National: Attacks from within seen as a growing threat to elections | Christia A. Cassidy/Associated Press

Election officials preparing for this year’s midterms have yet another security concern to add to an already long list that includes death threats, disinformation, ransomware and cyberattacks — threats from within. In a handful of states, authorities are investigating whether local officials directed or aided in suspected security breaches at their own election offices. At least some have expressed doubt about the 2020 presidential election, and information gleaned from the breaches has surfaced in conspiracy theories pushed by allies of former President Donald Trump. Adding to the concern is a wave of candidates for state and local election offices this year who parrot Trump’s false claims about his loss to Democrat Joe Biden. “Putting them in positions of authority over elections is akin to putting arsonists in charge of a fire department,” said Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat and former law school dean who serves as Michigan’s top elections official. Experts say insider threats have always been a concern. But previously, the focus was mostly on what a volunteer poll worker or part-time employee could do to a polling place or county system, said Ryan Macias, who advises officials at the federal, state and local levels on election security. Now the potential harm extends to the very foundation of democracy — conducting fair elections.

Full Article: Attacks from within seen as a growing threat to elections | AP News

National: Election Workers Are in Crisis. Will Congress Actually Help? | Sam Brody/Daily Beast

Defiance County, Ohio, does not loom large in the story of the 2020 presidential election. This rural slice of northwest Ohio—population 38,000—went for Donald Trump by more than 30 percentage points. The county has long favored Republicans, and it hasn’t been competitive in a very long time. But for the people who run elections in Defiance County, the job has never been harder. “In the last three years, this job has basically tripled,” said Tonya Wichman, the county elections director. It’s not just the endless stream of calls and letters. It’s what they entail for election workers these days: near-constant harassment and denigration from people who, largely spurred on by Trump’s election fraud conspiracies, have developed a toxic distrust of the election system and those who run it. “It’s a disheartening thing… to have people tell you how bad you do your job when you’re going above and beyond what they expect from you,” Wichman says. “They’re listening to people speak about our jobs without asking us about our jobs.” In response, the Defiance County elections office has upgraded every aspect of its security, and there is an additional physical barrier between staff and those who walk in. They instruct poll workers what to do if they see a suspicious car at a voting location, which Wichman says has not been necessary before. Wichman stresses that election workers love what they do and are committed to protecting the integrity of the system—no matter what. But for some in the field, the work has simply become too overwhelming. Full Article: Election Workers Are in Crisis. Will Congress Actually Help?

National: Judges are narrowing voting protections. Some fear lasting damage | Carrie Johnson/NPR

The nation's premier tool to protect voting rights is in mortal danger, threatened on multiple fronts by the Supreme Court and lower-ranking federal judges, scholars and civil rights advocates say. The latest blow to the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965 came this week in Arkansas, where a federal judge appointed by former President Donald Trump dismissed a case over new statehouse maps. The NAACP and the American Civil Liberties Union argued that the maps diluted the power of Black voters. But the judge said he found no way for the outside advocates to proceed. "Only the Attorney General of the United States can bring a case like this one," wrote Judge Lee Rudofsky. The ACLU said the decision flouts decades of precedent and vowed to appeal. "This ruling was so radical that there was no choice but to appeal it," said Sophia Lin Lakin, deputy director of the ACLU's Voting Rights Project. "Private individuals have brought cases under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act to protect their right to vote for generations." Full Article: The Supreme Court takes on another Voting Rights Act case : NPR

Wisconsin Republicans seeks to jail officials in 2020 election review | Patrick arley/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Assembly Republicans sought Friday to jail the chairwoman of the state Elections Commission, Racine’s mayor and other officials as part of their months-long review of the 2020 presidential election. The court filing marked the latest shift in approach for Michael Gableman, a former state Supreme Court justice who is leading the review for the Republicans. Three days ago, he abandoned far-reaching subpoenas he issued in January to the immigrant rights group Voces de la Frontera Action. A month ago an attorney working with Gableman told a judge he was hoping to avoid trying to jail the mayors of Madison and Green Bay. But on Friday Gableman intensified his efforts, telling Waukesha County Circuit Judge Ralph Ramirez he should incarcerate those mayors and others if they don’t sit for interviews with him behind closed doors. The officials have said they are willing to talk to Gableman but don’t believe he should be able to do so out of the view of the public. They argue the interviews should be conducted before a legislative committee. Full Article: Wisconsin Republicans seeks to jail officials in 2020 election review

National: Election officials are on the frontlines of defending democracy. They didn’t sign up for this. | Zach Montellaro/Politico

Voting for the 2022 midterms is already underway, and the nation’s top election officials are caught fighting a two-front war: Battling disinformation stemming from the last election, while simultaneously preparing for the next one. The officials are no longer just running elections. They’ve become full-time myth-busters, contending with information threats coming from the other side of the globe — and their own ranks. In interviews with 10 state chief election officials — along with conversations with staffers, current and former local officials and other election experts — many described how they have had to refocus their positions to battle a constant rolling boil of mis- and disinformation about election processes. They’re dealing with political candidates undermining the election systems that they still run for office in, and conspiracy theories that target even the most obscure parts of America’s election infrastructure. And they say the country will face the same issues this year as it elects a new Congress and decides control of three dozen statehouses. “The biggest challenge that we face is disinformation, about the 2020 election in particular, and more generally about the election system itself,” Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon, a Democrat, said in an interview. Their battle against mis- and disinformation comes at a tenuous time for American democracy, as an already diminished faith in the U.S. electoral system risks slipping further still in 2022. A recent NPR/Ipsos poll found that 64 percent of Americans believed democracy was “in crisis and at risk of failing.” 

 Full Article: Election officials are on the frontlines of defending democracy. They didn't sign up for this. - POLITICO

National: Election experts sound alarms as costs escalate and funding dwindles | Mike DeBonis and Amy Gardner/The Washington Post

When a global pandemic threatened to throw the 2020 presidential election into chaos, hundreds of millions of dollars flowed to state and local election agencies to ensure they had the resources to conduct a fair and accessible election, ultimately allowing administrators to manage record turnout with relatively few hiccups. Two years later, that money is gone and while the pandemic has ebbed it has not disappeared, and new challenges have arisen, including rising security threats, supply-chain disruptions and escalating costs for basic materials such as paper ballots, which have gone up by as much as 50 percent around the country, according to some estimates. Election officials and voting experts are now warning as the midterm elections get underway that new funding is needed to avoid significant problems in November. “The scale of the need is in literally the tens of billions of dollars,” said Tiana Epps-Johnson, executive director of the Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL), a nonpartisan, nonprofit group that distributed more than $300 million in grants to election agencies in 2020, funded by donations from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan. If Congress does not act quickly, “there will be gaps that could have a really negative impact on election departments’ ability to administer a safe and secure process this November,” she added. “That’s how you end up with lines that wrap around city blocks.”

Full Article: While Trump keeps focus on last election, election officials sound alarms about next one as costs escalate and funding dwindles - The Washington Post

National: County election systems just got a (simulated) stress test | Benjamin Freed/StateScoop

Officials from county governments across the U.S. on Friday theorized what they’d do if an election in their jurisdiction was upended by a blizzard, power outage, phishing attack, ransomware or disinformation campaign — or some combination of those events. On the first day of the National Association of Counties‘ annual legislative conference in Washington, the county officials, including some elected leaders and chief information officers, played out a tabletop scenario that asked them to describe how they’d respond to an election-night disaster. Tabletop exercises have become increasingly common in the election-administration community, with federal agencies like the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency holding nationwide, often closed-door events every year. The NACo event featured officials who, while maybe not directly involved in election work, could potentially have to help respond in case of an emergency. The NACo tabletop focused on a fictional community in Tennessee — Pictoria County, population 220,000 — with an election staff of 10 and IT workforce of 20, who assist with testing voting equipment before and on Election Day. In the first scenario, Pictoria County was hit with a freak, early-November snowstorm strong enough to knock down power lines, prompting the election director to ask the IT director how voting equipment will be delivered to all 150 precincts. Full Article: County election systems just got a (simulated) stress test

National: Paper Shortage for Ballots Could Pose Difficulties for Elections | Andre Claudio/Route Fifty

With this year’s election season right around the corner, officials are warning that a shortage of paper for ballots, envelopes and other voting materials could create problems. The paper required for ballots must be a specific type that is higher quality than other kinds, explained Tammy Patrick, a senior adviser with the Democracy Fund, a nonpartisan foundation that focuses on elections and other issues. “It's difficult to know exactly what the impact will be because we are not sure at what point these supply deficits will be filled,” Patrick told Route Fifty. “We have a situation where we have this high-quality ballot paper stock that we need for things ranging from voter registration forms, envelopes, provisional ballot forms, applications for ballots and even something as simple as a voter identification card,” she said, adding that U.S. elections are “still deeply rooted in the use of paper.” Patrick and others raised the issue of potential paper shortages affecting elections, along with rising paper costs, during a National Association of Counties meeting in Washington, D.C. over the weekend. As with other goods during the past year or so, supply chain kinks and labor shortages are among the factors blamed for shortages in the paper industry. The Electoral Knowledge Network notes that printing ballots involves extensive quality control measures and can involve using paper with features like watermarks.

Full Article: Paper Shortage for Ballots Could Pose Difficulties for Elections - Route Fifty

National: State judges across the U.S. face growing GOP pushback against rulings in election cases | Kira Lerner/Georgia Recorder

In mid-December, Texas’ highest criminal court revoked the state attorney general’s ability to use his office to prosecute election-related cases without the request of a district or county attorney. In an 8-1 opinion, the all-Republican court weakened Attorney General Ken Paxton’s power to independently go after perpetrators of voter fraud, a problem he says is rampant but is actually exceedingly rare. The decision angered Paxton, who took to Twitter to say the ruling “could be devastating for future elections in Texas.” But he didn’t stop there. In addition to filing a motion for a rehearing, he embarked on a campaign across conservative media calling on his voters to pressure the judges to reverse their ruling. His crusade is the latest example of how Republican officials are trying to discredit state court judges who rule against them or issue rulings they disagree with in election-related cases. Officials in other states, including Tennessee and Pennsylvania, are also using the tactic to undermine the judiciary and to sow doubt among voters about whether judges can be independent arbiters of fact when it comes to decisions about the administration of elections. Full Article: State judges across the U.S. face growing GOP pushback against rulings in election cases | Georgia Public Broadcasting

‘We have a project’: QAnon followers eye swing state election official races | Ed Pilkington/The Guardian

QAnon, the extremist conspiracy movement whose followers believe Donald Trump is waging war against the “deep state”, appears to have instigated a nationwide effort to take control of the US election process in critical battleground states ahead of America’s 2024 presidential election. In recent months concern has risen over the coordinated efforts of at least 15 candidates – committed to Trump’s “big lie” that the 2020 election was stolen from him – who are now running to serve as chief election officials in key swing states. At least eight of the candidates standing for secretary of state positions have formed an alliance in which they share tactics and tips for success, details of which the Guardian revealed last month. Should any of the candidates be elected, they would be in prime position to distort or even overturn election results in favor of Trump or another preferred presidential candidate in ways that could have a profound impact on or even determine the national outcome. All the big lie candidates vying to gain control of election counts at state level present themselves as Republicans. It is now emerging that QAnon played a critical role in steering far-right candidates towards the secretary of state races as part of what appears to be a calculated nationwide assault on American democracy.

Full Article: ‘We have a project’: QAnon followers eye swing state election official races | QAnon | The Guardian

National: Senators Look to Fix 1887 Electoral Act Putting U.S. Democracy at Risk | Blake Hounshell and Leah Askarinam/The New York Times

The Electoral Count Act is both a legal monstrosity and a fascinating puzzle. Intended to settle disputes about how America chooses its presidents, the 135-year-old law has arguably done the opposite. Last year, its poorly written and ambiguous text tempted Donald Trump into trying to overturn Joe Biden’s victory, using a fringe legal theory that his own vice president rejected. Scholars say the law remains a ticking time bomb. And with Trump on their minds, members of Congress in both parties now agree that fixing it before the 2024 election is a matter of national urgency. “If people don’t trust elections as a fair way to transition power, then what are you left with?” said Senator Angus King, an independent from Maine who has been leading the reform efforts. “I would argue that Jan. 6 is a harbinger.”

Full Article: Senators Look to Fix 1887 Electoral Act Putting U.S. Democracy at Risk - The New York Times

National: State election officials survived Trump’s attacks. Will they survive the ballot box? | Arit John/Los Angeles Times

Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and her 4-year-old son were settling in to watch “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” after putting up Christmas decorations when dozens of protesters descended on her home in December 2020 chanting “Stop the Steal” and “We want an audit.” Benson had been on the radar of President Trump and his allies since the spring, when he railed against her decision to send absentee ballot applications to all Michigan voters, calling her a “rogue Secretary.” But the late-night protest, marked by what she described at the time as “armed individuals shouting obscenities,” solidified her role as a central figure in the fight over control of American elections. The stakes have increased heading into the 2022 midterm elections. Democratic groups, donors and incumbents like Benson have raised record amounts to secure seats in battleground states, while Trump loyalists are running on his unfounded election fraud claims, challenging Democrats and Republicans like Georgia’s Brad Raffensperger in their bids to administer elections and sign off on the results. “Secretaries of state are, in the battle over the future of our democracy, serving on the front lines,” said Benson, who is expected to soon announce her reelection plans, in an interview with The Times. “[C]learly the work that we did to successfully defend democracy in 2020 has placed us in a greater spotlight.” Full Article: Secretaries of states are front and center in 2022 midterms - Los Angeles Times

National: State Legislators Ramp Up Push for Election Control | Carl Smith/Governing

According to a January 2022 NPR/Ipsos poll, seven in 10 Americans believe that the U.S. is in crisis, even at risk of failing. Unproven claims that fraud tainted the 2020 election, still being repeated even by government officials, are a driving force behind these fears. State legislators from both parties have aggressively pushed election reform, introducing a record number of bills relating to matters including registration, voting by mail, voter ID and drop boxes. Moving beyond this, some Republican lawmakers have introduced bills that could give legislatures more power to decide election outcomes. “We see legislation and legislative reaction after every big election,” says Tammy Patrick, senior adviser to the elections program at Democracy Fund. “But the process is morphing in a way because it's taking on additional topics that are greatly gaining traction that they never would've gotten in the past.” One of the bills that has attracted the most attention, Arizona HB 2596, would give the Legislature power to accept or reject election results. In the event of a rejection, “any qualified elector” would be able to file an action in a superior court to request a new election. Full Article: State Legislators Ramp Up Push for Election Control

National: Right-wing conspiracy theories target tool that fights actual voter fraud | Miles Parks/NPR

If Republicans over the past few years have made one thing clear, it's that they really care about voter fraud. Sometimes they call it "election irregularities" or "shenanigans," but the issue has become a calling card for a party whose voters by and large falsely think elections in the U.S. are tainted. Which is what makes a currently blossoming election conspiracy so strange: The far right is now running a disinformation campaign against one of the best tools that states have to detect and prevent voter fraud. And experts worry voting policy is already starting to suffer as a result. The tool is a shared database called the Electronic Registration Information Center, or ERIC for short. It allows states to securely share voter registration data across state lines and with a number of other government agencies, like the Social Security Administration and departments of motor vehicles. That data-sharing allows participating states to expand ballot access by giving officials information that helps them reach out to eligible voters who have moved into the jurisdiction but have not yet registered to vote. But it also increases election security by notifying those same officials when a registered voter moves away or dies, allowing states to maintain more accurate voter rolls. "When you move away from a state, you don't call your old state and say, 'Please take me off the voter lists,' " said David Becker, an elections expert and former Justice Department attorney who led the development of ERIC while working at the Pew Charitable Trusts. "So to get really strong data that someone moved to another state — got a driver's license there or maybe registered to vote — that's really powerful information that allows states to keep their data up to date." Full Article: Right-wing conspiracy theories target tool that fights actual voter fraud : NPR

National: G.O.P. Declares Jan. 6 Attack ‘Legitimate Political Discourse’ | Jonathan Weisman and Reid J. Epstein/The New York Times

The Republican Party on Friday officially declared the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol and events that led to it “legitimate political discourse,” and rebuked two lawmakers in the party who have been most outspoken in condemning the deadly riot and the role of Donald J. Trump in spreading the election lies that fueled it. The Republican National Committee’s voice vote to censure Representatives Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois at its winter meeting in Salt Lake City culminated more than a year of vacillation, which started with party leaders condemning the Capitol attack and Mr. Trump’s conduct, then shifted to downplaying and denying it. On Friday, the party went further in a resolution slamming Ms. Cheney and Mr. Kinzinger for taking part in the House investigation of the assault, saying they were participating in “persecution of ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse.” After the vote, party leaders rushed to clarify that language, saying it was never meant to apply to rioters who violently stormed the Capitol in Mr. Trump’s name. “Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger crossed a line,” Ronna McDaniel, the Republican National Committee chairwoman, said in a statement. “They chose to join Nancy Pelosi in a Democrat-led persecution of ordinary citizens who engaged in legitimate political discourse that had nothing to do with violence at the Capitol.”

Full Article: G.O.P. Declares Jan. 6 Attack ‘Legitimate Political Discourse’ - The New York Times

States seek to protect election workers amid growing threats | Lisa Rathke and Christina A. Cassidy/Associated Press

Lawmakers in a handful of states are seeking greater protections for election officials amid growing concerns for their safety after they were targeted by threats of violence following the 2020 presidential election. Widespread threats against those who oversee elections, from secretaries of state to county clerks and even poll workers, soared after former President Donald Trump and his allies spread false claims about the outcome of the presidential election. “Corrupt secretaries will all hang when the stolen election is revealed” is just one example of the vitriol that has come from social media, emails and phone messages. Even in Vermont, where the outcome wasn’t disputed, election workers have faced threats. A caller to the secretary of state’s office said in 2020 that a firing squad would target “all you cheating (vulgarity),” and “a lot of people are going to get executed.” To counter the threats, lawmakers have introduced bills so far in Vermont and several other states, including Illinois, Maine, New Mexico and Washington, all of which have legislatures controlled by Democrats. Much of the legislation would create or boost criminal liability for threats and, in Illinois, for assaults against election workers.

Full Article: States seek to protect election workers amid growing threats | AP News

National: Trump Calls for Massive Protests If He is Arrested, Calls (Black) Prosecutors Investigating Him “Racist,” and Suggests He Would Pardon Jan. 6 Rioters If Elected in 2024 | David Goodman and Emily Cochrane/The New York Times

Donald J. Trump said on Saturday that if elected to a new term as president, he would consider pardoning those prosecuted for attacking the United States Capitol on Jan. 6 last year. He also called on his supporters to mount large protests in Atlanta and New York if prosecutors in those cities, who are investigating him and his businesses, took action against him. The promise to consider pardons is the furthest Mr. Trump has gone in expressing support for the Jan. 6 defendants. “If I run and I win, we will treat those people from Jan. 6 fairly,” he said, addressing a crowd at a fairground in Conroe, outside Houston, that appeared to number in the tens of thousands. “We will treat them fairly,” he repeated. “And if it requires pardons, we will give them pardons, because they are being treated so unfairly.” At least 700 people have been arrested in connection with the Jan. 6 riot, including 11 who have been charged with seditious conspiracy. Some have said they believed they were doing Mr. Trump’s bidding. As president, Mr. Trump pardoned a number of his supporters and former aides, including Michael T. Flynn, his first national security adviser, who twice pleaded guilty to lying to the F.B.I., and Stephen K. Bannon, his former campaign strategist and White House adviser, who was charged with defrauding donors to a privately funded effort to build a wall along the Mexican border.

  Full Article: Trump Says He Would Consider Pardons for Jan. 6 Defendants if Elected - The New York Times

National: Trump Had Role in Weighing Proposals to Seize Voting Machines | Alan Feuer, Maggie Haberman, Michael S. Schmidt and Luke Broadwater/The New York Times

Six weeks after Election Day, with his hold on power slipping, President Donald J. Trump directed his lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani, to make a remarkable call. Mr. Trump wanted him to ask the Department of Homeland Security if it could legally take control of voting machines in key swing states, three people familiar with the matter said. Mr. Giuliani did so, calling the department’s acting deputy secretary, who said he lacked the authority to audit or impound the machines. Mr. Trump pressed Mr. Giuliani to make that inquiry after rejecting a separate effort by his outside advisers to have the Pentagon take control of the machines. And the outreach to the Department of Homeland Security came not long after Mr. Trump, in an Oval Office meeting with Attorney General William P. Barr, raised the possibility of whether the Justice Department could seize the machines, a previously undisclosed suggestion that Mr. Barr immediately shot down. The new accounts show that Mr. Trump was more directly involved than previously known in exploring proposals to use his national security agencies to seize voting machines as he grasped unsuccessfully for evidence of fraud that would help him reverse his defeat in the 2020 election, according to people familiar with the episodes. The existence of proposals to use at least three federal departments to assist Mr. Trump’s attempt to stay in power has been publicly known. The proposals involving the Defense Department and the Department of Homeland Security were codified by advisers in the form of draft executive orders.

Full Article: Trump Had Role in Weighing Proposals to Seize Voting Machines - The New York Times

National: Memo circulated among Donald Trump allies advocated using NSA data in attempt to prove stolen election | Josh Dawsey, Rosalind S. Helderman, Emma Brown, Jon Swaine and Jacqueline Alemany/The Washington Post

The memo used the banal language of government bureaucracy, but the proposal it advocated was extreme: President Donald Trump should invoke the extraordinary powers of the National Security Agency and Defense Department to sift through raw electronic communications in an attempt to show that foreign powers had intervened in the 2020 election to help Joe Biden win. Proof of foreign interference would “support next steps to defend the Constitution in a manner superior to current civilian-only judicial remedies,” argued the Dec. 18, 2020, memo, which was circulated among Trump allies. The document, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Post, laid out a plan for the president to appoint three men to lead this effort. One was a lawyer attached to a military intelligence unit; another was a veteran of the military who had been let go from his National Security Council job after claiming that Trump was under attack by deep-state forces including “globalists” and “Islamists.”

Full Article: Memo circulated among Donald Trump allies advocated using NSA data in attempt to prove stolen election - The Washington Post

National: Rejected Mail Ballots Are Showing Racial Disparities | Mike Baker/The New York Times

Among the thousands of mail-in ballots that were rejected in Washington State during the 2020 election, auditors have found that the votes of Black residents were thrown out four times as often as those of white voters. The rejections, all of them because of problematic signatures, disqualified one out of every 40 mail-in votes from Black people — a finding that already is causing concern amid the national debate over voter access and secure balloting. Washington, a state with broad experience in mail-in balloting, found that rejection rates were also elevated for Native American, Hispanic, and Asian and Pacific Islander voters. State officials said there were no signs that ballots cast by Black or other minority voters were knowingly singled out by poll workers, or that any of the ballots were deliberately falsified; the rejections were a result of signatures that were missing or did not match those on file, a possible result, the officials said, of voter inexperience, language problems or other factors. “It’s not acceptable, quite frankly,” said State Auditor Pat McCarthy, a Democrat, whose office conducted the audit. She urged election officials to take steps to address the disparities. The findings in Washington State mirror mail-ballot research that has been conducted in other states in recent years, including Georgia and Florida. But they are crucial in a state like Washington, which in 2011 became the second state to adopt all-mail balloting, behind Oregon. Mail-in voting has been an option for all statewide elections since 1991.

Full Article: Rejected Mail Ballots Are Showing Racial Disparities - The New York Times

National: Trump followers zero in on secretary of state campaigns | Zach Montellaro/Politico

Donald Trump’s pick to become Arizona’s top elections official raised more campaign cash in 2021 than his two potential Democratic opponents combined — a sign of MAGA-world’s deep engagement in taking over under-the-radar positions in charge of running battleground state elections. State Rep. Mark Finchem, whom Trump endorsed for Arizona secretary of state in September of last year, has made the former president’s lies about the 2020 election results a cornerstone of his campaign. Finchem has said repeatedly, and without providing legitimate evidence, that the election was tainted by fraud, and he was a major backer of the GOP-led review of the vote in Maricopa County, which election experts and the county’s own Republican officials trashed as an unprofessional fishing expedition. Drafting off Trump’s endorsement, Finchem brought in more than $660,000 for his campaign in 2021, according to new campaign finance reports. That’s more than the combined fundraising totals of the two leading Democrats, former Maricopa County Recorder Adrian Fontes and state House Minority Leader Reginald Bolding, who respectively raised about $385,000 and $200,000 for the year. Another Republican with business ties actually raised even more than Finchem. But the financial haul from Trump’s pick, which included thousands of donations under $100 that poured in from around the country, points to a broader trend across the states.

Full Article: Trump followers zero in on secretary of state campaigns - POLITICO

Editorial: The sloppy, patchwork, spaghetti-at-the-wall effort to steal the presidency | Philip Bump/The Washington Post

It’s worth beginning with the observation that it was all so obvious. President Donald Trump’s effort to secure a second term in office regardless of the will of the electorate was so ham-handed and clumsy that it was like watching a little kid do a magic trick: You knew what was coming and how it would work and you just had to let it play out. Although of course, this particular magic trick ends with the kid’s friend furiously trying to burn your house down. As we continue to learn details of how Trump scrambled to block Joe Biden’s victory in the weeks after the 2020 election — like the report Monday evening that Trump considered various options for seizing voting machines — it is useful to fit what we know into an overarching framework. No part of the scheming by Trump and his allies is disconnected from the rest; each intertwines into an ad hoc, three-pronged ploy. He tried to prove fraud. He tried to get elections officials to act as if there had been fraud. And then he just tried to steal the election.

Full Article: The sloppy, patchwork, spaghetti-at-the-wall effort to steal the presidency - The Washington Post

National: Federal prosecutors looking at 2020 fake elector certifications, deputy attorney general says | Evan Perez and Tierney Sneed/CNN

Federal prosecutors are reviewing fake Electoral College certifications that declared former President Donald Trump the winner of states that he lost, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco told CNN on Tuesday. "We've received those referrals. Our prosecutors are looking at those and I can't say anything more on ongoing investigations," Monaco said in an exclusive interview. The fake certificates falsely declaring Trump's victory were sent to the National Archives by Trump's allies in mid-December 2020. They have attracted public scrutiny amid the House's January 6 investigation into the pressure campaign that sought to reverse Trump's electoral defeat. Monaco did not go into detail about what else prosecutors are looking at from the partisan attempt to subvert the 2020 vote count. She said that, more broadly, the Justice Department was "going to follow the facts and the law, wherever they lead, to address conduct of any kind and at any level that is part of an assault on our democracy." This is the first time that the Justice Department has commented on requests from lawmakers and state officials that it investigate the fake certifications.

Full Article: Federal prosecutors looking at 2020 fake elector certifications, deputy attorney general says - CNNPolitics

Trump Supporters Left Death Threats for Election Workers. We Called Back. | Madeleine May/Vice

“Well, Tennessee is watching you, Mr. Rick,” a voicemail said. “I'm just right over the border. We're watching you all closely.” Another one had a similar message: “Hey Rick, watching this video of you on YouTube. You need to get your act together or people like me really may go after people like you.” And yet another: “I hope they hang your fucking ass.” After the 2020 presidential election, hundreds of threatening messages, emails, and voicemails were left for elections workers across the country. This is especially true in election hotspots like Georgia’s Fulton County, where officials were harassed for months over the phone and by email. Local law enforcement has not held anyone accountable, and some workers fear continued harassment in future elections. Importantly, these calls weren’t anonymous. Instead, they were made by people from across the country who believe the false conspiracy that the 2020 election was stolen from former President Donald Trump—and that election workers in Fulton County were to blame for massive electoral fraud. VICE News called them back. These messages were sent without shame: Of the threatening messages reviewed by VICE News, almost all contained the phone numbers, email addresses, or names of the people who had sent or left them. None regretted leaving threatening messages or expressed remorse that their words had caused election workers to fear for their lives. 
Full Article: Trump Supporters Left Death Threats for Election Workers. We Called Back.

National: Justice Dept. tells states they can use federal grant money to protect election workers | Matt Zapotosky/The Washington Post

The Justice Department on Wednesday told states they could spend federal law-enforcement grant money on protection for election workers, who have faced a plethora of threats in the aftermath of the 2020 election. In a letter Wednesday, Kristen Mahoney, acting director of the Bureau of Justice Assistance, told state officials administering a law-enforcement grant program that they could use the funds “to deter, detect, and protect against threats of violence against election workers, administrators, officials, and others associated with the electoral process.” Top officials also discussed the possibility in a meeting with election officials and workers, who have pressed the Justice Department to do more to provide for their safety and investigate and prosecute those making threats. Last week, the Justice Department’s election threats task force brought its first criminal case against a Texas man accused of threatening election and other government workers in Georgia. Those included Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R), according to people familiar with the investigation who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss details not included in the indictment. The head of the Justice Department’s criminal division said at the time the task force has received more than 850 referrals of potentially harassing and offensive statements, resulting in dozens of open investigations or efforts to mitigate danger.

Full Article: Election threats: Federal grants can pay for protecting elections workers - The Washington Post

National: Election officials renew push for more financial assistance | Benjamin Freed/StateScoop

A group of current and former election officials said Tuesday that state and local administrators continue to need more financial resources to improve voting processes, particularly audits verifying the accuracy of elections at a time when disinformation and distrust are rising. During a virtual event hosted by the Center for Tech and Civic Life, a Chicago nonprofit made up of technologists and data analysts, speakers said states, counties and municipalities that run elections still face significant expenses. “Equipment costs, those are major for counties,” said Chris Hollins, the former clerk of Harris County, Texas. The county, which contains Houston, purchased 12,000 new voting machines — touchscreen interfaces that print paper records — in early 2021 for about $54 million. But, Hollins noted that Harris — home to 2.4 million voters — “is fortunate to be well resourced.” Full Article: Election officials renew push for more financial assistance

National: Read the never-issued Trump order that would have seized voting machines | Betsy Woodruff Swan/Politico

Among the records that Donald Trump’s lawyers tried to shield from Jan. 6 investigators are a draft executive order that would have directed the defense secretary to seize voting machines and a document titled “Remarks on National Healing.” POLITICO has reviewed both documents. The text of the draft executive order is published here for the first time. The executive order — which also would have appointed a special counsel to probe the 2020 election — was never issued. The remarks are a draft of a speech Trump gave the next day. Together, the two documents point to the wildly divergent perspectives of White House advisers and allies during Trump’s frenetic final weeks in office. It’s not clear who wrote either document. But the draft executive order is dated Dec. 16, 2020, and is consistent with proposals that lawyer Sidney Powell made to the then-president. On Dec. 18, 2020, Powell, former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn, former Trump administration lawyer Emily Newman, and former Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne met with Trump in the Oval Office. In that meeting, Powell urged Trump to seize voting machines and to appoint her as a special counsel to investigate the election, according to Axios.

Full Article: Read the never-issued Trump order that would have seized voting machines - POLITICO

National: Jan. 6 Panel and State Officials Seek Answers on Fake Trump Electors | Luke Broadwater and Alan Feuer/The New York Times

Law enforcement officials, members of Congress and the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol are digging deeper into the role that fake slates of electors played in efforts by former President Donald J. Trump to cling to power after he lost the 2020 election. In recent days, the state attorneys general in Michigan and New Mexico have asked the Justice Department to investigate fake slates of electors that falsely claimed that Mr. Trump, not Joseph R. Biden Jr., had won their states. Representative Mark Pocan, Democrat of Wisconsin, wrote to Attorney General Merrick B. Garland on Friday demanding an investigation into the same issue in his state. And this week, members of the House committee scrutinizing the Jan. 6 riot said that they, too, were examining the part that the bogus electoral slates played in Mr. Trump’s scheme to overturn the election. “We want to look at the fraudulent activity that was contained in the preparation of these fake Electoral College certificates, and then we want to look to see to what extent this was part of a comprehensive plan to overthrow the 2020 election,” Representative Jamie Raskin, Democrat of Maryland and a member of the committee, told reporters on Capitol Hill. “There’s no doubt that those people were engaged in a constitutional fraud on the public and on the democracy,” he added in a separate interview, referring to the bogus electors.

Full Article: Jan. 6 Panel and State Officials Seek Answers on Fake Trump Electors - The New York Times

National: Pro-Trump death threats prompt bills in 3 states to protect election workers | Peter Eisler/Reuters

In Vermont, lawmakers are considering bills to make it easier to prosecute people who threaten election officials. In Maine, proposed legislation would stiffen penalties for such intimidation. In Washington, state senators voted this month to make threatening election workers a felony. The measures follow a Reuters series of investigative reports documenting a nationwide wave of threats and harassment against election administrators by Donald Trump supporters who embrace the former president’s false voting-fraud claims. Sponsors and supporters of the legislation in all three states cited Reuters reporting as an impetus for proposing tougher enforcement. Washington state Senator David Frockt, a Seattle Democrat, said the reports “gave us more evidence” to build support for legislation to hold accountable those who threaten election officials. In Maine, a bill authored by Democratic state Representative Bruce White would enhance penalties for anyone who “intentionally interferes by force, violence or intimidation” with election administration. Secretary of State Shenna Bellows cited the Reuters reporting in testimony supporting the bill. “This is unacceptable,” she said, noting that two municipal clerks in Maine were threatened with violence.

Full Article: Pro-Trump death threats prompt bills in 3 states to protect election workers | Reuters

National: Defending 2022 Elections from Misinformation, Cyber Threats | Jule Pattison-Gordon/Government Technology

With the anniversary of the misinformation-fueled Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol attack just weeks in the past, and the 2022 midterms looming, Congress members called a hearing last week to examine the nation’s election security needs. Cyber threats are becoming ever more sophisticated, presenting a constant challenge — especially for local governments with slim resources. Meanwhile, mis- and disinformation drum up public ire against elections officials, threaten residents’ abilities to vote freely and encourage those public officials who buy into the false narratives to tamper with elections, according to witnesses, whose backgrounds included areas like voting rights, cybersecurity and public policy. State and local election officials can only achieve so much cybersecurity without federal help, said Matt Masterson, former senior cybersecurity advisor for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). Certain threats — like a hypothetical software supply chain compromise impacting election systems software — are too advanced, he said. There is currently no federal framework to guide state and local officials’ efforts to procure secure election software, said Brennan Center for Justice senior counsel Gowri Ramachandran. She said Congress can encourage a safer election IT market by restricting federal procurement to only those vendors meeting certain standards — thus creating a financial incentive. But even vendors’ abilities are limited against the kinds of sophisticated attacks that breached SolarWinds, said Masterson. Full Article: Defending 2022 Elections from Misinformation, Cyber Threats