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Item number 28 on the agenda for the March meeting of the county commission in rural southern Nevada seemed benign enough. But by the end of the hour-and-45-minute presentation Sandra Merlino, the longtime local clerk, felt sickened. One by one, a band of activists took to the podium to argue that Nye county should switch from electronic ballots to paper ones in forthcoming elections. They were led by Jim Marchant, a Las Vegas businessman who lost a 2020 House race but refused to concede, alleging fraud. He argued that the county couldn’t trust its electronic election equipment and that it should switch to a system in which it only used paper ballots and counted those ballots by hand. Three other speakers offered a flurry of complex-sounding analyses purporting to prove that the county’s voting equipment was vulnerable to hacking. They included Russell Ramsland, a Texas man who helped Donald Trump and allies push outlandish theories about fraud after the 2020 race, and Phil Waldron, a former army colonel who produced a 38-slide PowerPoint presentation after the 2020 race, urging Trump to seize control of voting equipment. Merlino was alarmed. She knew that what they were saying was bogus – the county’s election systems aren’t connected to the internet and there’s no evidence they were not secure. Counting ballots by hand was costly, not reliable, and would take a long time after the election to complete. “It’s so prone to error,” she said. “It just is a nightmare as far as I’m concerned.”

Full Article: Democracy, poisoned: America’s elections are being attacked at every level | US news | The Guardian

National: Election Software Executive Arrested on Suspicion of Theft | Stuart A. Thompson/The New York Times

The top executive of an elections technology company that has been the focus of attention among election deniers was arrested by Los Angeles County officials in connection with an investigation into the possible theft of personal information about poll workers, the county said on Tuesday. Eugene Yu, the founder and chief executive of Konnech, the technology company, was taken into custody on suspicion of theft, the Los Angeles County district attorney, George Gascón, said in a statement. Konnech, which is based in Michigan, develops software to manage election logistics, like scheduling poll workers. Los Angeles County is among its customers. The company has been accused by groups challenging the validity of the 2020 presidential election with storing information about poll workers on servers in China. The company has repeatedly denied keeping data outside the United States, including in recent statements to The New York Times. Mr. Gascón’s office said its investigators had found data stored in China. Holding the data there would violate Konnech’s contract with the county.

Full Article: Election Software Executive Arrested on Suspicion of Theft – The New York Times

National: Hand-counting ballots may sound nice. It’s actually less accurate and more expensive | Miles Parks/NPR

It’s a common refrain from election deniers and the Republicans who support them this election cycle: Get rid of the machines. According to many conspiracy theorists, the 2020 election was stolen by an algorithm, therefore if you take computers out of the voting process you can further secure your election. At a county commission meeting in Nevada’s Nye County this past March, for instance, Jim Marchant, an election denier who is the GOP nominee to be that state’s secretary of state, implored local officials to ditch their vote-counting equipment. “It is imperative that you secure the trust of your constituents in Nye County by ensuring that you have a fair and transparent election and the only way to do that is to not use electronic voting or tabulation machines,” he said. It’s a false sentiment that has festered in far-right corners across the country, shepherded by election denial influencers like MyPillow founder Mike Lindell and his acolytes. In some cases, officials are listening. Nye County is planning to hand-count ballots, alongside machine tabulation, in this November’s midterm elections, and another county in Nevada, Esmeralda, spent more than seven hours hand-counting just 317 ballots as part of its certification of this summer’s primary election.

Full Article: Voting explainer: Why experts oppose hand-counting ballots : NPR

National: Hundreds of elections deniers running for office nationwide in 2022 pose ‘major threat’ to U.S. democracy | Phillip M. Bailey/USA Today

Republican Mark Finchem maintains that the 2020 presidential election wasn’t on the up-and-up in Arizona. During the 30-minute secretary of state debate against Democratic rival Adrian Fontes on Sept. 22, he continued to argue – without providing evidence – that some votes were “outside of the law.” But when asked by moderators if the state’s 2022 midterm primaries in August were also fair, the GOP nominee to be Arizona’s chief election officer was caught flat footed. “What changed? The candidates,” Finchem said. “I have no idea. We’ve not really dug into what happened with our processing of ballots. The machines were the same.” Yet Finchem isn’t the only candidate on the ballot this November who has peddled false claims about 2020 that election experts and pro-democracy groups warn could undermine the next presidential contest – and subvert American democracy.

Full Article: Hundreds of candidates who denied 2020 results running for office

National: Election officials brace for confrontational poll watchers | Hannah Schoenbaum and Nicholas Riccardi/Associated Press

The situation with the poll watcher had gotten so bad that Anne Risku, the election director in North Carolina’s Wayne County, had to intervene via speakerphone. “You need to back off!” Risku recalled hollering after the woman wedged herself between a voter and the machine where the voter was trying to cast his ballot at a precinct about 60 miles southeast of Raleigh. The man eventually was able to vote, but the incident was one of several Risku cited from the May primary that made her worry about a wave of newly aggressive poll watchers. Many have spent the past two years steeped in lies about the accuracy of the 2020 election. Those fears led the North Carolina State Board of Elections in August to tighten rules governing poll watchers. But the state’s rules review board, appointed by the Republican-controlled Legislature, blocked the new poll watcher regulations in late September, leaving election officials such as Risku without additional tools to control behavior on Election Day, Nov. 8. “It becomes complete babysitting,” Risku said in an interview. “The back and forth for the precinct officials, having somebody constantly on you for every little thing that you do — not because you’re doing it wrong, but because they don’t agree with what you’re doing.”

Full Article: Election officials brace for confrontational poll watchers | AP News

National: Election officials confront a new problem: Whether they can trust their own poll workers | Zach Montellaro/Politico

Election officials are growing concerned about a new danger in November: that groups looking to undermine election results will try to install their supporters as poll workers. The frontline election workers do everything from checking people in at voting locations to helping process mail ballots — in other words, they are the face of American elections for most voters. And now, some prominent incidents involving poll workers have worried election officials that a bigger wave of trouble could be on the horizon. Michigan, in particular, has been a hotspot: a far-right candidate for governor, who lost the GOP primary, encouraged poll workers to unplug election equipment if they believed something was wrong. A Michigan county GOP organization encouraged poll workers to ignore rules barring cell phones in polling places and vote-counting centers. And just last week, the clerk of Kent County, Mich., announced that a witness allegedly saw a poll worker inserting a USB drive into an electronic poll book — the list of registered voters that shows who has cast ballots — during the August primary, leading to a pair of felony charges. The Kent County Clerk’s office declined to comment beyond a statement issued by Clerk Lisa Posthumus Lyons last week, stressing that the “incident had no impact on the election,” and that that specific poll book would no longer be used in future elections.

Full Article: Election officials confront a new problem: Whether they can trust their own poll workers – POLITICO

National: US faces election worker shortage ahead of midterms due to rise in threats | Ines Kagubare/The Hill

Officials warn the U.S. is facing a shortage of election workers ahead of the November midterms due to a rise in threats against those performing such jobs that experts link to false claims of widespread fraud in the 2020 election. In an interview last month, Kim Wyman, senior election security lead at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), said because of those threats 1 in 3 elections officials and poll workers have quit their positions over fears for their safety, and state officials are having a hard time hiring for such positions. Experts attribute this problem to inflammatory rhetoric stemming from unfounded claims that the 2020 presidential election was rigged and elections officials were complicit. “Our elections have become very contentious,” said Jamil Jaffer, founder and executive director of the National Security Institute at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School. Jaffer said the country is witnessing a situation where conflict between political parties is now affecting the work of election workers, many of whom are retirees volunteering their time to count votes. “Instead of respecting that civic duty, now people are taking out their frustrations and anger in politics on these election workers,” Jaffer said. “And that’s a real problem.”

Full Article: US faces election worker shortage ahead of midterms due to rise in threats | The Hill

National: Who’s Bankrolling Election Deniers? | Amisa Ratliff, Janice Zhong, Michael Beckel and Neha Upadhyaya/Issue One

As a record amount of money flows into races for states’ top election officials across the country, a new Issue One analysis shows that election-denying secretary of state candidates have collectively raised more than $12 million for their campaigns this election cycle — including more than $5.8 million raised by election deniers who prevailed in their primaries and will be on the ballot this November. Election-denying candidates — who have promoted disinformation about the 2020 election — have emerged as the Republican Party’s nominees in roughly half of the 27 secretary of state races on the ballot this November. If individuals who deny the outcome of the 2020 presidential election are successful in their bids for election administration positions, they could overturn the will of the voters in future elections. Democrats and Republicans who do not deny the legitimate results of the 2020 presidential election have also raised tens of millions of dollars for secretary of state contests across the country. Yet Issue One’s research shows that election-denying secretary of state candidates who secured the GOP nomination this year have so far significantly outraised their Democratic opponents in two states where secretary of state contests are considered competitive by the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics (Arizona and Indiana) and in two Republican-leaning states (Alabama and South Dakota). And in Wyoming, there is no Democratic general election opponent, meaning the election denier nominated by the Republican Party in August after a competitive three-way primary is on a glide path to becoming the next secretary of state there.

Full Article: Who’s Bankrolling Election Deniers? – Issue One

Election workers train for battle against conspiracy theories | Arit John/Los Angeles Times

From his perch in an elementary school gym during last month’s Michigan primary, Grand Rapids City Clerk Joel Hondorp oversaw the electronic book of eligible voters, while first-time election workers Kimberly and Shayne Becher helped check people in and explain how to fill out ballots. Kimberly, a 59-year-old counselor from Greenville, said she and her husband wanted to get involved “to learn how this all works,” since neither is convinced that the 2020 presidential election hadn’t been stolen. “You just go to a Trump rally or go to a Biden rally, that will tell you … who won,” said Shayne, a 53-year-old carpenter. Hondorp hopes that the Bechers and others trained by his office, with a successful election behind them, will change their minds about the process. “Hopefully, they’re going to go back and talk to their friends and family … and say: ‘Hey, this is what we observed,’” Hondorp said. Across the country, election clerks have spent the last two years waging an information and public relations battle to restore faith in elections. They’re doing more TV interviews, giving more office tours and retooling their social media presences. They’re keeping up with legislation to overhaul elections and conspiracy theories spreading online. And they’re redoubling their efforts to explain the exhaustive steps they take to prevent fraud and run secure elections.

Full Article: Election workers train for battle against conspiracy theories – Los Angeles Times

How a Tiny Elections Company Became a Conspiracy Theory Target | Stuart A. Thompson/The New York Times

At an invitation-only conference in August at a secret location southeast of Phoenix, a group of election deniers unspooled a new conspiracy theory about the 2020 presidential outcome. Using threadbare evidence, or none at all, the group suggested that a small American election software company, Konnech, had secret ties to the Chinese Communist Party and had given the Chinese government backdoor access to personal data about two million poll workers in the United States, according to online accounts from several people at the conference. In the ensuing weeks, the conspiracy theory grew as it shot around the internet. To believers, the claims showed how China had gained near complete control of America’s elections. Some shared LinkedIn pages for Konnech employees who have Chinese backgrounds and sent threatening emails to the company and its chief executive, who was born in China. “Might want to book flights back to Wuhan before we hang you until dead!” one person wrote in an email to the company. In the two years since former President Donald J. Trump lost his re-election bid, conspiracy theorists have subjected election officials and private companies that play a major role in elections to a barrage of outlandish voter fraud claims. But the attacks on Konnech demonstrate how far-right election deniers are also giving more attention to new and more secondary companies and groups. Their claims often find a receptive online audience, which then uses the assertions to raise doubts about the integrity of American elections.

Full Article: How a Tiny Elections Company Became a Conspiracy Theory Target – The New York Times

National: After victory in Nevada, election deniers increase calls to eliminate voting machines across the country | Soo Rin Kim and Laura Romero/ABC

Last month, an effort led by a rural county in Nevada handed election deniers a major victory: In November, several jurisdictions in the state will be hand-counting votes. The Nevada Secretary of State approved a proposal allowing jurisdictions to hand-count votes starting as soon as this fall’s midterm election, after Nye County, based on unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election, decided earlier this year to abandon the Dominion voting machines it had relied on for years. “Everyone said, ‘It’s not you, it’s not the officials,'” said Sandra “Sam” Merlino, who resigned her position as county clerk after the county in March this year decided to use a hand-count instead of voting machines. “But what people don’t understand is, I put my trust in those machines and how the process works.” Last week, Merlino’s successor, Mark Kampf — who himself has been echoing unsubstantiated claims of 2020 election fraud — took a step back and announced a plan to use both hand counting and the Dominion machines for the upcoming elections as a way to cross-check results between the two methods.

Full Article: After victory in Nevada, election deniers increase calls to eliminate voting machines across the country – ABC News

National: Congress’ latest House-Senate wrangle: Preventing the next Jan. 6 | Nicholas Wu, Marianne Levine, Jordain Carney and Kyle Cheney/Politico

Efforts to reform an obscure 135-year-old election law, which Donald Trump tried to utilize to subvert the 2020 election, are reviving a classic congressional rivalry: the House vs. the Senate. After signaling for months that they wanted to go further than the Senate’s proposed adjustments to the law, House members could vote as early as Wednesday on legislation to update the Electoral Count Act, the 1887 statute that Trump and his allies distorted in an attempt to seize a second term he didn’t win. Reps. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), members of the Jan. 6 select committee, on Monday outlined a proposal aimed at preventing rogue state officials and members of Congress from any future attempt at subversion of the transfer of presidential power. That plan is likely to set up an intense period of wrangling with the Senate, which in July teed up a competing bill that boasts bipartisan support, including the 10 GOP co-sponsors necessary to overcome a filibuster. Their proposal reforms the 19th-century law, which sets out deadlines for states to certify their own presidential contests and a process to deliver electors to Washington. The Electoral Count Act then sets out a process for the vice president — acting as president of the Senate — to preside over the count, and outlines a procedure for lawmakers to challenge any electors they deem invalid. The House version is substantially similar to the Senate bill, though it proposes slight variations and lays out certain processes in more detail. House members’ insistence on releasing their own bill is the latest episode in the simmering tensions between the two chambers as they enter their final stretch of legislating in this Congress, with lower-chamber Democrats hoping to go from bill text to passage within a week and the Senate moving more slowly, expecting to hold a markup of their legislation — while retaining GOP support — next week.

Full Article: Congress’ latest House-Senate wrangle: Preventing the next Jan. 6 – POLITICO

National: Meadows texts reveal direct White House communications with pro-Trump operative behind plans to seize voting machines | Zachary Cohen/CNN

As allies of then-President Donald Trump made a final push to overturn the election in late-December 2020, one of the key operatives behind the effort briefed then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows about his attempts to gain access to voting systems in key battleground states, starting with Arizona and Georgia, according to text messages obtained by CNN. Phil Waldron, an early proponent of various election-related conspiracy theories, texted Meadows on December 23 that an Arizona judge had dismissed a lawsuit filed by friendly GOP lawmakers there. The suit demanded state election officials hand over voting machines and other election equipment, as part of the hunt for evidence to support Trump’s baseless claims of voter fraud. In relaying the news to Meadows, Waldron said the decision would allow opponents to engage in “delay tactics” preventing Waldron and his associates from immediately accessing machines. Waldron also characterized Arizona as “our lead domino we were counting on to start the cascade,” referring to similar efforts in other states like Georgia. “Pathetic,” Meadows responded. The messages, which have not been previously reported, shed new light on how Waldron’s reach extended into the highest levels of the White House and the extent to which Meadows was kept abreast of plans for accessing voting machines, a topic sources tell CNN, and court documents suggest, is of particular interest to state and federal prosecutors probing efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

Full Article: Meadows texts reveal direct White House communications with pro-Trump operative behind plans to seize voting machines | CNN Politics

National: False claims, threats fuel poll worker sign-ups for midterms | Sudhin Thanawala/Associated Press

Outraged by false allegations of fraud against a Georgia elections employee in 2020, Amanda Rouser made a vow as she listened to the woman testify before Congress in June about the racist threats and harassment she faced.“I said that day to myself, ‘I’m going to go work in the polls, and I’m going to see what they’re going to do to me,’” Rouser, who like the targeted employee is Black, recalled after stopping by a recruiting station for poll workers at Atlanta City Hall on a recent afternoon. “Try me, because I’m not scared of people.”About 40 miles north a day later, claims of fraud also brought Carolyn Barnes to a recruiting event for prospective poll workers, but with a different motivation.“I believe that we had a fraudulent election in 2020 because of the mail-in ballots, the advanced voting,” Barnes, 52, said after applying to work the polls for the first time in Forsyth County. “I truly believe that the more we flood the system with honest people who are trying to help out, it will straighten it out.”Barnes, who declined to give her party affiliation, said she wants to use her position as a poll worker to share her observations about “the gaps” in election security and “where stuff could happen afterwards.”

Full Article: False claims, threats fuel poll worker sign-ups for midterms | AP News

National: Top State Judges Make a Rare Plea in a Momentous Supreme Court Election Case | Adam Liptak/The New York Times

“It’s the biggest federalism issue in a long time,” Chief Justice Nathan L. Hecht of the Texas Supreme Court said on the phone the other day. “Maybe ever.” He was explaining why the Conference of Chief Justices, a group representing the top state judicial officers in the nation, had decided to file a brief in the U.S. Supreme Court in a politically charged election-law case. The brief urged the court to reject a legal theory pressed by Republicans that would give state legislatures extraordinary power. Nicholas Stephanopoulos, a law professor at Harvard, said the brief underscored how momentous the decision in the case could be. “It’s highly unusual for the Conference of Chief Justices to file an amicus brief in the Supreme Court,” he said. “It’s even rarer for the conference to do so in a controversial, ideologically charged case.” If the Supreme Court adopts the theory, it will radically reshape how federal elections are conducted by giving state lawmakers independent authority, not subject to review by state courts, to set election rules in conflict with state constitutions.

Full Article: Top State Judges Make a Rare Plea in a Momentous Supreme Court Election Case – The New York Times

Editorial: The 3 Types of Election-Denying Republicans Running for Secretary of State | Chris Geidner/The New York Times

Around a dozen election-denying Republican candidates secured their party’s nomination for secretary of state this fall. This is the reality, two years on, that Donald Trump’s election lies have created. There are three types of election-denying candidates, and each one poses distinct problems for civic integrity. There are the swing-state candidates getting lots of justified attention, running in places like Arizona and Michigan, because their elections could have pivotal, clear national implications in the 2024 presidential campaign. There are candidates like Chuck Gray in Wyoming, who is all but certain to take office in January, as Democrats didn’t field an opponent. Election-denying candidates in very red states aren’t getting as much attention now, but they likely will come January, when they are officeholders. They will help set policies in their states — many of which will also have Republican-led legislatures and governors — where extremist ideas could become law. And there are people like Dominic Rapini, Connecticut’s Republican secretary of state nominee, who are running in blue states and unlikely to win. Their campaigns, though, will have critical fallout effects. By virtue of their statewide platforms, even losing candidates can further damage the discourse — in their states and nationally — and increase the risks to our democracy. Election deniers in blue states can uniquely exacerbate Mr. Trump’s undermining of faith in our elections, and they, like their winning counterparts in red states, can set the stage for local election-denying candidates to win now or in the future.

Full Article: Opinion | The Dangers of Election-Denying Secretary of State Campaigns – The New York Times

National: House passes bill to prevent efforts to subvert presidential election results | Amy B. Wang/The Washington Post

The House voted Wednesday to pass an electoral reform bill that seeks to prevent presidents from trying to overturn election results through Congress, the first vote on such an effort since the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol by a pro-Trump mob seeking to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s electoral win. The bill passed on a 229-203 vote, with just nine Republicans breaking ranks and joining Democrats in supporting the measure. None of those nine Republican lawmakers will be members of Congress next year — either because they lost their primaries or chose to retire. The Presidential Election Reform Act, written by Reps. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), explicitly cites the Capitol attack as a reason to amend the Electoral Count Act of 1887, “to prevent other future unlawful efforts to overturn Presidential elections and to ensure future peaceful transfers of Presidential power.” “Legal challenges are not improper, but Donald Trump’s refusal to abide by the rulings of the courts certainly was,” Cheney said Wednesday during House debate on the measure. “In our system of government, elections in the states determine who is the president. Our bill does not change that. But this bill will prevent Congress from illegally choosing the president itself.”

Full Article: House passes bill to prevent efforts to subvert presidential election results – The Washington Post

House Passes Overhaul of Electoral Count, Moving to Avert Another Jan. 6 Crisis | Carl Hulse/The New York Times

The House on Wednesday took the first major step to respond to the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol, voting mostly along party lines to overhaul the 135-year-old Electoral Count Act, the law that former President Donald J. Trump tried to exploit that day to overturn his defeat. The bill was the most significant legislative answer yet to the riot and the monthslong campaign by Mr. Trump and his allies to invalidate the 2020 presidential election, but it also underscored the lingering partisan divide over Jan. 6 and the former president’s continuing grip on his party. It cleared a divided House, passing on a 229 to 203 vote. All but nine Republicans opposed the measure, wary of angering Mr. Trump and unwilling to back legislation co-written by Representative Liz Cheney, Republican of Wyoming and a leader of the House select committee investigating the events of Jan. 6 and what led to them. The partisan division could complicate future negotiations with the Senate, which is moving ahead with its own bipartisan version of the legislation that differs from the House bill in some significant respects. Lawmakers now say they do not expect final approval before Congress returns for a lame-duck session after the Nov. 8 midterm elections. The legislation is aimed at updating the law that governs Congress’s counting of the electoral votes cast by the states, the final step under the Constitution to confirm the results of a presidential election and historically a mostly ceremonial process. Democrats said that the aftermath of the 2020 election — in which Mr. Trump and his allies’ attempts to throw out legitimate electoral votes led to the violent disruption of the congressional count by his supporters on Jan. 6 — made clear that the statute needed to be changed.

Full Article: House Passes Overhaul of Electoral Count, Moving to Avert Another Jan. 6 Crisis – The New York Times

National: Republicans in key battleground races refuse to say they will accept results | Amy Gardner , Hannah Knowles , Colby Itkowitz and Annie Linskey/The Washington Post

A dozen Republican candidates in competitive races for governor and Senate have declined to say whether they would accept the results of their contests, raising the prospect of fresh post-election chaos two years after Donald Trump refused to concede the presidency. In a survey by The Washington Post of 19 of the most closely watched statewide races in the country, the contrast between Republican and Democratic candidates was stark. While seven GOP nominees committed to accepting the outcomes in their contests, 12 either refused to commit or declined to respond. On the Democratic side, 18 said they would accept the outcome and one did not respond to The Post’s survey. The reluctance of many GOP candidates to embrace a long-standing tenet of American democracy shows how Trump’s assault on the integrity of U.S. elections has spread far beyond the 2020 presidential race. This year, multiple losing candidates could refuse to accept their defeats. Trump, who continues to claim without evidence that his loss to Joe Biden in 2020 was rigged, has attacked fellow Republicans who do not agree — making election denialism the price of admission in many GOP primaries. More than half of all Republican nominees for federal and statewide office with powers over election administration have embraced unproven claims that fraud tainted Biden’s win, according to a Washington Post tally.

Full Article: Republicans in key battleground races refuse to say they will accept results – The Washington Post

National: Election officials fighting Trump scheme to undermine midterms | Mark Z. Barabak/Los Angeles Times

This is peak busy season for those who run the country’s elections, with the Nov. 8 midterms less than 60 days away. There are polling places to be situated. Election workers to hire and train. Ballots to proofread and mail out. And, increasingly, there is a flood of lies and misinformation to combat, along with an apparent attempt by Trump cultists to undermine the election system with a deliberate sabotage campaign. In recent weeks, election offices around the country have been buried with public records requests pertaining to the 2020 vote, part of an effort led by election deniers including former President Trump’s serially indicted ex-strategist Stephen K. Bannon and the MyPillow chief executive and nut case Mike Lindell. The requests — many identically worded, cut and pasted — shouldn’t be mistaken for an honest attempt at holding public officials accountable. Rather, it is a devious attempt to gum up the country’s election machinery at the worst possible moment.

Full Article: Election officials fighting Trump scheme to undermine midterms – Los Angeles Times

National: Breaches of voting machine data raise worries for midterms | Christina A. Cassidy/Associated Press

Sensitive voting system passwords posted online. Copies of confidential voting software available for download. Ballot-counting machines inspected by people not supposed to have access. The list of suspected security breaches at local election offices since the 2020 election keeps growing, with investigations underway in at least three states — Colorado, Georgia and Michigan. The stakes appeared to rise this week when the existence of a federal probe came to light involving a prominent loyalist to former President Donald Trump who has been promoting voting machine conspiracy theories across the country. While much remains unknown about the investigations, one of the most pressing questions is what it all could mean for security of voting machines with the midterm elections less than two months away. Election security experts say the breaches by themselves have not necessarily increased threats to the November voting. Election officials already assume hostile foreign governments might have the sensitive data, and so they take precautions to protect their voting systems. The more immediate concern is the possibility that rogue election workers, including those sympathetic to lies about the 2020 presidential election, might use their access to election equipment and the knowledge gained through the breaches to launch an attack from within. That could be intended to gain an advantage for their desired candidate or party, or to introduce system problems that would sow further distrust in the election results.

Full Article: Breaches of voting machine data raise worries for midterms | AP News

National: Voter challenges, records requests swamp election offices | Nicholas Riccardi/Associated Press

Spurred by conspiracy theories about the 2020 presidential election, activists around the country are using laws that allow people to challenge a voter’s right to cast a ballot to contest the registrations of thousands of voters at a time. In Iowa, Linn County Auditor Joel Miller had handled three voter challenges over the previous 15 years. He received 119 over just two days after Doug Frank, an Ohio educator who is touring the country spreading doubts about the 2020 election, swung through the state. In Nassau County in northern Florida, two residents challenged the registrations of nearly 2,000 voters just six days before last month’s primary. In Georgia, activists are dropping off boxloads of challenges in the diverse and Democratic-leaning counties comprising the Atlanta metro area, including more than 35,000 in one county late last month. Election officials say the vast majority of the challenges will be irrelevant because they contest the presence on voting rolls of people who already are in the process of being removed after they moved out of the region. Still, they create potentially hundreds of hours of extra work as the offices scramble to prepare for November’s election. “They at best overburden election officials in the run-up to an election, and at worse they lead to people being removed from the rolls when they shouldn’t be,” said Sean Morales-Doyle of The Brennan Center for Justice, which has tracked an upswing in voter challenges.

Full Article: Voter challenges, records requests swamp election offices | AP News

National: DHS rejects plan to protect election officials from harassment as midterms loom | Sean Lyngaas/CNN

The Department of Homeland Security’s cybersecurity agency this summer turned down a multimillion-dollar proposal to protect election officials from harassment ahead of the midterm elections, multiple people familiar with the matter told CNN. The plan’s rejection comes as some DHS and cyber officials have expressed concern about their work to stem disinformation being cast as “partisan,” according to multiple people familiar with DHS policy discussions. Last month, DHS shut down its high-profile Disinformation Governance Board after Republicans criticized the expert chosen to lead the board as being overly partisan. “DHS got very spooked after the failed rollout of the Disinformation Governance Board, even though the message [from administration officials] was clear that we can’t back down, we can’t be bullied by the right,” a senior US official told CNN. The proposal, which was made by a federally funded nonprofit, also included plans to track foreign influence activity and modestly increase resources for reporting domestic mis- and disinformation related to voting. DHS officials had legal concerns about the plan’s scope and whether it could be in place for November, the people said. But the decision not to adopt the anti-harassment part of the proposal has drawn frustration from at least two election officials as their colleagues nationwide continue to face an unprecedented wave of violent threats often inspired by online misinformation.

Full Article: CNN Exclusive: DHS rejects plan to protect election officials from harassment as midterms loom | CNN Politics

National effort launched to safeguard poll workers and voters | Alicia Robinson/Orange County Register

With less than two months to the midterms and election signs and mailers already abundant, Orange County’s former registrar has launched a new national campaign to ensure the safety of election workers and voters in an increasingly volatile and partisan environment. The Committee for Safe and Secure Elections – chaired by Neal Kelley, who retired in March, and supported by the New York-based Brennan Center for Justice – includes experts in law enforcement and election administration from around the country. Its short-term goal is to connect local law enforcement and election officials to address threats and violence against election workers and voters. Long-term, the group will look to recommend policies and legislation to address the problem more broadly. Earlier this year, a Georgia election worker and her mother testified to Congress that they had to move to new homes and were afraid of being recognized in public after former President Donald Trump and his supporters accused them publicly of meddling with local election results. A survey done this year by the Brennan Center found one in six election workers said they’ve personally received threats, and some election offices have reportedly installed surveillance cameras, hired private security and offered active shooter training after an influx of threats of violence. “There was a collective feeling among a lot of election officials across the country that the threats were increasing, the agitation was increasing as we’re heading into (2022, 2024),” Kelley said. “Some elections officials don’t know what to do, don’t know how they’ll be protected.”

Full Article: National effort launched to safeguard poll workers and voters – Orange County Register

Fighting bogus claims a growing priority in election offices | Ali Swenson and Julie Carr Smyth/Associated Press

Election officials preparing for the rapidly approaching midterm elections have one more headache: trying to combat misinformation that sows distrust about voting and results while fueling vitriol aimed at rank-and-file election workers. Some states and counties are devoting more money or staff to a problem that has only grown more concerning since the 2020 presidential election and the false claims that it was marred by widespread fraud. A barrage of misinformation in some places has led election officials to complain that Facebook parent Meta, Twitter and other social media platforms aren’t doing enough to help them tackle the problem. “Our voters are angry and confused. They simply don’t know what to believe,” Lisa Marra, elections director in Cochise County, Arizona, told a U.S. House committee last month. “We’ve got to repair this damage.” Many election offices are taking matters into their own hands, starting public outreach campaigns to provide accurate information about how elections are run and how ballots are cast and counted. That means traveling town halls in Arizona, “Mythbuster Mondays” in North Carolina and animated videos in Ohio emphasizing the accuracy of election results. Connecticut is hiring a dedicated election misinformation analyst.

Full Article: Fighting bogus claims a growing priority in election offices | AP News

National: Top election security official warns of election workforce problems: 1 in 3 have left posts | Ines Kagubare/The Hill

Kim Wyman, the head of election security at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), is warning against threats to election workers, which have forced many to quit their positions ahead of the midterms. In a recent interview with CBS News, Wyman, who served as the secretary of state of Washington, said that about 1 in 3 elections officials and poll workers have left their posts over concerns for their personal safety. “We are facing a workforce problem,” Wyman said. “As these stories of threats and intimidation are shared, people who would normally be poll workers on Election Day or work at a voting center are taking a step back and saying, ‘I don’t know that it’s worth my life or worth my personal safety,’” she added. Wyman also said that state officials across the country are having trouble hiring poll workers ahead of the midterm elections. “It’s unnerving,” Wyman said as she got emotional during the interview. Election officials are also preparing for other security threats, including foreign interference and insider threats. In April, CISA Director Jen Easterly told lawmakers that election security is a top priority for her agency, which has provided guidance and resources to state and local officials on how to secure the election from various threats. Easterly said she was also concerned about Russian interference in the midterms, including cyberattacks and disinformation campaigns.

Full Article: Top election security official warns of election workforce problems: 1 in 3 have left posts | The Hill

National: Trump backers inundate election offices with requests for 2020 records | Amy Gardner and Patrick Marley/The Washington Post

Supporters of former president Donald Trump have swamped local election offices across the nation in recent weeks with a coordinated campaign of requests for 2020 voting records, in some cases paralyzing preparations for the fall election season. In nearly two dozen states and scores of counties, election officials are fielding what many describe as an unprecedented wave of public records requests in the final weeks of summer, one they say may be intended to hinder their work and weaken an already strained system. The avalanche of sometimes identically worded requests has forced some to dedicate days to the process of responding even as they scurry to finalize polling locations, mail out absentee ballots and prepare for early voting in October, officials said. In Wisconsin, one recent request asks for 34 different types of documents. In North Carolina, hundreds of requests came in at state and local offices on one day alone. In Kentucky, officials don’t recognize the technical-sounding documents they’re being asked to produce — and when they seek clarification, the requesters say they don’t know, either. The use of mass records requests by the former president’s supporters effectively weaponizes laws aimed at promoting principles of a democratic system — that the government should be transparent and accountable. Public records requests are a key feature of that system, used by regular citizens, journalists and others. In interviews, officials emphasized that they are trying to follow the law and fulfill the requests, but they also believe the system is being abused.

Full Article: Trump backers inundate election offices with requests for 2020 records – The Washington Post

National: Election logistics firm sues perpetrators of voter fraud smear campaign | Cameron Langford/Courthouse News Service