Warren Stewart – Page 76 – The Voting News

Few places have felt the effects of election denialism more than Buckingham County, Virginia. In January, Republicans gained control of the local electoral board and advanced baseless voter fraud claims targeting the work of the then-registrar, Lindsey Taylor, who had been running elections in the county since 2019 and considered herself nonpartisan. Taylor resigned in March as it became clear they wanted her gone. Two other staffers quit with her, following a deputy registrar who quit in February for the same reasons. The exodus of staff temporarily left the county without a functioning elections office. On April 12, Luis Gutierrez took over as the new registrar, quickly establishing himself in the community as a combative figure. That was no surprise to the office’s former occupants. Gutierrez had helped advance the baseless fraud claims that drove Taylor and her staff from their jobs. Read Article

Washington elections bill ‘more likely to cause insurrection’ | TJ Martinell/The Center Square

Washington Governor Jay Inslee has signed Senate Bill 5459 into law, which restricts public access to records regarding ballots and the election system, claiming it will enhance election security. The bill exempts cast ballots from public records requests and centralizes all local records requests with the Secretary of State’s office. Critics argue that the legislation is a significant overreaction to public records requests made after the 2020 election and lacks legitimate justification for keeping this information secret. They express concerns that the bill reduces transparency, erodes trust in elections, and undermines the importance of open access to information. Read Article

Wisconsin: Bipartisan Bills introduced to Safeguard Election Workers and Enhance Election Protections | Mitchell Schmidt/Wisconsin State Journal

Members of the Wisconsin state Assembly elections committee have introduced a series of bipartisan bills aimed at making changes to the state’s elections. The proposals include added protections for election officials, restrictions on polling place closures, updates to military voting requirements, and reimbursement for certain costs associated with special elections. The bills represent a shift from previous measures that added restrictions on local clerks and were criticized for making it harder to vote. The bills will need to pass both Republican-controlled chambers before reaching the desk of Democratic Governor Tony Evers. Read Article

Wisconsin lawmaker who urged Pence to delay certifying the 2020 election is named to lead Senate elections committee | Molly Beck/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Wisconsin Senate Republican leaders have drawn heavy criticism from Democratic members over the selection of their newest member, Senator Dan Knodl, to lead a committee overseeing elections. Knodl was one of the 15 Wisconsin lawmakers who asked then-Vice President Mike Pence to put off certifying the 2020 presidential results a day before a mob stormed the U.S. Capitol to try to prevent Joe Biden from becoming president. Senate Minority Leader Melissa Agard, a Democrat from Madison, said Knodl was unfit to oversee such legislation given his participation in the letter. Bernier, a former election clerk, believes Knodl likely signed the 2021 letter after getting caught up in the false claims swirling around the 2020 presidential contest but has since understood the reality of the election. Read Article

National: Bill calls for voting systems to undergo penetration testing | CBS19

Senators Mark Warner and Susan Collins have introduced the SECURE IT Act, a bill aimed at strengthening the United States’ election infrastructure. The bill proposes requiring voting systems to undergo penetration testing, a type of simulated attack that allows researchers to identify vulnerabilities by using the same tools and techniques as cybercriminals. The legislation also seeks to establish accreditation for entities that can perform penetration testing and create a program for coordinated vulnerability disclosure, enabling researchers to access voting systems, identify vulnerabilities, and disclose them to manufacturers and the Election Assistance Commission.

Read Article: Bill calls for voting systems to undergo penetration testing –

National: Presidential battleground states weigh more election funding | James Pollard and David A. Lieb/Associted Press

Ahead of the 2024 presidential election, officials in several battleground states have proposed boosting funding to add staff, enhance security and expand training within election offices that are facing heavier workloads and heightened public scrutiny. The potential extra funding comes as many election offices are grappling with a wave of retirements and a flood of public records requests, stemming partly from lingering election distrust seeded by former President Donald Trump in his 2020 defeat. In South Carolina, host of one of the earliest presidential primaries, almost half of county election directors have resigned in the last two years, said state Election Commission Executive Director Howard Knapp. The unprecedented turnover has created an “enormous knowledge and competency gap,” Knapp said, prompting a budget request for millions of additional state dollars to boost staffing and training. Without the funds, Knapp warned the gap will grow and elections will be “severely impacted.” “I can’t control county directors leaving,” said Knapp. He added, “What I can control is this agency’s ability to deliver quality training to the counties so that it doesn’t matter who is in the chair, they will have an established training program that they can take themselves and they can impart.”

Full Article: Presidential battleground states weigh more election funding | AP News

California: Public tirades, recall threats as Shasta County roils from decision to dump voting machines | Jessica Garrison/Los Angeles Times

Weeks after deciding to dump Dominion Voting Systems and become the largest government entity in the U.S. to hand-count its votes, Shasta County officials are now grappling with the complex logistics of actually carrying out that approach, accurately and legally, in a county of 200,000 people. In a Board of Supervisors meeting Tuesday spiced with angry personal attacks — and during which Supervisor Kevin Crye was served with recall papers on the dais mid-session— county staff told board members that hand-counting ballots could cost an additional $3 million over two years. The board ultimately voted to fund seven more staff positions to carry out the effort, even as flabbergasted citizens in the audience bemoaned what they said were absurd new expenses for a county struggling to provide healthcare and homeless services. The board’s decision earlier this year to sever the county’s long-standing relationship with Dominion, one of the largest suppliers of voting machines and software in the U.S, has garnered national attention as an example of the chaos wrought by unfounded claims of voter fraud pushed by former President Trump and his allies after his failed 2020 reelection bid. Last week, Fox News agreed to pay Dominion $787.5 million to settle a defamation suit the company filed accusing the network of knowingly promoting false claims that its voting machines had been used to manipulate election results. As part of that settlement, Fox issued a statement acknowledging “certain claims” made on its programming about Dominion were false.

Full Article: Shasta County roils after its decision to dump voting machines – Los Angeles Times

National: GOP election officials walking fine line on fraud, integrity | Julie Carr Smyth/Associated Press

The Republican secretaries of state in Ohio, West Virginia and Missouri have promoted their states’ elections as fair and secure. Yet each also is navigating a fine line on how to address election fraud conspiracies as they gear up campaigns for U.S. Senate or governor in 2024. The split-screen messaging of Ohio’s Frank LaRose, West Virginia’s Mac Warner and Missouri’s Jay Ashcroft shows just how deeply election lies have burrowed into the Republican Party, where more than half of voters believe Democrat Joe Biden was not legitimately elected president. Even election officials who tout running clean elections at home are routinely pushing for more voting restrictions and additional scrutiny on the process as they prepare to face GOP primary voters next year. All three withdrew their states last month from the Electronic Registration Information Center, a bipartisan, multistate effort to ensure accurate voter lists. LaRose did so less than a month after calling the group “one of the best fraud-fighting tools that we have” and vowing to maintain Ohio’s membership. He defied backlash against the organization stoked by former President Donald Trump before relenting.

Full Article: GOP election officials walking fine line on fraud, integrity | AP News

National: Dominion is not done fighting 2020 election lies. A look at its other cases | Sam Levine/The Guardian

When Dominion settled its closely-watched $787.5m defamation lawsuit against Fox last month, its lawyers made it clear that the company would continue to pursue legal action against those who spread false claims about the company and the 2020 election. The company still has major defamation cases pending against Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, Patrick Byrne and Mike Lindell – all allies of Donald Trump who were some of the most prominent figures that spread election lies involving the voting machine company on television and elsewhere after the 2020 election. “Money is accountability and we got that today from Fox, but we’re not done yet. We’ve got some other people who have some accountability coming towards them,” Stephen Shackelford, a lawyer who represented the company, said outside the courthouse after the settlement was reached. Dominion also has ongoing defamation lawsuits against Newsmax and One America News Network, conservative outlets that prominently promoted lies about the 2020 election. Smartmatic, another voting company, is also suing many of the same figures and has its own $2.7bn defamation suit against Fox and its own cases against many of the same defendants. In order to win, Dominion will have to clear the high bar of showing that those responsible for making the defamatory statement knew the statements were false or acted with reckless disregard for the truth. Dominion built an unusually strong case against Fox, producing reams of evidence showing that executives and top hosts knew the claims about the election were false. The strength of its Fox case doesn’t necessarily mean it will have an ironclad case against OAN and Newsmax, said Anthony Glassman, a defamation lawyer.

Full Article: Dominion is not done fighting 2020 election lies. A look at its other cases | US elections 2020 | The Guardian

National: Times Asks Judge in Fox-Dominion Case to Rule on Redactions | Jeremy W. Peters/The New York Times

The New York Times and a consortium of media organizations are asking a judge to rule whether Fox News improperly redacted portions of texts and email exchanges that were introduced as evidence in Dominion Voting Systems’ defamation lawsuit against the network. Dominion and Fox settled the case last month for $787.5 million, in what is believed to be the largest out-of-court payout in a defamation case. But left unaddressed was a legal challenge filed by The Times in January that sought to unseal some of what Fox and Dominion had marked as confidential in their legal filings. On Monday, a lawyer representing The Times wrote to Judge Eric M. Davis of Delaware Superior Court saying that the issue was not moot simply because the case had been settled. There is strong legal precedent, the letter said, affirming the public’s right to understand what unfolded in cases that are resolved before they go to trial.

Full Article: Times Asks Judge in Fox-Dominion Case to Rule on Redactions – The New York Times

National: A top GOP lawyer wants to crack down on the college vote. States already are. – Zachary Roth/Virginia Mercury

A top Republican election lawyer recently caused a stir when she told GOP donors that the party should work to make it harder for college students to vote in key states. But the comments from Cleta Mitchell, who worked closely with then-President Donald Trump to try to overturn the 2020 election, are perhaps less surprising than they seem. They follow numerous efforts in recent years by Republican lawmakers across the country to restrict voting by college students, a group that leans Democratic. And they come at a time when the youth vote has been surging. At an April 15 retreat for donors to the Republican National Committee, Mitchell, a leader in the broader conservative push to impose new voting restrictions, called on her party to find ways to tighten the rules for student voting in several battleground states. Mitchell’s comments were first posted online by the independent progressive journalist Lauren Windsor. With Republicans now enjoying veto-proof majorities in both of North Carolina’s chambers, Mitchell said, the party has a chance to crack down on voting by students there.

Full Article: A top GOP lawyer wants to crack down on the college vote. States already are. – Virginia Mercury

National: Dominion speaks out after Fox News settlement | Dan Primack/Axios

Fox News, one of America’s most powerful media companies, earlier this month agreed to pay $787.5 million to settle a $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit brought by Dominion Voting Systems, related to false statements made about Dominion on Fox‘s air.

John Poulos, CEO of Dominion Voting Systems: We founded the company in 2003. The first check was from my sister for $50,000. We survived and grew in the following years, really relying on friends and family. By the time we got to 2017, heading into 2018, two things happened: One was the friends and family were looking for an exit. We hadn’t distributed anything, not even a dollar to our investors, even though we had grown substantially. So we hired an investment bank in late 2017. They identified a number of interested parties, one of which was a strategic that wanted to buy 100% of the equity. We weren’t interested. As part of that process, I met Hootan.

Full Article: Dominion speaks out after Fox News settlement

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