Trump Justice Department Could Enforce Expiration Date for Mail-In Ballots

mail in ballot

A new Trump administration Justice Department could enforce a federal court’s ruling requiring only ballots arriving on or before Election Day to be counted, voter integrity advocates said.

Just weeks before last November’s election, the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in a case from Mississippi that federal law requires mail-in ballots to arrive by Election Day. Mississippi had allowed counting ballots that arrived up to five days after Election Day.

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Two Trump Lawyers Charged with 10 Additional Felonies in Connection with 2020 ‘Fake Elector’ Case

Wisconsin AG

The Wisconsin Department of Justice has filed 10 additional felony charges against two lawyers and an aide to Donald Trump for allegedly alleged involvement in a plan to submit paperwork falsely claiming that Trump, who a president, won the state in the 2020 election.

Trump is now the GOP president elect, after having lost reelection four years ago.

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Wisconsin GOP’s Eric Hovde Concedes Senate Race to Tammy Baldwin

Wisconsin Senate Race

Wisconsin GOP Senate candidate Eric Hovde conceded his race to Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin on Monday, saying he did not want to “add to political strife through a contentious recount.”

Hovde was down about about 29,000 votes from Baldwin, putting the margin at less than a percentage point, The Associated Press reported. The vote margin allowed him to request a recount that he would have had to pay for himself. Baldwin declared victory in the Senate race two days after Election Day.

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Michigan Election Legislation Would Clarify Early, Absentee Voting Procedures

Penelope Tsernoglou

State Rep. Penelope Tsernoglou, D-East Lansing, introduced four House bills that would expand the allowable uses for on-demand ballot printing and clarify statutory language that was missed when implementing Michigan’s Proposal 2 of 2022.

HB 6052 would allow clerks to use on-demand ballot printing for same-day registration voters in a clerk’s office or in election day voting centers. It would also allow on-demand ballot printing for ballots printed in a language other than English so that clerks could avoid having to pre-print large numbers of non-English ballots.

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Election Integrity 2024: Wins and More Battles Ahead

People Voting

Following the relatively few election issues that occurred on Election Day, the election integrity movement has celebrated its wins and continues to look ahead to securing the nation’s future elections.

While the Republican National Committee and its allies monitored polls on Election Day and are still watching ballot counting in places like Arizona, election integrity groups are reviewing the relative success of election security and focusing on ensuring that election policies are implemented by Republican majorities starting next year.

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Philadelphia D.A. Larry Krasner Threatens ‘Jail Cell’ over ‘Bad Faith’ Election Challenges amid Musk Lawsuit Resolution

Krasner and Musk

Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner condemned election “bullying” and intimidation during a Monday press conference, when he revealed his office is concerned about poll watchers bringing “bogus challenges” against voters.

The district attorney repeatedly warned would-be violators of election laws to, “F around and find out,” especially those who seek to “play militia,” insult or “mistreat” election workers and voters, or “threaten people,” “bully votes,” or to “erase votes.”

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Pennsylvania County Gives Update on Probe of Suspicious Applications, Says 17 Percent Are Fraudulent

Ballot Counts

Lancaster County Commissioner Ray D’Agostino on Monday updated voters on an investigation into 2,500 suspicious voter registration forms that were flagged to the county’s elections board last month, confirming that 17% of the forms so far are fraudulent.

A total of four Pennsylvania counties are investigating possible fraudulent voter and mail-in ballot applications in the final spin into Election Day. Those counties are Cambria County, Lancaster County, Monroe County, and York County. York and Lancaster both uncovered thousands of potentially fraudulent applications, while Cambria and Monroe saw less than 50 each. 

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Judge Rules Musk’s Giveaway Can Continue After Lawyer Says That Winners Are Not Chosen by Chance

Elon Musk

A Pennsylvania judge on Monday ruled that Elon Musk’s $1 million giveaway can continue through Election Day, after attorneys for Musk’s political action committee said the results of the giveaway were not “random” like Musk had advertised.

Musk launched the daily giveaway last month, which was organized to give $1 million to one voter from a swing state every day, if they signed a petition in support of the First and Second Amendments of the U.S. Constitution. 

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Final Totals: Tennessee’s 2024 Early Voter Turnout Less than 2020

Data published by the Tennessee Secretary of State’s Office shows that total voter turnout during the 14-day period of early voting in Tennessee for the November 5 general election was lower than the turnout for early voting in the 2020 general election.

According to the data, 2,280,767 ballots—2,070,339 of which were early-in-person ballots and 210,428 absentee ballots—were recorded during the fourteen days of early voting in 2020.

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Analysis: Republicans Surpass Democrats in Early Voting in Georgia, Arizona, Nevada and North Carolina

Elections Day

Republicans appear to have flipped the script on the 2020 election, which featured Democrats winning the election narrowly in Georgia, Arizona and Wisconsin by banking early votes that former President Donald Trump was unable to overcome with Election Day turnout, this time outpacing Democrats with early and mail-in votes combined in Georgia, Arizona, Nevada and North Carolina, NBC News reports.

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Commentary: The Real Threat to American Democracy

US Capitol

Heading into Election Day, we hear constantly that the presidential candidates are mortal threats to American democracy. Anxieties about Donald Trump’s role in the Jan. 6, 2021, rampage at the U.S. Capitol and his declaration that he would act as “dictator for a day” are countered by Elon Musk’s warning that if Harris wins, “this will be the last election,” or alarms that Harris’ designs on overhauling the Supreme Court will lead to an end to the rule the law.

The very idea that our republic’s future hangs on the outcome of a single presidential contest, however, reveals the deeper, unacknowledged, underlying danger: a Congress incapable of performing its constitutional duties as our country’s lawmaking body and the guarantor of our representative democracy.

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Republicans Warn of Long Election Day Lines as Maricopa County Says Results Will Be Delayed

Voting Line

As Republicans warn of long lines on Election Day in Maricopa County, Ariz., local election officials also expect election results to be delayed. Republicans in both Arizona and on the national level are claiming that Maricopa County has not sufficiently prepared for Election Day, which may result in long lines and persuading eligible voters to avoid voting. 

The possible Election Day issues are in addition to the announcement by Maricopa County election officials that it will take 10-13 days to completely tabulate all ballots, meaning that some races may not be called on election night.

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Lawsuit: More than 6,000 Noncitizens on Virginia Voter Rolls in the Balance

Person Voting

Over 6,000 “noncitizens” could be added back to Virginia’s voter rolls if the U.S. Department of Justice and a coalition of groups advocating on behalf of immigrants prevail in their lawsuits against the commonwealth.

A pair of lawsuits filed against the state target Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s Executive Order 35, which aims to increase election security. However, the cases are focused on the commonwealth’s ongoing efforts to clean voter roll logs, specifically “noncitizens” registered to vote.

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Georgia State Election Board Subpoenas Fulton County 2020 Election Records

Georgia State Election Board

The Georgia State Election Board voted to subpoena Fulton County’s 2020 election records amid a legal fight over election monitors.

The board voted 3-2 on Tuesday to subpoena all election records from the 2020 election in Fulton County, the Associated Press reported. The vote came a day after Fulton County filed a lawsuit claiming that the board does not have the authority to make the county “accept, and Fulton County to pay for, additional monitors for the 2024 election that have been hand-picked by certain State Election Board members.”

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Election Results Likely to Be Delayed Nationwide by State Rules, Litigation, and Investigations

Counting or certification of the November election results are likely to be delayed nationwide, as states are promulgating different rules on receiving mail ballots, ongoing and likely election litigation, and possible investigations over irregularities, warns an election integrity proponent.

As the 2020 election results were delayed until Joe Biden was announced the winner of the presidential race the Saturday after Election Day, there will likely also be a delay in announcing this year’s presidential contest. The delays this year could be the result of a variety of factors, especially with such a close election, according to Honest Elections Project Executive Director Jason Snead.

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Commentary: October September Surprises

Biden Harris

An October surprise is usually defined as the well-known (and more often left-wing) tactic of manufacturing or unloading a news story right before voting to surprise a rival without allowing them time sufficiently to respond or recover.

Think of the last-minute bombshell disclosure, five days before the 2000 election, that candidate George W. Bush had been cited for drunk driving over a quarter-century earlier. That surprise may have cost Bush the popular vote that year.

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Mail-In Voting Begins as First State Sends Out Ballots Weeks from Election Day

Mail In Ballot

Alabama began sending out the first mail-in ballots to voters on Wednesday, over 50 days out from the November election, according to CNN.

Alabama residents who requested mail-in ballots will be the first to lock in their vote for the upcoming local, state and presidential races, with Wisconsin rolling out their mail-in ballots the following week on September 19, CNN reported. North Carolina was supposed to have kickstarted mail-in voting, but the state was held up by a court order to reprint their ballots after former independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. withdrew from the race and appealed to have his name be taken off.

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Commentary: Kamala Harris Would Shatter America’s Labor Market Already Showing Cracks

Kamala Harris

Friday’s jobs report reveals accelerating weakness in the American economy. Only 142,000 jobs were created last month, below expectations. Half of new positions were created in the unproductive government or quasi-government healthcare and social services sectors.

A record 8.2 million Americans have second jobs. So far this year, the number of unemployed Americans has increased by one million.

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Ballot Drop Box Battles: States, Municipalities Seek to Ban Them as November Election Nears

Drop Box Sign

Two months out from Election Day and less than two weeks before early voting begins, states and municipalities are fighting over whether to implement ballot drop boxes, amid election integrity and practical concerns.

Ballot drop boxes, a method of voting that became more widespread during the 2020 presidential election as COVID-19 lockdowns continued, are facing a pushback in several municipalities and states ahead of the November election.

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Early and Mail-In Voting Begins Two Months Before Election Day amid Lawsuits, Integrity Concerns

People Voting

Absentee voting for the presidential election will begin this week, two months before Election Day, as early in-person voting starts nationwide later this month amid lawsuits over election administration and election integrity concerns.

The presidential election begins this week as absentee ballots are mailed to voters in one state, with others to follow in the coming weeks. However, election integrity concerns from the last presidential election remain as various courts determine how mail-in ballots and voter rolls are to be handled with only two months before the next president will be elected.

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Commentary: ‘Zuck Bucks’ Need to Be Stopped Cold

It is less than 90 days to Election Day, and right on queue the group behind the “Zuck Bucks” campaign of 2020 is back with a new scheme. This time, the Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL) is doling out millions in grant dollars to rural election administrators in 19 states.

Election officers beware. The group is trying to turn the government offices that run elections into bastions of partisan progressive activism. Election officials striving for nonpartisanship should steer clear.

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Commentary: The Economics of Early Voting

After the recent assassination attempt on Donald J. Trump, some think the race is Trump’s to lose. I tend to agree that the race is in some ways Trump’s to lose, while at the same time feel very strongly that the left is not going to simply roll over and give up on trying to keep Trump from a second term.

So it’s important to not be over-exuberant; Trump is absolutely riding high right now, from the debacle of a debate for Biden to Judge Cannon dismissing the Jack Smith documents case to surviving an assassination attempt. But the right needs to focus on what takes place between now and November 5th, specifically on how every Republican and conservative can help Trump win by doing one simple thing: casting your ballot early.

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Maricopa County Employee Who Allegedly Stole Tabulator Programming FOB/Key Has Ties to Soros Deleted, Had Vowed to Stop Election Day Attorneys

Walter Ringfield

A LinkedIn account belonging to Maricopa County Elections temporary employee Walter Ringfield, Jr., who was arrested last Friday for allegedly stealing a digital magnetic key used to program Election Day voting machine tabulators, was deleted sometime after his arrest. This erased his connection to a radical group with ties to progressive billionaire George Soros, One Voice, One Vote.

When investigators looked through Ringfield’s social media that wasn’t deleted, they discovered a post he’d made vowing to thwart Republican lawyers combating wrongdoing on Election Day.

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New Jersey Congressional Primary Results Delayed After 1,900 Mail Ballots Unsealed Prematurely

A New Jersey judge will decide whether to count about 1,900 mail ballots from Atlantic County in a congressional primary election after the ballots were unsealed prematurely.

On Friday, Superior Court Judge Michael J. Blee will hear arguments over whether the 1,909 mail ballots cast in both the Democratic and Republican primary elections on Tuesday will be counted after the ballot envelopes were unsealed too early, the Associated Press reported.

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Commentary: Defund and Investigate Jack Smith

Jack Smith

Special Counsel Jack Smith was supposed to be basking in glory right now.

In his ideal world, Smith would be hot off a quick conviction of Donald Trump in Washington, D.C. for the former president’s alleged role in the events of January 6 and attempts to “overturn” the 2020 election. The special counsel then would have immediately moved his victorious prosecutors to Palm Beach for the summer to prepare for Trump’s second federal trial related to allegedly stealing national defense information and impeding the Department of Justice’s investigation.

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Several GOP-Led States Ban DOJ Election Monitors From Polling Sites in 2024 Presidential Election

Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft

Several Republican-led states said that they are banning U.S. Department of Justice election monitors from entering polling sites in the November general election after the agency sent observers to various states in the 2022 midterms.

When the DOJ announced that it was sending election monitors to polling sites in multiple states for the 2022 midterm elections, Florida and Missouri said that the department employees would not be permitted to observe the polls. Now, eight other states have said that they will also not allow DOJ election monitors to enter polling sites during the election this November, with some saying that banning them prevents federal interference in elections.

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Commentary: Forget the Media Doomsaying — the GOP Will Be Ok

Congress Building

If you follow politics and didn’t know that voters in Charleston, South Carolina, elected the city’s first Republican mayor in almost a century and a half, you can be forgiven. A lot of people missed it because, while it was covered, the legacy media failed, unsurprisingly, to recognize it for the landmark it is.

The scant attention paid to the outcome of that race compared to, say, the GOP’s failure to take over the Virginia Legislature is a discordant note that throws off an otherwise harmonious national narrative that has the Republican Party hopelessly divided and unable to win elections now that Bidenomics is working.

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In Battle for Control of Virginia Legislature, Republicans Test New Commitment to Early Voting

Early voting has become a central issue in the Virginia legislature election, which is set to conclude on Tuesday and determine whether Gov. Glenn Youngkin will have a Republican majority to pass legislation.

The state Senate is currently controlled by Democrats, 22-18, with the state House controlled by Republicans, after winning 52 seats in 2021 to Democrats’ 48, according to Ballotpedia. Republicans gained control of the state House in 2021, when Youngkin won the governorship, Winsome Earle-Sears won the election for lieutenant governor, and Jason Miyares won the attorney general race.

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Election Integrity Issues for November Elections Begin with Absentee Ballots

As state and local elections are set to conclude on Election Day next month, election integrity issues have already begun with absentee ballots. 

Counties across the country have already run into problems with absentee ballots for local November elections, as Republicans such as former President Donald Trump and U.S. Senate candidate for Arizona, Kari Lake, have repeatedly criticized issues with absentee ballots. 

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Commentary: Everyone Can Agree on Election Integrity

Polling Place

At first glance, some Americans could mistakenly conclude that election integrity safeguards are deeply unpopular. After all, liberal politicians and the mainstream media regularly denounce commonsense measures like photo ID laws and routine voter roll cleanups.

No matter what they claim or how loudly they claim it, these voices do not speak for the majority of Americans. As recent polling conducted by Honest Elections Project Action shows beyond all doubt, an overwhelming bipartisan majority of Americans embrace commonsense voting laws that make it easy to vote and hard to cheat.

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18 States, DC Accept Ballots after Election Day, with North Dakota’s Deadline Facing Lawsuit

Poll workers counting ballots

North Dakota is facing a lawsuit over its acceptance of mail-in ballots 13 days after Election Day and is among 18 states and Washington, D.C., that accept and tabulate ballots post-election.

The lawsuit, which was filed Wednesday against North Dakota State Election Director Erika White, alleges that the state’s law to accept ballots up to 13 days after Election Day violates federal law.

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Resolution Introduced to Offer Election Day Voter Registration in Ohio

A proposal in the Ohio Senate would allow Ohioans to register to vote on Election Day and force potential voters to register again if they have not voted in four consecutive years.

State Sen. Paula Hicks-Hudson, D-Toledo, introduced the resolution she says expands voting rights and is an effort to lessen the effects of voting legislation passed by the General Assembly last year.

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