The Arizona Democratic party closed a field office in Tempe, Arizona that was the target of three shootings in three weeks.
The incidents come amid a 2024 election cycle that has seen multiple instances of threats or violence, including two assassination attempts on former President Donald Trump.
The office in Tempe served as a location for Democrats’ campaign work in the area. The building was hit by BB gun pellets and firearm rounds. No injuries were reported in any of the three incidents, as all of the shootings happened late at night when no one was at the office….
Category Archives: chicanery
“Vance, Given 5 Chances to Say Trump Lost in 2020, Takes None”
Heading into the final three weeks of the 2024 election, Senator JD Vance of Ohio will still not say whether his running mate won or lost the last race for the White House.
In an interview with The New York Times that will be published on Saturday, Mr. Vance repeatedly refused to acknowledge former President Donald J. Trump’s defeat and went to even greater lengths to avoid doing so than he did during the vice-presidential debate earlier this month.
When asked about the previous election during an hourlong interview with Lulu Garcia-Navarro, a host of “The Interview,” a Times podcast published each Saturday, the Republican vice-presidential nominee responded that he was “focused on the future.” It was the same phrase he used to evade the same question during his debate with his Democratic rival, Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota.
“There’s an obsession here with focusing on 2020,” Mr. Vance said in the interview. “I’m much more worried about what happened after 2020, which is a wide-open border, groceries that are unaffordable.”
When pressed a second time, Mr. Vance pivoted to a complicated counterargument: He suggested Mr. Trump would have won more votes in 2020 had social media companies not limited posts about a New York Post story about the contents of a laptop that belonged to Hunter Biden, President Biden’s son. Trump allies had maintained that documents on the laptop linked President Biden to corrupt business dealings, but those claims were unfounded.
“Senator Vance, I’m going to ask you again,” Ms. Garcia-Navarro said. “Did Donald Trump lose the 2020 election?”
“Did big technology companies censor a story that independent studies have suggested would have cost Trump millions of votes?” Mr. Vance replied…..
“Roger Stone Suggests Using ‘Armed Guards’ During Election in Secret Video”
In undercover audio provided exclusively to Rolling Stone by liberal documentarian Lauren Windsor, the Trump ally and notorious Republican “dirty trickster” suggests bringing armed personnel to election locations in order to get the results they want.
“We have to fight it out on a state-by-state basis, but you have to be ready,” Stone says in response to a question from an undercover reporter about how Republicans can stop Democrats from stealing the election. “When they throw us out of Detroit, you go get a court order, you come in with your own armed guards, and you, and you dispute it. Instead, our guys just left.”
The comments came while Stone was mingling with attendees at an August event in Jacksonville billed as “A Night With Roger Stone.” The undercover reporter for Windsor’s digital investigative outfit, the Undercurrent, posed as a Republican operative and pressed Stone repeatedly about election security measures….
“Far-right conspiracy site Gateway Pundit settles 2020 defamation lawsuit brought by Georgia election workers”
Marshall Cohen for CNN:
Gateway Pundit, the far-right conspiracy site, has settled a defamation lawsuit from two Georgia election workers who were falsely accused of rigging the 2020 results.
Details of the settlement were not made public. But the parties said in a court filing this week that they have “reached agreement to settle all claims and counterclaims.”
The lawsuit is one of several major defamation cases filed by the election workers, Ruby Freeman and Shae Moss, after the 2020 election. Their case against ex-Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani ended in Decemeber with the former mayor being ordered to pay them $148 million.
“‘It’s Just a Really Bad Idea’; Georgia Election Officials Are Reeling Over New Voting Rules”
After Georgia’s election board passed new voting rules over the summer, local officials have been rushing to implement the regulations before an election that is just 26 days away. So far, it’s not going great.
“We actually, just yesterday, had a manager and an assistant manager quit,” Anne Dover, the election director in Cherokee County, told NOTUS on Tuesday….
“FBI arrests Afghan man who officials say planned Election Day attack in the US”
The FBI has arrested an Afghan man who officials say was inspired by the Islamic State militant organization and was plotting an Election Day attack targeting large crowds in the U.S., the Justice Department said Tuesday.
Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, 27, of Oklahoma City told investigators after his arrest Monday that he had planned his attack to coincide with Election Day next month and that he and a co-conspirator expected to die as martyrs, according to charging documents.
Tawhedi, who arrived in the U.S. in September 2021, had taken steps in recent weeks to advance his attack plans, including by ordering AK-47 rifles, liquidating his family’s assets and buying one-way tickets for his wife and child to travel home to Afghanistan, officials said.
“Colorado judge who sentenced election denier Tina Peters to prison receives threats”
A rural Colorado county courthouse beefed up security Friday after threats were made against staff and a judge who sentenced former county clerk Tina Peters to nearly nine years behind bars and admonished her for her role in a data breach scheme catalyzed by the lie that the 2020 election was stolen from former President Donald Trump.
Courthouse staff in Grand Junction, Colorado, received multiple threats that were being vetted by law enforcement while extra security was provided, said spokesperson Wendy Likes with the Mesa County Sheriff’s Office.
She did not say how many threats were made or how they were received. She also declined to describe the extra security.
The court received compliments as well as threats for Judge Matthew Barrett’s sentencing of Peters, Will Sightler, the court executive of the 21st Judicial District, said in a statement Friday. He didn’t elaborate on what the compliments said….
“For US adversaries, Election Day won’t mean the end to efforts to influence Americans”
Soon, the ballots will be cast, the polls will close and a campaign marked by assassination attempts, animosity and anxiety will come to an end. But for U.S. adversaries, the work to meddle with American democracy may be entering its most critical phase.
Despite all the attention on efforts to spread disinformation in the months before the Nov. 5 election, the hours and days immediately after voting ends could offer foreign adversaries like Russia, Iran and China or domestic extremist groups the best chance to mess with America’s decision.
That’s when Americans will go online to see the latest results or share their opinions as the votes are tabulated. And that’s when a fuzzy photo or AI-generated video of supposed vote tampering could do its most damage, potentially transforming online outrage into real-world action before authorities have time to investigate the facts.
It’s a threat taken seriously by intelligence analysts, elected officials and tech executives, who say that while there’s already been a steady buildup of disinformation and influence operations, the worst may be yet to come….
“‘Fight for your life’: Georgia election workers prepare for election under cloud of threats”
In the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election, arguably no state became as central to former President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn his election loss as Georgia — the state Joe Biden stunningly won by just over 11,000 votes, flipping it blue for the first time in nearly three decades.
Now, four years later, election officials in the state are preparing for another high-stakes election — this time under the cloud of threats, conspiracy theories, and distrust in the system.
That reality has permeated even the deepest Republican regions. In Paulding County, Georgia — a rock-solid Republican county just outside Atlanta — election workers are training to prepare for the worst: screaming voters, deadly packages, or active shooters.
“Most important thing is to get those voters out and get them to safety or put them in a room,” Deirdre Holden, the election director in Pauling County, said through tears in an interview with ABC News’ Steve Osunsami. “Get in the room there, barricade the door and fight for your life if you have to. And I never thought I’d ever have to say those words.”
“Georgia Republicans sow doubt about Dominion voting machines in 2020 throwback”
Just weeks before early voting begins in Georgia, Republican Party officials and Donald Trump allies are trying to preemptively sow doubt about the viability of Dominion systems used across the key swing state, arguing in court that the machines should not be used because they are not safe or secure.
In a replay of 2020 tactics, Republicans have continued to claim without proof that Dominion voting systems are susceptible to mass manipulation and vote-flipping by a nefarious actor. And GOP officials in DeKalb County in Georgia, aided by a familiar cast of pro-Trump lawyers, have signaled they are planning to once again question the 2024 election results if Trump loses.
They have sued in state court, arguing the Dominion voting machines are not in compliance with Georgia law and want the Secretary of State’s office to make voting records and ballot images available for public inspection within 24 hours of the election. But the lawsuit is also raising concerns that the DeKalb County GOP officials are attempting to mislead voters so they can explain away a potential loss in November….
The GOP officials who filed the lawsuit say they have obtained new evidence about the vulnerabilities of the Dominion systems, a claim that Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, and state election officers say is false. The lawsuit also theorizes that the systems may have already been compromised, despite offering no proof to support that claim.
The plaintiffs are using the “same tired claims that have been rejected by courts again and again,” Elizabeth Young, who is representing Raffensperger’s office, told Judge Scott McAfee at a court hearing this week to determine whether the lawsuit will move forward and additional evidence can be presented. “There is not much credibility in the claim.”
Marilyn Marks, executive director of the Coalition for Good Governance, a nonprofit voting rights organization that has raised concerns about vulnerabilities in Georgia’s voting systems as part of a separate lawsuit against state election officials, told CNN she is skeptical about the true intention of the DeKalb County complaint.
“I fear they are just attempting to lay the groundwork for challenging the election based on further exposing the serious weaknesses of the system, demonstrating that the results can be manipulated,” said Marks, who is pushing for Georgia to use hand-marked paper ballots.
“AI Could Still Wreck the Presidential Election”
Nathan Sanders and Bruce Schneir in The Atlantic.
“The Intriguing Role Public Financing of Campaigns Played in the Eric Adams Indictments”
Ciara Torres-Spelliscy for Washington Monthly.
“Consultant fined $6 million for using AI to fake Biden’s voice in robocalls”
The Federal Communications Commission on Thursday finalized a $6 million fine for a political consultant over fake robocalls that mimicked President Joe Biden’s voice, urging New Hampshire voters not to vote in that state’s Democratic primary.
In May, Steven Kramer, a Louisiana Democratic political consultant, was indicted in New Hampshire over calls that appeared to have Biden asking residents not to vote until November. Kramer had worked for Biden’s primary challenger, Representative Dean Phillips, who denounced the calls.
In January, Kramer told media outlets he paid $500 to have the calls sent to voters to raise attention to the danger of artificial intelligence in campaigns.
The FCC said the calls were generated using an AI-generated deepfake audio recording meant to sound like Biden’s voice.
FCC rules prohibit transmission of inaccurate caller ID information. The commission said Kramer will be required to pay the fine within 30 days or the matter will be referred to the Justice Department for collection.
“Republican Wisconsin congressman falsely suggests city clerk was lying about absentee ballots”
The mailing of about 2,200 duplicate absentee ballots in Wisconsin’s heavily Democratic capital city of Madison has led a Republican member of Congress to falsely suggest that the clerk was lying about the presence of barcodes on the ballots themselves.
Ballots in Wisconsin do not contain barcodes. Envelopes that absentee ballots are returned in do contain barcodes so the voter can track their ballot to ensure it was received. The barcodes also allow election officials to ensure that the same voter does not cast a ballot in-person on Election Day.
An initial statement on Monday from Madison Clerk Maribeth Witzel-Behl did not specify that it was the envelopes, not the ballots, that contain the barcodes. The statement posted on the clerk’s website was later updated to specify that the barcodes were on the envelopes, not the ballots.