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Inside the private pressure campaign to force hand-counting of Arizona ballots
Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization reporting on voting access and election administration across the U.S. Sign up for Votebeat Arizona’s free newsletter here.Republican lawmakers in Arizona privately pressured county leaders across the state to count ballots by hand instead of using machines, according to previously unreported text messages.The messages, obtained by Votebeat through public record requests, are a window into how state lawmakers are trying to leverage relationships with Republican county supervisors — who decide how to count ballots in their counties — to promote a practice that state officials have repeatedly said would be illegal.And it highlights how...
Wisconsin’s new rules on ballot drop boxes create opportunity for election challenges and ‘vigilantes’
Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization reporting on voting access and election administration across the U.S. Sign up for Votebeat Wisconsin’s free newsletter here.Voters using Wisconsin’s newly legalized drop boxes may return only their own ballots, except in special cases, according to new guidance from the Wisconsin Elections Commission. That means even a voter dropping off a spouse’s ballot along with their own could be considered as having cast a ballot improperly.The rule could be difficult for municipal clerks to enforce. But it leaves an opening for potential challenges from conservative election activists, who are already preparing to act on...
How late would be too late to replace Biden on the November ballot?
This news analysis was originally distributed in Votebeat’s free weekly newsletter. Sign up to get future editions, including the latest reporting from Votebeat bureaus and curated news from other publications, delivered to your inbox every Saturday.Since President Joe Biden’s poor performance in the first presidential debate, the speculation and arguments about whether he will remain the Democratic nominee for president have been unending. And big questions continue to swirl about what happens if he doesn’t. Can he still be replaced on the November ballot despite locking up thousands of delegates in the Democratic primaries? Who would take his place? What...
Lawmakers hope this bill will help Pennsylvania avoid November election certification crisis
Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization reporting on voting access and election administration across the U.S. Sign up for Votebeat Pennsylvania’s free newsletter here.Listen to an audio version of this story produced in partnership with WITF News.In a bipartisan effort to avert a potential crisis in certifying November’s election results, the Pennsylvania House passed a bill Tuesday that would cement the timelines for resolving post-election legal battles and prevent delays in finalizing the state’s electoral votes.A federal law passed in 2022, the Electoral Count Reform Act, set a strict deadline for states to certify slates of presidential electors: Dec. 11....
Democracy is in the details. My job is to make them clearer for Wisconsin voters.
Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization reporting on voting access and election administration across the U.S. Sign up for Votebeat Wisconsin’s free newsletter here.It was March 2022, and Wisconsin’s most powerful lawmaker was meeting behind closed doors at the state Capitol with people who were asking him to decertify the state’s 2020 election results.I was sitting on the floor outside those doors, two months into my new state government reporting job, and trying to write about the meeting on deadline. It was uncomfortable. Not the floor — well, OK, the floor, too.But it was uncomfortable because an election conspiracy theorist...
Wisconsin election officials get some clarity on which tasks they’re allowed to outsource
Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization reporting on voting access and election administration across the U.S. Sign up for Votebeat Wisconsin’s free newsletter here.Wisconsin election officials welcomed a clarification from the state attorney general this week on the scope of a constitutional amendment limiting who can conduct elections. But some local clerks and legal experts aren’t convinced that it’s enough to curb confusion over the measure or the risk of disruptive lawsuits.The short text of the amendment states, “No individual other than an election official designated by law may perform any task in the conduct of any primary, election, or...
Fixing Texas’ ballot secrecy problems won’t be easy, experts say
Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization reporting on voting access and election administration across the U.S. Sign up for Votebeat Texas’ free newsletter here.When Pam Anderson was a county elections clerk in Colorado about a decade ago, she worried about whether the state’s increasingly transparent election process had made it possible to link a ballot to the voter who cast it.As a test, she asked her staff in Jefferson County to see whether they could find a ballot that she had cast in a previous election.It took them less than 20 minutes.“It was a big revelatory moment to know this...
Wisconsin voters with disabilities win partial victory in bid for electronic absentee ballots
Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization reporting on voting access and election administration across the U.S. Sign up for Votebeat Wisconsin’s free newsletter here.Some voters with disabilities will be able to receive and mark their ballots electronically at home in the November election under a Dane County court order issued Tuesday. But the state’s top election official has stated the required technology will be hard to implement by then.The temporary injunction giving Wisconsinites with disabilities more accessible voting options marks a significant but incomplete win for a group of plaintiffs with disabilities who sued the state seeking better voting access....
In Shasta County, Calif., fights over elections have left wounds that just won’t heal
Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization reporting on voting access and election administration across the U.S. Sign up for Votebeat’s free national newsletter here.To understand the forces tearing apart California’s Shasta County, consider what has happened to Cathy Darling Allen.In five consecutive elections, voters in the rural county have selected her as their chief election official. That means that since 2004, she’s been responsible for voter registration, the administration of elections, and a host of related tasks. She’s consistently been the only Democrat in countywide office in the conservative county, where Donald Trump won more than 60% of the vote...
Maricopa County election worker arrested in theft of security keys as primary nears
Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization reporting on voting access and election administration across the U.S. Sign up for Votebeat Arizona’s free newsletter here.A temporary election worker in Maricopa County was arrested Friday after allegedly stealing keys and a security fob that can be used to gain access to the county’s ballot tabulation machines.With just a week to go before mail ballots go out, Maricopa County detectives charged Walter Ringfield Jr., a 27-year-old Phoenix resident, with one count of theft and one count of criminal damage, after they say he took a lanyard with the fob and keys attached while...
Fight against misinformation faces headwinds as 2024 election nears
Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization reporting on voting access and election administration across the U.S. A version of this post was originally distributed in Votebeat’s free weekly newsletter. Sign up to get future editions, including the latest reporting from Votebeat bureaus and curated news from other publications, delivered to your inbox every Saturday.We are 135 days out from the 2024 presidential election. The fight against misinformation and disinformation is hopelessly politicized, and the infrastructure set up to push back against bad or misleading information online is far less robust than it was.High-profile efforts to combat bad information about elections,...
Right-wing group targets errors in Pennsylvania voter registration records
Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization reporting on voting access and election administration across the U.S. Sign up for Votebeat Pennsylvania’s free newsletter here.A far-right group is asking a judge to order Pennsylvania to clean up its voter roll, citing flaws it claims to have found in voter registration data as evidence that the state is violating federal law.The group’s claims, however, appear to contradict facts about how the state’s voting systems work, reflecting what one election expert suggested is a “gross misunderstanding of election law.” Much of the information in the suit comes from groups with histories of making...
What cost comparisons show about Michigan’s early in-person voting models
Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization reporting on voting access and election administration across the U.S. Sign up for Votebeat Michigan’s free newsletter here.The city of Ann Arbor recorded one of the state’s highest rates of early in-person voting in the February primary, and a Votebeat analysis shows it also succeeded in another important measure: It kept the cost per vote low.Ann Arbor spent about $19 per early in-person vote, among the lowest of dozens of municipalities included in the analysis, which gauged only recurring costs like labor.In Lansing, a city similar in size to Ann Arbor, the cost per...
Voter advocacy groups ask DOJ to step in after Texas allowed some voters’ ballots to be identified
Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization reporting on voting access and election administration across the U.S. Sign up for Votebeat Texas’ free newsletter here.A coalition of watchdog and voter advocacy groups asked the U.S. Department of Justice on Thursday to use “all available legal authorities” to protect the secrecy of ballots after Votebeat and The Texas Tribune confirmed that the private choices some voters make in the voting booth can in some instances be identified using public, legally available records.The two news organizations reported on the limited ability to identify how some people vote after an independent news site published...
Elections 101: How recounts work in Pennsylvania
This story is made possible through Votebeat’s collaboration with Spotlight PA and its Elections 101 series, protecting you against election misinformation and empowering you to make informed decisions.In 2020, former President Donald Trump’s campaign paid $3 million so Wisconsin would recount votes in two counties.The result: Joe Biden’s lead grew by 87 votes.Such a recount would not be possible in Pennsylvania. Here, a recount is automatically ordered if a statewide race falls within a certain margin. Voters can also initiate recounts in their own precincts.With another highly contentious rematch between the two on the table for this November, an automatic...
Texas conservatives want to end countywide voting. The costs could be high.
Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization reporting on voting access and election administration across the U.S. Sign up for Votebeat Texas’ free newsletter here.A long-running conservative push to get rid of countywide polling places is winning growing interest from state lawmakers, as well as a spot on the state Republican party’s list of legislative priorities for next year.But election officials are warning that if legislators scrap the state’s countywide voting program, they will struggle to pull off the changes that would be required — beginning with increasing their numbers of polling places. That means paying for hard-to-find additional locations, recruiting...
Milwaukee council confirms election chief after staff said she struggles with basic procedures
Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization reporting on voting access and election administration across the U.S. Sign up for Votebeat Wisconsin’s free newsletter here.The Milwaukee Common Council confirmed city election chief Paulina Gutiérrez on Tuesday after election staff had repeatedly voiced concerns about her appointment and one sent the mayor a letter a month ago saying she struggled to handle her job.Gutiérrez, who joined the Milwaukee Election Commission in 2023 after holding jobs unrelated to election administration, is now slated to lead it through four elections in the next five months, including the contentious 2024 presidential election. She was confirmed...
After 2022 errors, primary election will be Pinal County’s big test
Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization reporting on voting access and election administration across the U.S. Sign up for Votebeat Arizona’s free newsletter here.When Pinal County Recorder Dana Lewis walked into the new elections building in mid-May, tiles were still missing from the ceilings.The building was full of the sound of drilling, and of workers chatting while painting walls. The reception area walls needed fixing, equipment needed ordering — the list went on. There was a lot of construction work to do before this week’s planned ribbon-cutting — and in the quickly passing weeks left before 100,000 ballots cast by...
Some creators of debunked ‘2000 Mules’ haven’t stopped selling the movie, or its false premise
Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization reporting on voting access and election administration across the U.S. This news analysis was originally distributed in Votebeat’s free weekly newsletter. Sign up to get future editions, including the latest reporting from Votebeat bureaus and curated news from other publications, delivered to your inbox every Saturday.Hi, y’all,The right-wing media company that published the purported documentary and book “2000 Mules” announced late last week that it was pulling them from distribution. Salem Media Group also apologized to an Atlanta man for false claims in the film that he’d illegally cast the ballots of others.It is...
Wisconsin’s system to block ineligible voters lets some people on felony probation slip through
Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization reporting on voting access and election administration across the U.S. Sign up for Votebeat Wisconsin’s free newsletter here.In 2020, Watertown resident Glen Godfroy walked into the polling place where he had voted for years. This time, he wasn’t sure if he could vote — he was on probation for a felony DUI offense. So, he said, he asked a poll worker to verify his status.The official checked a list of ineligible voters that the Wisconsin Elections Commission distributes across the state, and didn’t find Godfroy’s name, he said. So Godfroy cast a ballot and...
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Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization committed to reporting the nuanced truth about elections and voting at a time of crisis in America. Our mission is to help people understand our system of democracy so they can participate in strengthening it. Our approach is to cover and explain the mechanics of voting — no political polls, candidate platforms, or Election Day results; instead we will focus on how elections are run, from early and mail-in voting to voter registration and election security. Because we believe that elections are fundamentally a local issue, our coverage is rooted in local communities. Votebeat’s stories are available at no cost to readers, as well as to all local and national news outlets.
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