WaPo: Democrats are pressing hard this week in what could be their final chance to pass legislation aimed at protecting the 2020 contest against Russian hackers.Senate Democrats have failed for months to force Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to allow a vote on … Continue reading
Category Archives: election administration
Helpful info from VoteRiders. … Continue reading
CNN reports. … Continue reading
AP: A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit Friday challenging the security of voting machines in Tennessee’s largest county and calling for a switch to a handwritten ballot and a voter-verifiable paper trial.U.S. District Judge Thomas Parker ruled that the lawsuit … Continue reading
Carolina Public Press: North Carolina’s recent decision to certify new voting systems for use next year did not follow state law, according to a letter that a group of experts on election security and administration sent to the N.C. Board of Elections … Continue reading
ProPublica: States that received the reports found them riddled with errors and unhelpful for assessing actual election security. The work done by NormShield — called “Rapid Cyber Risk Scorecards” — had tested online government material not associated with elections. In … Continue reading
This is a big deal, and no surprise given the earlier ruling (except that it came very quickly after the rejection of the motion to dismiss). The real question is whether the Sixth Circuit, which is becoming increasingly conservative, will … Continue reading
WaPo reports. … Continue reading
Detroit News: Local officials bracing for an influx of absentee voters are urging Michigan lawmakers to give clerks more time to process mail-in ballots and avoid logjams that could delay election night reporting results. But a top lawmaker in Michigan’s Republican-led … Continue reading
WaPo: It’s not just a question of paper ballots. The offices charged with administering elections across the country are falling short on a slew of basic cybersecurity measures that could make the 2020 contest far more vulnerable to hacking, according to … Continue reading
Release: Thirteen U.S. states closed a staggering 1,688 polling locations in just six years, according to a new report from The Leadership Conference Education Fund. The report, “Democracy Diverted: Polling Place Closures and the Right to Vote,” notes that 1,173 … Continue reading
M. Keith Chen, Kareem Haggag, Devin G. Pope, and Ryne Rohla have posted this draft. Here is the abstract: Equal access to voting is a core feature of democratic government. Using data from millions of smartphone users, we quantify a … Continue reading
WaPo reports. … Continue reading
Pam Fessler reports for NPR. … Continue reading
Not ready for prime time. … Continue reading
Des Moines Register: Democratic National Committee officials said Friday they will recommend scrapping Iowa’s plan to hold virtual caucuses in 2020, citing substantial security threats. “We concur with the advice of the DNC’s security experts that there is no tele-caucus system … Continue reading
TPM: One of the disputes fueling the war over Ohio’s purge process was resolved Thursday, with the announcement of a settlement in years-long litigation related to the purge regime.Under the settlement, some voters who were removed from the rolls this year and in purges … Continue reading
AJC: To find a clue about what might have gone wrong with Georgia’s election last fall, look no further than voting machine No. 3 at the Winterville Train Depot outside Athens.On machine No. 3, Republicans won every race. On each … Continue reading
Clarion Ledger: Voters who cast ballots for one party in the Aug. 6 primary may have improperly voted for a different party in Tuesday’s runoff due to machine malfunctions, according to the Hinds County GOP. Pete Perry, Hinds County Republican Party chairman, … Continue reading
Reuters: T he U.S. government plans to launch a program in roughly one month that narrowly focuses on protecting voter registration databases and systems ahead of the 2020 presidential election.These systems, which are widely used to validate the eligibility of … Continue reading
LA Times deep dive on Dean Logan. … Continue reading
AP: Georgia voters who want hand-marked paper ballots are challenging the new election system state officials are rushing to implement in time for next year’s presidential primaries, saying the new touchscreen machines remain vulnerable and their results unverifiable, even though … Continue reading
Texas Tribune: After losing his last chief election officer over a botched review of the state’s voter rolls, Gov. Greg Abbott on Monday appointed a new secretary of state: Ruth Ruggero Hughs.Ruggero Hughs is moving from the Texas Workforce Commission, which she … Continue reading
Find it here. … Continue reading
The South Florida Sun Sentinel reports. … Continue reading
The Hill reports. … Continue reading
You can find Judge Totenberg’s extensive and thoughtful opinion at this link. The court issued a preliminary injunction and the state could appeal to the Eleventh Circuit. But this opinion marshals a great deal of evidence as to the problems … Continue reading
Brennan Center: In late July, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence released its report on the Russian government’s attacks on America’s election infrastructure.[1] While the report offered dozens of recommendations related to vast and varied election systems in the United States … Continue reading
WaPo reports. … Continue reading
CNN: The top cybersecurity official at the Department of Homeland Security said Friday that backup paper ballots would be a necessary part of 2020 election security.“Ultimately when I look at 2020, the top priority for me is engaging as far and wide as … Continue reading
LAT: California’s ambitious effort to automate voter registration at Department of Motor Vehicle offices produced almost 84,000 duplicate records and more than twice that number with political party mistakes, according to an audit released Friday by state officials.The analysis covered … Continue reading
Kim Zetter for Motherboard. … Continue reading
Doug Chapin: Last Thursday, Democracy Fund senior advisor and “postal whisperer” Tammy Patrick had a crucially important piece in electionlineWeekly about an issue many in the election community may have missed – but should be watching closely: a potential U.S. withdrawal from the Universal … Continue reading
GPB: Georgia has awarded a massive contract to replace its outdated touchscreen direct-recording electronic voting machines to a new company offering ballot-marking devices with a paper component.Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger announced Monday that Dominion Voting Systems will be the … Continue reading
NYT: Amid growing warnings about the security of American voting systems, many states are rushing to address vulnerabilities exposed by the 2016 election, even as intelligence officials worry they are fighting the last battle and are not sufficiently focused on a new … Continue reading
KC Star: GOP leadership said Mueller’s testimony did little to persuade them of the need for legislation. Moreover, one of the only GOP lawmakers pushing election security reforms on Capitol Hill said states have effectively run out of time to implement changes … Continue reading
Law.com: A group of Georgia voters and a nonprofit election integrity organization seeking to force the state to use paper rather than electronic ballots in future elections have accused the secretary of state and governor of destroying evidence in the … Continue reading
NYT: The Senate Intelligence Committee concluded Thursday that election systems in all 50 states were targeted by Russia in 2016, an effort more far-reaching than previously acknowledged and one largely undetected by the states and federal officials at the time.But … Continue reading
WBAL reports. … Continue reading
Larry Norden and Dan Weiner in Foreign Affairs. … Continue reading
ThinkProgress on the challenged Florida law requiring sufficient parking for early voting sites, and its impact on college voters. … Continue reading
We get the election mechanics we pay for. … Continue reading
The legislation passed the Senate yesterday, and now heads over to the House. … Continue reading
A WaPo article on a new Brennan Center report diving into how six states (Alabama, Arizona, Illinois, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Pennsylvania) used 2018 federal election security grants … and the need each has for much more. … Continue reading
Trial has started up in Florida over the law automatically placing candidates of the governor’s party in the first position of the ballot. I’ve been watching this case pretty closely; it’s a really interesting test of the prevailing constitutional doctrine … Continue reading
An important story in Washington State about the integration of county registration systems into a newer statewide system. It’s not important because it’s particularly new or surprising (it’s neither), but just as a reminder of the details to be ironed … Continue reading
New this morning from the AP. A snippet: An Associated Press analysis has found that like many counties in Pennsylvania, the vast majority of 10,000 election jurisdictions nationwide use Windows 7 or an older operating system to create ballots, program … Continue reading
More from the AP. The subhead: “North Carolina election officials are learning that private equity firms which don’t disclose whose money they’re investing hold major stakes in voting-machine makers.” … Continue reading
AJC: The insides of Georgia’s voting system will be cracked open for inspection as part of a lawsuit alleging that the state’s elections are vulnerable to inaccuracies, malfunctions and hacking.U.S. District Judge Amy Totenberg on Tuesday ordered election officials to allow computer … Continue reading
Politico: House Democrats and Senate Republicans may have attended similar classified briefings on election security Wednesday, but they left with opposite conclusions.House Democrats expressed deep concerns about the White House’s ability to protect voting systems in 2020, drawing fresh scrutiny … Continue reading