Tye Rush, Chelsea Jones, Michael Herndon, and Matt Barreto have written this article for the Journal of Race, Ethnicity and Politics. Here is the abstract:

On January 6, 2021, the belief that voter fraud was to blame for Trump’s 2020 loss led thousands of people to storm the Capitol during election certification, aiming to occupy it by force to stop this process. While only thousands participated, millions more voiced their support for the insurrection, and this begs the question: What explains perceptions of voter fraud and support for the January 6 insurrection? Recent studies establish that White conservatives are more likely to believe that voter fraud is a rampant problem, linking these perceptions to state efforts to expand access to voting systems where racial minority groups stand to gain equality. Using a combination of pre-election, post-election, and post-insurrection survey data, we examine the link between White racial attitudes and perceptions of voter fraud and views toward the insurrection. We argue that White racial attitudes are pivotal in explaining the perceptions of voter fraud that led to the January 6 insurrection. We find that White Americans with a bias for their own racial in-group over racial out-groups are likelier to doubt the election results after Donald Trump was declared the loser, though not before. We find these same attitudes are statistically associated with sympathy for the insurrection and insurrectionists.

Brendan Fischer and Emma Steiner in The Guardian:

In May 2024, a flashy ad went viral on social media warning that “across the country, there are real cases of fraud and abuses of the [election] system that have eroded our trust”. The ad pledged that “whistleblowers” who shared evidence of election fraud “will be rewarded with payment from our $5m fund”.

This reward was courtesy of a just-announced group, the Fair Election Fund, which has deep connections to Elon Musk’s political network, according to materials obtained by Documented.

The Fair Election Fund pledged that “the bulk of the group’s budget will be devoted to paying whistleblowers” for sharing their stories, and that it would launch “aggressive paid and earned media campaigns” that would “highlight these cases”.

It was followed by another ad that ran in swing states during the Olympics and told viewers “you could be eligible for compensation” for sharing evidence of election fraud.

Despite the group’s high-profile, deep-pocketed backers and lucrative bounty offers, it never revealed any evidence of voter or election fraud. Instead, the group took a series of unrelated detours into tangential areas like third-party ballot access, and its effort to uncover fraud reaffirmed what numerous studies, court rulings and bipartisan investigations have concluded: voter fraud is extremely rare.

The lack of evidence has not stopped Republicans in Congress and state legislatures from continuing to push restrictive voting laws aimed at addressing this phantom threat. Meanwhile, Musk is claiming that “fraud” justifies his efforts to slash government operations, but similarly has not revealed much evidence.

The Fair Election Fund has now gone radio silent. Sitemap data shows that the website has not been updated since October, and the X/Twitter account for the group has not posted since November. The group’s spokesperson, former representative Doug Collins, became Trump’s veterans affairs secretary, and is now also leading the office of government ethics….

KC Star:

Former Johnson County Sheriff Calvin Hayden investigated Johnson County Election Commissioner Fred Sherman over allegations of voter intimidation, according to records obtained by The Star. The case was the only one Hayden, a Republican, ever sent to Johnson County District Attorney Steve Howe during his years-long investigation into election fraud. The inquiry never found any election fraud but helped stoke baseless conspiracy theories that the county’s elections were somehow tainted.

The Johnson County Sheriff’s Office, now led by Democrat Byron Roberson, and Howe, a Republican, both confirmed in separate statements last week that Hayden had submitted only one election-related case. Roberson announced last week that he had formally closed the election inquiry. But law enforcement documents provided to The Star in response to a records request now reveal Sherman was the subject of the intimidation investigation. The documents illustrate the extraordinary situation that played out in Johnson County in 2022 as the then-sheriff investigated the county’s top elections official. Howe declined to prosecute Sherman, finding no evidence of a crime….

The records provided on Tuesday include a full narrative report of the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office investigation. While the victim’s name is redacted in the newly-provided documents, the case number matches the partial report previously provided to The Star. In the narrative, Det. Kevin Cronister wrote that the alleged victim in an email alleged that during a July 13, 2022, election worker training, Sherman was disregarding her “beliefs as an American voter and election worker” because Sherman had told her she needed to vote in advance or by mail to be a poll worker on Election Day. The alleged victim said she only believed in voting in-person on Election Day. “Having been required by Fred Sherman to choose between my voting rights and his policy, I felt stripped of my rights,” the alleged victim said, according to Cronister’s narrative report….

Fox4:

After about 880 hours of investigating and $88,000 spent, the Johnson County, Kansas Sheriff’s Office said it has turned up no evidence of voter fraud in 2020.

The sheriff’s office said in September 2021, three people reported 100 allegations of election fraud to former Johnson County Sheriff Calvin Hayden. Hayden in response launched a formal investigation that spanned three years that he oversaw and directed detectives throughout.

Hayden’s handling of the matter has received substantial backlash and national attention after he provided no legitimate pieces of evidence of any fraud or voter manipulation.

Roberson said the complains ranged from allegations of voting machines switching votes to reports of poll workers allowing individuals to vote twice, among other claims….

Roberson said only one case, an allegation of “obstructing of voting privilege” was submitted to the Johnson County District Attorney’s Office for charging consideration in November 2022. Johnson County DA Steve Howe declined to prosecute.

Politico:

A federal judge has held Rudy Giuliani in contempt for continuing to falsely accuse two Georgia women of election fraud in 2020, breaching a court order against further attacking them after the pair won a $148 million defamation suit against him.

U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell lit into a visibly frustrated Giuliani — seated in her Washington courtroom — saying she had hoped the voluminous evidence that his attacks on Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss were false would have caused him to “stop saying such fabricated lies.”

Moss and Freeman urged Howell to hold Giuliani in contempt after discovering comments he made about them — echoing similar claims at the heart of their original defamation lawsuit — on his podcast in November.

On Friday, Howell agreed, and she ruled that Giuliani must within 10 days sign a declaration swearing that he has reviewed all the evidence and sworn testimony refuting his claims about Moss and Freeman, acknowledging that no sworn testimony or government review has contradicted that evidence and affirming that he had a full opportunity to cross examine all witnesses in their lawsuit. Howell said that if Giuliani doesn’t file this declaration within 10 days, she will begin fining him $200 a day.

Howell opted against putting Giuliani in jail, calling that the most serious option in her quiver, but emphasized that if he continues to violate her orders and fails to pay his fines that would likely be the next punishment.

“I am very concerned based on the statements made during this hearing that Mr. Giuliani may not be persuaded to stop making statements that violate the consent judgment in this case without even more severe sanctions in this case,” Howell said….