Warren Stewart – Page 91 – The Voting News

The state’s top election officials raised warning flags. One state lawmaker after another stated their misgivings when it popped up a year ago. But a bill to allow remote voting is once again headed to a vote at the Rhode Island State House. On Tuesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to vote on the bill, S2118, to allow disabled and military voters to “electronically receive and return their mail ballot.” The proposal was not included in the much-heralded “Let RI Vote” bill, allowing online applications and eliminating longstanding witness requirements for mail ballots, that Gov. Dan McKee is expected to sign into law on Wednesday. And only one person spoke in favor of the legislation at a hearing earlier this year: the lead sponsor, Sen. Stephen Archambault, D-Smithfield. Others voiced their support in writing, including the Rhode Island Commission for Human Rights. But in a letter of concern to lawmakers, Cranston’s director of elections, Nicholas Lima, wrote: “There are significant cybersecurity concerns … despite assurances that some electronic ballot vendors tend to promote to the contrary. “No current technology exists that allows a [ballot] to be transmitted … electronically, without risk of interception or alteration by hostile threat actors – including well-equipped nation state actors that are intent on disrupting American elections by any means necessary.

Full Article: Rhode Island Senate committee to vote on remote voting bill

Tennessee: Long Stalemate Ends on New Shelby County Voting Machines | Jackson Baker/Memphis Flyer

At long last, after at least two years of steady contentiousness between the County Commission and the Shelby County Election Commission, a resolution may have been reached on the matter of what kind of voting method should replace the currently used outmoded machines. But that auxiliary verb “may” is necessary. At several points during three-and-a-half hours of intense disagreements and outright verbal combat, various commissioners would invoke the prospect of reconsideration — that parliamentary device which allows voters for a majority position to call for a revote later on. Though a flurry of secondary issues became part of the argument, the essential debate at Monday’s commission meeting was between proponents of hand-marked paper ballots and defenders of the Election Commission’s preference for electronic ballot-marking devices. The commission had voted twice previously in favor of hand-marked paper ballots and had specifically rejected ballot-marking devices, but the resolution before the body on Monday called for almost $6 million to purchase ballot-marking machines from the Election Systems & Software company. It also allowed for a “compromise” procedure whereby voters could either ask for paper ballots or use the ballot-marking machines. Partisans of hand-marked paper ballots tended to be skeptical regarding the bona fides of that provision. At the end, in any event, the resolution would pass, though at various intervals a series of amendments that would have transformed it one way or another were introduced and then withdrawn. The final version targeted November as the changeover date, though Election Administrator Linda Phillips and Election Commission chairman Mark Luttrell had asked for action before the August county election on grounds that the county’s existing machines were on their last legs.

Full Article: Memphis Flyer | Long Stalemate Ends on New Voting Machines

Wisconsin: Future of Election Commission remains unclear as new chair is about to be selected | Joy Powers, Kobe Brown/WUWM

The Wisconsin Election Commission has been in the spotlight since the 2020 election. Unsubstantiated claims of election fraud have pitted many Republican politicians against the commission, despite the fact the election commission was created by former Republican Governor Scott Walker to ensure that both major parties would have equal representation in the process. The commission postponed selecting its new chairperson when Republican commissioner Dean Knudson resigned late last month — citing Republican’s deep desire that he step down in light of Knudson’s assertions that widespread voter fraud didn’t occur in Wisconsin during the 2020 presidential election. Now, Wisconsin state Assembly Speaker Robin Vos has appointed a new Republican member to replace Knudson — attorney Don Millis. “[Don Millis is] a former member of the commission and a former member of the body that preceded the commission, so he has a history and some expertise,” says Barry Burden, a professor of political science at UW-Madison and director of the Elections Research Center. “He was well received by former Governor Tommy Thompson, who actually appointed him initially to serve on the state board. There were even positive things said about him by Ann Jacobs, who’s the current Democratic chair of the commission.” The next chairperson of the commission will be a Republican and will certify the 2022 midterm election and 2024 presidential election. It’s likely to be either Millis or Robert Spindell, who attempted to cast Electoral College ballots for President Donald Trump during the 2020 election and has been a strong supporter of the GOP investigation into the election.

Full Article: Future of Wisconsin Election Commission remains unclear as new chair is about to be selected | WUWM 89.7 FM – Milwaukee’s NPR

Alaska Judge orders delay in certification of US House special primary; state plans appeal | Iris Samuels, Anchorage Daily News

An Alaska state judge ruled Friday that the results of the special U.S. House primary election could not be certified until visually impaired voters are given “a full and fair opportunity to vote independently, secretly and privately.” The state immediately said it was planning an appeal to the Alaska Supreme Court. The ruling, from Anchorage Superior Court Judge Judge Una Gandbhir, came after arguments earlier in the day in a lawsuit filed earlier this week by the Alaska State Commission for Human Rights against the Alaska Division of Election and Lt. Gov. Keven Meyer, who oversees the division. The commission asserted that the primary, which is the state’s first all-mail election, does not provide visually impaired voters in the state adequate voting access. The order comes just a day before the Saturday voting deadline. It could upend a plan to hold the special general election on Aug. 16 and force an all-mail general election, according to the Division of Elections. The ramifications of the court decision on the ongoing election were not immediately clear. “No court should consider lightly an injunction that potentially upends an ongoing election, but neither can the Court allow flawed state procedures to disenfranchise a group of Alaskans who already face tremendous barriers in exercising a fundamental right,” Gandbhir wrote in her decision to grant the preliminary injunction. The decision does not specify what giving visually impaired voters “a full and fair” opportunity to vote would entail, but Gandbhir wrote she “urges the parties to work together expeditiously to find a timely, appropriate remedy.”

Full Article: Judge orders delay in certification of Alaska’s US House special primary; state plans appeal | Nation | fltimes.com

No evidence of exploitation of Dominion voting machine flaws, CISA finds | Ellen Nakashima and Amy Gardner/The Washington Post

The federal government has found no evidence that flaws in Dominion voting machines have ever been exploited, including in the 2020 election, according to the executive director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. CISA, an arm of the Department of Homeland Security, has notified election officials in more than a dozen states that use the machines of several vulnerabilities and mitigation measures that would aid in detection or prevention of an attempt to exploit those vulnerabilities. The move marks the first time CISA has run voting machine flaws through its vulnerability disclosure program, which since 2019 has examined and disclosed hundreds of vulnerabilities in commercial and industrial systems that have been identified by researchers around the world. (The program is aimed at helping companies and consumers better secure devices from breaches. The security of Dominion voting machines has become a flash point in the fraught politics of the 2020 election with supporters of former president Donald Trump claiming that the results were tainted by machines that were manipulated, while election officials — including Georgia’s Republican secretary of state and governor — insisted that there was no evidence of breaches or altered results.

Full Article: No evidence of exploitation of Dominion voting machine flaws, CISA finds – The Washington Post

‘It’s going to be an army’: Tapes reveal GOP plan to contest elections | Heidi Przybyla/Politico

Video recordings of Republican Party operatives meeting with grassroots activists provide an inside look at a multi-pronged strategy to target and potentially overturn votes in Democratic precincts: Install trained recruits as regular poll workers and put them in direct contact with party attorneys. The plan, as outlined by a Republican National Committee staffer in Michigan, includes utilizing rules designed to provide political balance among poll workers to install party-trained volunteers prepared to challenge voters at Democratic-majority polling places, developing a website to connect those workers to local lawyers and establishing a network of party-friendly district attorneys who could intervene to block vote counts at certain precincts. “Being a poll worker, you just have so many more rights and things you can do to stop something than [as] a poll challenger,” said Matthew Seifried, the RNC’s election integrity director for Michigan, stressing the importance of obtaining official designations as poll workers in a meeting with GOP activists in Wayne County last Nov. 6. It is one of a series of recordings of GOP meetings between summer of 2021 and May of this year obtained by POLITICO. Backing up those front-line workers, “it’s going to be an army,” Seifried promised at an Oct. 5 training session. “We’re going to have more lawyers than we’ve ever recruited, because let’s be honest, that’s where it’s going to be fought, right?”

Full Article: ‘It’s going to be an army’: Tapes reveal GOP plan to contest elections – POLITICO

Tennessee: Shelby County Commissioners, past, present and future, voice opposition to voting machine plan | Katherine Burgess/Memphis Commercial Appeal

Former, current and future Shelby County Commissioners gathered Friday to voice their opposition to a plan to approve the purchase of new voting machines for Shelby County, an idea poised to be voted on by the current county commission Monday. The Election Commission has said they would allow for voters to choose between voting on a machine that would then print out a ballot or voting with a pencil on a paper Scantron machine after the county spends $5.8 million on new machines from vendor Election Systems & Software, LLC, known as ES&S. If the resolution is approved, the equipment would be fully operational by the August general election, according to the Election Commission. But the group gathered Friday expressed concern that this would only result in hand-marked paper ballots being used by voters who knew to ask for them, meaning the majority of voters would still use ballot marking devices, something that has long been opposed by the Shelby County Commission. “Election security experts overwhelmingly are of the opinion that (hand-marked paper ballots) are the most secure system,” said Steve Mulroy, a former county commissioner who is currently running for Shelby County District Attorney. “For reasons which boggle the mind, the Election Commission has been insisting for years on a much pricier, more hackable ballot marking device.”

Full Article: Group urges opposition to voting machine purchase

Tennessee: Shelby County could get new voting machines if a lawsuit is withdrawn | Katherine Burgess/Memphis Commercial Appeal

It took nearly four hours of arguing, questioning and the occasional longsuffering sigh, but Shelby County Commissioners finally voted Monday to fund new voting machines for the county to the tune of $5.8 million. Whether those machines are actually funded is contingent, however, on if the Shelby County Election Commission drops its ongoing lawsuit against Shelby County Government. And whether the Election Commission will do so may hinge on a key change from the original resolution presented Monday and the final version passed. The original, which had the support of the Election Commission, would have had voters using the new machines in the August general election. But commissioners, some voicing concerns about time to learn new machines while already getting used to new precincts, changed the resolution so machines will instead be in place for the November election. Not having new machines could put the August election in peril, Elections Administrator Linda Phillips has said. On May 20, the Election Commission filed a motion seeking to expedite the appeal in its lawsuit against the county, writing about how two of the three servers used for the current voting machines have failed. “The backup server periodically just shuts off and we live in terror that it will just stop functioning,” reads the motion filed by the Election Commission. “Consider, for example, what would happen if the server dies on election night. The results of the election would not be lost but it would take as many as 18 hours to get summary election results and 2 weeks to get precinct results, since the results from each precinct and early voting location would have to be manually transcribed.”

Full Article: Shelby County could get new voting machines if a lawsuit is withdrawn

National: Cyber agency: No evidence the flaws in the Dominion Voting Systems’ equipment have been exploited to alter election results | Kate Brumback/Associated Press

Electronic voting machines from a leading vendor used in at least 16 states have software vulnerabilities that leave them susceptible to hacking if unaddressed, the nation’s leading cybersecurity agency says in an advisory sent to state election officials. The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency, or CISA, said there is no evidence the flaws in the Dominion Voting Systems’ equipment have been exploited to alter election results. The advisory is based on testing by a prominent computer scientist and expert witness in a long-running lawsuit that is unrelated to false allegations of a stolen election pushed by former President Donald Trump after his 2020 election loss. The advisory, obtained by The Associated Press in advance of its expected Friday release, details nine vulnerabilities and suggests protective measures to prevent or detect their exploitation. Amid a swirl of misinformation and disinformation about elections, CISA seems to be trying to walk a line between not alarming the public and stressing the need for election officials to take action. CISA Executive Director Brandon Wales said in a statement that “states’ standard election security procedures would detect exploitation of these vulnerabilities and in many cases would prevent attempts entirely.” Yet the advisory seems to suggest states aren’t doing enough. It urges prompt mitigation measures, including both continued and enhanced “defensive measures to reduce the risk of exploitation of these vulnerabilities.” Those measures need to be applied ahead of every election, the advisory says, and it’s clear that’s not happening in all of the states that use the machines.

Source: Cyber agency: Voting software vulnerable in some states | AP News

National: They Insisted the 2020 Election Was Tainted. Their 2022 Primary Wins? Not So Much. | Reid J. Epstein and Nick Corasaniti/The New York Times

This spring, when Representative Mo Brooks of Alabama was fighting to win over conservatives in his campaign for Senate, he ran a television ad that boasted, “On Jan. 6, I proudly stood with President Trump in the fight against voter fraud.” But when Mr. Brooks placed second in Alabama’s Republican primary last week, leaving him in a runoff, he said he was not concerned about fraud in his election. “If it’s a close race and you’re talking about a five- or 10-vote difference, well, then, it becomes a greater concern,” he said of his primary results. “But I’ve got more important fish to fry. And so, at some point, you have to hope that the election system is going to be honest.” Mr. Brooks was one of 147 Republican members of Congress who voted on Jan. 6, 2021, to object to the results of the 2020 presidential election. Hundreds more Republican state legislators across the country took similar action in their own capitals. President Biden’s victory, they said, was corrupted by either outright fraud or pandemic-related changes to voting. Now, many of those Republicans are accepting the results of their primaries without complaint. Already this year, 55 of the lawmakers who objected in 2020 have run in competitive primaries, contests conducted largely under the same rules and regulations as those in 2020. None have raised doubts about vote counts, even as Mr. Trump has begun to spread unfounded claims. No conspiracy theories about mail ballots have surfaced. And no one has called for a “forensic audit” or further investigations of the 2022 primary results.

Full Article: Republicans Accept Primary Wins Despite Election Fraud Claims in 2020 – The New York Times

National: ‘The horse and buggy era’: Attacks on voting machines set off fresh worries about election subversion | Fredreka Schouten/CNN

Despite warnings that ditching voting machines would delay election results and likely violate the law, county commissioners in a rural slice of western Colorado this year voted to stop paying the licensing fee on the county’s devices. Commissioners in Nye County, Nevada, meanwhile, want local election officials to begin hand-counting paper ballots in this year’s elections. And in Arizona, two Trump-aligned candidates for statewide office have gone to court in a long-shot bid to bar the use of machines to record and count votes in a battleground state with more than 4 million voters — and key Senate and gubernatorial races this year. These pockets of resistance to voting machines mark another attempt by Republicans sold on former President Donald Trump‘s baseless claims of election fraud to transform how US elections are run. So far, most efforts have been thwarted at the state level. But critics warn that the moves, if successful in just a handful of localities, would result in delays and chaos and potentially open the door to election subversion efforts.

Fulll Article: ‘The horse and buggy era’: Attacks on voting machines set off fresh worries about election subversion – CNNPolitics

National: Lawyer Who Plotted to Overturn Trump Loss Recruits Election Deniers to Watch Over the Vote | Alexandra Berzon/The New York Times

In a hotel conference center outside Harrisburg, Pa., Cleta Mitchell, one of the key figures in a failed scheme to overturn Donald J. Trump’s defeat, was leading a seminar on “election integrity.” “We are taking the lessons we learned in 2020 and we are going forward to make sure they never happen again,” Ms. Mitchell told the crowd of about 150 activists-in-training. She would be “putting you to work,” she told them. In the days after the 2020 election, Ms. Mitchell was among a cadre of Republican lawyers who frantically compiled unsubstantiated accusations, debunked claims and an array of confusing and inconclusive eyewitness reports to build the case that the election was marred by fraud. Courts rejected the cases and election officials were unconvinced, thwarting a stunning assault on the transfer of power. Now Ms. Mitchell is prepping for the next election. Working with a well-funded network of organizations on the right, including the Republican National Committee, she is recruiting election conspiracists into an organized cavalry of activists monitoring elections. In seminars around the country, Ms. Mitchell is marshaling volunteers to stake out election offices, file information requests, monitor voting, work at polling places and keep detailed records of their work. She has tapped into a network of grass-root groups that promote misinformation and espouse wild theories about the 2020 election, including the fiction that President Biden’s victory could still be decertified and Mr. Trump reinstated.

Full Article: Lawyer Who Plotted to Overturn Trump Loss Recruits Election Deniers to Watch Over the Vote – The New York Times

Alabama Secretary of State responds to lawsuit seeking to prohibit use of electronic voting machines | Jacob Holmes/Alabama Political Reporter

Secretary of State John Merrill is once again defending the state’s use of electronic voting machines in response to a lawsuit seeking to bar them from being used in the upcoming general election. The lawsuit was filed by Republican gubernatorial candidate Lindy Blanchard, who was defeated in the primary last week by incumbent Gov. Kay Ivey, and Rep. Tommy Hanes, R-Scottsboro, against Merrill and five members of the state’s Electronic Voting Committee. Merrill said the electronic tabulators are not susceptible to being manipulated. “We’ve never had a negative incident or occurrence related to the use of electronic voting equipment,” Merrill said. “No vulnerabilities have ever been exposed or introduced at any level and I’m confident that will remain the standard. If I was not confident, we would be addressing that.” The lawsuit seeks to prohibit the use of the tabulators in the general election and force the state to use paper ballots and hand counting. It would require three individuals to count the ballots, while being recorded by camera. The lawsuit claims machines manufactured by Election Systems & Software, the provider of all Alabama machines, can be connected to the internet, but Merrill said that is not the case in Alabama.

Full Article: Merrill responds to lawsuit seeking to prohibit use of electronic voting machines

Arizona Governor Ducey vetoes ‘vague’ voter cancellation bill | Howard Fischer/Arizona Daily Star

Gov. Doug Ducey has vetoed legislation which would have required county election officials to cancel the registration of anyone they determine is not qualified to vote. The move Friday, the first by the governor this session, came amid concerns from county officials that what was in HB 2617 could lead to mischief as it would allow individuals to make unsubstantiated claims that some people on the voter registration rolls should be removed. Jennifer Marson, executive director of the Arizona Association of Counties, said that, in turn, would trigger automatic investigations. Marson, in a letter Friday to Ducey, also pointed out what she said were illegal provisions in the measure. The governor, in his veto message, said he agrees. “The implementation of this provision is vague and lacks any guidance for how a county recorder would confirm such a determination,” Ducey wrote. “Our lawfully registered voters deserve to know that their right to vote will not be disturbed without sufficient due process,” he continued. “This provision leaves our election system vulnerable to bad actors who could seek to falsely allege a voter is not a qualified elector.”

Full Article: Gov. Ducey vetoes ‘vague’ voter cancellation bill | Government-and-politics | tucson.com

Colorado election law updates follow threats against election workers, allegations against Tina Peters | Nick Coltrain/The Denver Post

Colorado law now includes new provisions aimed to protect the state’s elections and its election workers. Gov. Jared Polis on Tuesday signed into law SB22-153, which requires new security measures for election systems, and HB22-1273, which makes it a crime to threaten election officials or publish their personal information online to harass them. “We want to make sure that every vote is accurately counted,” Polis said at the signing ceremony. “And we also want to make sure that those that oversee elections themselves don’t have to worry about their about their physical safety.” The election security law is specifically aimed at “insider threats,” such as election workers “embracing conspiracies,” Secretary of State Jena Griswold said. It includes making it a felony to tamper with voting equipment or knowingly publish confidential information about the system. It also requires key card access and video surveillance for voting systems. “We are not immune to the attacks on democracy that we have seen across the nation,” Griswold said, while hailing the state’s election security and ballot access. Griswold didn’t name Mesa County Clerk and Recorder Tina Peters, but Peters’ alleged actions spurred the legislation. Peters is under indictment for alleged breaches to her county’s election system. Peters is seeking the Republican nomination for secretary of state, and was the top vote getter at the state GOP assembly this spring. She was recently barred from overseeing the June primary election and November general election after being sued by Griswold.

Full Article: Colorado election law updates follow threats against election workers, allegations against Tina Peters

District of Columbia: Wealthy Mobile Voting Advocate Targets Charles Allen with Negative Ads Over Legislative Dispute | Alex Koma/Washington City Paper

A venture capitalist and former Mike Bloomberg adviser is gearing up to launch an ad blitz against Ward 6 Councilmember Charles Allen, aiming to pressure him into advancing mobile voting legislation that he’s sought to bottle up in his committee. Bradley Tusk’s nonprofit Tusk Philanthropies is planning a “significant, five-figure ad campaign to launch next week” pressuring Allen to at least hold a hearing on legislation aiming to let D.C. voters cast their ballots from their phones by 2024, a spokesperson for the group tells Loose Lips. The bill is spearheaded by Ward 2 Councilmember Brooke Pinto and co-introduced by seven other councilmembers. That’s generally a good indication of legislation’s success, but Allen has no interest in moving it out of his judiciary and public safety committee for a full Council vote. “The radio, TV, digital, and print campaign will strongly urge [Allen] to immediately hold a hearing on the bill, which would expand access to voting across the District,” the Tusk spokesperson wrote in a statement. The problem for Tusk (who has also worked as a political adviser to Uber and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer) is that Allen seems unlikely to budge. It’d be one thing if he was facing a competitive re-election (he’s currently running unopposed in the Democratic primary) but as it stands now, he doesn’t have much incentive to bend to the whims of a rich out-of-towner.

Full Article: Wealthy Mobile Voting Advocate Targets Charles Allen with Negative Ads Over Legislative Dispute – Washington City Paper

Georgia: Revealed: election conspiracy theorists work as election officials across state | Justin Glawe/The Guardian

The effort to install local election officials who promote Donald Trump’s lie that the 2020 election was stolen has seen particular success in the crucial swing state of Georgia, where at least eight county election officials are promoters of the falsehood, a Guardian investigation has found. The officials span the state, from suburban counties outside Atlanta to rural counties near the Tennessee and Alabama borders. All have substantial power over the administration of local, state and national elections in their counties, often with little oversight beyond scantly attended public meetings and small-town newspapers. … The investigation looked at seven counties out of 159, meaning the number of election officials who support election conspiracy theories could be much higher. “These disturbing facts bring to light what we’ve known for a while: support for the big lie is growing – the result of powerful political actors stoking a dangerous fire,” the voting rights group New Georgia Project said in a statement.

Full Article: Revealed: election conspiracy theorists work as election officials across Georgia | Donald Trump | The Guardian

Georgia: There’s no evidence of election hacks but still plenty to worry about | Joseph Marks/The Washington Post

Georgia’s voting machines recorded votes properly – but they have hacking vulnerabilities that went undiscovered for years. The findings are from a recent review of the voting machines and represent a mixed bag for people concerned about foreign and domestic interference in U.S. elections. First, the good news: There’s no evidence any of the vulnerabilities have been used to alter votes in any elections, as my colleagues Ellen Nakashima and Amy Gardner report. Most of the vulnerabilities are also quite difficult to exploit, requiring hands-on access to the voting machines. And they’re likely to be caught by standard security protocols in election offices. But: The vulnerabilities in the Dominion Voting Systems-brand machines remained undetected for years. They might not have been discovered now if not for a long-running lawsuit over the security of Georgia’s machines during which University of Michigan computer scientist J. Alex Halderman was given a chance to examine the machines on behalf of the plaintiffs in the case. Such independent reviews are still relatively rare — and election security advocates warn vulnerabilities in other voting systems could still be waiting out there undiscovered. Halderman’s findings were verified by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), which is in the process of notifying more than a dozen states that use the machines about the vulnerabilities and mitigation measures they should take, according to Ellen and Amy who got an advance look at the CISA advisory.

Full Article: There’s no evidence of Georgia election hacks but still plenty to worry about – The Washington Post

Michigan voter ID campaign finds fraud, delays submitting petitions for November ballot | Ben Orner/MLive.com

A ballot drive to tighten Michigan voting laws and require voter IDs will not end up on the November ballot, petition leaders announced Wednesday. Instead, circulators will aim for action by the state legislature after finding thousands of fraudulent signatures among its stacks of petitions. Secure MI Vote says it gathered over 435,000 signatures – more than the 340,047 required – and those don’t include around 20,000 that the committee’s “quality control” process believes were fraudulent. But instead of submitting to the Secretary of State by Wednesday’s 5 p.m. deadline, organizers decided to keep collecting and build a larger cushion. The Michigan Bureau of Elections checks petition signatures for fraud, and opponents can also file outside challenges. In May, the Bureau found so many fraudulent signatures in petitions from five Republican gubernatorial candidates that they were booted from the November ballot. “We would also be filing today if it weren’t for some people who tried to defraud the process,” Secure MI Vote spokesperson Jamie Roe said at a Wednesday press conference, stacked boxes of petitions behind him.

Full Article: Michigan voter ID campaign finds fraud, delays submitting petitions for November ballot – mlive.com

Nevada: Frayed Trust Frustrates Some Rural Election Officials | Colton Lockhead/Associated Press

In deep-red Republican rural Nevada, longtime election officials are fighting back against a right-wing conspiracy-fueled push to turn back the clock on elections and return to hand counting paper ballots. For some, the fight is paying off. For others, pleas have fallen on unsympathetic ears. Since the late 2021, seven of Nevada’s 17 counties have considered either switching away from Dominion electronic voting machines, which have come under fire from election deniers following the 2020 election, or eliminating electronic voting systems altogether in favor of paper ballots and hand counting, a move that local election officials argue would only create more distrust, uncertainty and delays in the election process. Two counties, Nye and Esmeralda, are asking their clerks to conduct the 2022 elections using paper ballots and hand count the results, a move that was presented to the commissioners by Jim Marchant, a former Republican assemblyman now running for Nevada secretary of state, who has been peddling debunked voter fraud claims since losing a bid for Congress in 2020. The decision blindsided longtime Nye County Clerk Sam Merlino, a Republican and the county’s top election official since 2000. “I literally wanted to resign that day. After doing it for so long, you’d think people would have a little trust in you,” Merlino told the Las Vegas Review-Journal in a recent interview.

Full Article: Frayed Trust Frustrates Some Rural Nevada Election Officials | Colorado News | US News

Pennsylvania court orders counting of undated mail ballots in win for McCormick in his GOP Senate race against Oz | Jeremy Roebuck and Jonathan Lai/Philadelphia Inquirer

A Pennsylvania court on Thursday ordered counties to include undated mail ballots — those that arrived on time but were rejected solely because they were missing a handwritten date on their outer envelopes — in their vote counts. The Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court on Thursday ordered counties to include undated mail ballots in their vote counts — a legal victory for GOP Senate candidate David McCormick who had sued to include them in his neck-and-neck primary race against Mehmet Oz. In a 40-page opinion, President Judge Renée Cohn Jubelirer described the state’s practice of rejecting ballots that arrived without a required handwritten date from the voter on the outer envelope as a potentially unjust restriction of the right to vote. “The absence of a handwritten date on the exterior envelope could be considered a ‘minor irregularity’ without a compelling reason that justifies the disenfranchisement of otherwise eligible voters,” the judge wrote. Cohn Jubelirer’s ruling Thursday came in the form of a temporary injunction ordering counties to include the undated mail ballots in their vote tally for the state’s May 17 primaries. But in a nod to the provisional nature of her decision, she instructed counties to submit two sets of election results to the state: one with the undated ballots included and one without. That will allow the state to use the correct total should the ruling be reversed. If the final ruling mirrors the one she issued Thursday — and it withstands appeal — it would mean potentially thousands of votes are counted in future elections that previously would have been rejected. In the short term, however, it seems unlikely that the fresh votes that McCormick would pick up from among the roughly 800 undated Republican mail ballots in this year’s primary would be enough to push McCormick into the lead. He trails Oz by about 1,000 votes out of more than 1.3 million cast.

Full Article: Pennsylvania court orders counting of undated mail ballots in win for McCormick in his GOP Senate race against Oz

Tennessee: Shelby County Commission will consider voting machine purchase again | Katherine Burgess/Memphis Commercial Appeal

After years of stalemate, the Shelby County Commission is poised to — once again — consider funding new voting machines for Shelby County. Whether the plan will be approved by Shelby County commissioners is yet to be seen. They have in the past voted down a similar arrangement, voicing support for hand-marked paper ballots over ballot marking devices. If approved, the agreement would spend $5.8 million on new machines from vendor Election Systems & Software, LLC, known as ES&S, having the equipment fully operational by the August 2022 general election. $2.4 million in those funds are reimbursable from the State of Tennessee. “We are at risk for the election that’s coming up in August, so that’s why we’re trying to move forward with having a process by which hopefully having this new equipment will achieve the outcome that it’s intended for,” said Shelby County Commission Chairman Willie Brooks Jr. Voters would then be able to choose at the polls between a paper ballot or an electronic ballot. The ballot marking machines will not allow voters to overvote. They are accessible for voters with disabilities.

Full Article: Shelby County Commission will consider voting machine purchase again

Tennessee: Paper-trail law has county eyeing new voting machines | Heather Mullinix/Crossville Chronicle

Cumberland County needs to upgrade its voting machines before the 2024 elections, and money is available to defray the cost. Cumberland County Election Administrator Jill Davis explained the Tennessee General Assembly will require all voting machines in the state to be capable of producing a paper trail of votes. “This is the last year we can use the machines,” Davis said during the May 5 meeting of the Cumberland County Budget Committee. Cumberland County uses the Infinity election system by MicroVote. Davis said a request for proposals will have to be issued before selecting how to move forward, but the company offers a printer that can be added to the voting machine. Estimated cost is $4,300 per machine, with a request for 80 machines. “No one will ever know who you vote for,” Davis explained. “When you make your selections, you verify your vote and it does a printout behind the glass, so it’s never handled. It’s always there for the audits.”

Full Article: Paper-trail law has county eyeing new voting machines | News | crossville-chronicle.com

Wisconsin conservatives again lose in court as they challenge election grants to municipalities funded by Mark Zuckerberg | Patrick Marley/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Conservatives are continuing their losing streak in legal challenges over nonprofit grants that helped city clerks run the 2020 election in Wisconsin. The Center of Tech and Civic Life provided more than $10 million to more than 200 Wisconsin communities to help conduct the election during the COVID-19 pandemic. The center, which is funded by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, directed most of the money in Wisconsin to the state’s five largest cities, where Democratic voters are concentrated. Conservatives have brought a series of legal challenges. Each time, they’ve lost. Their latest setback came Wednesday when Dane County Circuit Judge Stephen Ehlke ruled there was nothing illegal about the grants. “Certainly nothing in (state law) prohibits clerks from using private grant money or working with outside consultants in the performance of their duties. … The bottom line is that the (Wisconsin Elections) Commission correctly concluded that there was no probable cause to believe any Wisconsin law has been violated,” Ehlke ruled from the bench. His decision is in line with other courts. A federal judge in Green Bay threw out one lawsuit about the grants before the 2020 election. Just after the election, the state Supreme Court declined to take another case over the grants and other issues. A federal judge in Washington, D.C., dismissed a third case over the grants in 2021 and referred the lawyer who brought the case to an ethics panel that is considering sanctioning him.

Full Article: Conservatives again lose in court as they challenge election grants

Wyoming: Park County revisits hand counting ballots discussion | Lucy Jane Crimm Powell/Wyoming Tribune Eagle

Boone Tidwell and Park County locals urged county commissioners May 17 to allow him and a group of volunteers to count election ballots by hand. A month ago every seat was filled at the Park County commissioner’s meeting room, as Tidwell advocated for hand counting election ballots after the machines had processed the votes. Commissioners decided they needed to consult the county prosecuting attorney about whether or not they had any authority to grant Tidwell’s request. If so, what steps should they take? “What is [being] proposed right now for counting ballots to me, and I would check with your county attorney, we do not have that authorization under current law,” Wyoming Secretary of State Ed Buchanan said. “If that is something that we want to see as a policy — and I’ve told people this in meetings — if you wanted to go all the way back to paper ballots altogether or introduce ways of counting those post election, that is a policy decision that we should take up with the Legislature and get the statutory authority to do that.” After consulting the county prosecuting attorney, the commissioners invited Tidwell and the supporters back on May 17, where they read the report from the county attorney. After researching the legality surrounding the proposal for a hand count of ballots within Park County during the election process, the county attorney stated that “at present throughout Wyoming, all ballots are designed to be counted by machine, thereby invoking this statute. The statute defines the law and the law simply cannot be ignored by local officials. Voting procedures in the state of Wyoming are set by the Wyoming Legislature, not local officials.”

Full Article: County revisits hand counting ballots discussion | | wyomingnews.com

American Democracy Isn’t Ready for Online Voting | Spenser Mestel/The Atlantic

This weekend, Australians will vote in the country’s federal elections. The process will likely be seamless, transparent, and punctuated by countless civic-minded barbecues affectionately known as sausage sizzles. This is how elections generally go in Australia, but for those in New South Wales, that wasn’t the case late last year. The state had encouraged a significant number of voters to move to an internet-voting system called iVote. In December, it melted down so badly that the New South Wales Electoral Commission not only discontinued its use but also asked a court to nullify the results of three city-council elections. It was an embarrassing failure for e-voting. More than 650,000 online votes were cast—probably a world record, says Vanessa Teague, an election-security expert and a professor at the Australian National University. Teague has been warning governments about vulnerabilities in e-voting for years, as have cybersecurity researchers in the U.S., where systems like iVote are being expanded in at least nine states. Letting people vote from home with the click of a button is an appealing idea, especially in the U.S., where turnout is abysmal. The problem, the American Association for the Advancement of Science says, is that there’s no “evidence that any internet voting technology is safe or can be made so in the foreseeable future … All research to date demonstrates the opposite.”

Full Article: American Democracy Isn’t Ready for Online Voting – The Atlantic

Pennsylvania’s GOP Senate primary heads to a recount as Oz and McCormick scrap over ballots in court | Jonathan Lai, Jeremy Roebuck, and Julia Terruso/Philadelphia Inquirer

It’s official: The razor’s edge primary contest between GOP Senate candidates Mehmet Oz and David McCormick is headed to a recount, state elections officials announced Wednesday, ensuring that the victor in the closely watched race won’t be officially declared for at least two weeks. The announcement came even as counties continued to tally lingering batches of ballots and the gap between the two candidates dwindled to fewer than 1,000 votes. Speaking at a news conference in Harrisburg, acting Secretary of State Leigh M. Chapman said that Oz led McCormick by just 902 votes, or less than 0.08% of the more than 1.3 million ballots cast in their race. By Wednesday evening the margin had shrunk even further. That put their contest well within the 0.5% margin of victory that triggers an automatic recount under state law. And as Pennsylvania’s 67 counties prepared to begin the retallying process as early as Friday, Chapman vowed the recount would take place “transparently, as dictated by law.” “I know Pennsylvanians and, indeed, people throughout the country have been following this race attentively and are eagerly awaiting the results,” she said. “I thank everyone for their patience as we count every vote.”

Full Article: Pennsylvania’s GOP Senate primary heads to a recount as Oz and McCormick scrap over ballots in court

National: A PDF File Is Not Paper, So PDF Ballots Cannot Be Verified | Andrew Appel/Freedom to Tinker

A new paper by Henry Herrington, a computer science undergraduate at Princeton University, demonstrates that a hacked PDF ballot can display one set of votes to the voter, but different votes after it’s emailed – or uploaded – to election officials doing the counting. For overseas voters or voters with disabilities, many states provide “Remote Accessible Vote By Mail,” or RAVBM, a system that allows voters the ability to download and print an absentee ballot, fill it out by hand on paper, and physically mail it back. Some states use commercial products, while others have developed their own solutions. In general, this form of RAVBM can be made adequately secure, mainly because the voters make their own marks on the paper. In some forms of RAVBM, the voter can fill out the ballot using an app on their computer before printing and mailing it. This is less secure: if malware on the voter’s computer has “hacked” the voting app, what’s printed out may differ from what the voter indicated on the screen, and voters are not very good at reviewing the printouts and noticing such changes. The most dangerous form of RAVBM is one that allows electronic ballot return, in which the voter uploads or emails a PDF file. Thirty states allow overseas voters to do electronic ballot return, either by email, fax, or web-portal upload, as shown in Table 5 (pages 34-35) of Herrington’s longer paper, Ballot Acrobatics: Altering Electronic Ballots using Internal PDF Scripting.

Full Article: A PDF File Is Not Paper, So PDF Ballots Cannot Be Verified

National: Security chiefs scramble to prevent Russian interference in midterms | Tom Rees/The Telegraph

US security chiefs are scrambling to prevent Russian interference in the midterm elections as they are “very concerned” about the Kremlin using cyber warfare and online disinformation. Jen Easterly, US director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, said the US has been forced to beef up its election cybersecurity after the Kremlin was accused of influencing the 2016 vote to help Donald Trump win. Joe Biden and the Democrats are heading into a difficult midterms and a recent Ipsos MORI poll found that more than half of Americans are concerned about Russia spreading misinformation online in this year’s election. Ms Easterly said at the World Economic Forum in Davos that US officials are “very concerned” but have “raised the bar” on election infrastructure cybersecurity. “I’m projecting myself into November because obviously we are very concerned about foreign [influence],” Ms Easterly said. “I frankly, don’t think that Russia needs to do anything to create chaos in our elections.” Ms Easterly said she is “much more concerned about physical threats to election officials and disinformation threats to the American people’s confidence.”

Full Article: US security chiefs scramble to prevent Russian interference in midterms

National: How Trump’s 2020 Election Lies Have Gripped State Legislatures | Nick Corasaniti, Karen Yourish and Keith Collins/The New York Times