Georgia voting breach reminds us how dangerous Trump’s ‘big lie’ is | The Washington Post

The tale of how rogue actors sought to access voting systems after the 2020 election becomes more convoluted with every new piece of information. Yet the bottom line remains simple: Former president Donald Trump’s allies went to swing states around the country breaching critical infrastructure and damaging democracy even as they claimed to protect it. The “big lie” motivating their efforts is as potent a threat today.
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New surveillance video from rural Coffee County, Ga., as reported by The Post’s Emma Brown and Jon Swaine, reveals a hodgepodge of election deniers visited a local elections office in early 2021 as they hunted for nonexistent proof of voter fraud. Most interesting are the activists’ links to each other and similar gambits elsewhere: Some were forensic specialists hired by lawyer Sidney Powell to copy sensitive software — an incident already the subject of a federal lawsuit against Georgia authorities. Others, it now appears, were consultants connected to interference in multiple other states including Michigan, where the same forensic firm also traveled for the same purpose, according to records.

The precise connections between attempts to probe voting systems not only in Georgia and Michigan but also in New Mexico, Nevada and Arizona remain unclear. What’s obvious, however, is the devastating impact of the tampering. Of course, when a password to a machine appears on YouTube, there’s a security risk. Punching a hole in a system also renders it more vulnerable to future hacking, which puts a heavy burden on cash-strapped jurisdictions forced to replace their equipment. Technical safeguards can mitigate some of this danger. But no piece of computer code can restore the public’s trust in the integrity of the country’s elections. That’s true for those who believe President Biden won in 2020 but now worry that hackers can fiddle with results, as well as those who still think, contrary to all available evidence, that Trump was the real victor — whose suspicions the meddlers sought to stoke.

Georgia: Election security experts seek precautions after Coffee County breach | Mark Niesse/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A group of computer scientists and election integrity advocates are calling for Georgia to abandon voting touchscreens and conduct more audits of this fall’s elections following the revelation that several supporters of Donald Trump coordinated the copying of election software in Coffee County. They asked the State Election Board to switch to hand-marked paper ballots instead of continuing to use Dominion Voting Systems touchscreens that print out paper ballots, according to a letter sent Thursday. “The release of the Dominion software into the wild has measurably increased the risk to the real and perceived security of the election to the point that emergency action is warranted,” said the letter by 13 people, including two Georgia Tech professors. Several tech experts working for then-Trump attorney Sidney Powell copied an election server, memory cards and other voting equipment in Coffee County on Jan. 7, 2021, according to documents subpoenaed in a lawsuit. Security video showed that Cathy Latham, one of Georgia’s fake electors who tried to cast the state’s votes for Trump, escorted the technicians into the county elections office. The letter to the State Election Board said the breach presents a danger that copied software could be exploited to create malware that could make voting equipment print incorrect votes, though there’s no evidence that has happened in an election so far. Three vote counts found that Democrat Joe Biden won Georgia in the 2020 presidential election, and investigations have repeatedly discredited claims of fraud.

Full Article: Georgia Election 2022: Election data copying spurs calls for changes

Michigan sheriff: Clerks can hand over tabulators. Experts: He’s wrong | Craig Mauger/The Detroit News

Barry County Sheriff Dar Leaf contended in an interview this week that local clerks have the “authority” to hand over voting equipment to outside groups, a reading of Michigan election law that experts say is incorrect and problematic. Leaf was one of nine individuals whom Attorney General Dana Nessel’s office referenced in a petition for a special prosecutor over an alleged conspiracy to improperly obtain tabulators amid a push by supporters of former President Donald Trump to investigate the 2020 presidential election. Leaf’s department had launched a probe into unproven claims of election fraud in his west Michigan county, where Trump won 65% of the vote. Irving Township Clerk Sharon Olson indicated that she had been asked by Leaf to cooperate with the investigation and she later turned over a tabulator to a third party, according to the Attorney General’s Office. The Irving Township tabulator ended up being one of five that were taken to rental properties in Oakland County, where self-described cybersecurity experts “broke into” them and “performed ‘tests'” on them, the Attorney General’s Office alleged. Asked at an event Tuesday if he encouraged Olson to hand over her tabulator, Leaf replied, “No. That didn’t happen.” But moments later, he added, “You understand that the clerk has that authority, right? … Yeah. Even to a third party. That’s in the election law.” However, Jake Rollow, spokesman for Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, said local clerks can give their equipment to only authorized vendors, contractors and voting system test laboratories.

Full Article: Michigan sheriff: Clerks can hand over tabulators. Experts: He’s wrong

New Hampshire: ‘Election Day’-Ja Vu: Windham Ballot Problems Discovered | Damien Fisher/NH Journal

On the eve of the primary election came reports out of Windham that ballots are being folded with the crease going through the voting oval, apparently repeating the same errors that led to an extensive audit of the town’s ballot system after the 2020 election. According to reports, absentee ballots sent to Windham voters ahead of Tuesday’s primary have been folded twice, with the creases going through the ovals. The same improper folds on absentee ballots in 2020 resulted in anomalous results and new state oversight of the vote. Windham Town Clerk Nicole Merrill could not be reached for comment Tuesday. Town Hall staff said she was away at Windham High School setting up for the election. Both Anna Fay with the New Hampshire Secretary of State’s Office, and Michael Garrity with the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office said state election monitors will be on hand Tuesday to make sure the election goes off smoothly “There will be an election monitor at the Windham polling place tomorrow. If there are any problems with improper folds or other issues, they will act accordingly,” Fay said. Windham is one of three communities that will have state monitors in place to oversee the primary election due to multiple errors found in the 2020 voting process. Windham, Bedford and Ward 6 in Laconia will all have election monitors in place In Windham, the audit found the vote total discrepancy was due to the improper folds. The folds in the paper ballots made it difficult for optical scan vote counters, AccuVote machines, to record the votes properly.

Full Article: ‘Election Day’-Ja Vu: Windham Ballot Problems Discovered – NH Journal

New Hampshire: As election distrust swirls, three communities were under a microscope during the primary | Mara Hoplamazian/New Hampshire Public Radio

Even after polls closed Tuesday evening in Windham, a small group of voters and candidates stuck around in the high school gym. As ballot counting machines softly hummed in the background, some began recording with their phone cameras, leaning over a line of red tape, looking for mistakes. Windham was one of three communities — along with Bedford and Laconia’s Ward 6 — under a microscope during Tuesday’s primary. Each was subject to extra oversight from state-appointed election monitors due to what the Attorney General described as serious, but unintentional, mistakes in ballot handling during the November 2020 election. While rare, the appointment of an election monitor is not entirely unprecedented in recent election cycles. But the added scrutiny comes at a time when election officials across the state and country are feeling mounting pressure and diminishing public trust. Secretary of State David Scanlan said having three election monitors in one season is especially unusual. But he said the unique circumstances of voting during the COVID-19 pandemic contributed to the challenges that led to the appointment of the state election monitors. “The issues that resulted in requiring a monitor being assigned to the polling place, at least in two of the polling places, were a direct result of the high volume of absentee ballots that were observed in 2020,” Scanlan said. “Of course, because of the pandemic, there were a lot more voters using absentee ballots than showing up at the polling place.”

Full Article: Election monitors watch over Windham, Laconia, Bedford | New Hampshire Public Radio

Pennsylvania: Election-denying ‘patriot’ groups are trying to stop the use of electronic voting machines across state | Gillian McGoldrick/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Across Pennsylvania, conservative activists are trying to stop the usage of electronic voting machines at the behest of former President Donald Trump and his allies who continue to claim without proof the 2020 election was stolen. Activists began collecting signatures to get a referendum question on the November ballot to stop the use of electronic voting machines, following a directive from Mr. Trump and his top supporters, including MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell and former Army intelligence officer Seth Keshel, who have made careers traveling the country to spread false claims that the 2020 election was stolen. Now, these “patriot” groups have organized ballot referendum efforts in at least 16 counties, including Butler and Washington. “That’s what we have to do to save our country,” Mr. Lindell said in a pre-recorded message played at Mr. Trump’s rally in Wilkes-Barre on Sept. 3. In the years since the 2020 election, Mr. Trump’s closest allies have demonized several components of Pennsylvania’s election system, such as mail-in voting, ballot drop boxes and now, the use of electronic voting machines. These fears have crept into county government centers all around Pennsylvania and across the country from newly engaged citizens demanding their county commissioners overhaul the state’s election system back to a pre-21st century one.

Source: Election-denying ‘patriot’ groups are trying to stop the use of electronic voting machines across Pa. | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

South Carolina: Here’s why election equipment maintenance and licensing matters | Rachel Ripp/WLTX

Maintaining and renewing licenses for election equipment is vital. If it’s not maintained, and something goes wrong, it can impact the process of casting your ballot. That’s why this week, Lexington County Council met to approve about $184,000 for voting machine maintenance fees and licensing renewals. It’s a yearly to do list item, but it’s also critical to election integrity. “Maintenance on the equipment, so if something breaks, the screen breaks and you need a screen replaced, preventative maintenance on scanners, making sure the rollers are clean and everything’s functioning properly,” said Chris Whitmire, SC Election Commission spokesperson. Lexington County Election Administrator Lenice Shoemaker tells News 19 her office has been lucky the past 12 years she’s worked there. “I didn’t have any trouble with any of my machines that I get. I had a battery that was going low once, which these don’t use that anymore, and the rover came, swapped out the batteries and it was fine. I just used a different machine until he could check it,” Shoemaker said. But it’s better to be safe than sorry. Lenice explains her staff is starting the process of checking all the equipment, from cleaning it to making sure all the buttons work to scanning test ballots. After all, this equipment just sits in a storage room, unused for long periods of time if there’s no special or municipal elections. And when it is used, it’s on the move.
Full Article: Lexington County council renews election maintenance | wltx.com

Texas’ True the Vote sued, accused of defaming small election vendor | Natalie Contreras/The Texas Tribune

A defamation and computer fraud lawsuit filed this week against Texas-based True the Vote asks a judge to essentially determine whether the election integrity group’s campaign against a small election vendor constitutes slanderous lies or a participation in criminal acts. The suit was brought by Konnech Inc., a small elections logistics company based in Michigan. It alleges that True the Vote and its followers launched a stream of false and racist accusations against the company’s founder, forcing him and his family to flee their home in fear for their lives and damaging the company’s business. The suit cites True the Votes’ public claims that it hacked the company’s servers and accessed the personal information of nearly 2 million U.S. poll workers. In a rare move, the judge granted Konnech’s request for a temporary restraining order against Catherine Engelbrecht and Gregg Phillips, leaders of True the Vote, a nonprofit organization known for making allegations of voter fraud without evidence to support their claims. Judge Kenneth Hoyt of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas found a “substantial likelihood” that Konnech would “suffer irreparable injury” without it. The order also prohibits True the Vote from accessing, or attempting to access, Konnech’s computers or disclosing any of the company’s data and orders the group to disclose more information about the alleged breach. Experts told Votebeat the damage done through the spread of conspiracy theories about election software companies such as Konnech by groups like True the Vote could impact the already limited tools available that help election officials hire, train and schedule election workers.

Full Article: Texas’ True the Vote sued, accused of defaming small election vendor | The Texas Tribune

Wisconsin Elections Commission withdraws guidance on fixing ballot errors following court ruling | Molly Beck/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The Wisconsin Elections Commission on Tuesday withdrew guidance clerks have operated under for six years to fill in missing address information on absentee ballots, a move to comply with a recent court ruling declaring such practices illegal. Commissioners voted 4-1 to withdraw the guidance hours after Waukesha County Circuit Judge Michael Aprahamian rejected Democrats’ motion to keep his Sept. 7 ruling from taking effect before the November election. Aprahamian ruled state law does not allow election clerks to fill in missing information on witness certification envelopes that contain absentee ballots, a decision that is expected to be appealed by Democrats who argued Tuesday that such rules should not change so close to an election. The ruling is a victory for Republican lawmakers who have spent months pushing for tighter voting rules since former President Donald Trump’s 2020 loss to President Joe Biden, a contest decided by about 21,000 votes in a battleground state crucial to both parties’ pursuit of power. The decision, which comes two months before the next election, is likely heading to the state Supreme Court, which is controlled by conservative justices.

Full Article: Elections Commission withdraws guidance on fixing ballot errors

‘Absolutely terrifying prospect’: How the midterms could weaken U.S. election security | Eric Geller/Politico

Republicans who support former President Donald Trump’s lies about the 2020 election would gain the power to open up access to their states’ voting machines if they win in November — a prospect that security experts call potentially catastrophic for American democracy. Already, unvetted outsiders have examined voting equipment or inspected the devices’ sensitive computer code in counties in Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Michigan and Pennsylvania, bypassing longstanding security protections — in many cases with the support of Trump allies overseeing local elections. Now Republicans who embrace the former president’s conspiracy theories are running for governor or secretary of state, offices that would give them even broader authority to allow like-minded activists and consulting firms to conduct so-called “audits” of the entire voting systems in key states. These kinds of examinations would make it easier for hackers intent on sowing chaos or changing the outcomes of future elections to learn how to conduct their attacks, according to voting security professionals, who note that some sensitive information about voting machines has already been leaked since Trump supporters began their push for audits. It’s “an absolutely terrifying prospect,” said J. Alex Halderman, a computer security expert and professor at the University of Michigan who has repeatedly exposed flaws in voting systems but has also debunked Trump’s claims about 2020 fraud.

Full Article: ‘Absolutely terrifying prospect’: How the midterms could weaken U.S. election security – POLITICO

Election deniers on ballot: What does this mean for democracy? | Peter Grier and Noah Robertson/CSMonitor

Mark Finchem, the Republican candidate to become Arizona’s top election official, secretary of state, has said he would not have certified President Joe Biden’s victory there in 2020. Kristina Karamo, the GOP nominee for Michigan secretary of state, claims that the 2020 vote there was rife with fraud and that former President Donald Trump – not President Biden, who won the state by 154,000 votes – was the true victor of the state’s Electoral College votes. Doug Mastriano, Republican gubernatorial candidate in Pennsylvania, is a state lawmaker who introduced a resolution following the 2020 vote claiming that the election was “irredeemably corrupted” and the state legislature should appoint new delegates to the Electoral College. If he wins the governorship this November, Mr. Mastriano would have the power to appoint Pennsylvania’s next secretary of state. Across America, Republicans who question the legitimacy of the last presidential election are on the ballot for the 2022 midterms. At least 195 GOP Senate, House, governor, attorney general, or secretary of state nominees have echoed Mr. Trump’s false charge that the presidential election was stolen, data media site FiveThirtyEight estimated this week. Yet multiple reviews in state after state have shown the election to be fair and the results accurate. Multiple officials of both parties, including Mr. Trump’s former Attorney General William Barr, have said they saw no evidence of widespread fraud.

Full Article: Election deniers on ballot: What does this mean for democracy? – CSMonitor.com

National: Cameras, Plexiglass, Fireproofing: Election Officials Beef Up Security | Neil Vigdor/The New York Times

In Wisconsin, one of the nation’s key swing states, cameras and plexiglass now fortify the reception area of a county election office in Madison, the capital, after a man wearing camouflage and a mask tried to open locked doors during an election in April.In another bellwether area, Maricopa County, Ariz., where beleaguered election workers had to be escorted through a scrum of election deniers to reach their cars in 2020, a security fence was added to protect the perimeter of a vote tabulation center.And in Colorado, the state’s top election official, Jena Griswold, the secretary of state and a Democrat, resorted to paying for private security out of her budget after a stream of threats.As the nation hurtles closer to the midterm elections, those who will oversee them are taking a range of steps to beef up security for themselves, their employees, polling places and even drop boxes, tapping state and federal funding for a new set of defenses. The heightened vigilance comes as violent rhetoric from the right intensifies and as efforts to intimidate election officials by those who refuse to accept the results of the 2020 election become commonplace.Discussing security in a recent interview with The Times, Ms. Griswold, 37, said that threats of violence had kept her and her aides up late at night as they combed through comments on social media.

Full Article: Before Midterms, Election Officials Increase Security Over Threats – The New York Times

National: Election activists are seeking the “cast vote record” from 2020. Here’s what it is and why they want it. | Rachel Leingang/Votebeat

Elections departments across the country are getting tons of near-identical requests for an obscure document generated by ballot-counting machines, spurred by people who insist this record could help detect fraudulent voting patterns that show former President Donald Trump actually won the 2020 presidential election. It is the latest example of the endless, fruitless quest for a smoking gun that has so far yielded no proof of wrongdoing affecting the election results. But the document, called a “cast vote record,” can’t be used to detect these kinds of patterns, nor is it particularly useful to people who aren’t researchers or auditors, experts say. And the sheer number of requests is overwhelming elections offices as they prepare for this year’s general election. “The remarkable thing is that there’s really a lot less here than it might seem in both directions. It’s way less ominous than it could be, but it’s also way less useful,” said Max Hailperin, a retired computer science professor who has researched election technology. Put simply, a cast vote record is the electronic representation of how voters voted. These lines of data appear in a spreadsheet full of zeros and ones to indicate the votes an anonymous ballot contained. Whether the resulting records can be made public varies around the country, and the exact definition and appearance of what’s included in a cast vote record also varies, depending on the jurisdiction and the voting technology it uses.

Full Article: What is a cast vote record? Election activists seek obscure document from ballot tabulators. – Votebeat Arizona – Nonpartisan local reporting on elections and voting

National: Election conspiracies find fertile ground in conferences | Margery A. Beck and Christina A. Cassidy/Associated Press

On a quiet Saturday in an Omaha hotel, about 50 people gathered in a ballroom to learn about elections. The subject wasn’t voter registration drives or poll worker volunteer training. Instead, they paid $25 each to listen to panelists lay out conspiracy theories about voting machines and rigged election results. In language that sometimes leaned into violent imagery, some panelists called on those attending to join what they framed as a battle between good and evil. Among those in the audience was Melissa Sauder, who drove nearly 350 miles from the small western Nebraska town of Grant with her 13-year-old daughter. After years of combing internet sites, listening to podcasts and reading conservative media reports, Sauder wanted to learn more about what she believes are serious problems with the integrity of U.S. elections. She can’t shake the belief that voting machines are being manipulated even in her home county, where then-President Donald Trump won 85% of the vote in 2020. “I just don’t know the truth because it’s not open and apparent, and it’s not transparent to us,” said Sauder, 38. “We are trusting people who are trusting the wrong people.” It’s a sentiment now shared by millions of people in the United States after relentless attacks on the outcome of the 2020 presidential election by Trump and his allies. Nearly two years after that election, no evidence has emerged to suggest widespread fraud or manipulation while reviews in state after state have upheld the results showing President Joe Biden won.

Full Article: US election conspiracies find fertile ground in conferences | AP News

National: An ex-professor spreads election myths across the U.S., one town at a time | Annie Gowen/The Washington Post

One recent still summer night in this tiny city on the Nebraska prairie, more than 60 people showed up at a senior citizens center to hear attorney David Clements warn of an epidemic of purported election fraud. For two hours, Clements — who has the rumpled look of an academic, though he lost his business school professor’s job last fall for refusing to wear a mask in class — spoke of breached voting machines, voter roll manipulation and ballot stuffing that he falsely claims cost former president Donald Trump victory in 2020. The audience, which included a local minister, a bank teller and farmers in their overalls, gasped in horror or whispered “wow” with each new claim. “We’ve never experienced a national coup,” he told the crowd, standing before red, white and blue signs strung up alongside a bingo board. “And that’s what we had.” Clements, who has no formal training or background in election systems, spent months crisscrossing the back roads in his home state of New Mexico in a battered Buick, trying to convince local leaders not to certify election results. His words had an impact: In June, officials in three New Mexico counties where he made his case either delayed or voted against certification of this year’s primary results, even though there was no credible evidence of problems with the vote.

Full Article: An ex-professor spreads election myths across the U.S., one town at a time – The Washington Post

National: Election Officials Have Been Largely Successful in Deterring Cyber Threats, CISA Official Says | Edward Graham/Nextgov

Increased coordination between federal agencies, election officials, and private sector election vendors has helped deter an influx of cyber threats directed at U.S. voting systems, an election official from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said on Thursday during an event hosted by the Election Assistance Commission and Pepperdine University. Mona Harrington, the acting assistant director of CISA’s National Risk Management Center—which includes the agency’s election security team—said that since election systems were designated as critical infrastructure in 2017, “the attacks have become much more sophisticated and the volume of attacks has certainly increased.” But with the partnerships that CISA and election officials have built, along with the products and services currently being used to mitigate potential risks, election officials have many of the tools needed to deter both nation state actors and non-nation state adversaries. Harrington noted that all 50 states have deployed CISA-funded or state-funded intrusion detection sensors in their systems, known as Albert sensors, and that hundreds of election officials and private sector election infrastructure partners have signed up for a range of CISA’s cybersecurity services, from recurring scanning of their systems for known vulnerabilities on internet-connected infrastructure to more in-depth penetration testing.

Source: Election Officials Have Been Largely Successful in Deterring Cyber Threats, CISA Official Says – Nextgov

Editorial: Congress’s first job right now: Safeguarding democracy | The Washington Post

Congress has a lot on its to-do list ahead of November’s midterm elections — confirming circuit-court judges, funding the government and possibly enshrining same-sex marriage protections along the way. But at least as important is a piece of business getting less attention: passing the Electoral Count Reform Act. The bipartisan bill would mend and modernize the archaic 1887 law that governs the counting and certifying of votes in presidential elections — the same law that President Donald Trump and his allies tried to exploit to overturn the legitimate 2020 presidential election results. Reform would protect the democratic process from future attacks from unprincipled politicians who would manipulate the system to install their favored candidates in the White House, regardless of the voters’ will. The reform bill was introduced to some fanfare over the summer, after months of negotiations led by Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.). It’s essential that the measure not lose steam this fall, amid competing priorities and political tumult. The packed Senate schedule that Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and his party must navigate is only one problem. Another is naysaying from the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection, which might soon issue its own recommendations. Certainly, tweaks to the bill — some of them under discussion as part of the Rules Committee’s work-up — would strengthen the proposal. Some of them are easy to make and should be uncontroversial. Others, sensible or not, could imperil the entire enterprise. These should be approached with caution.

Full Article: Opinion | Congress must reform the Electoral Count Act, now – The Washington Post

California: ‘This cannot continue’: MAGA influencers are creating hell for elections offices | Eric Ting/San Francisco Chronicle

Natalie Adona, the clerk-recorder and registrar of voters in California’s Nevada County, is having a bad week. For almost two years now, her inbox has been inundated with public records requests from people who falsely believe the 2020 election was stolen. Thanks to a handful of online conspiracy theorists, though, this has been the worst week yet — not just for Adona, but for many election officials around the state. “The requests are growing exponentially,” she said. “There is some comfort in knowing that it’s not just us.” Every one of the requests, which are often copy/pasted from templates distributed by influencers peddling falsehoods about the 2020 election, must be carefully reviewed and responded to. Several counties have had to hire outside assistance to sort through the swarm, which officials told SFGATE is a labor-intensive distraction from their work preparing for the upcoming elections this year.

Full Article: MAGA influencers creating hell for Calif. elections offices

California: Election skeptics renew fraud claims, flood Shasta County official with records requests | David Benda/Redding Record Searchlight

For some in Shasta County, there are still questions to be answered about the 2020 presidential election. In a county where former President Donald Trump received nearly two-thirds of the vote, a vocal contingent of residents continues to voice grievances and parrot Trump’s claims that the 2020 election was rigged. It all played out during the Aug. 30 Shasta County Board of Supervisors meeting when emotions ran high during the public comment period. Many who spoke demanded that an audit of the 2020 election be conducted, the county stop using Dominion voting machines to count votes and all the data be preserved rather than destroyed or recycled, which is allowed 22 months after the election, according to the U.S. election code. They also called for the elimination of electronic voting and the ability to vote by mail. Ninety percent of the people in Shasta County who voted in the June 7 primary did not do so at a polling place, Registrar of Voters Cathy Darling Allen said.

Full Article: Election skeptics renew fraud claims at raucous Shasta County meeting

Handling of Georgia election breach investigation questioned | Mark Niesse/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A recording first surfaced six months ago claiming that a team copied “every piece of equipment” in Coffee County’s elections office after the 2020 election, but it wasn’t Georgia investigators who confirmed that confidential voting data had been taken. Instead, it took a lawsuit by private citizens to find documents showing that allies of then-President Donald Trump and their computer experts gained access to sensitive files in the rural South Georgia county. Critics of Georgia election officials say the secretary of state’s office has been slow-walking the breach investigation as it fights a court case alleging that equipment manufactured by Dominion Voting Systems is vulnerable to insider attacks and hacks. The investigation has been pending for months, and few witnesses have been questioned. State election officials disagree, saying they’re still gathering evidence and there’s little threat to Georgia’s voting system after several people working for Sidney Powell, an attorney for Trump, copied election files on Jan. 7, 2021. They then distributed the data to conspiracy theorists who deny the results of the presidential election, which Trump lost. Similar incidents have resulted in indictments in Colorado and an attorney general’s investigation in Michigan. While the Georgia secretary of state’s office says it’s investigating, prosecutors in Fulton County moved quickly after the GBI opened a criminal investigation on Aug. 15.

Full Article: Handling of Georgia election breach investigation questioned

Georgia: Newly obtained surveillance video shows fake Trump elector escorted operatives into elections office before voting machine breach | Zachary Cohen and Jason Morris/CNN

A Republican county official in Georgia escorted two operatives working with an attorney for former President Donald Trump into the county’s election offices on the same day a voting system there was breached, newly obtained video shows. The breach is now under investigation by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and is of interest to the Fulton County District Attorney, who is conducting a wider criminal probe of interference in the 2020 election. The video sheds more light on how an effort spearheaded by lawyers and others around Trump to seek evidence of voter fraud was executed on the ground from Georgia to Michigan to Colorado, often with the assistance of sympathetic local officials. In the surveillance video, which was obtained by CNN, Cathy Latham, a former GOP chairwoman of Coffee County who is under criminal investigation for posing as a fake elector in 2020, escorts a team of pro-Trump operatives to the county’s elections office on January 7, 2021, the same day a voting system there is known to have been breached. The two men seen in the video with Latham, Scott Hall and Paul Maggio, have acknowledged that they successfully gained access to a voting machine in Coffee County at the behest of Trump lawyer Sidney Powell. Text messages, emails and witness testimony filed as part of a long-running civil suit into the security of Georgia’s voting systems show Latham communicated directly with the then-Coffee County elections supervisor about getting access to the office, both before and after the breach. One text message, according to the court document, shows Latham coordinating the arrival and whereabouts of a team “led by Paul Maggio” that traveled to Coffee County at the direction of Powell.

Full Article: Newly obtained surveillance video shows fake Trump elector escorted operatives into Georgia county’s elections office before voting machine breach | CNN Politics

Georgia’s biggest county can’t find a top elections official | Matthew Brown/The Washington Post

It is in many ways an ideal job for a public servant with a passion for democracy — the chance to facilitate voting in Georgia’s most populous county, the electoral center of one of the most important political battlegrounds in the nation. Yet for 10 months, local leaders have been unable to hire a permanent director to run the Department of Registration and Elections in Fulton County, home to Atlanta. The previous director resigned in November and left the position in April, after pressure from local lawmakers and the turmoil of the 2020 election, when county staff endured death threats, baseless conspiracy theories, high-stakes audits and harassment from former president Donald Trump and his allies. Now, with Georgia in another highly charged campaign season and poised to play a pivotal role in the next presidential election, many here think the toxic swirl of state politics, national scrutiny, ongoing harassment and long-standing logistical issues has turned off potentially strong candidates and cast a shadow over the office itself.

Full Article: Georgia’s biggest county can’t find a top elections official – The Washington Post

Former Hawaii residents now living in US territories barred from voting in federal elections | Mary Pahlke/Courthouse News Service

A federal judge in Hawaii ruled Tuesday that prior residence in Hawaii doesn’t give U.S. citizens the right to cast absentee ballots for the state in federal elections. “This case is not about the denial or deprivation of the right to vote, but about whether a failure to extend voting rights that do not otherwise exist violates the Equal Protection Clause. The statutes are not unconstitutional merely because they do not grant plaintiffs a right given to others, especially when plaintiffs’ fellow territorial residents lack such a right,” Otake wrote in the ruling. The case was first brought against the United States and the state of Hawaii two years ago, one month before the 2020 presidential elections. The plaintiffs claimed the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA) and Hawaii’s corresponding Uniform Military and Overseas Voters Act (UMOVA) unconstitutionally contribute to the disenfranchisement of residents in the territories of Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico and American Samoa. Although residents of U.S. territories can vote in primary elections, they are barred from voting in the general presidential and congressional elections. Activists have long decried the situation, pointing out that while residents can’t have their voices heard, territories are still subject to the results of these elections.

Full Article: Former Hawaii residents now living in US territories barred from voting in federal elections | Courthouse News Service

Kansas: “We’ve got to find soebody”: Johnson County Sheriff appears to lack probable cause in election inquiry | Jonathan Shorman/The Kansas City Star

Johnson County Sheriff Calvin Hayden, who has spent months promoting a criminal investigation into elections, told a gathering of residents last week that “we’ve got to find somebody” who knows election rigging is happening. But the Republican sheriff appeared to acknowledge he doesn’t have probable cause, the legal standard required to seek a search or arrest warrant, after the investigation helped foster baseless suspicions of voter fraud. He also said he launched the inquiry to force the preservation of 2020 election records. The comments came during a nearly two-hour meeting inside a Johnson County Sheriff’s Office facility. Video of the meeting, which took place Aug. 30, was posted on Friday on Rumble, a video sharing platform popular among the right-wing politicians and supporters. Hayden’s remarks offer additional insight into an investigation that hasn’t led to any charges or arrests but has helped build his profile among election deniers. At the meeting, Hayden appeared to lay the groundwork to explain why his amorphous investigation hasn’t progressed. He told the audience that he has “tons of reasonable suspicion” but says he needs probable cause for a search warrant “to swear I know a crime has been committed.” He also alluded to baseless conspiracy theories that allege China stole the 2020 election from former President Donald Trump. Some Trump supporters, including MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, have promoted the baseless idea.

Source: Kansas sheriff: Election investigation started over records | The Kansas City Star

Maine elections clerks field “frivolous requests” in apparent effort to sow distrust | Caitlin Andrews/Maine Monitor

Clerks across the state have just nine weeks until the pivotal 2022 elections. But their tasks increasingly include responding to misinformed election data requests rooted in national efforts to sow distrust in the process. The requests are part of a national trend that is slowing down clerks’ ability to do their jobs. Those efforts stem from skeptics who believe that former President Donald Trump should have won the November 2020 general election, despite officials in several states finding no evidence of widespread fraud. The deluge has also sparked fears from Maine’s top election official that it could end up undermining the public’s trust in the process as already burdened clerks stretch to handle the number of requests. “Every hour state and local election officials spend answering frivolous requests is an hour away from the detailed and important work of preparing for our elections,” said Shenna Bellows, the Maine Secretary of State. One of the requests the state has been inundated with is a notice of prospective litigation and demand for records retention, which appears to be a copy-cat notice that election officials in Massachusetts and Kentucky have received. A template for that letter has been linked to Terpsichore “Tore” Maras, a QAnon conspiracy theory promoter and election skeptic who attempted to run for Ohio’s secretary of state office.

Full Article: Maine elections clerks field “frivolous requests” in apparent effort to sow distrust

Michigan secretary of state says officials worried about ‘violence and disruption’ on Election Day | Zach Schonfeld/The Hill

Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson (D) on Sunday said election officials nationwide are most worried about “violence and disruption” as the midterm elections approach. “Violence and disruption on Election Day, first and foremost, and in the days surrounding the election,” Benson told CBS “Face the Nation” chief Washington correspondent Major Garrett when asked about her biggest concern. “Secondly, there’s a concern about the ongoing spread of misinformation, which, of course fuels the potential for additional threats, harassment and even violence on Election Day,” Benson added. Despite her worries, Benson noted that election officials have been working for roughly two years to protect the integrity of the election process, an effort she described as a success “at every turn,” vowing to seek accountability for anyone who attempts to interfere with November’s midterm contests. “Democracy prevailed in 2020,” she told Garrett. “There have been, in Michigan and in other states, no significant attempts apart from the tragedy in our Capitol on Jan. 6 to really see disruption of the polling places on Election Day itself.”

Full Article: Michigan secretary of state says officials worried about ‘violence and disruption’ on Election Day | The Hill

All 88 Ohio election boards report getting requests for 2020 election documents. Why? | Karen Kasler/NPR

With just eight weeks till the November vote, boards of elections in all 88 Ohio counties report getting a small number of requests for records from the 2020 vote, just as they were about to be destroyed. The requests appear to be identical, and they’re asking for a huge haul of documents, such as all ballots and voter ID envelopes. There’s a source that seems to be generating the idea. As of September 3, it’s been 22 months since the 2020 vote, and documents and records related to that federal election are set to be destroyed. But at the Warren County Board of Elections in southwest Ohio, that’s not happening. Warren County Board of Elections Director Brian Sleeth said he got a handful of identical and huge requests for those documents, starting with 180,000 ballots from the election that the requesters have asked to review. But that’s not the only type of request the Warren County Board of Elections received, he said. The people making the requests have asked to see the paper tape from the voting machines. “They’ve asked for register – it’s like a cash register tape, the results tapes out of our voting machines for that election,” Sleeth said. “It’s about 70 to 80 foot long, and that’s just one piece of paper.”

Full Article: All 88 Ohio election boards report getting requests for 2020 election documents. Why? | WVXU

Rhode Island Board of Elections wants clarity as more ballot errors emerge | Katherine Gregg/The Providence Journal

As more ballot errors came to light, the state Board of Elections on Wednesday voted to establish a protocol that leaves no doubt about the role of the secretary of state in the “ballot verification” process. The frustration in the room Wednesday was palpable following the public release by  Secretary of State Nellie Gorbea’s office of a letter laying the blame for incorrect Spanish-language ballots exclusively at the feet of the company that supplied the state’s new ExpressVote machines in July and the state Board of Elections. “This is a serious issue. We all know that,” said elections board member Jennifer Johnson. “There has been a lot of blame and stuff blowing around in the press,” she said. “I think we are all interested in moving forward and assuring the voters that we are working together … It is all of our collective responsibility to ensure elections integrity and voter access.” “Although I have some feelings about responsibility, I don’t think that is helpful in this particular case,” added the vice-chairman, Richard Pierce. “I think it is clear some errors were made,” he said.

Full Article: Ballot errors in Rhode Island, Board of Elections seeks clear roles

Wisconsin judge bars election clerks from fixing absentee ballot witness certificates | Joe Kelly/Courthouse News Service

A Wisconsin judge on Wednesday ruled that guidance the state elections commission gave to clerks allowing them to fix errors on an absentee ballot envelope’s witness certificate was unlawful and preliminarily gave it one week to take the guidance back. Saying that “the state has a compelling interest in preserving the integrity of the electoral process,” Waukesha County Circuit Court Judge Michael Aprahamian declared state law does not allow curing witness certificates, prohibited the Wisconsin Elections Commission from advising clerks they could do so, and gave the WEC until Sept. 14 to notify clerks its guidance on the matter is invalid and contrary to law. Though the practice has been allowed without major issue since 2016, it has been in Republicans’ crosshairs since more than 1.9 million absentee ballots were cast in the Badger State during the 2020 election, which resulted in Donald Trump’s narrow 21,000-vote loss to Joe Biden in the battleground. Wednesday’s decision is a victory in their recent concerted efforts to restrict all kinds of absentee voting protocols. The underlying lawsuit was filed in Waukesha County Circuit Court in July by the Republican Party of Waukesha County and three taxpayers, who claimed the practice of adding or altering information on witness certificates is not allowed under state law. The WEC — a six-member bipartisan board of commissioners appointed by state officials who then appoint an administrator for state Senate approval — in October 2016 issued a guidance memo saying a complete witness address on a certificate must contain a street number, street name and name of municipality. The commission gave clerks some options for corrective action if some information is missing, including adding a missing municipality or ZIP code.

Full Article: Wisconsin judge bars election clerks from fixing absentee ballot witness certificates | Courthouse News Service

Wyoming Republicans want to limit the secretary of state after Trump’s pick wins { Bob Beck/NPR

Wyoming’s likely next secretary of state, a Trump-endorsed Republican who has falsely called the 2020 election fraudulent, is drawing concerns from many of his fellow GOP lawmakers. Now those legislators are aiming to draft a bill to remove the secretary of state’s ability to oversee elections. State Rep. Chuck Gray is the Republican nominee for secretary of state in Wyoming. He does not have a general election opponent. Though state officials — including outgoing Secretary of State Ed Buchanan — maintain Wyoming elections are secure, Gray campaigned on concerns that he has about election integrity. During the primary, he told television stations KGWN and KCWY that he wants to ban ballot drop boxes and oversee other reforms. “We need all paper ballots,” he said. “The fact that a few counties have moved off paper ballots, I think is really wrong. And we need hand audits.”

Full Article: Wyoming Republicans try to curtail Trump-endorsed Chuck Gray : NPR