National: Growing alarm as more election workers leave their posts ahead of Election Day | redreka Schouten/CNN

State and federal officials, along with voting rights advocates, are sounding the alarm about a growing exodus of local election officials as the November midterms draw closer and workers face continued threats and harassment. In Kentucky, 23 of the state’s 120 county election clerks have opted not to seek reelection this year — “an unusually high” rate of departures, Kentucky Secretary of State Michael Adams, a Republican, told CNN. Five have left their posts in recent weeks, he said. And Adams, who has defended the integrity of the 2020 election, said he reported to the FBI last week a new threat to hang him for “treason.” In Texas, meanwhile, officials have seen a 30% turnover rate among local election officials since 2020, said Sam Taylor, a spokesman for the Texas secretary of state’s office. In one small Texas county, all three election workers recently resigned. The election administrator cited threats as one reason for her resignation. “Our election workers and elections have proved themselves incredibly resilient,” said Larry Norden, the senior director of the elections and government program at the liberal-leaning Brennan Center for Justice at New York University’s law school. “But we are really pushing it to the limit.”

Source: Growing alarm as more election workers leave their posts ahead of Election Day – CNNPolitics

National: With 10 weeks until midterms, election deniers are hampering some election preparations | oo Rin Kim, Laura Romero, Patrick Linehan, and Kate Holland/ABC

In Colorado, supporters of Donald Trump seeking evidence of 2020 election fraud have flooded some county offices with so many records requests that officials say they have been unable to perform their primary duties. In Nevada, some election workers have been followed to their cars and harassed with threats. And in Philadelphia, concerns about the potential for violence around Election Day have prompted officials to install bulletproof glass at their ballot-processing center. With ten weeks to go until the 2022 midterms, dozens of state and local officials across the country tell ABC News that preparations for the election are being hampered by onerous public information requests, ongoing threats against election workers, and dangerous misinformation campaigns being waged by activists still intent on contesting the 2020 presidential election. The efforts, many of which are being coordinated at both the national and local level, range from confronting election officials at local government meetings to training volunteers to challenge the vote-counting process on Election Day, according to election officials. Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon told ABC News he’s concerned that the efforts are a reflection of the prevailing attitude among 2020 election deniers that “the folks running elections in this county or this city are up to no good.”

Full Article: With 10 weeks until midterms, election deniers are hampering some election preparations – ABC News

National: Trump says he would issue full pardons and government apology to rioters who stormed the Capitol Jan. 6 | Mariana Alfaro/The Washington Post

Former president Donald Trump said he would issue full pardons and a government apology to rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and violently attacked law enforcement to stop the democratic transfer of power. “I mean full pardons with an apology to many,” he told conservative radio host Wendy Bell on Thursday morning. Such a move would be contingent on Trump running and winning the 2024 presidential election. Supporters of the former president attacked the Capitol as Congress was confirming Joe Biden’s electoral college win in the 2020 election, the worst attack on the seat of democracy in more than two centuries. The insurrection left four people dead, and an officer who had been sprayed with a powerful chemical irritant, Brian D. Sicknick, suffered a stroke and died the next day. About 140 members of law enforcement were injured as rioters attacked them with flagpoles, baseball bats, stun guns, bear spray and pepper spray. As a result, the House impeached Trump for inciting an insurrection. Trump’s comments to Bell came on the same day President Biden is scheduled to deliver a prime-time address in Philadelphia about extremist threats to American democracy and efforts to rescue “the soul of the nation,” and as Trump is battling in court over top-secret documents he apparently took to his Mar-a-Lago estate after leaving office and did not return despite being subpoenaed.

Full Article: Trump says he would issue full pardons and government apology to rioters who stormed the Capitol Jan. 6 – The Washington Post

National: ‘I dread 2024’: America’s local election officials are being pushed to their limits | Kenneth Tran/USA Today

Lackluster funding, infinite work hours, staff shortages, limited resources, abusive phone calls and more: These problems are nothing new for America’s election officials. They have stretched from long before the pandemic to today. Despite it all, they have remained steadfast in the conviction that their job is what maintains American democracy. Failure is not an option. “We don’t stop elections,” said Karen Brinson Bell, executive director of North Carolina State’s Board of Elections. “We figure out how to proceed.” Now, however, their patience is being pushed to its limits by new hostility and threats – it’s pushing officials away and it doesn’t bode well for future elections. “I dread 2024, I don’t know how people are gonna be in 2024,” said Tonya Wichman, director of Ohio’s Defiance County Board of Elections. “You can only take so many phone calls that tell you how bad you are at your job.”

Full Article: Local election officials face heavy turnover amid increasing threats

Alabama voting machines challenged as unreliable in court hearing | Mike Cason/AL.com

Montgomery County Circuit Judge Greg Griffin is holding a hearing today on a lawsuit that seeks to block Alabama’s use of electronic ballot-counting machines in the November election. Plaintiffs in the case claim the machines are unreliable and susceptible to hacking and tampering that can change election results. They have asked the court to order the state to count ballots by hand through a process outlined in their lawsuit. Attorney General Steve Marshall has asked the court to dismiss the case, saying the claims are based on speculation and innuendo. The lawsuit was filed in May by former gubernatorial candidate Lindy Blanchard, state Rep. Tommy Hanes, a Republican from Jackson County, Dr. David Calderwood of Madison County, and Focus on America, a social welfare organization. Blanchard, who finished second to Gov. Kay Ivey in the Republican primary, withdrew from the lawsuit. Dean Odle, another Republican candidate for governor in this year’s primary, attended this morning’s hearing and said he supports the plaintiffs in the case.

Full Article: Alabama voting machines challenged as unreliable in court hearing – al.com

Arizona GOP candidates lose bid to ban ‘exploitable’ voting machines | Michael McDaniel/Courthouse News Service

A federal judge in Arizona dismissed a suit Friday seeking to ban electronic voting machines ahead of the November midterm election, brought by Republican candidates who claim the machines may have security flaws. In the suit, Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake and secretary of state candidate Mark Finchem claimed an injunction to stop the use of voting machines was necessary since the “voting system does not reliably provide trustworthy and verifiable election results.” Former President Donald Trump — a frequent purveyor of baseless election fraud claims — has endorsed Lake and Finchem in their respective races. Lake and Finchem claimed that voting on paper ballots and hand-counting those votes was the only efficient and secure method for proceeding in November. In arguments, the pair contended that contractors found some concerns after completing a partisan audit of the 2016 presidential election. Chiefly, the contractors allegedly found cybersecurity best practices weren’t used, antivirus software patches were neglected, computer logs were cleared, and some files were missing from the election management system. U.S. District Judge John Tuchi on Friday found the supposed evidence conjectural and not concrete. “Ultimately, even upon drawing all reasonable inferences in plaintiffs’ favor, the court finds that their claimed injuries are indeed too speculative to establish an injury in fact, and therefore standing,” wrote Tuchi.

Full Article: Arizona GOP candidates lose bid to ban ‘exploitable’ voting machines | Courthouse News Service

Georgia: Trump election probe cites voting system breach | Kate Brumback and Christina A. Cassidy/Associated Press

The prosecutor investigating whether former President Donald Trump and others illegally tried to interfere in the 2020 election in Georgia is seeking information about the alleged involvement of a Trump ally in the breach of voting equipment at a county roughly 200 miles south of her Atlanta office. The widening of the probe highlights the latest instance in which unauthorized people appear to have gained access to voting equipment since the 2020 election, primarily in battleground states lost by Trump. Election experts have raised concerns that sensitive information shared online about the equipment may have exposed vulnerabilities that could be exploited by people intent on disrupting future elections. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is seeking to have attorney Sidney Powell, who tried persistently to overturn Trump’s loss, testify before a special grand jury seated for the investigation into possible illegal election interference. In her court petition filed Thursday, Willis said Powell is “known to be affiliated” with Trump and the Trump campaign and has unique knowledge about her communications with them and others “involved in the multi-state, coordinated efforts to influence the results of the November 2020 elections in Georgia and elsewhere.” The scope of Willis’ criminal investigation has expanded considerably since it began, prompted by a Jan. 2, 2021, phone call in which Trump suggested Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger could “find” the votes needed to overturn Trump’s narrow election loss in the state. Among other things, Willis wrote that she wants to ask Powell about rural Coffee County, where Trump beat President Joe Biden by nearly 40 percentage points.

Full Article: Trump election probe in Georgia cites voting system breach | AP News

Georgia subpoenas media texts and emails from critic of Georgia electronic voting system | Stanley Dunlap/Georgia Recorder

A plaintiff in a lawsuit challenging the state’s electronic voting system is being subpoenaed by Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and the State Election Board for information that would include her communication with reporters. A subpoena filed Monday in U.S. District Court of Northern Georgia requests Marilyn Marks, executive director of Coalition for Good Governance, to provide every email, text message, details of conversation and any other documents about the unauthorized access of Coffee County’s voting system, including communication she’s had with the media. Marks and a First Amendment advocacy organization accused the state of trying to intimidate reporters and sources from reporting on potentially serious misconduct of some local Coffee election officials scheming with a team of computer forensic experts and Donald Trump loyalists to gain access to sensitive election files in attempt to discredit President Joe Biden’s narrow 2020 election victory in Georgia. Marks said she believes she is being targeted by the state because she was on the March 2021 call that led to the news breaking this year of a breach of the Coffee County voting system and has been outspoken in her criticism of the state’s handling of the investigation. Marks is a critic of the state’s use of Dominion Voting Systems ballot-marking machines that critics say are less secure than hand-marked paper ballots. Marks noted that she is the first person in this case that the state has subpoenaed despite the state election board and secretary of state’s office having been aware of allegations before releasing the recording in February of a phone conversation she had in which Atlanta bails bondsman Scott Hall described chartering a flight to Coffee County to “scan every freaking ballot.”

Full Article: State subpoenas media texts and emails from critic of Georgia electronic voting system  – Georgia Recorder

Kansas certifies defeat of anti-abortion amendment, other results | Jonathan Shorman/The Kansas City Star

The Aug. 2 election in Kansas was the highest-turnout primary election in state history, Kansas Secretary of State Scott Schwab’s Office said Thursday as top officials met to formally certify the results, including the defeat of an amendment to remove abortion rights from the state constitution. The unprecedented turnout in the Aug. 2 primary election was driven by extraordinary voter interest in the amendment, called Value Them Both by supporters, which would have overturned a 2019 Kansas Supreme Court decision that found the state constitution protects abortion access. The Kansas State Board of Canvassers voted unanimously to certify the results of the amendment vote and every other state-level and congressional race at the end of a brief meeting in Topeka. In addition to Schwab, the board includes Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly and Republican state Attorney General Derek Schmidt, who will face each other in the Nov. 8 general election for governor. Kelly and Schmidt shook hands, but otherwise didn’t speak to each other during the meeting as they sat on opposite ends of a table, with Schwab, who chaired the meeting, in the middle.

Source: KS certifies defeat of anti-abortion amendment, other results | The Kansas City Star

Michigan sheriff sought to seize multiple voting machines, records show | By Peter Eisler and Nathan Layne/Reuters

A sheriff in Barry County, Michigan, already under state investigation for alleged involvement in an illegal breach of a vote-counting machine, sought warrants in July to seize other machines in an effort to prove former President Donald Trump’s claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election, documents reviewed by Reuters showed. The proposed warrants sought authorization to seize vote tabulators and various election records from the offices of the Barry County and Woodland Township clerks, the documents showed. The two jurisdictions have not been previously identified as targets in the sheriff’s investigation into suspicions that machines in the county were rigged to siphon votes from Trump. The warrants were submitted in July to the office of Barry County Prosecuting Attorney Julie Nakfoor Pratt, a Republican, who told Reuters she declined to endorse them because she felt the sheriff lacked sufficient evidence to support his suspicions that the machines were rigged. Reuters obtained copies of the documents under a Freedom of Information request filed with the prosecutor’s office. The requests suggest Barry County Sheriff Dar Leaf, a Republican, was seeking to broaden his investigation of alleged election fraud even as he faced investigation from the state attorney general’s office.

Full Article: Michigan sheriff sought to seize multiple voting machines, records show | Reuters

Nevada: Proposed bill requires counties with unused voting machines to pay back the state funds used to buy them | Taylor R. Avery/Las Vegas Review-Journal

An interim legislative committee Monday voted to request a bill draft that, if passed in the next legislative session, would require any county not using voting machines purchased with state funds to pay back the money used to buy them. The request, which was recommended to the Joint Interim Committee on Legislative Operations and Elections, was brought by Assemblywomen Maggie Carlton, D-Las Vegas and Brittney Miller, D-Las Vegas. “We would have never thought that a county that came to us and asked for dollars to purchase something would just put them in a closet and not want to use them,” said Carlton, who chairs the committee. “It’s very sad to think that state dollars, taxpayer dollars were given to a county and they bought machines and they’re just gathering dust.” The proposal follows a successful push by election deniers in Nye County to eliminate the use of electronic voting machines in in favor of paper ballots and hand counting the results, a move which saw the county’s long serving clerk, Sam Merlino, resign. She was replaced earlier this month by Mark Kampf, a former executive who has falsely claimed that former President Donald Trump won the 2020 election. Kampf has said that Nye County will both hand count ballots as well as use machines to ensure an accurate tally.

Full Article: Proposed bill requires counties with unused voting machines to pay | Las Vegas Review-Journal

Nevada approves hand counting votes over fears of machines | Gabe Stern/Associated Press

As parts of rural Nevada plan to count ballots by hand amid misinformation about voting machines, the Nevada secretary of state’s office on Friday approved regulations for counties to hand count votes starting as soon as this fall’s midterm elections. But the revised regulations will no longer apply to the one county that has been at the forefront of the drive to count by hand. That’s because Nye County, in the desert between Las Vegas and Reno, will also use a parallel tabulation process alongside its hand count, using the same machines that are typically used to count mail-in ballots. All ballots in Nye County will resemble mail-in ballots, interim Nye County Clerk Mark Kampf said in an interview earlier this month. Nye County is one of the first jurisdictions nationwide to act on election conspiracies related to mistrust in voting machines. Nevada’s least populous county, Esmeralda, used hand-counting to certify June’s primary results, when officials spent more than seven hours counting 317 ballots cast. The long-time Nye County clerk resigned in July after election conspiracies led to a successful push to hand count votes. Kampf, her replacement, has falsely claimed that former President Donald Trump won the 2020 election. He has vowed to bring hand counting to the rural county of about 50,000, alongside the parallel tabulation process using machines.

Full Article: Amid fears of voting machines, Nevada approves hand counting | AP News

New Hampshire: Lawsuit seeks to block electronic voting machines | Kein Landrigan/Union Leader

A conservative constitutional lawyer has sued Gov. Chris Sununu and legislative leaders, asserting the state has no authority to use electronic ballot-counting machines at polling places. Daniel Richard of Auburn also sued his hometown and Town Administrator Daniel Goonan for refusing to let him cast a vote by paper ballot and have it hand-counted. In a motion filed Wednesday, Richard asked a Rockingham County Superior Court judge to issue an injunction to stop towns from using the machines for the Sept. 13 primary. He asked to be allowed to make an in-court argument on the topic before voters go to the polls. A Rockingham County Superior Court judge has agreed to hear arguments on Richard’s suit Sept. 9, four days before the primary. “Voting in New Hampshire is non-validated and not in accordance with any known electrical and electronic safety standards — by design, in order to maintain the country’s “first-in-the-nation” vote status,” Richard wrote in his latest filing.

Full Article: Lawsuit seeks to block electronic voting machines in N.H. | Voters First | unionleader.com

Texas: What brought down one county’s entire elections department? It was something in the water. | Natalia Contreras/Votebeat

Last November’s sleepy constitutional amendment election nearly came to blows in Gillespie County, a central Texas county known for its vineyards. A volunteer poll watcher, whose aggressive behavior had rankled election workers all day, attempted to force his way into a secure ballot vault. The burly man was repeatedly blocked by a county elections staffer. Shouting ensued. “You can’t go in there,” the staffer, Terry Hamilton, insisted to the man, who towered over Hamilton. “We can see anything we want!” the poll watcher and his fellow election integrity activists yelled, according to an election worker who witnessed the scene. They accused Hamilton and Elections Administrator Anissa Herrera of a variety of violations of the state elections code, which they quoted, line by line. “Oh Lord, they can cite chapter and verse,” recalled Sue Bentch, a Fredericksburg election judge who saw the confrontation that night. “But you know, just as the devil can cite scripture for its own purposes it seemed to me that it was often cited out of context and misinterpreted.” “Finally, I called the sheriff’s officer,” said Bentch. The officer barred the activists from the vault. “Poor Terry was coming to fisticuffs.”

Full Article: What brought down one Texas county’s entire elections department? It was something in the water.

Washington: Some Republicans in state cast a wary eye on an election security device | Miles Parks/NPR

In northeast Washington state, a remote region nestled against the Canadian border, the politics lean conservative and wariness of government runs high. Earlier this year, a Republican-led county commission there made a decision that rippled across Washington — triggering alarm at the secretary of state’s office, and now among cybersecurity experts who have worked for the past six years to shore up the security of America’s voting systems. It happened on Valentine’s Day during the regular weekly meeting of the three-member commission in Ferry County, where Donald Trump received more than 63% of the vote in the 2020 election. After an agenda that included an update on the county fair and a discussion about a local water and sewer district, the commissioners took up a proposal to disconnect a recently installed cybersecurity device from the county’s computer network. The device, known as an Albert sensor, was designed to alert local governments to potential hacking attempts against their networks. More than 900 Albert sensors have been deployed across the country, primarily to states and counties, and they have been a key component of the federal government’s cybersecurity response following Russian election interference around the 2016 election.

Full Article: Election security device under suspicion by Washington GOP : NPR

Machine Politics: How America casts and counts its votes | Matt Zdun/Reuters

The United States, like most countries, uses paper ballots to vote. In most cases, voters mark the ballots by hand. In other cases, voters can make their choice on a machine called a ballot marking device, which then prepares a paper printout for submission. The extent to which voters use digital technology to cast their ballots has shifted over time. Paperless electronic voting, touted for its ability to tally votes quickly and accurately, largely decreased in popularity in the United States and European countries from the mid-2000s onward. Countries have turned to paper as the most secure way to audit their elections and detect potential vote tampering. To be sure, machines are still integral to the election process even when votes are cast on paper ballots. Optical scan tabulators count the results. The United States invested hugely in paperless electronic voting machines after the contested presidential election between Democrat Al Gore and Republican George W. Bush in 2000 shook election officials’ confidence in paper ballots. In the weeks after the election, local officials in Florida spent their days looking closely at tiny pieces of paper called “chads” that were still attached to ballots. In counties that used punch-card voting machines, voters would punch out these paper chads with a stylus to indicate their chosen candidate. If the chad was completely punched out from the ballot, a counting machine could tally the vote. The conundrum for election officials arose when the chad was said to be hanging, or still partly attached to the ballot. That raised concerns about whether the voter’s intent had been accurately recorded.

Full Article: Machine Politics: How America casts and counts its votes

Voting machine tampering points to concern for fall election | Christina A. Cassidy and Colleen Slevin/Associated Press

On the last day of voting in Colorado’s June primary, a poll worker sent to wipe down a voting machine found a concerning error message on its screen: “USB device change detected.” The machine, used to mark ballots electronically, was taken out of use and an investigation launched. The message raised concerns that a voter had tried to tamper with it by inserting an off-the-shelf thumb drive. The incident heightened concerns among election officials and security experts that conspiracy theories related to the 2020 presidential election could inspire some voters to meddle with — or even attempt to sabotage — election equipment. Even unsuccessful breaches, like the apparent one in the county south of Colorado Springs, could become major problems in the November general election, when turnout will be greater and the stakes higher — causing delays at polling places or sowing the seeds of misinformation campaigns. Activists who promote the false claim that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from former President Donald Trump have been traveling the country peddling a narrative that electronic voting machines are being manipulated. They have specifically targeted equipment made by Dominion Voting Systems, which has filed several defamation lawsuits and said that post-election reviews in state after state have shown its tallies to be accurate.

Full Article: Voting machine tampering points to concern for fall election | AP News

National: Copied voting systems files were shared with Trump supporters, election deniers | Jon Swaine , Aaron C. Davis , Amy Gardner and Emma Brown/The Washington Post

Sensitive election system files obtained by attorneys working to overturn President Donald Trump’s 2020 defeat were shared with election deniers, conspiracy theorists and right-wing commentators, according to records reviewed by The Washington Post. A Georgia computer forensics firm, hired by the attorneys, placed the files on a server, where company records show they were downloaded dozens of times. Among the downloaders were accounts associated with a Texas meteorologist who has appeared on Sean Hannity’s radio show; a podcaster who suggested political enemies should be executed; a former pro surfer who pushed disproven theories that the 2020 election was manipulated; and a self-described former “seduction and pickup coach” who claims to also have been a hacker. Plaintiffs in a long-running federal lawsuit over the security of Georgia’s voting systems obtained the new records from the company, Atlanta-based SullivanStrickler, under a subpoena to one of its executives. The records include contracts between the firm and the Trump-allied attorneys, notably Sidney Powell. The data files are described as copies of components from election systems in Coffee County, Ga., and Antrim County, Mich. A series of data leaks and alleged breaches of local elections offices since 2020 has prompted criminal investigations and fueled concerns among some security experts that public disclosure of information collected from voting systems could be exploited by hackers and other people seeking to manipulate future elections. Access to U.S. voting system software and other components is tightly regulated, and the government classifies those systems as “critical infrastructure.” The new batch of records shows for the first time how the files copied from election systems were distributed to people in multiple states. Marilyn Marks, executive director of the nonprofit Coalition for Good Governance, which is one of the plaintiffs in the Georgia lawsuit, said the records appeared to show the files were handled recklessly. “The implications go far beyond Coffee County or Georgia,” Marks said.

Full Article: Copied voting systems files were shared with Trump supporters, election deniers – The Washington Post

National: Justice Dept. sued to disclose records on threats to election workers | Mike Scarcella/Reuters

The U.S. Justice Department was sued on Thursday by a government watchdog group seeking public records about the task force the agency set up last year to address mounting threats of violence against election workers and state voting administrators. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) filed the complaint in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The lawsuit requests details under the Freedom of Information Act about the number of tips the task force has received and how many cases are open or closed. CREW also seeks communication from U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland and Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco about the department’s work under its Election Threats Task Force, and the identities of the investigative panel’s members. Lawyers for CREW said they are seeking records to show the public actions the task force has “both taken and failed to take to date.”

Full Article: U.S. Justice Dept. sued to disclose records on threats to election workers | Reuters

National: Election officials can’t access federal funding for security as violent threats mount | Kira Lerner/Virginia Mercury

Colorado’s election officials, like so many across the country, faced a surge of violent threats after the 2020 election. Federal authorities are prosecuting a man who pled guilty to threatening a Colorado election official on Instagram, where he wrote: “Do you feel safe? You shouldn’t.” And Colorado police arrested a man accused of calling Secretary of State Jena Griswold and saying that “the angel of death is coming for her.” So when the Colorado secretary of state’s office learned early this year that the U.S. Department of Justice would allow funding through the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant program to be used by state and local election offices to combat threats, they submitted an application in March. The office requested $396,000 to pay contractors to monitor social media for threats and to enhance physical security for the secretary of state’s office staff and county clerks through September 2023. In May, Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Beall made a presentation to the board that determines grant recipients. “There is a clear threat to Colorado Department of State (CDOS) staff, including the Secretary of State,” Beall wrote in a letter to the Colorado Department of Public Safety, which oversees the grant. “We are, simply stated, facing a threat environment that is unprecedented for election officials and staff.”

Full Article: Election officials can’t access federal funding for security as violent threats mount – Virginia Mercury

National: Election officials brace for onslaught of poll watchers | Carrie Levine/Votebeat

North Carolina’s May primary was “one of the worst elections I’ve ever worked,” said Karen Hebb, the elections director in Henderson County. “It was worse than COVID.”  In addition to long conversations with skeptical voters bringing her misinformation they read on the Internet, Hebb said she and her staff were blindsided by the sheer number of election observers who wanted to watch voting during the primary. There were at least 20 from the Republican Party alone, she said, compared with five or six observers total in the past. “We’ve never had that before,” she said. Hebb stresses she’s fine with having observers. But some of the people watching the primary were disruptive, endlessly questioning workers and demanding to approach tabulators to verify totals, she reported to state officials in a post-election survey. And in one alarming case, Hebb said in an interview with Votebeat, an observer followed an election worker from a voting site to the elections office “to make sure that they actually brought the ballots.” In the wake of the primary, Hebb is one of many local election officials nationwide worried about an onslaught of election observers. She called a special meeting with election workers to discuss the issues that came up during the primary.

Full Article: Poll observer increases have election officials tightening rules – Votebeat: Nonpartisan local reporting on election administration and voting

National: States Are Bracing for Social Media-Enabled Election Violence | Elizabeth L. T. Moore/Bloomberg

State elections officials say they’re seeing an uptick in a new kind of social media-fueled danger to US midterms: online anger that threatens to spill over into real-world violence. In Arizona, online conspiracy theories resulted in so many harassing phone calls to the secretary of state’s office, employees had to take a break from answering. In Michigan, officials have seen such a flood of violent rhetoric online that this week they sent letters to tech company CEOs pleading with them to do more to control their platforms. In Maine, a state where Election Day is associated with patriotic pie-eating, a poll worker last year received a credible death threat on Facebook. Bloomberg reached out to all 50 secretaries of state and spoke with representatives of 12 offices, from Texas to Hawaii. All of those who commented said they’ve seen an increase in online suspicion about the electoral process, which in many states has led to threats for staff or poll workers and resignations of these crucial employees. Narratives that drove the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the US Capitol, such as false claims of voter fraud, have lingered online. The chatter escalated most during primaries in states that had close contests in 2020 or where former US President Donald Trump backed candidates for office. Social media platforms have ramped up their election-related security measures, adding channels for state governments to report posts more directly. But rules on misinformation and harassing content are applied inconsistently, if at all, the officials said.

Full Article: States Are Bracing for Social Media-Enabled Election Violence – Bloomberg

National: New breed of video sites thrive on misinformation and hate | Andrew R.C. Marshall and Joseph Tanfani/Reuters

A day after a mass shooting in Buffalo, New York last May, the video-sharing website BitChute was amplifying a far-right conspiracy theory that the massacre was a so-called false flag operation, meant to discredit gun-loving Americans. Three of the top 15 videos on the site that day blamed U.S. federal agents instead of the true culprit: a white-supremacist teenager who had vowed to “kill as many blacks as possible” before shooting 13 people, killing 10. Other popular videos uploaded by BitChute users falsely claimed COVID-19 vaccines caused cancers that “literally eat you” and spread the debunked claim that Microsoft founder Bill Gates caused a global baby-formula shortage. BitChute has boomed as YouTube, Twitter and Facebook tighten rules to combat misinformation and hate speech. An upstart BitChute rival, Odysee, has also taken off. Both promote themselves as free-speech havens, and they’re at the forefront of a fast-growing alternative media system that delivers once-fringe ideas to millions of people worldwide. Searching the two sites on major news topics plunges viewers into a labyrinth of outlandish conspiracy theories, racist abuse and graphic violence. As their viewership has surged since 2019, they have cultivated a devoted audience of mostly younger men, according to data from digital intelligence firm Similarweb. Online misinformation, though usually legal, triggers real-world harm. U.S. election workers have faced a wave of death threats and harassment inspired by former President Donald Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was rigged, which also fueled the deadly Jan. 6, 2021 U.S. Capitol riot. Reuters interviews with a dozen people accused of terrorizing election workers revealed that some had acted on bogus information they found on BitChute and almost all had consumed content on sites popular among the far-right.

Full Article: SkewTube: New video-sharing sites thrive on misinformation and hate

Colorado: Tina Peters’ deputy clerk pleads guilty, will cooperate with investigation into her boss | Bente Birkeland and Megan Verlee/Colorado Public Radio

Prosecutors looking to build their case against Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters have gained a potentially important asset in their investigation — the cooperation of Peters’ deputy clerk Belinda Knisley. On Thursday Knisley pled guilty to three misdemeanor charges relating to her role in the breach of Mesa County’s election machines last year. In return for dropping more significant charges against her, Knisley has agreed to assist prosecutors. “There was some specific information she provided to us that was very valuable,” said Mesa County District Attorney Dan Rubinstein as part of his reasoning for the court to accept the plea deal. The judge granted prosecutors’ request to sentence Knisley to two years of unsupervised probation, as long as she continues to cooperate with the investigators building a case against Peters and former Mesa County Elections Manager Sandra Brown. He also ordered her to perform 150 hours of community service. Her conviction will prevent her ever working or volunteering in elections administration again. “This has been a very tumultuous time in her life,” Knisley’s lawyer said during the hearing, noting that she’s had a heart attack since the investigation began and that “she would like to get this matter behind her, do what she needs to do.”

Full Article: Tina Peters’ deputy clerk pleads guilty, will cooperate with investigation into her boss | Colorado Public Radio

Georgia:  Confidential 2020 election files copied by Atlanta tech firm | Mark Niesse/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The Atlanta-based tech firm SullivanStrickler says it had “no reason to believe” there was anything illegal about sending four of its employees to a South Georgia county to copy every election file they could find: memory cards that store votes, ballot scanners, and an election server. The company asserted this week it was doing legitimate work in January 2021 at the behest of Sidney Powell, an attorney for then-President Donald Trump who had promised on national TV to “unleash the kraken” of claims that the presidential election was rigged. But SullivanStrickler hasn’t explained its justification for copying confidential data, besides a statement that the firm was preserving election records under Powell’s direction. The company then distributed the data to election deniers and billed Powell $26,000 for the job. The GBI recently opened a criminal investigation of computer trespass, which is a felony. The sensitive election data collected by SullivanStrickler, which also gathered election files in Antrim County, Michigan, soon reached the hands of conspiracy theorists who were seeking to reverse the outcome of the election that Trump lost. The files from Georgia or Michigan were downloaded by individuals such as a Texas meteorologist who promoted election falsehoods on social media, a former pro surfer who alleged the election was manipulated, and a right-wing podcaster, The Washington Post reported Monday.

Full Article: Confidential 2020 election files copied by Atlanta tech firm in South Georgia county

Georgia: Lindsey Graham Resists Testifying in Trump Investigation | Danny Hakim and Richard Fausset/The New York Times

Six days after major news organizations declared Donald J. Trump the loser of the 2020 presidential election, his allies were applying a desperate full-court press in an effort to turn his defeat around, particularly in Georgia. The pro-Trump lawyer Sidney Powell went on television claiming that there was abundant evidence of foreign election meddling that never ultimately materialized. Another lawyer, L. Lin Wood, filed a lawsuit seeking to block the certification of Georgia’s election results. That same day, Nov. 13, 2020, Senator Lindsey Graham, the South Carolina Republican and one of Mr. Trump’s most ardent supporters, made a phone call that left Brad Raffensperger, Georgia’s Republican secretary of state, immediately alarmed. Mr. Graham, he said, had asked if there was a legal way, using the state courts, to toss out all mail-in votes from counties with high rates of questionable signatures. The call would eventually trigger an ethics complaint, demands from the left for Mr. Graham’s resignation and a legal drama that is culminating only now, nearly two years later, as the veteran lawmaker fights to avoid testifying before an Atlanta special grand jury that is investigating election interference by Mr. Trump and his supporters.

Full Article: Lindsey Graham Resists Testifying in Trump Investigation in Georgia – The New York Times

Kansas recount confirms landslide win for abortion rights, but highlights risk to democracy | Katie Bernard and Jonathan Shorman/The Kansas City Star

Kansas reaffirmed its landslide vote to uphold abortion rights after election officials on Sunday finished a recount that never had any chance of changing the outcome but was sought by an election denier and anti-abortion activist advancing baseless allegations of fraud. The exercise instead delivered a second victory for opponents of an amendment that would have stripped abortion rights from the state constitution. But the recount of such a lopsided vote, rather than building credibility in the results, risks undermining trust in elections because the process provided fringe, diehard amendment supporters an opportunity to attempt to create an aura of uncertainty surrounding the vote when, in fact, none ever existed. A hand recount in nine counties – including Johnson and Sedgwick, the state’s two largest – cost roughly $120,000 and burned countless hours as election officials scrambled to conclude the arduous process before a Saturday deadline. Kansas voters rejected the amendment, called Value Them Both by supporters, 59% to 41% with a margin of about 165,000 votes. The partial recount ultimately changed the outcome by fewer than 60 votes —an infinitesimal fraction of the overall vote that included ballots from more than 922,000 Kansans.

Source: Kansas abortion vote confirmed with partial amendment recount | The Kansas City Star

Michigan election officials demanded change after 2020. Their calls so far have gone unmet. | Clara Hendrickson/Detroit Free Press

As voters across the country prepare for the upcoming midterm elections, many will contend with a whole new set of election rules from lawmakers who ushered in major changes in the wake of 2020. But in Michigan, the landscape remains largely unchanged. Divided government in the state killed Republican proposals enacted elsewhere as Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer repeatedly wielded her veto pen to strike down GOP-sponsored bills, including strict voter ID requirements and a ban on private donations for election offices. But even changes favored by lawmakers and election officials from both parties were sidelined by the governor or stalled in the state Legislature ahead of the August primary. Clerks who administer elections have pushed for changes they say will improve voter access and confidence such as time to process ballots before Election Day, training requirements for election challengers and allowing military voters to return ballots electronically. But inaction has left election officials scratching their heads. “Both sides are saying we want to make commonsense voting reforms,” said Harrison Township Clerk Adam Wit, a Republican who was recently elected as president of Michigan’s municipal clerks association.

Full Article: Michigan election officials’ calls for change have gone unmet

Minnesota election administration explained: post-election checks | Max Hailperin/Minnesota Reformer

Election officials do their best to get results out on election night or the next morning, but always with a note that they are unofficial. Perhaps preliminary would be a better word than unofficial. These results do come from an official source, unlike news reports of estimates derived from exit polling. But they haven’t been through all the checks and revisions that occur following the election. Those post-election activities are essential to producing final, official, certified results that merit confidence. Nothing done quickly can have the same level of assurance. Turning the unofficial results of election night into the official results that allow a winner to receive their election certificate is called canvassing. In Minnesota, the canvass process includes administrative checks, formal board action, and a manual audit of randomly selected precincts. Election administrators in each jurisdiction produce a “canvass report” that tabulates the votes cast, as well as the number of voters, and Election Day and advance registrants. This largely repeats the information from election night. However, it reflects several kinds of cross-checking and the revision of any errors found through that checking. Most basically, the administrators check that the vote counts were correctly uploaded to the Election Reporting System. They do this by closing the loop back to the definitive source of information: the printouts from the tabulators.

Full Article: Minnesota election administration explained: post-election checks – Minnesota Reformer

Minnesota: Olmsted County administrator: Data misinterpretation led to group’s 2020 election concerns | Randy Petersen/Rochester Post Bulletin

A group alleging the Olmsted County votes counted in 2020 outnumbered the county’s eligible voters appears to have added the wrong numbers. County Administrator Heidi Welsch said a report from the Olmsted County Elections Integrity Group appears to have added the number of registered voters prior to Election Day – 100,815 – and the number who registered on Election Day – 5,786 – with the assumption that they all voted. “There are two problems with this calculation,” she wrote in a letter sent Wednesday to the group’s chairman, Roger Mueller. “First, these numbers are registered voters, not actual votes cast. In other words, not everyone who is registered actually votes.” The actual number of ballots reported being cast in Olmsted County was 91,864, according to the Minnesota Secretary of State’s office. When the group compared what it represented as 106,601 ballots cast to a reported 104,234 registered voters on Dec. 20, 2020, it raised concerns, according to a report distributed to county commissioners by county resident Dave Sprenger.

Full Article: Olmsted County administrator: Data misinterpretation led to group’s 2020 election concerns – Post Bulletin | Rochester Minnesota news, weather, sports