Hatch/The Sacramento Bee

The Shasta County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to allocate millions of taxpayer dollars to pay for seven new employees who will assist in the county’s switch to manual ballot tallying. But the man behind the switch is paying a large price, too. Conservative Supervisor Kevin Crye, who has perpetuated the claim that Dominion Voting Systems rigged the 2020 election in favor of President Joe Biden, was served recall papers at the board meeting. In March, Shasta became the first county in California to pivot to a manual tally. The county’s contract with Dominion Voting Systems ended in January, and after right-wing news outlets and commentators spread the falsehood that the machines were rigged, board members decided not to renew it; instead of replacing it with different machines, they opted for the controversial decision to count ballots by hand at great expense. Chief fiscal officer Erin Bertain warned the board on Tuesday that the decision to hand count votes could cost the county at least $3 million through the 2024-2025 fiscal year, because the county will likely need to hire 1,500 ballot counters for the 2024 election. There are nearly 112,000 registered voters in Shasta County; in the last presidential election, 94,084 people turned out to vote.

Source: Shasta County Republican supervisors vote for manual tally | The Sacramento Bee

California: Shasta County’s cost to hand count votes expected to pass $1.5 million | David Benda/Redding Record Searchlight

Costs continue to mount for Shasta County to do a full hand count of ballots in future elections. It’s now expected to exceed $1.5 million — about three times more than if the county would have kept its contract with Dominion Voting Systems and continued with electronic ballot tabulations. And the price tag will probably go up more as county election officials continue to work on the number of ballot counters and poll workers that will be needed to do a secure hand count. After they approved earlier this month spending $950,000 on equipment needed to hand-count ballots, supervisors on Tuesday will be asked to adopt a salary resolution that adds five positions in the elections department and two in support services. In a report to supervisors, the estimated annual cost for the seven positions is $600,962, which includes benefits. Most of that money will come from the county’s general fund with the balance coming from agencies that the county bills for each election.

Full Article: Shasta County’s cost to hand count votes expected to pass $1.5 million

Colorado election bill would bring county clerks financial relief, but wouldn’t change the rules for recounts | Bente Birkeland/Colorado Public Radio

For the first time in more than a decade, Colorado counties could get more money from the state to help cover the cost of elections. Election officials from both political parties requested the change and say it’s especially important to help counties meet new demands. Democratic Boulder County Clerk Molly Fitzpatrick said election administrators have continued to make improvements to the election system, despite huge challenges, like running the 2020 general election in the middle of a pandemic. “And since then, facing massive amounts of mis- and disinformation and threats to our staff and to clerks themselves,” said Fitzpatrick. “If the last few years have proven anything, it’s that we have continued to do more with less and it’s not sustainable.” Senate Bill 276 would nearly double the funding counties receive from the state. Colorado currently chips in $0.80 for each active voter in large counties. Smaller counties get $0.90. Clerks say that covers only about a fifth of what it actually costs to run their elections. Under this new measure, the state would pick up closer to half or 45 percent of the total cost.

Full Article: Colorado election bill would bring county clerks financial relief, but wouldn’t change the rules for recounts | Colorado Public Radio

Georgia: Text messages reveal Trump operatives considered using breached voting data to decertify Senate runoff in 2021 | Zachary Cohen/CNN

In mid-January 2021, two men hired by former President Donald Trump’s legal team discussed over text message what to do with data obtained from a breached voting machine in a rural county in Georgia, including whether to use it as part of an attempt to decertify the state’s pending Senate runoff results. The texts, sent two weeks after operatives breached a voting machine in Coffee County, Georgia, reveal for the first time that Trump allies considered using voting data not only to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, but also in an effort to keep a Republican hold on the US Senate.  “Here’s the plan. Let’s keep this close hold,” Jim Penrose, a former NSA official working with Trump lawyer Sidney Powell to access voting machines in Georgia, wrote in a January 19 text to Doug Logan, CEO of Cyber Ninjas, a firm that purports to run audits of voting systems. In the text, which was obtained by CNN and has not been previously reported, Penrose references the upcoming certification of Democrat Jon Ossoff’s win over Republican David Perdue. “We only have until Saturday to decide if we are going to use this report to try to decertify the Senate run-off election or if we hold it for a bigger moment,” Penrose wrote, referring to a potential lawsuit.

Full Article: Trump operatives considered using breached voting data to decertify Georgia’s Senate runoff in 2021, text messages show | CNN Politics

Michigan: Secret grand jury has probed post-2020 examination of voting machines | Robert Snell Craig Mauger/The Detroit News

A special prosecutor in Michigan has used the secret tool of a grand jury to weigh criminal charges against a group of Donald Trump’s supporters who obtained and examined voting machines in the battleground state after the 2020 election. The grand jury has sought testimony from individuals as recently as early March in Oakland County, according to three sources familiar with the investigation, which centers on allegations of tampering with voting equipment. The sources requested anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss grand jury activity. The status of the investigation was unclear Monday, but the grand jury could represent one of a handful of opportunities nationally for criminal charges related to the push to overturn the 2020 presidential election. Muskegon County Prosecutor D.J. Hilson, the special prosecutor investigating the tampering of voting machines in Michigan, would not comment on the existence of the grand jury. “If a grand jury was convened, I would be prohibited by court order and statute to confirm or deny its existence,” Hilson said in a statement to The News. Hilson cited a state law that makes it a misdemeanor for a person to “publish or make known” any testimony and any proceeding conducted in connection with any grand jury inquiry. Multiple sources told The News in recent days they were legally barred from discussing what was happening behind the scenes with the investigation.

Full Article: Secret grand jury has probed post-2020 examination of voting machines in Michigan

New Jersey: Elections officials in two counties won’t turn over voting machine tests, suit says | Anthony G. Attrino/NJ.com

A Bergen County man has filed lawsuits against boards of elections in two New Jersey counties, claiming they have refused his requests to view ballot test reports used to determine the logic and accuracy of voting machines. Yehuda Miller, of Teaneck, filed suit against Bergen and Atlantic counties, claiming in court papers that elections officials have responded to his Open Public Records Act filings, but refused to provide the information he’s requested. “They’re claiming the information is proprietary,” said attorney Walter Luers, who filed a lawsuit on behalf of Miller against the Bergen County Board of Elections. Test decks are used to determine whether voting machines are operating properly, Luers said. Both lawsuits were filed recently in New Jersey Superior Court. In the Bergen County lawsuit, filed on April 17, Miller states he emailed a request under OPRA for copies of ballot test decks used in the 2022 general election for votes cast on election day, mail-in ballots and for early voting. Bergen County elections officials responded test decks are exempt from disclosure under state law because making them public “would jeopardize computer security for future elections,” the suit states.

Full Article: Elections officials in 2 N.J. counties won’t turn over voting machine tests, suit says

Pennsylvania Democrats want counties to be able to count mail ballots faster. Here’s why changes are unlikely. | Gillian McGoldrick and Jonathan Lai/Philadelphia Inquirer

Newly empowered Pennsylvania House Democrats, in a position to move election legislation for the first time since the 2020 election, are proposing a change to allow mail ballots to be processed earlier so they can be counted faster. The change is widely backed by elections administrators across the state — but the bill doesn’t have the backing of Republicans, who control the Senate. Currently, mail ballots can’t be opened in Pennsylvania until 7 a.m. on Election Day. In high-turnout elections, that means the days-long process of counting millions of mail ballots can’t begin until Election Day. In 2020, that meant days before we knew who won the White House. House Bill 847 would allow counties to begin “pre-canvassing” — activities such as opening envelopes or unfolding ballots, but not counting them — seven days before Election Day. It would also standardize how counties allow voters to correct mail ballot errors, change the mail ballot request deadline from the current seven days to 11 days before Election Day, and allow voters to request mail ballots at their county elections offices until the day before Election Day.

Full Article: Pa. pre-canvassing bill: Democrats propose election vote counting change

Texas: Software company withdrew lawsuit against Houston-based True the Vote | Jonathan Limehouse/Houston Chronicle

An election management software company withdrew a lawsuit last week that accused a Houston-based conservative nonprofit of making slanderous statements about the software company’s work during the 2020 election. The company reserved the right to refile the federal case at a later date. The suit had a brief and tumultuous history on the Houston docket. In late October, True the Vote leaders testified that they had learned concerning information about the software company from FBI agents. The federal judge pressed the conservative leaders to disclose more of the details of their accusations. He then held the founder and a contractor for the conservative group in contempt and ordered them to serve time in jail. Then in February, the federal judge recused himself. On April 19, Konnech Inc., a Michigan-based company specializing in election logistic software, asked the newly assigned judge to dismiss the case “without prejudice” against True the Vote. The company is also withdrawing its case against Catherine Engelbrecht, the organization’s founder, and contractor Gregg Phillips, according to court documents. The Sept. 12 suit came in response to Engelbrecht’s and Phillips’ accusation that Konnech had allowed the Chinese government to access a server in China that held the personal information —  including Social Security numbers, phone numbers, bank account numbers and addresses — of nearly 2 million U.S. election workers. True the Vote’s “unique brand of racism and xenophobia” had defamed Konnech and its founder, Eugene Yu, the lawsuit said.

Full Article: Software company withdrew lawsuit against Houston-based True the Vote

National: After Fox settlement, experts warn election falsehoods will persist | Patrick Marley and Jeremy Barr/The Washington Post

Fox News’s $787.5 million settlement with a voting machine company sends a stark warning to others about the cost of making false statements, but that doesn’t mean election falsehoods will disappear. The constellation of conservative networks and right-wing websites that promote those falsehoods may just become more adept at spreading conspiracy theories and baseless claims, election officials and misinformation experts say, such as by avoiding naming companies and individuals. “There are people who are so committed to the perpetuation of this narrative that it won’t die completely,” said Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer (R), a top election official in Arizona’s largest county. “There are organizations, candidates, fundraisers who this has been their life for a few years, and one settlement isn’t going to make them probably throw away their entire business model.” Election officials and academics described Fox’s settlement with Dominion Voting Systems as one small part of a broad effort to restore Americans’ faith in elections and hold those who tell falsehoods accountable. On its own, the settlement might not change much, they said.

Full Article: After Fox settlement, experts warn election falsehoods will persist – The Washington Post

No consequences so far after Trump supporters copied Georgia election data | Mark Niesse/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Caught by surveillance video, text messages and emails, overwhelming evidence shows that supporters of then-President Donald Trump copied Georgia’s statewide voting software from an election office in rural Coffee County in early 2021. Yet no one has been charged, the FBI doesn’t appear to be investigating the case, and the GBI investigation has been pending for eight months. So far, everyone involved in the scheme has escaped accountability, including former Trump attorney Sidney Powell, a phony Republican elector who tried to award Georgia’s votes to Trump, and county election officials who helped them take vast amounts of election data. They copied the files on Jan. 7, 2021 — the day after a mob attacked the U.S. Capitol and two days after runoffs in Georgia flipped control of the U.S. Senate. Georgia law enforcement and election officials say they’re taking the case seriously, but little information has been made public while the investigation remains open. Election security experts have warned that the disclosure of the inner workings of Georgia election computers increases the risk of hacks in future elections, and it could be used to fabricate evidence or spread misinformation. “The message the GBI is telling people is that it’s OK to go into Georgia and take our software and nothing is going to happen to you. The same message is coming from the FBI, too,” said Susan Greenhalgh, senior adviser for the advocacy group Free Speech for People. “There’s no publicly available information that would indicate this investigation is being executed with great rigor.”

Full Article: Investigation drags long after Coffee County election software breach

National: Fox Settles Dominion Suit, but Smartmatic Case and Others Loom | Lora Kelley/The New York Times

On Tuesday, Fox News hastily agreed to pay $787.5 million to resolve a defamation suit filed by Dominion Voting Systems — among the largest settlements ever in a defamation case — just hours after the jury for the trial was selected. In addition to the whopping financial settlement, Fox conceded that “certain claims” it had made about Dominion were false. In settling with Dominion, the network avoided the possible embarrassment of a trial that could have exposed its inner workings. Rupert Murdoch, the 92-year-old Fox News founder, and the Fox host Tucker Carlson were potential witnesses. Dominion sued the cable news network two years ago, after it aired stories falsely claiming that Dominion’s voting machines were susceptible to hacking and had flipped votes to Joseph R. Biden Jr. that had been cast for Donald J. Trump, who was president. But the settlement with Dominion is not the only legal action that some news outlets are facing after making bogus claims about the 2020 elections.

Full Article: Fox Settles Dominion Suit, but Smartmatic Case and Others Loom – The New York Times

National: Fox and Dominion settle for $787.5m in defamation lawsuit over US election lies | Sam Levine and Kira Lerner/The Guardian

Fox and the voting equipment company Dominion reached a $787.5m settlement in a closely watched defamation lawsuit, ending a dispute over whether the network and its parent company knowingly broadcast false and outlandish allegations that Dominion was involved in a plot to steal the 2020 election. The settlement came before scheduled opening statements and after an unexpected lengthy delay on Tuesday afternoon just after the jury was sworn in. Neither party immediately disclosed the terms of the settlement other than the dollar amount, and attorneys for Dominion declined to answer questions about whether it requires Fox to issue a retraction or a formal apology. “The parties have resolved their case,” Judge Eric Davis told jurors on Tuesday afternoon before excusing them from the courtroom. In a press conference outside the courthouse, the Dominion attorney Justin Nelson said the more than $787m represented “vindication and accountability”. The settlement amount is less than half of the $1.6bn Dominion demanded in its lawsuit. “Truth matters,” he said. “Lies have consequences. The truth does not know red or blue,” he continued. “People across the political spectrum can and should disagree on issues, even of the most profound importance. But for our democracy to endure another 250 years and hopefully much longer, we must share a commitment to facts.”

Full Article: Fox and Dominion settle for $787.5m in defamation lawsuit over US election lies | Fox News-Dominion case | The Guardian

National: EAC Commissioner takes part in secretive GOP conference, sparking backlash | Zachary Roth/News From The States

A commissioner of a federal elections agency recently spoke at a secretive conference of conservative voting activists and Republican secretaries of state and congressional staff — a step that election experts call highly improper for an official charged with helping states administer fair and unbiased elections. U.S. Election Assistance Commissioner Donald Palmer, the former chief election official in Virginia, was a panelist at a February conference organized by conservative groups working to impose new voting restrictions, including the Heritage Foundation. Ten chief state election officials, as well as elections staff from three additional Republican-led states, attended the confab, which was described by one prominent organizer as a “private, confidential meeting.” The existence of the conference, including its agenda and list of attendees, was first reported by The Guardian U.S. and the investigative journalism site Documented. In a statement to States Newsroom, Palmer defended his appearance, calling it “an important opportunity to engage.” Palmer, who was appointed by former President Donald Trump, is one of two Republican members of the four-member commission, which by law is divided evenly between the two main political parties.

Full Article: U.S. elections official takes part in secretive GOP conference, sparking backlash | News From The States

National: Mike Lindell firm told to pay $5 million in ‘Prove Mike Wrong’ election-fraud challenge | Chris Dehghanpoor, Emma Brown and Jon Swaine/The Washington Post

MyPillow founder and prominent election denier Mike Lindell made a bold offer ahead of a “cyber symposium” he held in August 2021 in South Dakota: He claimed he had data showing Chinese interference and said he would pay $5 million to anyone who could prove the material was not from the previous year’s U.S. election. He called the challenge “Prove Mike Wrong.” On Wednesday, a private arbitration panel ruled that someone did. The panel said Robert Zeidman, a computer forensics expert and 63-year-old Trump voter from Nevada, was entitled to the $5 million payout. Zeidman had examined Lindell’s data and concluded that not only did it not prove voter fraud, it also had no connection to the 2020 election. He was the only expert who submitted a claim, arbitration records show. He turned to the arbitrators after Lindell Management, which created the contest, refused to pay him. In their 23-page decision, the arbitrators said Zeidman proved that Lindell’s material “unequivocally did not reflect November 2020 election data.” They directed Lindell’s firm to pay Zeidman within 30 days. In a statement to The Washington Post, Zeidman said he was “really happy” with the arbitrators’ decision. “They clearly saw this as I did — that the data we were given at the symposium was not at all what Mr. Lindell said it was,” he said. “The truth is finally out there.”

Full Article: Mike Lindell firm told to pay $5 million in ‘Prove Mike Wrong’ election-fraud challenge – The Washington Post

National: GOP lawyer Cleta Mitchell decries ease of ‘campus voting’ in private RNC pitch | Josh Dawsey and Amy Gardner/The Washington Post

A top Republican legal strategist told a roomful of GOP donors over the weekend that conservatives must band together to limit voting on college campuses, same-day voter registration and automatic mailing of ballots to registered voters, according to a copy of her presentation reviewed by The Washington Post. Cleta Mitchell, a longtime GOP lawyer and fundraiser who worked closely with former president Donald Trump to try to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, gave the presentation at a Republican National Committee donor retreat in Nashville on Saturday. The presentation — which had more than 50 slides and was labeled “A Level Playing Field for 2024” — offered a window into a strategy that seems designed to reduce voter access and turnout among certain groups, including students and those who vote by mail, both of which tend to skew Democratic. Mitchell did not respond to a request for comment, and it is unclear whether she delivered the presentation exactly as it was prepared on her PowerPoint slides. But in addition to the presentation, The Post listened to audio of portions of the presentation obtained by liberal journalist Lauren Windsor in which Mitchell discussed limiting campus and early voting.

Full Article: GOP lawyer Cleta Mitchell decries ease of ‘campus voting’ in private RNC pitch – The Washington Post

Editorial: Why It’s Fine that Fox and Dominion Settled | Richard L. Hasen/Slate

What does the Fox (News) say? Not enough to save American democracy. But we never should have expected that a private defamation suit could have cured this country’s ongoing election panic anyways. Dominion Voting Systems had sued Fox for defamation after Fox hosts and guests lied about the supposed role of Dominion’s voting machines in the 2020 presidential election. (Specifically, they said that the company rigged the votes against Donald Trump and for Joe Biden.) Voting machine manipulation was one of many outlandish conspiracy theories—like those involving Italian space lasers or fake ballots coming in from China—that swirled across right wing cable television and social media as Donald Trump churned up the lies to try to overturn his loss. By the time the Dominion defamation case got to trial, Fox had a weak hand. Embarrassing depositions, emails, and other material from inside Fox showed that those at the top of the company knew the claims of a stolen election were a huge lie unsupported by any real evidence. The trial judge had already ruled, before trial, that the evidence indisputably showed that claims of Dominion voting machines being rigged were false, and that Fox was not merely reporting on such claims. The only real issue (aside from which Fox entities were liable and how much damage Dominion suffered) was whether Fox made false statements with “actual malice.” That standard, imposed by the Supreme Court to protect journalists and others reporting on public officials and public figures, requires proof that the speaker made the statements knowing they were false or with reckless disregard as to their truth or falsity.

Full Article: Fox and Dominion settlement: It’s actually fine there’s no trial.

Arizona Senate settles suit over election audit for $150K | Associated Press

A left-leaning watchdog group on Wednesday announced a settlement of over $150,000 in a public records lawsuit against the Arizona Senate, which fought to withhold emails, texts and other records involving a partisan audit of the 2020 election. American Oversight, which promotes government transparency, will receive $153,000 from the state Senate. According to the agreement that both parties initially signed in March, they will mutually release each other from legal claims. The agreement also specifies that the settlement is not an indication of any wrongdoing. The litigation also extended to Cyber Ninjas, the now defunct Florida-based firm that led the Senate’s review of ballot counting machines, computers and ballots in Maricopa County. Shortly before the settlement agreement was signed, lawyers for The Arizona Republic argued that some of the records being withheld by the Senate should still be made publicly available. The whole ordeal was worthwhile for “having succeeded in bringing much-needed transparency” to the audit, American Oversight said in a statement.

Full Article: Arizona Senate settles suit over election audit for $150K | AP News

California: How Shasta County Became A Petri Dish For the Big Lie | Kaila Philo/TPM

A deep red enclave in rural Northern California has recently seen the balance of its local governing body shift to the far right. Now it’s about to embark on an experiment tried in few other jurisdictions across the country: counting all of its paper ballots by hand. The county clerk warned TPM that the switch could be more problematic than the hard-right majority could have anticipated. The Board of Supervisors in Shasta County, California, has served as a petri dish for the most noxious refuse of Trumpism over the past few years. From COVID-19 denialism to conspiracy theories about Dominion Voting Systems, a handful of county board members have used their positions to breathe life into Trumpian conspiracy theories and grievances at the local level, pulling in MyPillow CEO and noted Trump brown-noser Mike Lindell along the way.  It started on Aug. 11, 2020, when a local militia member Carlos Zapata hijacked a board meeting to go on a rant against COVID-19 restrictions, and threatened violence if they continued. “Right now, we’re being peaceful, and you better be happy that we’re good citizens, that we’re peaceful citizens,” he said, “but it’s not going to be peaceful much longer, OK?” His rant, which subsequently got attention from Alex Jones and Fox News, portended the near future: Less than a year later, a local anti-government militia led an effort to recall county supervisors who followed mitigation measures—and ultimately succeeded in ousting one of them.

Full Article: How A Rural California County Became A Petri Dish For the Big Lie

Georgia suits among those left involving election lies after Fox settlement | David Wickert/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

This week’s massive settlement of a defamation lawsuit against Fox News is the latest effort to seek accountability for those who spread false tales of election fraud in Georgia and other states. But it’s not the last. Two Fulton County election workers whose lives were upended by false voting fraud accusations have filed defamation lawsuits against other media companies and individuals who spread the claims. And a Gwinnett County man falsely accused of voting fraud has sued the producers of the film “2000 Mules.” It’s far from certain the lawsuits will be successful — the defendants deny any wrongdoing. But the election workers have already had some success in court. And legal experts say the $787.5 million settlement in the Fox case bodes well for continuing efforts to hold people and institutions accountable for lies that undermined confidence in U.S. elections and led to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. “With what appears to be one of the largest defamation settlements in history, we can hope that this is the beginning of accountability and a restoration of respect for our election process and election officials,” said David Becker, founder of the Center for Election Innovation and Research.

Full Article: After Fox settlement, Georgia suits among those left involving election lies