By Joe Miller
This Week: Election Lies Permeate As Jan. 6 Committee Nears Conclusion
Across the country, election deniers have been ramping-up efforts to derail state and local election administration ahead of the final Jan. 6 Committee hearing before the November general election – which is scheduled to go live tomorrow afternoon at 1pm. A new Marist/NPR poll found that preserving democracy is a top priority among voters, corresponding to the serious threats posed by Trump and his allies.
In Pennsylvania, the U.S. Supreme Court threw out a lower court ruling ordering county election officials to count undated absentee ballots in a stark reversal from a June ruling by the court explicitly allowing the undated ballots to be counted. The brief order threatens to re-ignite a months-long legal fight between state officials and several counties that refused to certify the primary results over the summer. After the decision, acting Secretary of State Leigh Chapman announced that it will likely take “several days’ worth of work” to tally preliminary midterm election results.
In Arizona, the Republican National Committee is working to coerce Maricopa County into publicly releasing personal information of poll workers preparing to volunteer through the midterm elections. Fringe militia groups like the Lions of Liberty are organizing supporters to conduct round-the-clock surveillance of ballot drop boxes during the midterm elections, a move voting rights experts are worried could lead to voter intimidation.
In Georgia, former White House aide Cassidy Hutchison is now cooperating with the Fulton County grand jury investigation. Prosecutors also announced that the grand jury would be seeking testimony from former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich, former national security advisor Michael Flynn, and former White House counsel Eric Herschmann after the midterm election cycle. A Fulton special prosecutor announced that the District Attorney Fani Willis plans to wrap-up the investigation after the midterm elections and could begin issuing indictments as early as December.
In nearby DeKalb County, Georgia election officials are expressing serious concerns about using software from a firm accused of stealing poll worker data from Los Angeles County and storing it on a server based in China. The DeKalb elections board has chosen not to end its relationship with the vendor, instead amending the contract to store personal information on a local server. In contrast, Michigan election officials have decided to stop using the software vendor entirely in Detroit and Wayne County.
Elsewhere, in ongoing anti-democratic efforts to subvert the will of voters:
In North Carolina, the State Board of Elections has released new guidance about maintaining safe and orderly polling places in the wake of an organized effort by Trump ally Cleta Mitchell to train rogue poll observers to interfere with the electoral process and break rules on Election Day.
In Michigan, election workers are training to combat conspiracy theories and misinformation ahead of the midterm elections. Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson expressed concerns over the voting process in the wake of disinformation campaigns and threats against election administrators in the state.
In Nevada, Trump made an appearance in support of several prominent Republicans over the weekend, railing against a federal probe investigating classified documents improperly stored at Mar-a-Lago by falsely claiming that other executives had set the precedent.
And finally, the Wisconsin Elections Commission deadlocked on setting rules for poll watchers this week, splitting along party lines over a proposal that would have advised local election officials to allow poll observers to come closer than state law permits. Right-wing activists in the state have been pushing election officials to remove thousands of people from the state’s voter rolls, filing public records lawsuits in at least thirteen counties seeking the names and addresses of voters they deem ineligible.
