By Joe Miller
This Week: Election Deniers Threaten Election Security As January 6 Investigations Move Forward
Over the past week, revelations about January 6 have continued to expose ongoing plots by election deniers to overturn election results. MAGA SCOTUS spouse Virginia “Ginni” Thomas met with the Jan. 6 committee over her role in emailing hundreds of state-level officials in December 2020, urging them to overturn the presidential election results. Thomas wasn’t the only high-profile election denier under deposition this week. In Arizona, false elector and GOP chairwoman Kelli Ward pleaded the fifth during a deposition to the Jan. 6 committee, refusing to answer certain questions. In Wisconsin, Senator Ron Johnson admitted that he exchanged text messages with a Trump lawyer before and after he attempted to deliver the fraudulent elector certificates on Jan. 6. He is now refusing to commit to accepting the midterm election results this fall.
Other state investigations continue to uncover evidence of tampering as well. In Georgia, election experts are highly concerned that the entire state’s election management system is at risk of hacking during the midterm election cycle. Investigators have traced the Coffee County systems breach back to a former election director who invited dozens of Trump supporters into secure areas of the election office in December 2021 and shared passwords with outside groups. The cybersecurity firm that breached Coffee’s election system is now facing further scrutiny for attempting a similar undertaking in Spalding County, prompting the State Election Board to ask the FBI to participate in the ongoing investigation in coordination with the GBI and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s office.
The Oath Keepers’ January 6 sedition trial began this week, with defense attorneys relying on novel legal arguments holding Trump responsible for suggesting he would invoke the Insurrection Act and prosecutors revealing how the Oath Keepers planned an armed rebellion. In Michigan, former GOP candidate and indicted Jan. 6 defendant Ryan Kelley is seeking a plea deal in his own criminal case, suggesting he may soon launch another campaign.
Meanwhile, election deniers have been working to derail election administration ahead of the midterms. In Pennsylvania, a Trump-aligned group known as “Audit the Vote PA” has been emailing county elections officials, asking to remove specific voters the group has supposedly identified as having moved out-of-state, in violation of federal law. MAGA activists have inundated county elections offices with records requests seeking confidential voting records in Pittsburgh-based Allegheny County and at least 36 other counties throughout the commonwealth.
Elsewhere, in ongoing anti-democratic efforts to subvert the will of voters:
In central Pennsylvania, Lycoming County announced it will conduct yet another hand recount of the 2020 election in January 2023.
In Michigan, MAGA township clerk and district representative Christina Achterhoff is under investigation for failing to comply with ethics regulations, by removing primary election results from the courthouse without a deputy present and delivering them to the county.
In North Carolina, the state Supreme Court heard oral arguments this week from lawmakers asking to reinstate unconstitutional redistricting maps.
And finally, Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (GA-14) called the Jan. 6 attack “meaningless” at a North Carolina GOP gala last week. Days later, Rep. Greene hurled wild accusations of political violence against her political opponents, alleging that they have “already started the killings,” as she faces an ethics complaint accusing her of kicking a teenage activist. Her dangerous rhetoric comes during a period of heightened threats of violence against election workers across the country preparing for the midterm elections.
