An assault on American voters is underway

[China]

Anger as DeSantis eases voting rules in Republican areas hit by hurricane

 

Governor Ron DeSantis has made voting easier in certain Florida counties battered by Hurricane Ian – but only Republican-leaning ones.

 

DeSantis signed an executive order on Thursday that eases voting rules for about 1 million voters in Lee, Charlotte and Sarasota counties, all areas that Hurricane Ian hit hard and that all reliably vote Republican.

 

Meanwhile, Orange county, a Democratic-leaning area which experienced historic flooding from the storm, received no voting exceptions, reported the Washington Post.

 

The accommodations include extended early voting days and the ability for voters to send mail-in ballots from addresses not listed in voting records.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Arizona AG’s office asks feds to investigate conservative nonprofit True the Vote

 

The office of Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich is asking the FBI and IRS to investigate True the Vote, a conservative vote-monitoring nonprofit Donald Trump has repeatedly touted for its efforts to raise doubts about the legitimacy of the 2020 election.

 

Reginald Grigsby, an investigator with Brnovich’s office, described a series of questionable interactions with the group’s leaders and suggested there may be evidence of financial improprieties if the agencies pursued them.

 

“Given TTV’s status as a nonprofit organization, it would appear that further review of its financials may be warranted,” Grigsby wrote.

 

The letter, dated Friday, is particularly remarkable coming from the office of Brnovich, a Republican who once vied for Trump’s support in a Senate GOP primary bid that hinged on false claims about the 2020 election results.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Kari Lake doesn’t commit to accepting Arizona election result if she loses

 

Arizona Republican Kari Lake would not commit Sunday to accepting the results of her upcoming election for governor if she loses.

 

“I’m going to win the election, and I will accept that result,” the GOP nominee told CNN’s Dana Bash on “State of the Union” after being asked three times whether she would accept the election’s outcome. Lake dodged the question the first two times.

 

“If you lose, will you accept that?” Bash asked, to which Lake replied again: “I’m going to win the election, and I will accept that result.”

 

Lake, who has the backing of former President Donald Trump, has repeatedly promoted his false claims about the 2020 election. A former news anchor at a local Fox station in Phoenix, she has said that she would not have certified President Joe Biden’s 2020 victory in Arizona, repeatedly calling the election “stolen” and “corrupt.” She said Sunday that the “real issue” is that “the people don’t trust our elections.”

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

MAGA Duo Who Smeared Election Worker Now Holding Training Courses for ‘Poll Watchers’

 

Pennsylvania elections worker James Savage says the 2020 election gave him two heart attacks. It wasn’t the stress of the historic election, Savage alleged in a lawsuit last year: It was alleged harassment from conspiracy-peddling “poll watchers.”

 

Two years later, two of the Republican poll watchers named in Savage’s lawsuit are holding “advanced poll watcher training” courses in Savage’s home county. They’re among a nationwide movement of right-wing figures mobilizing to sow doubt around the midterm elections. Experts fear the campaign could put election workers like Savage in the crosshairs.

 

A new report by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue found a surge in calls for partisan poll watching by Trump fans who preemptively are accusing Democrats of voter fraud.

 

Paranoiac poll watcher programs are under way in other states. A Reuters report found that this season’s primary elections have been riddled with complaints of aggressive poll observers, including in Nevada, where people stood outside a polling place with cameras and night vision goggles, and Colorado, where people filmed election workers and pounded on windows.

 

Hoopes’ and Stenstrom’s course isn’t even the only partisan training program for Pennsylvania poll watchers. The conspiracy group “Audit the Vote PA” has led a months-long campaign to enroll its followers as poll watchers, and hosts weekly trainings on poll monitoring.

 

ATVPA promotes fringe projects, like a quest to get rid of all electronic voting machines for fear that Democrats will alter them. But the conspiracy group’s webpage on poll watchers funnels readers into training courses hosted by the more mainstream GOP, with a link encouraging readers to sign up for training sessions hosted by the state’s Republican party.

 

A signup site shows that Pennsylvania’s Republican party is hosting at least 50 such training courses, including one specifically billed as a “Moms 4 Liberty” training event. (Another event at a Hanover-area Perkins restaurant, billed as a “buy your own meal and eat while you learn” seminar currently has 48 of its 50 available spots open.)

 

The Pennsylvania GOP is not alone in its call for poll watchers. Georgia’s Democratic party has recruited poll watchers in previous elections, and the Democratic National Committee told Politico this summer that it “trains poll watchers to help every eligible voter cast a ballot.”

 

But some official Republican efforts have taken on a more paranoid tone than their Democratic counterparts. The Republican National Committee hosts a poll watcher signup website that reads, in part, “As Democrats continue their unconstitutional assault on our most basic voting protections, the GOP is stepping up to protect free and fair elections. But we need your help with this critical work if we are going to be successful at preserving Election Integrity in our great Nation.”

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Cooked Crack]

Quote

Body-worn camera footage recorded by local police captured the confusion and outrage of Hillsborough County residents who found themselves in handcuffs for casting a ballot following investigations by Gov. Ron DeSantis’ new Office of Election Crimes and Security. 

 

The Aug. 18 arrests — conducted hours before DeSantis called a news conference to tout his crackdown on alleged voter fraud — were carried out by state police officers accompanied by local law enforcement. 

 

The never-before-seen footage, obtained by the Times/Herald through public records requests, offers a personal glimpse of the effects of DeSantis’ efforts to root out perceived voter fraud.

 

[The Evil Genius]

 

[China]

 

[China]

Report of voter intimidation referred to Department of Justice, Arizona Secretary of State's office says

 

An official with the Arizona Secretary of State’s office has confirmed that they have referred a report of voter intimidation to the Department of Justice and Arizona's attorney general.

 

The SOS office tells ABC15 that a voter was approached and followed by a group of individuals, while “the voter was trying to drop off their ballot at an early voting drop box on Monday,” an email stated.

 

Maricopa County has two official drop box locations in the county — one outside their main election tabulation center in downtown Phoenix and another in Mesa outside the Juvenile Justice Court.

 

The alleged intimidation happened outside the Mesa location.

 

“The SOS has talked to the voter, informed Maricopa County, and referred the report to the DOJ and AG’s offices for further investigation,” a spokesperson wrote.

 

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Miami judge dismisses voter fraud case trumpeted by DeSantis

 

A Miami judge on Friday dismissed one of the 19 voter fraud prosecutions loudly trumpeted by Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis, a significant development that comes as the cases draw scrutiny.

 

The case on Friday involved Robert Lee Wood, a 56-year-old Miami man who registered to vote in 2020 and voted in the presidential election last year. State prosecutors indicted Wood, who is Black, saying he registered and voted knowing he was ineligible. He was ineligible because he was convicted in 1991, but Wood said he did not know that. He registered in 2020 when he was approached by a canvasser and was sent a voter registration card by the state.

 

Judge Milton Hirsch dismissed the case on Friday. Wood was charged with two third degree felonies, each punishable by up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine.

 

The prosecutions, all of which involve people with prior felony convictions, have come under intense scrutiny. Several of those charged have said they did not know they couldn’t vote and were not informed of their ineligibility until after they voted.

 

Hirsch dismissed the case because he said statewide prosecutors had overstepped their authority in bringing charges against Wood.

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

Edited October 21, 2022 by China

[China]

Election deniers in charge of some county election offices are continuing to sow mistrust in the electoral system

 

Pop into a meeting of the Board of Elections in Spalding County, Georgia, and it may appear like any other eye-glazing gathering of bureaucrats being led by a no-nonsense chair.

 

“We hang our political hats at the door when we come in and do the people’s work,” Board Chairman Ben Johnson said at one meeting earlier this year. “There ain’t no room for politics in elections.”

 

But Johnson’s stated beliefs don’t appear to be so easily left at the door. An election-conspiracy believer, Johnson has authored a social media post to “fellow insurrectionists” and proclaimed that Joe Biden “is an illegitimate president.”

 

On social media, he has called for banning electronic voting machines, early voting and mail-in voting; echoed debunked claims about “ballot trafficking;” and proudly posted a photo with MyPillow founder and election conspiracist Mike Lindell.

 

Among other actions since taking office, Johnson has voted not to renew the county’s maintenance contract with Dominion Voting Systems – a frequent target of election conspiracy theories. As chairman, Johnson will have charge of the county board’s certification of the November midterm results – and his actions and continuing claims that the 2020 election was fraudulent have raised concerns over how he and the Republican-controlled board will handle the upcoming election.

 

Johnson is far from the only MAGA conspiracist inside the election process in a key battleground state. In Colorado, Michigan, Nevada and elsewhere, elections officials already have seen MAGA-leaning insiders allow election equipment to be breached, spread baseless fears about voting machine and election security, or take other actions that could stoke voter distrust.

 

“The foxes are absolutely inside the henhouses,” Barb Byrum, clerk of Michigan’s Ingham County, told CNN.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Officials in Texas’ most populous county ask DOJ to send federal monitors in response to state plans to send observers for general election

 

Three top officials in Texas’ most populous county have asked the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division to send federal monitors to Harris County for the midterm elections to oversee what they view as an effort by Republican state officials to “chill voters’ trust in the election process” and “intimidate” election workers.

 

Earlier this week, the director of the Forensic Audit Division of the Texas secretary of state’s office sent a letter to Harris County election officials informing them that it would be sending “a contingent of inspectors” to observe the “central count” next week, when early voting in Texas is slated to begin. The letter said the inspectors would “perform randomized checks on election records” and that the state attorney general’s office will also “dispatch a task force … to immediately respond to any legal issues identified by secretary of state, inspectors, poll watchers, or voters.”

 

The teams are necessary, the secretary of state’s office said, because of their findings in an ongoing “audit” of the 2020 presidential election in Harris County, which includes Houston.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

 

I don't know why the DOJ doesn't arrest these jagoffs for voter intimidation.

[EmirOfShmo]

 

[China]

Reports of Voter Intimidation Rise to Six in Arizona

 

The number of reports of possible voter intimidation referred by the Arizona secretary of state’s office to the Arizona attorney general and U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has risen to six. Just a few days after early voting began on Oct. 12, the first reported incident occurred on Monday, Oct. 17, when a voter was followed as they attempted to drop off their ballot at a drop box in Maricopa County, home to Phoenix. Video footage of the incident was later obtained by ABC15 Arizona. 

 

Several days later, Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs (D) referred two more reports of voter intimidation to the relevant law enforcement agencies. In both cases, voters were filmed by “election security” vigilantes monitoring drop boxes and their license plates photographed. The latest report includes harassment of an election worker. “Voter intimidation is illegal, and no voter should feel threatened or intimidated when trying to vote. Anyone attempting to interfere with that right should be reported,” wrote Hobbs in a statement. “Voter harassment may include gathering around ballot drop boxes questioning voters, brandishing weapons, taking pictures of people voting and following or chasing voters who are attempting to drop off their ballots.” Two armed individuals were spotted at a drop box in Mesa last Friday.

 

The DOJ has not publicly responded to Arizona’s request, but on Monday during a press conference, Attorney General Merrick Garland vowed that the DOJ “will not permit voters to be intimidated.” When pressed about specific actions by the DOJ, Garland responded “no comment.”

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Tennessee gubernatorial candidate arrested for interfering with voters in Chattanooga

 

A man who is running as the independent candidate for Tennessee Governor was arrested Monday for harassing voters at the Hamilton County Election Commission.

 

According to the affidavit obtained by Local 3 News, Charles Morgan was screaming about politics, cursing at voters and telling them they did not have the right to vote.

 

When Chattanooga police tried to arrest him, he refused to cooperate and told officers he would sue and have them fired.

 

Morgan posted his encounter with someone who works with the Hamilton County Commission on his Facebook page.

 

Morgan has been charged with interference with another person's rights.

 

Click on the link for the full article and video

 

 

[China]

Incorrect voter information mailed to some Cumberland County residents

 

Upper Allen Township sent its fall newsletter to residents recently filled with errors about the upcoming election.

 

Most of the errors have been fixed on the township’s website, but the online newsletter still erroneously tells voters they must re-register to vote if they haven’t voted in the past two calendar years.

 

That’s false, said Samantha Krepps, a county spokeswoman who told PennLive on Tuesday that registrations remain active for four years regardless of voting history.

 

A township administrator on Wednesday told PennLive they were still looking to verify the information was wrong.

 

“We will investigate the 2-year issue further,” said Kelly Palmer, the assistant township manager. “If we find this to be incorrect, we plan to take immediate action to correct it as we did with amending the district numbers.”

 

Click on the link for the full article

[88Comrade2000]

Damn, I got an email from one of Trump’s pacs. Don’t know how they got it but unsubscribed right away.

[China]

Top Arizona Elections Official Explains Why Drop Box Watchers Are Morons

 

Self-appointed vigilantes inspired to action by lies from the GOP’s hard-right MAGA wing about the 2020 election being “stolen” continue to stake out early-voting drop boxes in Arizona for signs of fraud they believe, contrary to all evidence, have enabled widespread cheating.

 

But not only can this be intimidating to voters, at least six of whom have submitted formal complaints to state authorities as of Wednesday, it’s also “ridiculous,” “ludicrous,” “preposterous,” and “stupid,” according to Maricopa County’s top elections official—a lifelong Republican.

 

Most of the issues since early voting began on Oct. 12 have occurred in Maricopa, where people affiliated with groups like Clean Elections USA, an outfit helmed by a QAnon-adjacent minister who regularly appears on indicted Trump adviser Steve Bannon’s podcast. Conspiracy theorist Melody Jennings, who founded the organization, has called for teams of 10 at every box in Arizona and the dozens of other states that have them, monitoring everyone who comes and goes in an attempt to identify so-called mules stuffing the receptacles with phony ballots. Many of the box-watchers have been decked out in tactical gear and body armor; some have been armed.

 

“From a productivity standpoint, the notion that you are doing anything for election integrity or the accuracy and security of our elections by being out there is ridiculous,” Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer told The Daily Beast. “It makes no sense.”

 

For starters, any Arizonan can mail in their early ballot from any mailbox anywhere in the nation.

 

“So, the notion that somehow these drop boxes are ‘special,’ or that this is where you would catch some unlawful activity, is just ludicrous,” Richer said. “I mean, if I wanted to harvest ballots, then I… can go to any USPS slot in frickin’ Mississippi if I wanted to, and mail them. But I could certainly just go down to my neighborhood mail slot and drop them off there. So [that’s] one of the reasons why it’s stupid.”

 

Click on the link for the full article

[TheGreatBuzz]

So I didn't realize that I could register to vote in person up until Nov 8th in Maryland.  I thought we would miss the deadline so I didn't even bother looking until I just saw a commercial on TV.  Now I'm behind in researching who I'm going to vote for.  But glad I at least get to.

[China]

 

Trump started a trend, and not a good one.

 

Election Day is Nov. 8, but legal challenges already begin

 

Election Day is 12 days away. But in courtrooms across the country, efforts to sow doubt over the outcome have already begun.

 

More than 100 lawsuits have been filed this year around the Nov. 8 elections. The legal challenges, largely by Republicans, target rules for mail-in voting, early voting, voter access, voting machines, voting registration, the counting of mismarked absentee ballots and access for partisan poll watchers.

 

The cases likely preview a potentially contentious post-election period and the strategy stems partly from the failure of Donald Trump and his allies to prevail in overturning the free and fair results of the 2020 presidential election that he lost to Joe Biden.

 

That was an ad hoc response fronted by a collection of increasingly ill-prepared lawyers that included Rudy Giuliani. The current effort, however, is more formalized, well-funded and well-organized and is run by the Republican National Committee and other legal allies with strong credentials. Party officials say they are preparing for recounts, contested elections and more litigation. Thousands of volunteers are ready to challenge ballots and search for evidence of malfeasance.

 

“We’re now at the point where charges of fraud and suppression are baked into the turnout models for each party,” said Benjamin Ginsberg, co-chair of the Election Official Legal Defense Network and former counsel to the George W. Bush campaign and other Republican candidates. “Republicans charge fraud. Democrats charge suppression. Each side amplifies its position with massive and costly amounts of litigation and messaging.”

 

The RNC said it has a multimillion-dollar “election integrity” team. It has hired 37 lawyers in key states, held more than 5,000 training sessions to teach volunteers to look for voter fraud — which is rare and isolated — and filed 73 suits in 20 states. Other Trump-allied legal teams, including America First Legal, run by former Trump adviser Stephen Miller, are involved.

 

“We built an unprecedented election integrity ground game to ensure that November’s midterm elections are free, fair and transparent,” the RNC chairwoman, Ronna McDaniel, said last month.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Cooked Crack]

 

[skinny21]

Happened to catch part of Chris Hayes talking about how hand counting ballots is going (I think in Nevada?).  5 people going through the same batch, getting different results, having to start over.  One worker saying they couldn’t understand how it was taking them 2hrs to get through 25 ballots.  Good ****ing luck.

[The Evil Genius]

 

[China]

Some Eligible Ex-Felons Fear Voting Because Of Ron DeSantis

 

When Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) called a press conference in August to announce illegal voting charges against 20 Floridians with prior felony convictions ― all of whom seem not to have intentionally broken the law, but rather fallen victim to a confusing voter registration system ― a chill went over the state.

 

As a result, some would-be voters who actually are qualified to register, thanks to a constitutional amendment to restore former felons’ voting rights that Florida voters approved four years ago, are nevertheless passing on the opportunity because they’re worried they’ll go back to prison.

 

“We’ve already encountered other individuals who have said, ‘Look, I’m afraid to vote,’” said Mike Gottlieb, a Democratic state legislator who’s on the legal defense team for one of the men facing charges.

 

“I have not encountered in the past this many voters calling, concerned that they may be prosecuted or what-have-you for voter fraud,” Mark Earley, Leon County’s supervisor of elections, told News Service of Florida this week. “And these are all eligible voters that have contacted me.”

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

So I guess DeSantis' voter intimidation tactics are working.  Too bad he won't be prosecuted for voter intimidation.

[China]

Officials brace for unprecedented efforts to disrupt 2022 vote

 

U.S. election officials are anticipating unprecedented efforts to disrupt the 2022 election, and putting battleground states on heightened alert.

 

Why it matters: Efforts to intimidate voters and spread misinformation can erode the public's trust in the democratic process, and safety concerns are making it hard to recruit election workers in some states.

 

Zoom in: In Colorado, Pennsylvania and other states, officials report that election deniers are signing on as poll watchers, which could create tense situations at polling places.

 

The "greatest fear" is that election conspiracy theories "could incite somebody to do something violent," said Matt Crane, the associate director for Colorado's association of county clerks.

Threat level: The FBI and Department of Homeland Security issued two warnings earlier this month, as early voting began in states across the country, about threats to election workers and voter intimidation.

 

Most of the threats have come in seven states that experienced public disputes, recounts or audits in 2020 — Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Nevada, and Wisconsin, the FBI reports.

What they're saying: "People whose minds have been warped by the Big Lie to believe that the 2020 election was stolen … might justify corrupt behavior or illegal behavior," says Susan Greenhalgh, a senior adviser for election security for the nonprofit Free Speech for People.

 

What's happening: Election officials are boosting security measures and training poll workers in de-escalation techniques.

 

Click on the link for the full article