Wisconsin Special Election Highlights Disregard for Rule of Law
When Congressman Sean Duffy (R-WI) resigned from the U.S House of Representatives on September 23rd, 2019, Governor Tony Evers set a date for a special election on January 27th, 2020 to fill the recently vacant 7th Congressional seat. Two Republican candidates have declared, which will trigger a primary, set by…
California’s Motor Voter Program Fraught with Errors
California’s quest to be the nation’s benchmark for automatic (mandatory) voter registration was dealt a blow thanks to a recent audit highlighting issues with its perpetually plagued motor voter program. The audit, released Friday by the Office of California Governor Gavin Newsom, showed that almost 84,000 duplicate voter registrations were on…
West Virginia and New York Join Growing List of States Experiencing Issues with Automatic Voter Registration
As the debate surrounding automatic (or mandatory) voter registration continues ahead of the 2020 elections, interesting developments in two states highlight the underlying issues behind these drastic “reforms”. 18 states and the District of Columbia have adopted AVR, and in doing so, cases of illegible voters being added to the…
House Passes Partisan Election Security Bill Stripping States of Autonomy
Yesterday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 2722, the Securing America’s Federal Elections (SAFE) Act, after a highly contentious display of partisanship in the Committee on House Administration, right as our Nation is faced with continuing threats to our elections. While all indicators point to this legislation having little…
Arizona’s Establishment of Electoral Integrity Unit Highlights Rare Bipartisan Consensus
In the wake of the 2018 Senate election in Arizona, politicians grew concerned of the status quo of safeguards protecting voters, protecting ballots, and protecting the overall electoral process in the state. Over the course of the election and the post-mortem analysis, a number of inconsistencies in the process startled…
Supreme Court May Weigh in on Partisan Gerrymandering Fight
Last Friday, the Supreme Court of the United States issued a temporary stay on the redrawing of legislative maps in Ohio and Michigan. Ohio’s lower court decision, by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, sought to redraw 16 Congressional districts prior to the 2020 election. The…
Congressional Hearing Highlights Importance of Federal-State Partnerships in Election Cybersecurity
On Wednesday, the House Oversight and Reform Committee held a hearing, “Securing U.S. Election Infrastructure and Protecting Political Discourse”. While partisan chatter often dominates the discussion on securing our elections from cyberattacks, industry leaders and agency officials had the opportunity to present a fact-based review of the steps required to…
House of Representatives Pushing Haphazard Election Overhauls
Opponents of H.R. 1 were galvanized last week, as proponents of the legislation indicated their intentions to enact individual provisions of the law using a “piecemeal” strategy. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer highlighted this intention Thursday, catching opponents in the Senate off guard. Rather than focus on improving the security…
Senate Introduces Voting System Cybersecurity Act to Strengthen Elections
On Tuesday, the Voting System Cybersecurity Act of 2019 was introduced into the United States Senate, demonstrating a bi-partisan commitment to securing our election administration and infrastructure. The legislation, if passed in both chambers, would add a representative of the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency to…
House Administration Committee Highlights Importance of Decentralization and Agreement on Election Vulnerabilities
On Wednesday, the Secretaries of State of Michigan and Alabama appeared before the House Administration Committee in order to advocate for increased funding and support to safeguard our elections against cyber attacks. The hearing demonstrated that both sides of the political aisle are in agreement that cyberattacks pose…