Arizona: Not MAGA enough: 2020 election skeptic quit his job after facing blowback from angry election deniers | Rob Kuznia, Scott Bronstein and Donie O’Sullivan/CNN

Bob Bartelsmeyer, the former Cochise County elections director, faced a tumultuous tenure marked by local election deniers, harassment, and conspiracy theories. Initially a believer in the falsehood that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump, Bartelsmeyer's attempt to implement common-sense election measures faced strong opposition. The Cochise Board of Supervisors, amidst suspicions related to the 2020 election, voted against Bartelsmeyer's proposals, leading to his resignation in September. His story highlights the challenges faced by election officials dealing with distrust and conspiracy theories, contributing to a broader trend of election officials leaving their positions across the U.S., raising concerns about the upcoming elections. Read Article

Arizona: Are unstaffed ballot drop boxes allowed? Final rulebook offers little clarity | Jen Fifield/Votebeat

Arizona voters have utilized unstaffed ballot drop boxes for years, but a new state Elections Procedures Manual by Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, finalized on Dec. 30, has raised questions about the legality of these drop boxes. While the prior manual explicitly allowed unstaffed drop boxes, the new edition's changes imply that only drop boxes staffed by election officials may be placed outdoors or inside a building. Although Fontes' general counsel insists that the changes were made to align with state law and unstaffed drop boxes are still permitted, concerns have been raised, with Republicans planning to address the matter in litigation. Read Article

Arkansas Supreme Court agrees to expedite case filed by group seeking to require paper ballots and limit absentee voting | Matt Campbell/Arkansas Times

The Arkansas Supreme Court has approved an expedited schedule for a lawsuit filed by the Arkansas Voter Integrity Initiative, seeking paper ballots and restrictions on absentee voting in the state. The group aims to have two proposed constitutional amendments certified for the 2024 ballot. While the case challenges the Attorney General's authority to certify ballot measures and questions the constitutionality of recent changes to the process, it does not address the substance of the proposed amendments. Read Article

Colorado: Sweeping overhaul of elections gets initial nod for ballot from state Title Board | Chase Woodruff/Colorado Newsline

The "Colorado Equal Election Access Amendment," backed by Colorado multimillionaire Kent Thiry, has gained initial approval from the state's Initiative Title Setting Review Board. The proposed constitutional amendment aims to revamp primary and general elections, eliminating party primaries and introducing "all-candidate primary elections." Candidates would petition onto the primary ballot through signature campaigns, and the top four candidates would advance to the general election, determined by ranked-choice voting. Thiry's proposal also seeks to eliminate the vacancy committee system, where parties fill vacant seats, and is part of his broader efforts to reform Colorado's election laws. The amendment needs 55% voter approval to be included in the state constitution. Read Article

Georgia: Details of voting equipment breach emerge in voting system security trial | Megan Butler/Courthouse News Service

During the trial over the security of Dominion voting machine systems in Georgia, details emerged about a hack coordinated by co-defendants of former President Donald Trump. The hack involved copying confidential election data from an elections office in Coffee County, arranged by individuals now indicted alongside Trump on election interference charges. The incident has become central to a legal battle over the security of Georgia's voting machines, with plaintiffs arguing it exposes vulnerabilities in Dominion's systems. The trial is expected to continue for another two weeks, while prosecutors aim for an August start date for Trump's election interference trial.

Indiana: Group ask Boone County Commissioners to stage coup of election process | Maria Flora/The Lebanon Reporter

A group of voters, led by Boone County Commissioner Tim Beyer, is requesting Boone County Commissioners to take control of the 2024 election from the county election board. The group, comprising around 150 constituents, alleges that their concerns about the vulnerability of electronic voting machines and the unconstitutionality of local elections, as well as their call to return to paper ballots, have been ignored by the Boone County Election Board. Read Article

Kansas: ‘Somehow exploitable’: Election security debate returns to Statehouse | Rachel Mipro/Kansas Reflector

The 2024 Kansas legislative session has begun with renewed debates on election security. Despite no evidence of widespread election fraud, some Republicans argue that potential security flaws in voter machines could be exploited by various actors, including Russian hackers, George Soros, and the Chinese. The House Committee on Elections witnessed a division among Republicans, with Vice Chair Rep. Paul Waggoner emphasizing nonpartisan concerns about election security, while two other committee Republicans cautioned against one-sided claims of election hacking. Read Article

Maine judge delays decision on removing Trump from ballot until Supreme Court rules in Colorado case | David Sharp and Nicholas Riccardi/Associated Press

A Maine judge has postponed a decision on former President Donald Trump's ballot status in the state's presidential primary, allowing time for the U.S. Supreme Court to rule on a similar case in Colorado. Trump's lawyers appealed when Secretary of State Shenna Bellows removed him from the primary ballot, requesting a pause for the Supreme Court to rule on the Colorado case, potentially making the Maine lawsuit irrelevant. Although the judge lacked authority to stay proceedings, she determined that she could send the case back to the secretary of state to await the Supreme Court's decision before taking further action. Read Article

Minnesota election officials express confidence about security on eve of Super Tuesday early voting | Steve Karnowski/Associated Press

Minnesota's Super Tuesday presidential primary begins early voting, and Secretary of State Steve Simon has highlighted the state's preparedness for challenges such as disinformation, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and threats to poll workers. Simon outlined multiple security measures, including new election security laws, layers of security for remote voting, public testing of voting machine accuracy, and a corps of volunteer election judges. Emphasizing the need to combat disinformation, Simon urged voters to seek reliable information from state and local election offices. He identified disinformation as a significant challenge in the 2024 election year. Read Article

New Hampshire: Bracing for a wave of write-ins and other potential curveballs, poll workers prep for Primary Day 2024 | Olivia Richardson and Todd Bookman/New Hampshire Public Radio

New Hampshire election officials are expanding their pool of poll workers, anticipating a heavier workload due to an increase in write-in votes on the Democratic side and the implementation of a new voter ID law. There are concerns about potential complications surrounding the state's new affidavit ballot law and challenges in interpreting messy handwriting or misspellings on write-in votes. Election officials are emphasizing the need for patience at the polls and preparing for uncertainties, including the potential delay in counting due to increased scrutiny and unknown factors affecting voter turnout and ballot processing. Read Article

Vermont’s outgoing elections director: ‘Trust the process’ | Steve Pappas/Waterbury Roundabout

Will Senning, the director of elections in Vermont's Secretary of State's office for the past decade, is set to join the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) to oversee Region 1, which covers New England. Senning, who has been deeply involved in Vermont's election administration during pivotal times, including the challenges posed by the pandemic and cybersecurity threats, will bring his expertise to enhance election security at the federal level. His departure comes amid ongoing efforts to address issues of trust and misinformation surrounding elections, with Senning emphasizing the solidity and integrity of the electoral process. Read Article

Virginia county finds 4,000 misreported 2020 votes, shorting Biden | Julia Mueller/The Hill

Election officials in Virginia's Prince William County have acknowledged that approximately 4,000 votes were misreported during the 2020 presidential election, with former President Trump incorrectly receiving 2,327 extra votes, and President Joe Biden being shorted 1,648 votes. The errors affected U.S. Senate candidates from both parties, and a Republican House candidate who won his race was shorted just under 300 votes. The misreporting issues were attributed to results tapes not being programmed in a compatible format for state reporting requirements, leading to errors during correction attempts. Read Article

Wisconsin GOP rift over impeaching Meagan Wolfe boils over in Assembly | Molly Beck/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Divisions within Wisconsin Republican lawmakers have escalated as leaders continue to obstruct efforts by a small faction to impeach the leader of the Wisconsin Election Commission, Meagan Wolfe. Representative Janel Brandtjen attempted for the second time to bring forward a resolution for impeachment proceedings against Wolfe over false claims about the 2020 election. Assembly Majority Leader Tyler August blocked the move, describing it as a "big show for the cameras." Read Article

Elections and Disinformation Are Colliding Like Never Before in 2024 | Tiffany Hsu, Stuart A. Thompson, Steven Lee Myers/The New York Times

Billions of people will vote in major elections this year — around half of the global population, by some estimates — in one of the largest and most consequential democratic exercises in living memory. The results will affect how the world is run for decades to come. At the same time, false narratives and conspiracy theories have evolved into an increasingly global menace. Baseless claims of election fraud have battered trust in democracy. Foreign influence campaigns regularly target polarizing domestic challenges. Artificial intelligence has supercharged disinformation efforts and distorted perceptions of reality. All while major social media companies have scaled back their safeguards and downsized election teams. Read Article

Georgia voters push for hand marked paper ballots in trial over Dominion voting machine security | Megan Butler/Courthouse News Service

Georgia voters and members of the Coalition for Good Governance, a nonprofit focused on election transparency, testified in a trial challenging Georgia's use of Dominion ballot marking devices. The plaintiffs argue that the QR codes on the ballots, used by the Dominion system, make it difficult for voters to ensure their intended selections are accurately conveyed and counted. The voters expressed a lack of trust in the machine system and preferred hand-marked paper ballots. Read Article

National: Only 4% of US States Fully Prepared for Cyber-Attacks Targeting Election | James Coker/InfoSecurity Magazine

A survey conducted by Arctic Wolf reveals that less than 4% of U.S. states are fully prepared to detect and recover from election-targeted cybersecurity incidents, with 14.3% described as 'not at all prepared' and 42.9% as 'somewhat prepared' for the upcoming 2024 election cycle. Similarly, 16.1% of cities were found to be unprepared, and 41.1% only somewhat prepared for election-based cyber threats, while only 3.6% of city officials claimed full readiness. Over 80% of respondents anticipate an increase or maintenance of cyber incidents related to the 2024 elections compared to 2020, and despite these concerns, 36% report inadequate budgets to address cybersecurity around the upcoming election cycle. Disinformation campaigns (50.7%) and phishing attacks targeting election officials or staff (47.1%) were identified as the top two election cybersecurity threats, with concerns about the impact of AI technologies, such as large language models and deepfakes, in creating more sophisticated disinformation and phishing campaigns. Read Article

National: Phishing, Disinformation Top 2024 Election Security Concerns | Jule Pattison-Gordon/Government Technology

Election security leaders in 2024 are expected to confront a range of cybersecurity threats, blending both traditional and emerging challenges such as sophisticated phishing and disinformation campaigns amplified by generative AI. A survey conducted by the Center for Digital Government revealed that election officials and workers feel unprepared for these threats, which primarily include concerns about disinformation, phishing, and data breaches. Deepfake technology, evolving rapidly in recent months, poses a particular challenge in disseminating false narratives, with 51% of state and local government respondents identifying disinformation campaigns as a top concern. Phishing, becoming more advanced, presents unique difficulties for election officials who often receive emails from unknown voters and need to open attachments related to absentee ballots. Read Article

National: State Legislators Tighten A.I. Rules to Combat Deceptive Election Ads | David W. Chen/The New York Times

State lawmakers are rushing to address the increasing sophistication of false or misleading AI-created political ads. By early January, 13 states had introduced legislation related to the regulation of AI in campaign advertising, with penalties ranging from fines to felony convictions. The bills generally aim to require disclosure of AI involvement in ads, with some allowing candidates to pursue civil action. Read Article

National: ‘Better be scared’: threats of political violence foretell tense election year | Rachel Leingang/The Guardian

A recent surge in threats against election officials and judges in the United States is creating a tense atmosphere ahead of the 2024 presidential election. The threats include incidents such as a judge overseeing an election interference case against Donald Trump having her home visited by police following a fake emergency call, attempts to do the same to a prosecutor, and bomb threats to state capitols believed to be hoaxes. The threats, often targeting women and people of color, disrupt and intimidate those involved, causing chaos and making it challenging for election officials to perform their duties. Experts warn that the wave of threats, coupled with increasing support for political violence, could lead to a volatile environment as the future of U.S. democracy is perceived to be at stake in the upcoming election. Read Article

Why Arizona is worried about finishing the presidential election on time but other states aren’t | Jen Fifield/Votebeat

Arizona faces a unique and challenging election timeline, raising concerns about delayed ballot delivery for military voters and late result reporting to Congress. Factors contributing to this situation include a new state law ensuring recounts, a federal law hardening the presidential race deadline, voter-friendly mail ballot rules, and an extended timeframe for counting ballots. Other states with more efficient election timelines have shorter mail ballot periods, quicker counting laws, faster certification dates, and reduced risk of recounts. Arizona officials are calling for changes to key dates to avoid potential delays, with options including adjusting the primary date, tightening voter-friendly rules, compressing result certification timelines, and addressing the recount process. However, aligning Republican lawmakers, county officials, and Democratic Governor Katie Hobbs on proposed changes poses challenges, and the window for adjustments is narrowing. Read Article

Arkansas Attorney General again rejects ballot language for proposed amendment that would require hand counted paper ballots | Michael R. Wickline/The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin has rejected proposed ballot language for the Restore Election Integrity Arkansas committee's second version of a proposed constitutional amendment requiring paper ballots in the state. The proposed amendment would mandate hand marked paper ballots and restricting the use of voting machines to voters with disabilities. The proposed amendment would prohibit precenct tabulation and require that "certification of all elections shall be based on a hand count of the votes performed and verified by human intelligence". The rejection letter stated unresolved issues with the definition of a "disabled voter." The committee also faced a rejection for its proposed constitutional amendment imposing limits on absentee voting. A complaint filed against the Secretary of State and the Board of Election Commissioners is seeking the Arkansas Supreme Court's certification for the proposed amendments' ballot language. Read Article

Georgia: Trial gets underway for constitutional challenge to state’s voting system | Kate Brumback/Associated Press

In a trial that began Tuesday, voters are asking U.S. District Judge Amy Totenberg to order the state to stop using the Dominion Voting Systems touchscreen machines used by nearly every in-person voter statewide. Instead, they argue, most voters should fill out hand-marked paper ballots, with a touchscreen machine at each polling place for people with disabilities. That would ensure voter intent is accurately captured and that meaningful audits can be done, they argue. Read Article

Georgia Speaker Burns seeks to end ballot QR codes, add oversight | Mark Niesse/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Georgia House Speaker Jon Burns, a Republican, has proposed the elimination of encoding voter selections on paper ballots and increased oversight of the secretary of state's office to address concerns about the state's voting technology. Critics argue that Georgia's current voting equipment, manufactured by Dominion Voting Systems, is not trustworthy, and a federal trial is examining the security of the system. Read Article

Illinois State Board of elections to decide Trump’s ballot eligibility | Patrick M. Keck/Springfield State Journal- Register

Illinois has become the latest state to face a formal objection to former President Donald Trump's 2024 campaign, potentially leading to the removal of his name from the March primary ballot. Five objectors filed with the Illinois State Board of Elections, citing Trump's alleged incitement of the January 6, 2021 Capitol insurrection as grounds for his ineligibility under the 14th Amendment. Read Article

Maine House votes down GOP effort to impeach top election official | David Sharp/Associated Press

The Maine House rejected a Republican attempt to impeach Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, who removed former President Donald Trump from the state's primary ballot over his alleged role in the January 6, 2021, Capitol attack. The resolution was voted down 80-60, with Republicans arguing that Bellows' decision disenfranchised over 300,000 Trump voters in the state. Bellows, who invoked the 14th Amendment's insurrection clause, remains steadfast in her decision, stating that any disagreement should be resolved in the courts. Colorado is the only other state to bar Trump from the ballot, with the decision under appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. Read Article

No, Missouri’s Secretary of State cannot legally remove Joe Biden from the 2024 ballot’ | Rudi Keller/Missouri Independent

Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft lacks the unilateral authority to disqualify President Joe Biden from the ballot, as only a court can make such a decision based on a lawsuit filed by another presidential hopeful. Participants in a decade-old case established limits on the secretary of state's authority to decide on candidate qualifications, emphasizing that this power is delegated to the courts to prevent partisan political interference. Ashcroft had previously threatened to disqualify Biden if decisions in Colorado and Maine, where Donald Trump was ruled ineligible over the Capitol attack on January 6, 2021, were upheld. Read Article

Nevada Secretary of State tries to get ahead of caucus-caused confusion – without criticizing caucus | April Corbin Girnis/Nevada Current

Nevada Secretary of State Francisco Aguilar on Wednesday offered little direct criticism of the Nevada Republican Party for rejecting the state-run presidential preference primary in favor of hosting their own party-run caucus. But he defended the state’s primary election system, calling it more accessible to voters than a caucus held over less than three hours on just one specific day. Read Article

Washington House backs tougher penalties for threatening election workers | Jerry Cornfield/Washington State Standard

Washington lawmakers renewed their push Thursday to increase criminal penalties for harassment of election workers. The state House of Representatives, on an 86-11 vote, approved House Bill 1241 to make it a class C felony for a person to threaten election officials with injury through words or conduct. Today, such behavior carries a lesser penalty of a gross misdemeanor. The same bill cleared the House on a 90-7 vote last session but lapsed in the Senate. It is expected to receive a hearing in the Senate in early February. Read Article

Wisconsin judge rules mobile voting sites not provided for in state law but backs other early voting sites | Jessie Opoien/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

A Racine County judge has ruled against the use of mobile absentee voting sites, delivering a partial victory to Republicans who contested the deployment of an absentee voting van in 2022. The van, funded by a grant from the Center for Tech and Civic Life, was accused of disproportionately targeting Democratic voting wards. The ruling does not express "an opinion regarding the efficacy of the use of mobile vans to further the popular use of in-person absentee balloting," the judge noted. "This ruling stands for the proposition that such determinations are for the legislature to direct and cannot be a novel creation of executive branch officials." Read Article

Arkansas: Complaint asks state Supreme Court to certify language for proposed amendment to require paper ballots | Michael R. Wickline/The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Conrad Reynolds, a retired U.S. Army colonel, and the non-profit Arkansas Voter Integrity Initiative, led by Reynolds, have filed a complaint urging the Arkansas Supreme Court to verify the adequacy of proposed ballot language for two constitutional amendments. These amendments aim to mandate paper ballots for Arkansas elections and impose specific restrictions on absentee voting. The complaint, directed against Republican Secretary of State John Thurston and the state Board of Election Commissioners, seeks the court's certification for the proposed amendments' popular names and ballot titles. Reynolds challenges two 2023 state laws requiring the attorney general to certify proposed ballot language and petitions to have signatures from at least 50 counties. Read Article