A Republican member of the Fulton County elections board refuses to certify primary election results unless given access to detailed voting data, in a move that Democrats worry could jeopardize certification of November’s general election results.
Julie Adams, who joined the Fulton County Board of Registration & Elections in February, filed a lawsuit against the board and the county’s elections director immediately after the May 21 primary, claiming she’s being prevented from performing her board duties. Adams wants access to “essential election materials and processes” and a ruling that her duties – including certification of election results – are discretionary, not mandatory.
“DNC prepares to nominate Biden via ‘virtual roll call’ before convention”
The Democratic National Committee is preparingto nominate President Biden as the party’s presidential nominee through a “virtual roll call” ahead of its August convention in Chicago, an unusual step to ensure that Biden can meet a deadline to appear on the ballot in Ohio.
The move comes despite a special legislative session in Ohio this week that Gov. Mike DeWine (R) said would resolve the issue. Democrats are not optimistic about the special session, given that DeWine has added an unrelated proposal on campaign finance to the agenda that Republicans want considered alongside legislation that would allow Biden on the ballot.
“Top Republicans are already rushing to buy into Trump’s 2024 election fraud narrative”
Top Republicans are already rushing to buy into a new 2024 election fraud narrative sown by ex-President Donald Trump in their zeal to appease their party’s presumptive nominee.
Leading party figures are increasingly warning they will only recognize the result of November’s presidential vote if there is no fraud. But there is no indication that there will be irregularities in the election. And their warnings come despite many Republican state legislatures taking steps to tighten voting rules — based on Trump’s lies about fraud in 2020.
The new Republican trend of casting doubt on the integrity of the 2024 election in advance was exhibited by Sen. Ted Cruz on Wednesday in an interview with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins. The Texas lawmaker, who in 2016 fell in line behind Trump despite the ex-president’s insults about his father and his wife, falsely stated that the 2020 election was tainted by fraud. Despite Trump’s claims of voting irregularities, multiple courts, including the US Supreme Court, rejected the former president’s claims he was cheated out of power. And Trump’s then-attorney general, William Barr, looked into his claims and decided that there was no widespread fraud that would have changed the result of the election.
But Cruz told Collins that a question about whether he would accept the results of the 2024 election was “ridiculous.”
“So you’re asking, ‘Will you promise, no matter what, to agree an election is legitimate regardless of what happens?,’ and that would be an absurd thing to claim,” Cruz said. “We have an entire election law system: that people challenge elections, elections get overturned, voter fraud gets proven. That happens all the time.” Cruz, who objected to election results in Arizona, which Trump narrowly lost to Biden, on January 6, 2021, went on to suggest there was significant fraud in 2020. And he implied the same could happen this year.
“If the Democrats win, I will accept the result, but I’m not going to ignore fraud regardless of what happens,” Cruz said.
“Voter outreach groups targeted by new laws in several GOP-led states are struggling to do their work”
Florida is one of several states, including Kansas, Missouri and Texas, where Republicans have enacted voting restrictions since 2021 that created or enhanced criminal penalties and fines for those who assist voters. The laws have forced some voter outreach groups to cease operations, while others have greatly altered or reduced their activities.
The Florida law, signed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis last May, imposed a $50,000 fine on third-party voter registration organizations if the staff or volunteers who handle or collect the forms have been convicted of a felony or are not U.S. citizens. It also raised the fines the groups could face, from $1,000 to $250,000, and reduced the amount of time they are able to return registration applications from 14 days to 10 days.
A federal judge blocked portions of the law earlier this month, including the one targeting felons and those who are not citizens. Even so, the law had a direct effect on the operations of Equal Ground and other voter advocacy organizations in the state before the ruling.
The League of Women Voters in Florida, one of the plaintiffs, shifted away from in-person voter registration to digital outreach. Cecile Scoon, the league’s co-president, said the law stripped the personal connection between its workers and communities. Digital tools aren’t easy to use when registering voters and can be expensive, she said….
“The Republican Nominee to Lead Oregon Elections Wants to Stop All Mail Voting”
The moderator of an April candidate forum hosted by the City Club of Central Oregon wanted to know: Could the Republicans running for secretary of state confirm that, if elected, they’d certify the results of Oregon elections, even when their preferred candidates lose?
That would depend, candidate Dennis Linthicum responded. He’d first want to check with citizen activists.
“No detective will ever find a body in the backyard if he doesn’t look,” said Linthicum, who is currently a state senator representing a district in south central Oregon. “So, at some point, the public is the best lookers we have. They’re out there, they’re investigating. You’ve got people doing the math. You’ve got people chasing ballots and understanding how ballot harvesting has been harming the public.”
At no point in the forum did Linthicum provide evidence of widespread voter fraud in Oregon—there isn’t any—but that has never stopped him. He is part of a nationwide network of conservative officials and cultural influencers who have stoked election-related conspiracies for years now. Three years ago, he joined lawmakers from around the country in calling for an audit of the 2020 presidential election in all 50 states based on unspecified “fraud and irregularities.”
Linthicum last week easily captured the GOP nomination to be secretary of state, Oregon’s top elections official. The office oversees voter registration and voting procedures, and is also charged with certifying election results.
“Trump makes sweeping promises to donors on audacious fundraising tour”
Trump sometimes makes requests higher than his team expects to receive, sometimes surprising his own advisers because he is asking for so much money. By frequently tying the fundraising requests within seconds of promises of tax cuts, oil project infrastructure approvals and other favorable policies and asking for sums more than his campaign and the GOP can legally accept from an individual, Trump is also testing the boundaries of federal campaign finance laws, according to legal experts.
In one recent meeting staged by his Save America super PAC, Trump asked oil industry executives to raise $1 billion for his campaign and said raising such a sum would be a “deal” given how much money they would save if he were reelected as president.
In recent meetings with donors, he has repeatedly suggested they should give millions of dollars without saying where it should go.
Larry Noble, a longtime campaign finance lawyer, said Trump was technically allowed to ask only for contributions of $3,300 or less for his campaign, according to federal laws. But he can appear at events for his super PAC where the price of admission is far higher — as long as he doesn’t ask for the money directly.
“He can’t say, ‘I want you to give me $1 million,’” Noble said.
And after a 2016 Supreme Court decision overturning a public-corruption conviction of former Virginia governor Robert F. McDonnell, it would require an explicit quid pro quo for a specific government action in direct exchange for a contribution to be viewed as illegal, Noble said….
“Leading pollster spreads Dominion voting machine misinformation”
Glenn Kessler for WaPo:
With almost a half million followers on X, the pollster Rasmussen has a wide reach. Former president Donald Trump repeatedly cited its polls when he was president as it consistently showed a higher approval rating for… Continue reading
“Putting a halt to state election law that blocked candidates is the right move”
Chicago Sun Times editorial:
Changing the rules in the middle game to give yourself the advantage is never a fair strategy.
That is how Illinois Republicans described the new law Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed earlier this month that requires state… Continue reading
“Don’t Blame Me for Biden’s Ballot Problem”
Ohio SOS Frank LaRose in the WSJ.
In Ohio we say that if you don’t like the weather, wait five minutes. The same can be said lately of our politics.
The Democratic Party’s antics after its failure to get Joe … Continue reading
“Libertarians Skip Over Trump and R.F.K. Jr. for Chase Oliver”
NYT:
The Libertarian Party chose one of its own as its presidential nominee on Sunday night, capping a grueling day of elimination voting and a boisterous four-day event, where both Donald J. Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. unsuccessfully sought… Continue reading
Meet the Press Dedicated Entire Episode to the Threat to Democracy in the U.S. [Corrected link]
I wish this episode was not relegated to a holiday weekend when few are watching. Description:
Secretaries of State Brad Raffensperger (R-Ga.), Jocelyn Benson (D-Mich.), Al Schmidt (R-Penn.) and Adrian Fontes (D-Ariz.) join a special edition of Meet the Press… Continue reading
“Debunking misinformation failed. Welcome to ‘pre-bunking’; Election officials around the world are adopting ‘prebunking’ campaigns, as AI and other threats jeopardize voting.”
WaPo:
Election officials and researchers from Arizona to Taiwan are adopting a radical playbook to stop falsehoods about voting before they spread online, amid fears that traditional strategies to battle misinformation are insufficient in a perilous year for democracies around… Continue reading
“New Hampshire Senate passes bill to eliminate all exceptions to voter ID law”
WMUR:
New Hampshire Republicans advanced legislation Friday that would eliminate all exceptions to the state’s voter ID law.
Gov. Chris Sununu could soon be facing a decision on whether to make a big change to voting procedures in a presidential… Continue reading
“Judge rules Menendez’s prosecutors can’t show ‘critical’ evidence”
Politico:
Jurors in Sen. Bob Menendez’s corruption case cannot see evidence prosecutors have called “critical” to part of their case, a federal judge ruled Friday.
The decision puts a hole in prosecutors’ ability to prove their central claim: that… Continue reading