Smart and careful post from Charles: I’ve had a chance now to read the letter that vice-chair Kris Kobach has sent to the states, requesting that they send the Pence Commission copies of their publicly available voter files. My initial … Continue reading
Category Archives: election administration
Smart post: The fact that all these things happened on the same day raises significant questions and concerns. Is the DOJ coordinating with the PACEI, and if so, what role is the DOJ playing in the PCEI’s efforts? How does … Continue reading
EAC Release: The U.S. Election Assistance Commission today released the 2016 Election Administration and Voting Survey (EAVS), the most comprehensive nationwide data about election administration in the United States. The survey is a deep dive into a wealth of election … Continue reading
Pam Fessler for NPR: Most Americans – 59 percent — think everything possible should be done to make it easy for citizens to vote. Almost 80 percent say they oppose making voting mandatory. These are the results of a new … Continue reading
Release of a very important Brennan Center report: Amid ongoing congressional investigations into Russia’s unprecedented cyberattacks around the 2016 election, the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law released a report today outlining specific actions lawmakers can quickly … Continue reading
Key Bauer post: What can be done about this? At a minimum, the election administration community should perform an “after action” audit of the 2016 episode and examine how the federal and state government performed in emergency conditions and how … Continue reading
Important Pam Fessler. … Continue reading
Lisa Rosenbloom for the ACLU. … Continue reading
John Myers column for the LAT. … Continue reading
Zack Roth: President Trump’s commission on voter fraud appears to be struggling to attract A-list talent, at least among Democrats. The White House announced three new members of the panel late Wednesday: Mark Rhodes, the clerk for Wood County, West … Continue reading
Letter: This letter was sent to the US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence following a hearing on June 21, 2017. (Download PDF) Verified Voting vigorously applauds the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence for its leadership and commitment to securing our … Continue reading
CNN; On Super Bowl Sunday this year, President Donald Trump told Fox News that Vice President Mike Pence would head a commission into voter fraud allegations — ones that he made, claiming that between three to five million people voted … Continue reading
“I don’t know why this has fallen on my shoulders,…I’m just a very small old country boy from Arkansas in this bigger commission with Vice President Pence, and I’m just going to do the best I can, to be honest.” … Continue reading
TIME: The hacking of state and local election databases in 2016 was more extensive than previously reported, including at least one successful attempt to alter voter information, and the theft of thousands of voter records that contain private information like … Continue reading
Judge orders briefs, but no new evidentiary hearing. … Continue reading
Bauer: Had the Alexandria shooter had his way and murdered a score or more legislators on a baseball field, the country would have witnessed horrifying carnage–and, as Norm Ornstein has argued, it would have entered into genuine constitutional crisis. The slaughter … Continue reading
Boston Globe: Two members of a presidential commission charged with investigating alleged voter fraud want the panel to focus on what could be the biggest fraudulent scheme of all: attempted Russian hacking of numerous state election systems. The call, by … Continue reading
AP: Kansas election official is trying to hide materials that undercut his public claim that substantial numbers of noncitizens have registered to vote and that documentary proof-of-citizenship requirements are necessary to stop it, civil rights advocates contend in a court … Continue reading
Vanita Gupta in The Root: Instead of focusing on actual problems, like modern-day voting discrimination, however, the Trump administration is working to further undermine our democracy. One of Jeff Sessions’ first moves as attorney general was to withdraw the Department … Continue reading
NPR: Democrats on the Senate panel, however, are frustrated by DHS Secretary John Kelly’s unwillingness to disclose more detail about the states that were targeted or compromised last year. DHS acknowledges that Russia’s intelligence officers went after elections systems in … Continue reading
Pam Fessler for NPR. … Continue reading
Pam Fessler for NPR. … Continue reading
No doubt, there’s a lot riding on the special election between Ossoff and Handel to replace Secretary of HHS Tom Price. Not only is it seen as a harbinger of 2018; some see the fate of Trumpcare resting on the … Continue reading
Texas Tribune considers whether the redistricting and voter id cases will lead to federal courts putting Texas’s voting rules back under federal supervision. … Continue reading
Order. Next stop the state Supreme Court (which has a new Democratic majority)? … Continue reading
Robert Griffin and Paul Gronke for The Monkey Cage. … Continue reading
Houston Chronicle: Hundreds were delayed from voting and others nearly turned away entirely during the presidential election because of confusion over the status Texas voter ID laws, a new report from a voting rights advocacy group shows. It’s just one … Continue reading
News and Observer: Judges have rejected Gov. Roy Cooper’s attempts to block a change in the partisan control of elections boards while his appeal on an earlier decision awaits consideration in court. The decision, released Thursday, is the latest in … Continue reading
Big news and a great opportunity to fund a crucial project. … Continue reading
Pam Fessler for NPR. … Continue reading
Stunning reporting by Kim Zetter for Politico Magazine: As Georgia prepares for a special runoff election this month in one of the country’s most closely watched congressional races, and as new reports emerge about Russian attempts to breach American election systems, … Continue reading
I expect this news will make it into a filing before Judge Ramos in the voter id litigation. Update: Quick reversal. … Continue reading
Bloomberg: Russia’s cyberattack on the U.S. electoral system before Donald Trump’s election was far more widespread than has been publicly revealed, including incursions into voter databases and software systems in almost twice as many states as previously reported. In Illinois, investigators … Continue reading
A Chapin Blog. … Continue reading
AP: Twelve employees of a Democrat-linked group focused on mobilizing black voters in Indiana are accused of submitting fake or fraudulent voter registration applications ahead of last year’s general election in order to meet quotas, according to charging documents filed … Continue reading
Texas Tribune: A new law softening Texas’ strict voter identification requirements doesn’t absolve the lawmakers from intentionally discriminating against minority voters in 2011 — nor would it properly accommodate those voters going forward, the state’s opponents in a long-running lawsuit … Continue reading
Release: A new report released today by the Center for American Progress’ Liz Kennedy and Rob Griffin, along with voting experts Tova Wang and Professor Paul Gronke, provides a demographic and geographic portrait of how Oregon’s automatic voter registration system … Continue reading
Key read and reality check from David Becker. … Continue reading
USA Today: The top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee told USA TODAY on Tuesday that Russian attacks on election systems were broader and targeted more states than those detailed in an explosive intelligence report leaked to the website The … Continue reading
Charlie Savage for the NYT: An intelligence contractor was charged with sending a classified report about Russia’s interference in the 2016 election to the news media, the Justice Department announced Monday, the first criminal leak case under President Trump. The … Continue reading
OC Register: A massive overhaul of how Orange County voters cast ballots will be considered Tuesday by the Board of Supervisors, but some Republican leaders concerned about potential voter fraud want any changes postponed. Elections officials here and in other … Continue reading
The Intercept: Russian Military Intelligence executed a cyberattack on at least one U.S. voting software supplier and sent spear-phishing emails to more than 100 local election officials just days before last November’s presidential election, according to a highly classified intelligence report … Continue reading
If this pans out, it could be a big deal. And this does not look like voter suppression–more like bureaucratic incompetence. … Continue reading
Austin American Statesman: Gov. Greg Abbott signed a new voter ID bill into law Thursday, loosening identification requirements from a 2011 law that a federal judge said was enacted by Republicans to intentionally discriminate against minority voters, who tend to … Continue reading
Well, now that push comes to shove, Republican commissioners say what Newby did was a-ok, while Democratic commissioner Hicks dissents. The case continues. As I wrote back in February about the district court’s request for these documents: But having the … Continue reading
Electionline with the bad news: Project Vote, a national, nonpartisan, nonprofit that has spent recent years focusing its attention on improving voter registration, especially the enforcement of the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) will officially close its doors on May … Continue reading
I have written this oped for the Portland Press Herald. It begins: Maine Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap is making a serious mistake by agreeing to participate in a sham “voter integrity” commission established by President Trump to validate his … Continue reading
Texas Tribune: The Texas House on Tuesday tentatively approved legislation to overhaul the state’s embattled voter identification law, moving it one step closer to Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk. Senate Bill 5 would in several ways relax what some had called … Continue reading
Politico: Hackers will target American voting machines—as a public service, to prove how vulnerable they are. When over 25,000 of them descend on Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas at the end of July for DEFCON, the world’s largest hacking conference, … Continue reading
Kristen Clarke tweets. … Continue reading