Lawfare
NY Citizen's Group Threatened by State AG, plus updates from Idaho, PA, FL, NY, CT and elsewhere around the country.
I wrote earlier about the New York Citizen’s Audit (NYCA). They found manipulation of the voter rolls in New York and even had a peer reviewed paper published about their efforts. This week, the same group was sent a cease-and-desist letter from the New York State Attorney General alleging that they have been impersonating election officials and intimidating voters by harassing them at their homes and accusing them of fraud.
This is hogwash. I have interacted with this group and know the CEO. This would not be tolerated and would be completely unnecessary to their mission. The NY AG has provided zero evidence, just vague claims that ‘people have complained’. It mirrors efforts to undermine canvassing efforts in Arizona and Colorado.
Lawfare: the use of legal action to cause problems for an opponent
But NYCA and all other election integrity groups aside, the issue of lawfare is expanding. It is evident in the Trump campaign (scheduling a trial for the day before Super Tuesday), it is evident with attorneys who question the 2020 election (such as the attempt to remove the law license from Trump attorney John Eastman), and it is evident in the recent impeachment trial of Texas AG Ken Paxton (no evidence provided in his impeachment and no ability to counter).
Behind many of these efforts is the 65 Project, named for the supposed 65 lawsuits brought in the wake of the 2020 election which, in their words, were an attempt to ‘overturn legitimate elections’. Apparently, the concept of freedom of speech is lost on these ‘lawyers’. (I have not vetted this list, but if true, 22 of 30 cases filed by Trump or his allies that were actually heard were won. Most cases were tossed without any evidentiary hearing. They were tossed for lack of standing or timing.)
With lawfare, the object is not necessarily to win, but to so burden the target with legal fees and court proceedings that they are unable to focus much attention on anything else. It reeks of desperation and our legal system will have to address this if confidence is to be restored. As it is, recent Rasmussen polling shows that over 2/3rd of the public is concerned about the US becoming a police state. Police states cannot exist without a corrupt or non-existent judicial system.
Idaho: Canyon County Swipe Issue: County Commissioner Leslie Van Beek shared her voting story on a local radio show where her printed ballot did not match what she said she selected on the touch screen voting device. She was able to spoil her ballot and revote, but it raises the concern of how often does this happen? A Canyon election official stated that it happened a lot in 2020, but those would be just the ones that people caught. The matter may have been a user issue, as claimed by the county, but if it happens often, that becomes more of a system issue and not a voter issue. This could be avoided with hand marked ballots. Read more here.
PA: Automatic Voter Registration Adopted - In a move that drew protests about election manipulation, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro has now changed the vehicle registration process. The change now means people must opt-out of registering to vote whereas before they had to opt-in. Critics say the Governor does not have the authority to make this change as it should be the purview of the state legislature. The requirement for states to link election registration to vehicle registration traces back to 1993 and the passage of the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA aka Motor Voter). Around 55% of all registration applications now come from motor vehicle agencies. Idaho is one of six states exempted from the NVRA due to its employment of ‘same day voter registration’. This link has a list of court cases surrounding NVRA if you are thinking it seems unconstitutional for the federal government to dictate election procedures to the states. Read more here.
NY: No Excuse Absentee Voting Law Violates NY Constitution - It is rather surprising that among the states that do not allow ‘no excuse absentee voting’ is the very blue New York. Generally, tougher absentee voting laws are a red state issue (although the Idaho legislature failed to eliminate no-excuse absentee voting in the last session). However, when an attempt to amend the state constitution to allow no-excuse voting was made in 2021 in New York, the public rejected it with 55% of the vote. This new law seems to contradict the constitution and has now been challenged. Behind the plaintiffs is the group called RITE (Restoring Integrity and Trust in Elections) which recently won a court case in Arizona over signature matching. RITE touts Bill Barr and Karl Rove as supporters on its website. Read more here.
FL: Florida GOP Drops Loyalty Pledge - The pledge would have had to be signed by any candidate in order to appear on the primary ballot. DeSantis signed the pledge but Trump had refused. Read more here.
CT: Video of Drop Box Stuffing Triggers Investigation - Bridgeport mayoral candidate John Gomes released video that purportedly shows the same woman putting documents into a drop box at multiple times which may violate Connecticut law. Gomes lost the election to incumbent mayor Joe Ganim and held a press conference contesting the election. Ganim served a dozen years as mayor before being convicted and serving 7 years in prison for racketeering and extortion. He won re-election in 2016. Bridgeport has been under state and federal scrutiny for irregularities in its absentee voting, as reported by the AP. Read more here.
US: States Working to Replace ERIC - The Election Registration Information Center (ERIC) has suffered the loss of several state partners in this past year. In its place, many states are making agreements with each other as to how to inform one another of changes in their voter rolls. Read more here.
US: Bill Banning Deceptive AI Content Introduced - A bi-partisan effort to eliminate the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to create impersonations of federal political candidates in political ads was introduced in the Senate. Read more here.
US: Smartmatic Implicated in Bribery Lawsuit - Smartmatic developed much of the root technology in electronic voting systems even though they are only used currently in Los Angeles in the US. They are also involved in several defamation lawsuits against Trump allies. Four executives from the company are uncharged co-conspirators in a US Department of Justice criminal money laundering case. The case stems from the accusation that Andres Bautista, former elections manager in the Philippines, took money to push an elections contract to Smartmatic. He denies the accusation. Read more here. The case file is here.
US: DHS Recruits Disgraced Former Officials to Advisor Roles - Former CIA chief John Brennan, former DNI James Clapper and others have been added to a DHS team that will provide advice to the DHS Homeland Intelligence Experts Group. DHS oversees the Cybersecurity Infrastructure and Security Agency, or CISA, which oversees US elections. Brennan and Clapper both signed the infamous letter that claimed the Hunter Biden laptop appeared to be Russian disinformation when it was known within the intel community that was false. Read more here.
The State of Alaska does not require the verification of signatures on ballots at all. Also we were conned into a voter initiative to accept Ranked Choice Voting so the left could ensure the reelection Sen Lisa Murkowski a RINO censured by the State GOP so she could not run as a Republican in the 2020 Primary Election. Ranked choice voting allowed her to run in the General Election and win. Currently a citizens initiative effort to repeal Ranked Choice Voting is in process. Any State targeted by Ranked Choice Voting advocates should fight to defeat the measure. Failure to stop them will lead to the election of candidates that are not voters first choice or best candidate and eliminate conservatives candidates.
Excellent work and analysis! Thank you. I like the expanded coverage.
I hope someone will investigate problems experienced by voters in Eagle Precinct 14 during 2022 elections that required resubmission of first-page ballots into machines that repeatedly jammed.
Related comment here: https://timohdee.substack.com/p/florida-red-belly-road/comment/18826675