Following up on this story, local elections officials have asked prosecutors to investigate fraud by the current nominee for deputy US trade representative: specifically, the potential misrepresentation of his home residence on voter registration forms. … Continue reading
Category Archives: chicanery
Specifically, remember this document? This one? Well, here it is. (Sort of.) And here are the non-redacted NVRA amendments Kobach was apparently proposing. The AP has more context. … Continue reading
CNN: A number of Russian-linked Facebook ads specifically targeted Michigan and Wisconsin, two states crucial to Donald Trump’s victory last November, according to four sources with direct knowledge of the situation. Some of the Russian ads appeared highly sophisticated in … Continue reading
WaPo: Russian operatives set up an array of misleading Web sites and social media pages to identify American voters susceptible to propaganda, then used a powerful Facebook tool to repeatedly send them messages designed to influence their political behavior, say … Continue reading
NYT: The Russians who posed as Americans on Facebook last year tried on quite an array of disguises. There was “Defend the 2nd,” a Facebook page for gun-rights supporters, festooned with firearms and tough rhetoric. There was a rainbow-hued page … Continue reading
Senator Amy Klobuchar WaPo oped. … Continue reading
Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel: Wisconsin officials for a year were not told about specific attempts by the Russian government to gain access to the state’s voter registration database, the leaders of the state Elections Commission said Friday. Friday’s statement from the commission comes after … Continue reading
NYT: In one instance, Mr. Menendez, according to testimony, met with two former high-ranking Democratic senators — Tom Harkin of Iowa and Harry Reid of Nevada — to discuss a Medicare billing dispute that would have cost Dr. Melgen millions … Continue reading
NYT: For three weeks, a harsh spotlight has been trained on Facebook over its disclosure that Russians used fake pages and ads, designed to look like the work of American activists, to spread inflammatory messages during and since the presidential campaign. But there … Continue reading
CNN: At least one of the Facebook ads bought by Russians during the 2016 presidential campaign referenced Black Lives Matter and was specifically targeted to reach audiences in Ferguson, Missouri and Baltimore, sources with knowledge of the ads told CNN. … Continue reading
Details and RSVP. … Continue reading
Politico: Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein was the beneficiary of at least one Russian-bought ad on Facebook that federal government officials suspect were intended to influence the 2016 election. Other advertisements paid for by shadowy Russian buyers criticized Hillary … Continue reading
I have written this piece for Politico magazine. It begins: Lost amid the debate over whether Facebook can be trusted to police itself to stop Russian and other foreign interference in future U.S. elections or whether new legislation is necessary … Continue reading
Mashable reports. … Continue reading
WaPo: The batch of more than 3,000 Russian-bought ads that Facebook is preparing to turn over to Congress shows a deep understanding of social divides in American society, with some ads promoting African-American rights groups including Black Lives Matter and … Continue reading
Wired reports. … Continue reading
Pam Fessler for NPR: On Friday afternoon, DHS placed individual calls to the top election official in each state and six U.S. territories to fill them in on what information the agency has about election hacking attempts in their state … Continue reading
Daily Beast: Suspected Russia propagandists on Facebook tried to organize more than a dozen pro-Trump rallies in Florida during last year’s election, The Daily Beast has learned. The demonstrations—at least one of which was promoted online by local pro-Trump activists— brought dozens … Continue reading
Derek Muller: A sure sign of political manipulation of an election is delaying it. Troubled states like the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Somalia, and Haiti have recently come under United Nations scrutiny for delaying their elections. And then there’s … Continue reading
Politico: Candidates are quizzing prospective campaign managers on anti-hacking plans. Democratic committees like the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which was breached last year, have switched internally from email to encrypted messaging apps. And both parties are feverishly trying to spread … Continue reading
Ann Ravel for Politico: I suggested to the commission that the FEC consult with internet and tech experts to discuss how the agency’s current approach may or may not fit with future innovations. Starting this conversation should have been noncontroversial, … Continue reading
KC Star: Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach’s use of private email for a presidential commission could bring him into conflict with a 1-year-old state law meant to increase government transparency. Kobach, a candidate for Kansas governor, told ProPublica last week that … Continue reading
Jim Rutenberg NYT column. … Continue reading
The Forward: Kenneth Nakdimen, who pled guilty to voter fraud in the small upstate New York village of Bloomingburg this year, received a six-month prison sentence on Friday. Nakdimen’s co-defendant, developer Shalom Lamm, is still awaiting sentencing. The two were involved … Continue reading
Clarion-Ledger: U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson on Friday urged Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann to remove any Kaspersky Lab software from Mississippi’s elections systems over fears of Russian hacking. But Hosemann said he made that call about a month ago, after … Continue reading
WSJ reports. … Continue reading
Denver Post: Ten of Colorado’s nearly 3 million voters in the 2016 presidential election may have cast two ballots, while 38 of them might have voted in another state. Those are among the findings of a study released Friday and … Continue reading
WaPo oped from Ellen Weintraub, longtime FEC Commissioner: Would you click on that political ad if you knew it had been generated by a Russian troll farm? Probably not. But without knowing that? Well, you might. Indeed, we now know … Continue reading
Reuters reports. … Continue reading
Ken Doyle for Bloomberg BNA: The Federal Election Commission voted unanimously to jump-start a rulemaking process focused on disclosure requirements for online ads, following the revelation of Russian-linked political ads on Facebook. The vote, at the end of a lengthy commission … Continue reading
CNN: How extensive was Russia’s use of Facebook to meddle with the presidential election? Even Facebook doesn’t know. One week after it told the country that it had sold $100,000 worth of ads to a Russian troll farm during the … Continue reading
The Daily Beast reports. … Continue reading
ABA Journal reports. … Continue reading
Release: Today Common Cause filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Election Commission (FEC) alleging that one or more unknown foreign nationals made expenditures, independent expenditures or disbursements in connection with the 2016 presidential … Continue reading
Brendan Fischer blogs. … Continue reading
Bloomberg BNA: The revelation that Russian sources financed political ads on Facebook in the 2016 presidential campaign could prompt enforcement action by the Federal Election Commission, agency Vice Chairwoman Caroline Hunter said. “It’s something we can and should deal with … Continue reading
Matea Gold for WaPo. … Continue reading
NYT: An investigation by The New York Times, and new research from the cybersecurity firm FireEye, reveals some of the mechanisms by which suspected Russian operators used Twitter and Facebook to spread anti-Clinton messages and promote the hacked material they … Continue reading
NYT: Donald Trump Jr. told Senate investigators on Thursday that he set up a June 2016 meeting with a Russian lawyer because he was intrigued that she might have damaging information about Hillary Clinton, saying it was important to learn about Mrs. … Continue reading
Today’s news reveals that Facebook got money, likely from sources connected to the Russian government, to spend ads likely intended to benefit Trump’s election. Is this illegal? The issue is complicated and below I reproduce a footnote from my Cheap Speech … Continue reading
WaPo: Representatives of Facebook told congressional investigators Wednesday that it has discovered it sold ads during the U.S. presidential election to a shadowy Russian company seeking to target voters, according to several people familiar with the company’s findings. Facebook officials … Continue reading
Michael Chertoff oped in the WSJ: American voters received yet another rude awakening last month. Chicago’s Board of Elections reported that names, addresses, birth dates and other sensitive information about the city’s 1.8 million registered voters had been exposed on … Continue reading
Politico: The U.S. needs hundreds of millions of dollars to protect future elections from hackers — but neither the states nor Congress is rushing to fill the gap. Instead, a nation still squabbling over the role Russian cyberattacks played in … Continue reading
NYT: After a presidential campaign scarred by Russian meddling, local, state and federal agencies have conducted little of the type of digital forensic investigation required to assess the impact, if any, on voting in at least 21 states whose election … Continue reading
WisBar News: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit has ruled that Cynthia Archer, a former aide to Gov. Scott Walker, cannot pursue claims against six Milwaukee prosecutors and investigators who targeted her in a John Doe probe. … Continue reading
Troubling McClatchy report: They knew Russian operatives might try to tamper with the nation’s electronic voting systems. Many people inside the U.S. government and the Obama White House knew. In the summer of 2016, a cluster of volunteers on a … Continue reading
Reuters: The federal government has not notified U.S. state election officials if their voting systems were targeted by suspected Russian hackers during the 2016 presidential campaign, and the information will likely never be made public, a top state election chief … Continue reading
NYT deep dive: Rinat Akhmetshin, a Russian immigrant who met last summer with senior Trump campaign officials, has often struck colleagues as a classic Washington mercenary — loyal to his wife, his daughter and his bank account. He avoided work … Continue reading
BuzzFeed reports. … Continue reading
Seattle Times: Seattle police are investigating a City Council campaign after an allegation that it tried to defraud Seattle’s first-in-the-nation, taxpayer-funded “democracy voucher” program. The police inquiry comes after a former campaign manager for Sheley Secrestwent to city elections officials to accuse … Continue reading