Category Archives: election administration

“Special Report: Terrorized U.S. election workers get little help from law enforcement”

September 8, 2021, 8:21 pmelection administration, election subversion riskRick Hasen

Reuters: The case illustrates the glaring gaps in the protection that U.S. law enforcement provides the administrators of American democracy amid a sustained campaign of intimidation against election officials and staff. The unprecedented torrent of terroristic threats began in… Continue reading

“Civil Rights Organizations and an Election Official File Challenge to Texas Anti-Voter Legislation”

September 3, 2021, 10:27 amelection administration, The Voting WarsRick Hasen

Release: A voting bill that will make it harder for Texans, particularly voters of color, to cast their ballots is unconstitutional and violates federal voting rights law because it diminishes access to the ballot box, according to a lawsuit… Continue reading

“Experts call for rigorous audit to protect California recall”

September 3, 2021, 7:13 amelection administration, voting technologyRick Hasen

AP: A group of election security experts on Thursday called for a rigorous audit of the upcoming recall election for California’s governor after copies of systems used to run elections across the country were released publicly.Their letter sent to … Continue reading

“The Experiences of Municipal Clerks and the Electorate in the November 2020 General Election in Wisconsin”

September 3, 2021, 7:07 amelection administrationRick Hasen

New report from Barry Burden. From the Executive Summary: Despite the many challenges that election officials and voters faced as a result of the pandemic and the spread of misinformation, surveys of both groups show that the 2020 general election… Continue reading

Texas enacted SB 598, which includes a paper audit requirement and a risk-limiting audit

September 2, 2021, 7:43 pmelection administrationDerek Muller

Earlier today, I lamented that SB 1 in Texas omitted the paper audit or paper ballot requirement that was in its original SB 7. Since that post, I was informed that the Texas legislature did enact, with near unanimity,… Continue reading

The disappearance of a paper ballot requirement in Texas’s SB 1

September 2, 2021, 10:32 amelection administrationDerek Muller

IMPORTANT UPDATE AND CORRECTION: Texas did enact a version of this requirement in a separate bill, SB 598. See my update here. Texas’s SB 1, in my judgment, is a hodgepodge of sensible and strange rules that will add a… Continue reading

“Heeding Steve Bannon’s Call, Election Deniers Organize to Seize Control of the GOP — and Reshape America’s Elections”

September 2, 2021, 8:11 amchicanery, election administration, election subversion risk, fraudulent fraud squadRick Hasen

ProPublica: One of the loudest voices urging Donald Trump’s supporters to push for overturning the presidential election results was Steve Bannon. “We’re on the point of attack,” Bannon, a former Trump adviser and far-right nationalist, pledged on his popular podcast… Continue reading

“The election gambit that’s sending Georgia Democrats into a frenzy”

September 2, 2021, 7:06 amelection administration, election subversion riskRick Hasen

Politico: Georgia Republicans say it’s merely an attempt to improve a chronically mismanaged elections administration.But a newly-formed election review panel in Atlanta’s Fulton County is nevertheless sparking outrage — and paranoia — from Democrats who believe it’s the GOP’s first… Continue reading

“G.O.P. Election Reviews Create a New Kind of Security Threat”

September 1, 2021, 1:05 pmchicanery, election administration, voting technologyRick Hasen

NYT: Late one night in May, after surveillance cameras had inexplicably been turned off, three people entered the secure area of a warehouse in Mesa County, Colo., where crucial election equipment was stored. They copied hard drives and election-management software… Continue reading

David Becker on the Troubling Provisions of the New Texas Voting Law

September 1, 2021, 1:01 pmelection administrationRick Hasen

Thread.

“Republican bill tightening Texas election laws is headed to Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk”

August 31, 2021, 4:56 pmelection administration, fraudulent fraud squad, The Voting WarsRick Hasen

Texas Tribune: A wave of changes to Texas elections, including new voting restrictions, is headed to Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk.Three months after House Democrats first broke quorum to stymie a previous iteration of the legislation, Republicans in the House… Continue reading

“MAGA Election Clerk Tina Peters Accused of Not Counting Ballots in Local Races”

August 29, 2021, 2:14 pmelection administration, fraudulent fraud squadRick Hasen

Daily Beast: Seated onstage at the most-hyped election conspiracy event of the year, the clerk of Mesa County, Colorado, Tina Peters, described herself as a crusader for election security.“I’ve looked at it objectively,” Peters said of supposed issues in election… Continue reading

“Appeals court: Postage for absentee ballots isn’t a poll tax”

August 28, 2021, 2:38 pmabsentee ballots, election administrationRick Hasen

AP: A federal appeals court on Friday upheld a lower court’s ruling that said requiring voters to provide their own stamps for mail-in ballots and ballot applications does not amount to an unconstitutional poll tax.The American Civil Liberties Union and… Continue reading

“Mesa County commissioners to embattled clerk in hiding: ‘Come home'”

August 28, 2021, 2:28 pmchicanery, election administrationRick Hasen

AP: Rural Colorado county officials pled with community members to pass along a message to their missing-in-action county clerk who is being investigated for an election security breach: “Come home.”Mesa County commissioners made their plea Tuesday during a meeting attended… Continue reading