Pew’s Stateline: “With their eyes on the 2024 presidential election, state lawmakers around the country are preparing to reshape voting rules in what election experts expect will be another busy legislative season.”
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The ‘cost’ of voting in America: A look at where it’s easiest and hardest
Washington and Oregon are by far the easiest states in the country to vote in, a new study featured in The New York Times has found. Meanwhile, voters in New Hampshire and Mississippi “face the highest personal cost in the country in terms of the time and effort required to cast a ballot.”
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Here is everything that’s happened with Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters
Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters, a Republican accused of compromising sensitive election machine data, was indicted by a grand jury Wednesday. Here’s an explanation of everything that’s happened so far from The Colorado Sun.
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Nevada Legislature advances bill to switch Silver State to a presidential primary
Assembly Bill 126 would “do away with Nevada’s caucus system that has been used to determine each major party’s presidential nominee in the state since 1981,” the Las Vegas Review-Journal explains.
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Cooperation is a progressive value: How an unprecedented coalition of liberal groups prepared for Trump’s war on democracy
“By the time rioters ransacked the Capitol, the machinery of the left had already been primed to respond — prepared by months spent sketching out doomsday scenarios and mapping out responses, by countless hours of training exercises and reams of opinion research,” The New York Times reports.
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Wisconsin results not reported Election Day due to absentee vote surge
“Our number one job is to make sure that we have an accurate election, an accurate tally,” said Meagan Wolfe, the administrator of the Badger State’s Elections Commission.
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Burst water pipe interferes with ballot counting in Fulton County, Georgia; no ballots damaged
Ben Brasch of The Atlanta Journal Constitution has details on an a burst water pipe that is impairing one of Georgia’s biggest counties from counting ballots tonight.
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Why experts are overwhelmingly skeptical of online voting
Ars Technica’s Timothy B. Lee has put together an incredibly good article that reiterates what security researchers and election integrity advocates have known for a long time: online voting is a terrible idea and should not be used for any elections for public office.
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Nevada Democrats unsurprisingly have harsh words for Donald Trump as he tries to accuse them of doing what he wants to do: steal an election
“Trump and his allies have always been motivated by partisanship, even at the expense of American lives,” retorted Nevada’s State Democratic Party Chair after Trump tweeted that Democrats were “using COVID to steal the state” by implementing vote at home in the Silver State.
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Republican America isn’t prepared for the coronavirus crisis
“[T]he Pavlovian urge to win the short-term news cycle, own the libs and defend the economic interests of corporate America and Trump’s re-election are combining with the predilection for conspiracy-minded thinking on the right.”
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Coronavirus may disrupt the 2020 presidential election — we need a plan
“Quarantines and fear could decimate voter turnout. Congress needs to fund mail-in ballots nationwide now,” Jon Stokes argues in an essay for WIRED.
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Three-quarters of Americans lack confidence in tech companies’ ability to fight election interference
“A significant majority of Americans have lost faith in tech companies’ ability to prevent the misuse of their platforms to influence the 2020 presidential election, according to a new study from Pew Research Center,” TechCrunch reports.
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Federal judge orders Georgia to switch to paper ballots for 2020 elections
Via Ars Technica: “Election security advocates scored a major victory on Thursday as a federal judge issued a 153-page ruling ordering Georgia officials to stop using its outdated electronic voting machines by the end of the year.”
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Holder: 2020 election “existential”
The former Attorney General of the United States offered opening remarks at Defending the Census, a Netroots Nation 2019 panel.
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Jimmy Carter says a full investigation would show Trump lost in 2016
“I think a full investigation would show that Trump didn’t actually win the election in 2016. He lost the election, and he was put into office because the Russians interfered on his behalf,” the legendary former President said.
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Trump smashed months of FBI work to thwart election interference
Via Politico: “Trump’s willingness to accept foreign assistance has essentially invited overseas spies to meddle with 2020 presidential campaigns, undoing months of work, said law enforcement veterans.”
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Civil rights legend John Lewis: “Vote like you’ve never voted before”
“I’m not asking any of you to give any blood,” civil rights legend Representative John Lewis said at a rally for Stacey Abrams. “I’m just asking you to go and vote like you never voted before. We have to vote!”
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Security-challenged firms are gatekeepers of U.S. elections
Required reading from the Associated Press’ cybersecurity writer: “Three privately held companies sell and service more than ninety percent of U.S. elections systems. But the companies have long stressed convenience for their customers over product security, security experts and elections officials say.”
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Huge: Court strikes down Pennsylvania’s Republican congressional gerrymander and orders a new map for 2018!
“On Monday, Pennsylvania’s state Supreme Court dealt Republican gerrymandering a crippling blow when it struck down the GOP’s congressional map for illegally discriminating against Democratic voters,” Stephen Wolf reports.
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Good news: Virginia is getting rid of its easily hacked black box voting machines
The Commonwealth is moving to immediately decertify all electronic (black box) voting machines that do not produce a verifiable paper trail and are easily compromised.
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Facebook sold ads to Russian firm tied to pro-Kremlin propaganda during election
Via The Washington Post: “Representatives of Facebook told congressional investigators Wednesday that the social network has discovered that it sold ads during the U.S. presidential campaign to a shadowy Russian company seeking to target voters, according to several people familiar with the company’s findings.”
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