Alabama House passes bill to criminalize help with absentee ballots | Mike Cason/AL.com

The Alabama House has passed a bill to make it a felony to assist another person with an absentee ballot or an absentee ballot application, with exceptions. HB209 calls for harsher penalties and no exceptions if the assistance involves a payment. The bill passed by a vote of 76-28, with Republicans in favor and Democrats opposed. The vote came after the Republican majority cut off the debate after an hour. The bill moves to the Senate. Rep. Pebblin Warren, D-Tuskegee, said the bill would be a setback for efforts to assist people who need help voting. “There are so many instances now that people, good people, who want to vote, are going to be hampered,” Warren said. “And you’re going to really scare people. People are going to be scared now. Because they think that they can be charged a felony.”

Full Article: Alabama House passes bill to criminalize help with absentee ballots – al.com

Alaska lawmakers advance bipartisan election bill to implement ballot curing, signature verification | Iris Samuels and Sean Maguire/Anchorage Daily News

A bill to update Alaska’s election laws passed out of the Senate State Affairs Committee on Tuesday, part of a bipartisan effort to revive a set of proposals that failed during last year’s legislative session. The bill, which heads next to the Senate Finance Committee, is a compromise that largely avoids more controversial changes to how the state’s elections are run. It would establish a ballot curing process, signature verification, ballot tracking and requirements to more regularly update voter rolls, among other elements. It does not include any reforms to how campaigns are financed, nor does it alter the state’s ranked-choice voting system. The provisions — salvaged from an unsuccessful 2022 election bill — would allow voters to correct errors on their ballots once they are submitted, allow election workers to more reliably verify the identity of voters, and allow voters to track their by-mail ballots after they are submitted. Sen. Scott Kawasaki, a Fairbanks Democrat who chairs the State Affairs Committee, said the bill is based on his collaboration with Sen. Mike Shower, a Wasilla Republican who chaired the committee last year.

Full Article: Lawmakers advance bipartisan election bill to implement ballot curing, signature verification

Arizona: Thousands of texts from Trump allies stay hidden a year after judge’s order on ‘audit’ | Ryan Randazzo/Arizona Republic

More than a year after a judge ordered the leader of the controversial Arizona “audit” to turn over his texts and other electronic messages, thousands still remain inexplicably hidden. Cyber Ninjas CEO Doug Logan has released more than 39,000 messages, available to anyone who wants to try to make sense of the disordered, sometimes duplicative documents. But his refusal to let go of an estimated 3,000 more raises questions about what’s in them, and why they remain secret despite a court order. … The Arizona Republic has fought for public records of the review of the 2020 Maricopa County general election for almost two years from the Arizona Senate and from the Cyber Ninjas. Reporters have reviewed what has been released and noted the redactions. The news organization’s attorneys have raised objections where they believe information was improperly withheld.

Full Article: Texts from Arizona ‘audit’ are kept secret by Cyber Ninjas’ Doug Logan

Arizona Republicans expelled an election denier from the legislature. Here’s why. | Yvonne Wingett Sanchez/The Washington Post

For 40 minutes, the witness before a joint committee of the Arizona legislature unfurled her theory: A Mexican drug cartel was secretly paying off state and local government officials as part of an election-fraud scheme. Everyone from the governor on down was implicated. Even senior-ranking Republicans. When a GOP state senator balked at the outlandish claims and asked the witness, a local insurance agent, who had invited her to the February session, she identified a first-term Republican, state Rep. Liz Harris. From the dais, Harris motioned her hand across her neck in a gesture commonly used to cue silence. In the two and a half years since Donald Trump falsely claimed victory in the 2020 election, Republican officeholders have rarely held their fellow party members accountable for originating or spreading misinformation about the electoral system. In Arizona GOP circles, the false claims have run particularly rampant, eroding support for democracy and costing taxpayers millions of dollars as lawmakers hunted futilely for proof that the vote had been rigged. But the case of the Arizona legislator who helped perpetuate the groundless belief that the Sinaloa drug cartel was orchestrating election fraud ended this month with an unusual twist: She was expelled from office by her colleagues, Republicans included.

Full Article: Arizona Republicans expelled an election denier from the legislature. Here’s why. – The Washington Post

California: Shasta County decision to drop Dominion voting machines prompts state bill | David Benda/Redding Record Searchlight

An Assembly bill making its way through the California Legislature in Sacramento draws its inspiration from Shasta County’s abrupt and controversial decision in January to prematurely end its contract with Dominion Voting Systems. “It was pretty shocking to see a county board of supervisors terminate a voting contract without any option with how to move forward with another system,” Assemblywoman Gail Pellerin, a Democrat, told the Record Searchlight. Introduced on Feb. 14, Pellerin’s Assembly Bill 969 would require a county board of supervisors to have both a transition plan and a replacement contract with a state-certified system in place before terminating an existing voting system contract. Pellerin introduced the bill about three weeks after Shasta Supervisors voted 3-2 to terminate their contract with Dominion without a state certified and federally qualified voting system in place, ignoring the advice of Registrar of Voters Cathy Darling Allen and then-County Counsel Rubin Cruse Jr. The California Association of Clerks and Election Officials support the bill. Pellerin’s bill is now headed to the Senate after passing the Assembly.

Full Article: Shasta County decision to drop Dominion voting machines prompts state bill

Connecticut House votes to join 46 other states with early, in-person voting | Christopher Keating/Hartford Courant

Following 46 other states, Connecticut legislators voted Thursday night to allow residents to vote earlier than Election Day for the first time. After more than four hours of debate, the state House of Representatives approved the bill by 107-35 with all negative votes coming from Republicans. The caucus was split as 15 Republicans joined with Democrats to pass the measure. The bill calls for early, in-person voting for 14 days before a general election in November, seven days before the statewide August primaries, and four days before special elections and presidential primaries. Local referendums on budgets and other issues are not included. The 33-section bill gives wide latitude to cities and towns to run their elections, but each municipality must have at least one early-voting location. The locations will be required to be open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., but have extended hours from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on the last Tuesday and Thursday before statewide primaries and general elections. Early voting would not be enacted until the presidential primaries in early 2024 as vendors and local officials need time to prepare for the change.

Full Article: Connecticut could join other states in allowing early voting

Florida: Hillsborough County elections office in Tampa reports ‘criminal cyberactivity’ | ue Carlton/Tampa Bay Times

Authorities are investigating an incident of “criminal cyberactivity” at Hillsborough County’s elections office. An unauthorized user “illegally accessed files on a shared drive on our network,” Hillsborough Supervisor of Elections Craig Latimer said in a news release Wednesday. But Latimer said the user had no access to the office’s voter registration or ballot tabulation systems, which have “multiple layers of protection, monitoring and redundancy.” The tabulation system also uses a stand-alone, air-gapped server “not connected to anything else,” he said. No other details were given about the incident, including when the breach took place or what files were accessed. It was reported to the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office, FBI and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, among other agencies, and is under investigation, according to the release.

Full Article: Hillsborough elections office in Tampa reports ‘criminal cyberactivity’

Georgia voter check-in devices stolen from DeKalb elections warehouse | Mark Niesse/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Police are investigating the theft of 19 voter check-in tablets from a DeKalb County warehouse, but Georgia election officials say the crime didn’t put voters’ information at risk. The new devices hadn’t been loaded with any voter data, and they don’t generate ballots or count votes, said Mike Hassinger, a spokesman for the secretary of state’s office. The tablets, called PollPads, went missing from a former Sam’s Club store in Stonecrest that the county uses as an equipment warehouse, Hassinger said. An exit door had fresh pry marks where thieves might have gained entry between Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning. “No other voting equipment appears to have been tampered with or rummaged through,” Hassinger said. “The pads were on top of tables in the large open area of the warehouse.” DeKalb police confirmed Monday that they’re investigating the incident. No arrests have been made yet, nor has the property been recovered, Officer Elise Wells said.

Full Article: Georgia voter check-in devices stolen from DeKalb elections warehouse

Georgia: Judge mulls whether voting machine case should go to trial | Kate Brumback/Associated Press

Critics of Georgia’s voting machines say they are unconstitutional and should be scrapped in favor of hand-marked paper ballots. State election officials dismiss their concerns as unfounded and argue that the state’s voting system is safe and secure. The arguments are at the center of a long-running lawsuit challenging the Dominion Voting Systems election equipment that has been used throughout Georgia since 2020. The activists who filed the lawsuit allege that the state’s voting machines produce an unverifiable record of votes and have security vulnerabilities, amounting to an unconstitutional burden on the right to vote. U.S. District Judge Amy Totenberg held a hearing Tuesday on motions filed by election officials, including Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and members of the State Election Board, asking the judge to rule in their favor based on the facts presented without going to trial. Lawyers for the activists argued there are disagreements on the facts in the case and that the merits of the arguments need to be fully explored at trial. Totenberg had extensive questions for both sides and did not indicate when she would rule. The lawsuit predates a spate of legal challenges to Dominion voting machines filed by allies of then-President Donald Trump in Georgia and elsewhere in the wake of his 2020 election loss. Many of those lawsuits included wild and false conspiracy theories about the machines, while the activists in this case argue their claims are supported by testimony from highly respected experts and concrete evidence that they have amassed.

Full Article: Judge mulls whether voting machine case should go to trial | AP News

Michigan: Voters oust clerk who doubts election results | Associated Press

Voters in one of Michigan’s most conservative counties have ousted a small-town clerk accused of improperly handling voting equipment after casting doubt on President Joe Biden’s election victory. Stephanie Scott lost Tuesday’s recall election in Hillsdale County’s Adams Township to Suzy Roberts, who got 406 votes to Scott’s 214, according to unofficial results reported by the county clerk’s office. Roberts, a Republican who identifies as an independent, filed as non-party-affiliated in the recall election because Michigan law does not allow for challengers to file under the same political party, the Hillsdale Daily News reported previously. Scott had run unopposed as a first-time Republican candidate when she was chosen in the November 2020 election to handle the voting in Adams Township, a reliably Republican community where the ticket of Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence received nearly 76% of the vote that year. But she joined a crew of GOP elections officials around the nation who have questioned the accuracy of U.S. voting systems. Scott is among a number of elections officials around the country accused of mishandling voting equipment in their zeal to uncover fraud.

Full Article: Voters oust Michigan clerk who doubts election results | AP News

Oregon Secretary of State Shemia Fagan resigns over cannabis side job | Julia Shumway/Oregon Capital Chronicle

Secretary of State Shemia Fagan will resign next Monday, a little more than a week after news broke of her moonlighting for a troubled cannabis company that played a key role in an audit conducted by her office. It’s an abrupt fall from grace for Fagan, next in line for governor and long viewed as a rising star in state Democratic politics. Political watchers have speculated that she would run for governor, Congress or the U.S. Senate in the coming years, and she had already announced plans to seek re-election in 2024. Fagan submitted her resignation by email to Gov. Tina Kotek at 2:26 p.m. Tuesday, several hours after she told Kotek and announced it publicly, according to documents shared by the Secretary of State’s office. “While I am confident that the ethics investigation will show that I followed the state’s legal and ethical guidelines in trying to make ends meet for my family, it is clear that my actions have become a distraction from the important and critical work of the Secretary of State’s office,” Fagan wrote. “Protecting our state’s democracy and ensuring faith in our elected leaders – these are the reasons I ran for this office,” she continued. “They are also the reasons I am submitting my resignation now.”

Full Article: Fall of a rising star: Oregon Secretary of State Shemia Fagan resigns over cannabis side job – Oregon Capital Chronicle

Texas Republicans want power to overturn Harris County elections over mishaps at the polls | Jeremy Wallace/Houston Chronicle

The Texas Senate on Tuesday passed legislation to allow Gov. Greg Abbott precedent-setting power to overturn elections in Harris County, in order to punish local officials for running out of ballot paper at some polling sites last year. The legislation, which passed the Senate 19-12, would give Abbott’s appointed secretary of state the authority to order an entirely new election in Harris County if the county ever again runs out of paper at 2 percent or more of its polling sites for over an hour. “There is no reason, there is no excuse why we can’t competently run our elections and have adequate ballot paper,” said state Sen. Mayes Middleton, R-Galveston, a co-author of the bill whose district includes part of southeast Harris County.  The measure provoked outrage from outnumbered Democrats in the Texas Senate who blasted Middleton for trying to give the governor new authority to toss election results as President Donald Trump sought to do after he lost in 2020.

Full Article: Texas Republicans seek to overturn Houston elections over poll mishaps

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