State of elections since 2020

mickeyrat

https://www.threads.net/@aaron.rupar/post/C689ebIAHfN/?xmt=AQGzDyjIalWUinFkl3V6wZHqBjOIW_DH-kK5Nwm77FAuyg

mrussel1

mickeyrat said:

LET . THIS . SINK . IN .

https://twitter.com/kaitlancollins/status/1783315870204223717?s=19

Can't be senior counsel when you're disbarred.  She will have a hearing based on the indictment.  She doesn't have to be convicted. 

mickeyrat

FUUUUUUUUCK , Dark Brandon at work here folks.....

https://www.threads.net/@joebiden/post/C6_QRGMh5aL/?xmt=AQGzbLtfgdffMZCN2T_fSG9Rhh8GRSAt2XCI762gnj7dTg

mickeyrat

https://apnews.com/article/trump-republicans-rnc-mailed-ballots-voting-759f2277e00532dedaaa93e17f7329a1   After blaming his 2020 loss on mail balloting, Trump tries to make GOP voters believe it’s OK now

  

Washington news Election 2024 NE State Wire PA State Wire WV State Wire

After blaming his 2020 loss on mail balloting, Trump tries to make GOP voters believe it’s OK now

By NICHOLAS RICCARDI and MARGERY BECK

Yesterday

Marta Moehring voted the way she prefers in Nebraska's Republican primary Tuesday — in person, at her west Omaha polling place.

She didn’t even consider taking advantage of the state’s no-excuse mail-in ballot process. In fact, she would prefer to do away with mail-in voting altogether. She’s convinced fraudulent mailed ballots cost former President Donald Trump a second term in 2020.

“I don’t trust it in general,” Moehring, 62, said. “I don’t think they’re counted correctly.”

But now Republican officials — even, sometimes, Trump — are encouraging voters such as Moehring to cast their ballots by mail. The GOP has launched an effort to, in the words of one official, “correct the narrative” on mail voting and get those who were turned off to it by Trump to reconsider for this year's election.

The push is a striking change for a party that amplified dark rumors about mail ballots to explain away Trump's 2020 loss, but it is also seen as a necessary course correction for an election this year that is likely to be decided by razor-thin margins in a handful of swing states.

---

DONALD TRUMP

Jesus is their savior, Trump is their candidate. Ex-president's backers say he shares faith, values

Donald Trump will address the NRA in Texas. He's called himself the best president for gun owners

Colorado GOP chair's embrace of Trump tactics splits party as he tries to boost his own campaign

Here's how Robert F. Kennedy Jr. could make the first debate stage under stringent Biden-Trump rules

“We have to get right on using these mail-in ballots for the people who can't get there on Election Day,” Rep. Scott Perry, one of Trump's strongest congressional allies in his push to overturn the 2020 election, said at a conservative gathering in his home state of Pennsylvania.

Republicans once were at least as likely as Democrats to vote by mail, but Trump changed the dynamics in 2020. He preemptively began to argue that mail balloting was bad months before voting began in the presidential race.

That alarmed GOP strategists who saw mail voting as an advantage in campaigns because it lets them “bank” unreliable votes before Election Day and lowers the risk of turnout plummeting because of bad weather or other unpredictable factors at the polls. Trump's own campaign tried to sell Republicans on casting ballots by mail, but his voters listened to the then-president. In 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Democrats were vastly more likely to cast ballots by mail than Republicans.

The trend continued in 2022, and its costs were starkly illustrated in Arizona.

Three top-of-the-ticket Republican candidates there who echoed Trump's lies about the unreliability of mail ballots encouraged their supporters to vote in person on Election Day. An election machine meltdown that day in one-third of the polling places in the state's most populous county led to huge lines and some would-be voters departing in frustration.

The three top Republicans all lost, including falling 17,000 votes short in the governor's race and 500 votes short in the one for attorney general.

This time, Republicans say they're not going to risk leaving ballots behind. Trump's handpicked chair of the Republican National Committee, his daughter-in-law Lara Trump, has vowed to embrace all sorts of legal election methods to boost turnout that Trump falsely blamed for his 2020 loss, including so-called “ballot harvesting” — letting people turn in mail ballots on the behalf of other voters.

“In this election cycle, Republicans will beat Democrats at their own game, by leveraging every legal tactic at our disposal based on the rules of each state,” Lara Trump said in an interview with The Associated Press.

Turning Point Action, a prominent, pro-Trump group, is launching a $100 million campaign to reach infrequent voters in the swing states of Arizona, Michigan and Wisconsin. That will include offering mail voting as one way to make casting a ballot easier, spokesman Andrew Kolvet said.

“We'd love for elections to be run the way they were before,” Kolvet said. “We can spend our time complaining about it or we can get in gear and play by the rules that Democrats, or largely Democrats, used.”

Even Trump himself has started to recommend mail voting, though he frequently bashes it during campaign events and blames it for his 2020 loss. The RNC is also continuing to file lawsuits against various aspects of mail voting around the country.

Nonetheless, Trump recorded a short video telling his supporters that “absentee voting, early voting and Election Day voting are all good options.”

One recent push to publicize mail voting came during last month's Pennsylvania primary, when the Republican State Legislative Committee teamed up with a committee supporting the party's Senate candidate and the state GOP. The goal, said RSLC political director Max Docksey, was “to correct the narrative among Republican voters on mail voting.”

The effort was inspired by what the RSLC saw as a successful effort to increase mail voting among Republicans in the battle for control of the Virginia Legislature in 2023, a fight ultimately won by the Democrats.

The group sent mail ballot applications to 1.5 million GOP voters, sent 475,000 text messages encouraging mail voting and touted the benefits of mail voting at party gatherings.

But at the same time, Pennsylvania Republicans have sued to force the state's mail ballots to be counted at polling places rather than the county election offices, which have the equipment and space to do the job, That's among many lawsuits targeting mail voting filed by Republicans around the country since 2020.

The conflicting messages could make it challenging to swiftly reverse the drop-off in mail voting among Republicans.

In Pennsylvania, Republican operatives were pleased with their effort, which they said led to them adding nearly twice as many voters to the state's mail ballot list as Democrats did during the primary. But the overall share of Pennsylvania mail ballots sent by Republicans remained about the same as in 2020, at only one-quarter of overall ballots, according to data from the secretary of state's office.

Bill Bretz, chairman of the Westmoreland County Republican Party in the western side of the state, said he's noticed voters in his conservative area slowly but steadily warming up to mail voting.

“People understand the consequences of this election,” he said. “There's a lot of buy-in to vote by any method available, and the vote-by-mail bogeyman is beginning to fade.”

__

Riccardi reported from Denver and Beck from Omaha, Nebraska. Associated Press writers Marc Levy in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Martha Mendoza in Santa Cruz, California, and Leah Willingham in Charleston, West Virginia, contributed to this report.

mickeyrat

https://apnews.com/article/voting-rights-outreach-republican-states-new-laws-70e034dd46baf474998259a2b737c096   Voter outreach groups targeted by new laws in several GOP-led states are struggling to do their work

 

Voter outreach groups targeted by new laws in several GOP-led states are struggling to do their work

By AYANNA ALEXANDER

Today

WASHINGTON (AP) — During the presidential election four years ago, the Equal Ground Education Fund hired over 100 people to go door-to-door and attend festivals, college homecomings and other events to help register voters across Florida. Their efforts for this year's elections look much different.

A state law passed last year forced them to stop in-person voter registration, cut staff and led to a significant drop in funding. Organizers aren't sure how robust their operations will be in the fall.

Genesis Robinson, the group's interim executive director, said the law has had a “tremendous impact” on its ability to host events and get into communities to engage directly with potential voters.

“Prior to all of these changes, we were able to operate in a space where we were taking action and prepare our communities and make sure they were registered to vote — and help if they weren’t,” he said.

---

POLITICS

In Trump's hush money trial, prosecutors and defense lawyers are poised to make final pitch to jury

The Latest | Trump’s hush money trial enters its final leg with closing arguments set to begin

Closing arguments, jury instructions and maybe a verdict? Major week looms in Trump hush money trial

China has threatened trade with some countries after feuds. They're calling 'the firm' for help

Florida is one of several states, including Kansas, Missouri and Texas, where Republicans have enacted voting restrictions since 2021 that created or enhanced criminal penalties and fines for those who assist voters. The laws have forced some voter outreach groups to cease operations, while others have greatly altered or reduced their activities.

The Florida law, signed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis last May, imposed a $50,000 fine on third-party voter registration organizations if the staff or volunteers who handle or collect the forms have been convicted of a felony or are not U.S. citizens. It also raised the fines the groups could face, from $1,000 to $250,000, and reduced the amount of time they are able to return registration applications from 14 days to 10 days.

A federal judge blocked portions of the law earlier this month, including the one targeting felons and those who are not citizens. Even so, the law had a direct effect on the operations of Equal Ground and other voter advocacy organizations in the state before the ruling.

The League of Women Voters in Florida, one of the plaintiffs, shifted away from in-person voter registration to digital outreach. Cecile Scoon, the league's co-president, said the law stripped the personal connection between its workers and communities. Digital tools aren’t easy to use when registering voters and can be expensive, she said.

These organizations are needed because local election officials don't always provide adequate support and information, said Derby Johnson, a voter in Ormond Beach who attended a recent community event in Daytona Beach organized by Equal Ground. He said it appeared the Florida Legislature was just trying to make it harder for certain communities to register and cast ballots.

“There are parties actively working to suppress the vote, particularly in Black and brown communities, and these groups help educate and register voters to mitigate that," she said.

MOVE Texas, a voting rights group that focuses on voters who are 30 or younger, adjusted to that state's 2021 election overhaul with additional training for their staff and volunteers. Among the provisions drawing concern was one that increased criminal penalties for anyone who receives compensation for assisting a voter, which especially affected the ability to recruit high school and college students for voter registration drives.

“The law contributed to this culture of fear in our elections and being a person who registers voters," said Stephanie Gomez, the group’s political director.

Republicans in Kansas overrode a veto by Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly to pass a bill that made it a felony if anyone registering voters impersonated or was assumed to impersonate an election official.

That forced Loud Light Kansas, a voter outreach group that focuses on minority communities, to stop its registration efforts. Would-be voters typically perceived their staff and volunteers as election workers even when told otherwise, said Anita Alexander, the organization's vice president.

“We’re trying to engage impacted people, but we weren’t willing to risk anyone getting charged by doing voter engagement work," she said.

Loud Light and other local voter registration groups sued the Legislature. The Democratic governor said there has been no evidence in the state of widespread voter fraud or instances of individuals impersonating election officials.

In Missouri, the state chapter of the League of Women Voters and the Missouri State Conference of the NAACP sued after the state enacted wide-ranging election legislation in 2022.

Among other things, the new law bans compensation for those who register voters and requires that anyone who helps more than 10 people register must also register with the secretary of state’s office and be a voter themselves. Violators can face criminal penalties.

The completed secretary of state’s forms are public, which presents a privacy concern for many people who might otherwise want to help with voter registration efforts, said Denise Lieberman, director and general counsel of the Missouri Voter Protection Coalition.

“Historically, when those membership lists have been obtained, they’ve been used to intimidate. So, there’s a lot of trepidation, especially in groups that are targeting low-income or communities of color,” she said. “If you just want to volunteer for one hour on a Saturday morning to help out on your college campus or on an Earth Day or anything, you have to go through this whole process.”

The Missouri law is on hold while the legal challenge plays out, with a trial set for August.

Voting rights experts expect to see continued attempts to restrict voting and the activities of voter outreach groups in Republican-controlled states, said Megan Bellamy, vice president of law and policy at the Voting Rights Lab.

"The effort to target third-party voter registration groups is just, unfortunately, one of many policy areas that state legislatures are moving to address,” she said.

___

The Associated Press receives support from several private foundations to enhance its explanatory coverage of elections and democracy. See more about AP’s democracy initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

mickeyrat

https://www.axios.com/2024/06/01/poll-trump-conviction-election-independent-voters

 

Poll: 49% of Independents think Trump should drop out post-guilty verdict

• Alex Thompson,
• Hans Nichols

Trump speaks from the lobby of Trump Tower on Friday. Photo: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images

One of the first polls conducted since a New York Jury found Donald Trump guilty of falsifying business records find that a significant minority of Republicans and Independents want him to drop out and a majority of registered voters approve of the jury's decision.Why it matters: The Morning Consult poll conducted on Friday offers some of the first clues about how voters are reacting to the unprecedented situation.

By the numbers: 54% of registered voters "strongly" or "somewhat" approve of the guilty verdict compared to 34% who "strongly or "somewhat" disapprove.

• 49% of Independents and 15% of Republicans said Trump should end his campaign because of the conviction.
• The polls found the race effectively tied nationally in a 1-on-1 with Biden at 45% and Trump at 44%.

Reality check: While they may agree with the guilty verdict, the poll found that more voters think Trump should get probation (49%) rather than go to prison (44%).

• 68% of registered voters said the punishment should be a fine.

The poll also revealed some deep distrust of the criminal justice system.

• Three in four Republican voters said the verdict made them feel less confident in the system.
• And 77% of GOP voters, as well as 43% of independents, said they believed the conviction was driven by motivation to damage Trump's political career.

mickeyrat

https://apnews.com/article/native-americans-voting-rights-ed175f6bbdc1b3a078bd675be8ac0b04   100 years ago, US citizenship for Native Americans came without voting rights in swing states

 

SD State Wire Race and ethnicity ND State Wire CO State Wire UT State Wire NM State Wire AK State Wire OK State Wire AZ State Wire

100 years ago, US citizenship for Native Americans came without voting rights in swing states

By MORGAN LEE

Today

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — Voter participation advocate Theresa Pasqual traverses Acoma Pueblo with a stack of sample ballots in her car and applications for absentee ballots, handing them out at every opportunity ahead of New Mexico's Tuesday primary.

Residents of the tribal community's original mesa-top “sky city” that endured after the Spanish invasion in the late 1500s know firsthand the challenges voters have faced across Indian Country, where polling places are often hours away and restrictive voter laws and ID requirements only add to the barriers.

It's been a century now since an act of Congress granted citizenship to Native Americans, but advocates say that right bestowed in 1924 still hasn’t translated into equal access to the ballot. Inequities are especially pronounced in remote regions across the U.S., and some key Southwestern states with large Native American populations.

New Mexico is trying something new — a test run of sorts for many new and contested provisions that are part of the state's Native American Voting Rights Act that was passed last year. The measure promises tribal communities a greater voice in how and where they can vote, even opening the possibility that tribal offices can be designated as a street address for remote households that have none.

This should help at Acoma, where Pasqual said some residents still do not have standard addresses.

Native Americans in New Mexico — home to 22 federally recognized tribal communities and holdings of an Oklahoma-based tribe — were among the last to gain access to voting, decades after the U.S. extended birthright citizenship to the land’s original inhabitants on June 2, 1924 through the Indian Citizenship Act.

That legislation took shape in the aftermath of World War I in which thousands of Native Americans had volunteered to serve overseas in the military.

A patchwork of statutes and treaties already offered about two-thirds of Native Americans citizenship, sometimes in exchange for land allotments that fractured reservations, gestures of assimilation, military service and even the renunciation of tribal traditions. The one-sentence Indian Citizenship Act swept away those requirements in an attempt to grant citizenship to all Native Americans.

At the same time, Congress deferred to state governments qualifications on who qualified to vote. Legal access to the ballot was denied under existing state constitutional provisions and statutes until 1948 in Arizona and New Mexico — and until 1957 on reservations in Utah.

It was by design, said Maurice Crandall, an Arizona State University history professor and citizen of the Yavapai-Apache Nation of Camp Verde. Pointing to the largest Native populations in New Mexico and Arizona, he said: " They don’t want a large group of Native people who can swing elections.”

Fast forward to 2020, he said, and “many people credit the Native vote with deciding to bring Arizona into the (Joe) Biden camp.”

Biden won Arizona by about 10,500 votes, as voter turnout surged on the Navajo and Hopi reservations.

At Laguna Pueblo in New Mexico, voting has provided Native Americans with a path to power amid the political rise of pueblo member Deb Haaland. She became one of the first two Native American women in Congress in 2018 before taking the reins of the Interior Department to oversee U.S. obligations to 574 federally recognized tribes.

For the upcoming primary, Laguna is on the front lines of two Democratic contests with first-time female Native American candidates competing in districts that were redrawn in 2021 to increase Native influence. In the general election, eligible voters among 8,000 Laguna residents will cast ballots in a congressional swing district rematch between U.S. Rep. Gabe Vasquez and Republican Yvette Herrell, who lost in 2022 by 1,350 votes. Herrell seldom invokes her Cherokee heritage.

The state's new voting rights legislation for Native Americans provides new tools for tribal communities to request convenient on-reservation voting sites and secure ballot deposit boxes with consultation requirements for county clerks and an appeals process.

But there are still obstacles, said Laguna Pueblo administrator Ashley M. Sarracino, pointing to tensions with county election administrators over a decision to withdraw three Election Day voting sites at the pueblo this year, leaving three open.

In Arizona, the anniversary of the Indian Citizenship Act stirs up frustration among Native American leaders, including Gov. Stephen Lewis of the Gila River Indian Community. He has denounced efforts by the Republican National Committee and state lawmakers to revive and extend voter ID requirements through the 2024 general election.

Two of Lewis' community members sued in 1928 after being turned away from the polls, only to have the Arizona Supreme Court rebuff their case. The community wouldn’t realize the right to vote until 1948 — after World War II and the raising of an American flag at Iwo Jima that included Ira Hayes, who was part of the Gila River community.

Lewis during a recent online forum counted the years that passed between the time the U.S. Declaration of Independence was inked and the Indian Citizenship Act was signed. He said elected officials for years have "made laws for us, about us, but never with us.”

Native Americans have held widely divergent views about citizenship and voting, said Torey Dolan, a research fellow at the University of Wisconsin Law School and citizen of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. Some view U.S. citizenship as incompatible with being Indigenous people; others see it more like dual citizenship.

With approval of the citizenship act, many Native Americans feared the expansion of U.S. citizenship might undermine the special status of trust land that allows tribes to make their own decisions about tax-exempt land and shield it from speculators.

“It was really seen in many parts of Indian Country as being aimed at breaking down tribal cultures, particularly in the Southwest,” said Geoffrey Blackwell, general counsel to the National Congress of American Indians that advocates for Native American rights and sovereignty.

For some, ensuring voting rights was worth the fight. In 1948, Isleta Pueblo member and World War II military veteran Miguel Trujillo challenged the status quo that barred Native Americans in New Mexico from voting by attempting to vote in Valencia County. He was rejected, sparking a landmark lawsuit that was supported by Washington-based federal Indian law pioneer Felix Cohen and the National Congress of American Indians.

A 1956 federal survey of Native voting in the Southwest found anemic participation, with no polling places set up at New Mexico pueblos. In Arizona, Jim Crow-style discrimination set in with widespread application of literacy tests to block Native-language speakers from voting until the practice was barred in 1970 under the federal Voting Rights Act.

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 spurred a new movement within tribal communities to encourage participation, said Laura Harris, the Albuquerque-based director of Americans for Indian Opportunity and a citizen of the Comanche Nation of Oklahoma.

In 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a key provision of the Voting Rights Act that gave the Justice Department election oversight in states with a history of discrimination. Since then, several states have enacted new voting laws that some legal experts say make it unreasonably difficult for Native Americans to vote, including a flurry of restrictions from Republicans enacted in the wake of the 2020 election.

But in New Mexico, the Sandoval County clerk's office has expanded early voting services in recent years for tribal communities. Only one pueblo in the county declined the opportunity this year. Native language interpreters are posted at each of the sites, which are open to all county residents.

Evelyn Sandoval works with the county attorney's office as a liaison to Native Americans. She teaches families how to use newly available tools to register online and receive absentee ballots by mail.

“I’m trying to get them to be self-reliant,” said Sandoval, a 54-year-old former oil and gas company worker who was raised Ojo Encino, a Navajo community with fewer than 300 residents. Her mother spoke only Navajo.

___

Associated Press writer Susan Montoya Bryan contributed to this story from Zia Pueblo, New Mexico. AP writer Graham Brewer contributed from Oklahoma City.

mickeyrat

https://www.texastribune.org/2024/05/25/texas-republican-party-convention-platform/?utm_campaign=trib-social-buttons&utm_source=native-share&utm_medium=social

Proposed Texas GOP platform calls for the Bible in schools, electoral changes that would lock Democrats out of statewide office

The platform was voted on Saturday, with tallies expected next week. Other planks call abortion homicide and gender-transition care “child abuse.”

By Robert Downen and Renzo Downey

May 25, 20246 PM Central

Share

Conventioneers listen to speeches during the Texas GOP Convention Friday, May 24, 2024 in San Antonio. Credit: Eli Hartman/The Texas Tribune

Sign up for The Brief, The Texas Tribune’s daily newsletter that keeps readers up to speed on the most essential Texas news.

---

Republican Party of Texas delegates voted Saturday on a platform that called for new laws to require the Bible to be taught in public schools and a constitutional amendment that would require statewide elected leaders to win the popular vote in a majority of Texas counties.

Other proposed planks of the 50-page platform included proclamations that “abortion is not healthcare it is homicide”; that gender-transition treatment for children is “child abuse”; calls to reverse recent name changes to military bases and “publicly honor the southern heroes”; support for declaring gold and silver as legal tender; and demands that the U.S. government disclose “all pertinent information and knowledge” of UFOs.

The party hopes to finalize its platform on Wednesday, after Saturday’s votes on each proposal are tabulated.

Passed by delegates at the party’s biennial convention, the platform has traditionally been seen not as a definitive list of Republican stances, but a compromise document that represents the interests of the party’s various business, activist and social conservative factions. But in recent years — and amid a party civil war that’s pushed it further right — the platform has been increasingly used as a basis for censuring Republican officeholders who the party’s far right has attacked as insufficiently conservative, including Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan, R-Beaumont, and U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzalez, R-San Antonio.

continues.....

mickeyrat

n dakota ad for house seat....

https://www.threads.net/@adamparkhomenko/post/C7zLewQu1bl/?xmt=AQGzfWhuDuKcNAJfyMM84NdpRvJ1w2-BWAuXcROCU6DFyA

RunIntoTheRain

mickeyrat said:

n dakota ad for house seat....

https://www.threads.net/@adamparkhomenko/post/C7zLewQu1bl/?xmt=AQGzfWhuDuKcNAJfyMM84NdpRvJ1w2-BWAuXcROCU6DFyA

That's quite powerful

mickeyrat

aww, thats a shame. feeling pretty certain though,  this gets changed......

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/vermont-republican-party-rules-bar-convicted-felon-trump-rcna155918

 

Vermont GOP rules bar it from promoting any candidate who is a 'convicted felon'

The party can vote to exempt a candidate, but it so far appears to be following the rule.

The Vermont Republican Party's rules bar the state committee from supporting or promoting any candidate who is a convicted felon.Michael M. Santiago / AP file

• 
  
• 
  
• 
  
• 
  
• 
  

• 
  

June 6, 2024, 5:01 PM EDT

By Jane C. Timm

The Vermont Republican Party is prohibited from backing a candidate with a felony conviction, according to the party’s publicly posted rules.

That is now a bit of a problem, since the presumptive Republican presidential nominee was recently convicted on 34 felony counts.

“The state committee will not support or promote any candidate for elective office who … is a convicted felon,” read the rules, which govern everything from party meetings to how delegates must vote at national conventions.

On social media, the party does technically appear to be following the rule — there are no mentions of Donald Trump on the Vermont GOP’s Twitter or Facebook pages in the days since the former president's historic guilty verdict in his hush money case — but the party's social media typically talks only about local candidates and presidential candidates who visit the state.

The rule has been on the books since at least 2013, according to an archived version of the rules, but by early 2022, the party appears to have amended their rules.

According to the Internet Archive, the posted rules were changed by March 2022 to allow the state committee to exempt a candidate from the rule by majority vote.

continues....

mickeyrat

new brandon ad.....

https://www.threads.net/@joebiden/post/C766Esfh33j/?xmt=AQGzm3apsj_COkXyzNh-CtN48brnktW1IquCaYu-ueQOqQ

mickeyrat

2 yr old article but needs revisited.....

https://www.forbes.com/sites/danalexander/2022/12/04/trump-owed-hidden-debt-while-in-office/

 

Trump Owed Hidden Debt While In Office

Dan Alexander

Forbes Staff

Senior editor at Forbes, covering Donald Trump's business.

• 
  

• 
  
• 
  

Dec 4, 2022,08:15am EST

Updated Dec 5, 2022, 01:14pm EST

Keeping an eye out: Former President Donald Trump arrives to speak at an event at Mar-A-Lago, Friday, November 18, 2022, in Palm Beach, Florida.

Rebecca Blackwell/AP

Donald Trump’s business attracted so much scrutiny during his time in office that it would be easy to conclude that all information about its foreign entanglements must be out by now. It is not. Buried in a heap of recently released financial paperwork sits a surprising revelation: Donald Trump had a foreign creditor he failed to disclose while running for president in 2016 and after assuming office in 2017.

The documents, compiled by the Trump Organization and obtained by the New York attorney general, show a previously unreported liability of $19.8 million listed as “L/P Daewoo.” The debt stems from an agreement Trump struck to share some of his licensing fees with Daewoo, a South Korean conglomerate that partnered with Trump on a project near the United Nations headquarters in New York City.

Trump eliminated the debt five and a half months into his tenure as president, according to the documents. He seems to have acted with some urgency to wipe the liability off his balance sheet. From 2011 to 2016, the documents show that the balance stayed static at $19.8 million. Paperwork capturing Trump’s financial picture as of June 30, 2017, five months into his presidency, appears to show that the balance had dropped to $4.3 million, $15.5 million less than it had been a year earlier. Trump got rid of the debt altogether shortly after that. “Daewoo was bought out of its position on July 5, 2017,” the documents say, without specifying who exactly paid off the loan.

Although the debt appeared on the Trump Organization’s internal paperwork, it did not show up on Trump’s public financial disclosure reports, documents he was required to submit to federal officials while running for president and after taking office. Trump’s former chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, told the New York Times in 2016 that his boss disclosed all debt connected to companies in which Trump held a 100% stake on the documents. That was not true.

There is a chance that Trump’s omission may have been legal, nonetheless. Although officials have to list personal loans on their financial disclosures, the law does not require them to include loans to their companies, unless they are personally liable for the loans. The Trump Organization documents do not specify whether the former president, who owned 100% of the entities responsible for the debt, personally guaranteed the liability, leaving it unclear whether he broke the law or merely took advantage of a loophole.

continues.....

mickeyrat

https://apnews.com/article/nevada-voting-tribes-electronic-ballots-2024-election-ea74f2fdbf58c84f38fc80603d1db46e   Nevada has a plan to expand electronic voting. That concerns election security experts

 

Nevada has a plan to expand electronic voting. That concerns election security experts

By CHRISTINA A. CASSIDY

Today

SCHURZ, Nevada (AP) — Members of the Walker River Paiute Tribe have watched the boundaries of their land recede over time along with the waters of the lake that are central to their identity, threatening the cultural symbol that gave the tribe its name — Agai Dicutta, or Trout Eaters.

Not wanting to cede their voice, tribal leaders have been making a push for expanded voting rights. That effort includes filing a lawsuit on behalf of all Nevada tribes seeking polling places on tribal lands and access to early voting.

“Tribes shouldn’t have to keep filing lawsuits just to vote on their own lands,” said Elveda Martinez, 65, a tribal member and longtime voting advocate. “It should be more accessible.”

The state has now granted the Walker River Paiutes and other tribes in Nevada a new right that advocates hope will greatly expand voting access for a community that gained U.S. citizenship only a century ago.

---

POLITICS

Hunter Biden's gun trial enters its final stretch after deeply personal testimony about his drug use

Trump will speak to a Christian group that calls for abortion to be 'eradicated entirely'

Lewiston survivors consider looming election as gun control comes to forefront after mass shooting

Georgia Republican convicted in Jan. 6 riot walks out during televised congressional primary debate

Voting on reservations across the country has historically been difficult, with tribal voters sometimes having to travel dozens of miles to their polling place. Slow mail service and lack of a physical address, common on tribal lands, have proved challenging.

The new process — the ability to cast ballots electronically — has the potential to significantly boost turnout among all tribes in Nevada. But what some see as a small measure of justice to equalize voting rights raises security concerns for others, with implications far beyond Nevada's 28 tribal communities as the nation braces for what is expected to be another close and contentious presidential election in November.

Under the plan, tribal members in Nevada who live on a reservation or colony can receive a ballot electronically through an online system set up by the state and then return it electronically. Experts warn that such voting — when a completed ballot is sent back either by email, through an online portal or by fax — carries risks of ballots being intercepted or manipulated and should be used sparingly, if at all.

“At this point in the United States, it’s a relatively small number of ballots that are coming through that way,” said Larry Norden, an election expert with the Brennan Center for Justice. “But we should be very concerned — both from actual security risks but also from a public confidence point of view — about expanding this.”

‘HIGH-RISK ACTIVITY’

While electronic voting may be limited at the moment, it’s available across much of the country to specific groups of voters. More than 30 states allow certain voters to return their ballots either by fax, email or an online portal, according to data collected by the National Conference of State Legislatures and Verified Voting, a nonpartisan group that studies state voting systems.

In most cases, electronic ballot return is available only to U.S. military and overseas voters. But it’s been expanded in recent years to include voters with disabilities in a dozen states. Nevada is believed to be the first to add tribes.

Cal Boone, the new tribal outreach coordinator for the Nevada Secretary of State’s Office and a member of the Walker River Paiute Tribe, has begun meeting with tribes around the state to share details about the process, which he believes could ease a legacy of barriers that has left some reluctant to vote.

“In past years, tribes didn’t have access to vote in multiple ways. You had to rely on the mail system to cast your vote or otherwise drive out to great lengths to vote,” Boone said. “What we are seeing in Nevada is really powerful, and it really sets the stage for what other states throughout the country can be doing to help support tribes."

But the solution comes with risks.

In a 2020 memo to election officials, the FBI and other federal agencies assessed the risk of sending ballots electronically to be low, but allowing those ballots to be returned electronically was high. The memo highlights recommended security practices for internet-connected systems, including isolating computers that handle electronic ballots from ones that are used for other aspects of voting.

"The information provided should be considered a starting point," the memo states. "Even with these technical security considerations, electronic ballot return remains a high-risk activity.”

Earlier this year, the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, which is charged with helping protect the nation’s election systems, said in an online post that the memo was being redistributed to ensure state officials and policymakers are “fully informed of risks” associated with electronic ballot return.

Susannah Goodman, director of election security for Common Cause, is among those concerned that there are no federal guidelines for such systems and no independent reviews, unlike what's in place for voting machines and ballot tabulators.

An attempt to create independent standards ended in late 2022 after a group of experts determined it wasn't possible at the time given the technology and cyber risks.

‘CONFIDENT IN OUR SYSTEM’

Kim Wyman, the former top election official in Washington state, initially supported electronic voting as a military spouse, but said she grew wary after taking over as secretary of state. Her attempt to persuade lawmakers to repeal it was unsuccessful.

Wyman said she worries something could happen to the ballot in transit and what that would mean for public confidence in elections. She believes the safest bet is for voters who receive ballots electronically to print them out and return them by mail.

“Election officials are in a hard spot because they want to provide accessibility and they want to make sure that every eligible American has a right to participate in an election,” Wyman said. “But they have to do it in a way where they’re also securing those ballots and making sure that that voter’s ballot is counted the way the voter cast it.”

Nevada Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar said he knows the process carries risks, but sees everything related to elections as having some risk. He pointed to the federal government's action in 2017 to designate the nation’s voting systems as critical infrastructure, just like dams, banks and nuclear power plants.

The state’s electronic ballot return system was designed by the state with security measures intended to verify eligibility, authenticate voters and their ballots, and ensure secure communications, he said. There are steps to ensure voters are not casting multiple ballots, and the system undergoes regular security reviews and updates.

“I’m confident in our system,” Aguilar said.

He expressed frustration about what he described as a lack of national leadership on this and other election issues, saying there should be less criticism and more work and funding to address concerns.

“The federal government has access to so many experts, they have access to resources. They should be providing a leadership position to give us a path forward,” Aguilar said. “To think backward and to scare us is not the appropriate way to do this.”

STATES DIVIDED OVER SECURITY CONCERNS

So far, few Nevada voters have opted in. As of Friday, 255 voters had submitted a ballot electronically — none of them tribal members — ahead of Tuesday's primary. More than half of those were registered in Clark County, which includes Las Vegas and is the state's most populous.

“Folks that participate find it very convenient and very easy to use,” Clark County Registrar Lorena Portillo said.

Ahead of the 2022 midterm elections, just over 2,500 voters returned their ballots electronically through the state system. Among them was Ramona Coker, who is blind. Coker said she no longer needs help to vote and can cast a ballot on her phone, which is equipped with screen-reading technology allowing her to follow audio prompts to make her selections.

“It feels very American. It feels like you have done your part and no one else has had an influence in that,” said Coker, who works for a Reno-area nonprofit.

She believes the challenges faced by voters with disabilities outweigh the potential risks of electronic balloting.

“We’re always going to have bad-faith actors out there, no matter what delivery form or what return form that we use,” Coker said. “And if you’re always worried about that, then you never cast a vote again.”

States led by both Democrats and Republicans have authorized electronic ballot returns, with varying rules. Alaska, California, Florida and Oklahoma limit the process to military and overseas voters and only permit electronic return by fax. In Texas, astronauts can use an online portal to cast their ballots. In West Virginia, first responders on duty outside their county also are eligible.

“Having been in the military, I’ve seen intelligence transmitted via the internet. We transmit nuclear codes via the internet,” West Virginia Secretary of State Mac Warner said. “If we can do that, we can certainly get a secure ballot and transmit across the internet.”

Not all states have embraced the practice. In Minnesota, officials considered it but ultimately decided against it.

“In light of recent security concerns, it’s on ice,” said Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon. “Someday -- if those security considerations are addressed and if the concerns and objections of the federal agencies can be overcome -- we would definitely consider it because as a matter of convenience, it would probably make a difference.”

DIDN’T FEEL ‘OUR VOICE EVEN MATTERED’

The Walker River Paiute reservation is along a scenic stretch of highway between Las Vegas and Reno, about two hours south of the state capital in a vast stretch of desert surrounded by distant mountain peaks.

On a late spring day, sprinklers prepare alfalfa fields that dot the reservation while wild horses graze in nearby foothills. There are no grocery stores, restaurants or hotels, and the nearest town is about 30 miles away.

Although the tribe has long had its own polling location — something other tribes in the state have not — the reservation's remoteness has sometimes added to a sense of political isolation. Some tribal members have not always seen the point in voting.

“Because of the historical abuses our people have faced, we were very timid to even take part in voting or elections," tribal Chair Andrea Martinez said. "For many years, we didn’t feel like our voice even mattered.”

The prospect of casting ballots electronically is a step Martinez and other tribal leaders welcome, but they're not sure it will make a major difference, at least initially. Internet access is spotty on the reservation, as is electricity because of aging utility poles.

“Although we, through the state, can access online voting, who knows if we’ll even have electricity or internet that day?” Martinez said.

Teresa McNally, who oversees the election office in Mineral County, which includes the Walker River reservation, plans to hold a meeting with tribal members this year to explain the new system.

One thing she wants to emphasize is the focus on security, including the measures protecting the electronic ballot return system.

“What it takes to even get into our internet system here, it’s crazy,” she said.

Courtney Quintero, a tribal member and chair of the board overseeing tribal elections, said she planned to use the new system once she learned more about it, but acknowledged others may be hesitant.

“Trust is a big thing with our community," she said.

___

The Associated Press receives support from several private foundations to enhance its explanatory coverage of elections and democracy. See more about AP’s democracy initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

mickeyrat

thinking a bullet solves this particular problem

https://www.threads.net/@barbaraj.sobel/post/C8XlJKgpEAR/?xmt=AQGzJyY4_hM2gz_p8b5umCECXlWs_aFEoU4AGuizQztzow

mickeyrat

excellent polocy platform.....

https://www.threads.net/@bidenharrishq/post/C8XwOxPsawz/?xmt=AQGzS0qS61Eu2F9hqMoRD4EKwN_cs0rcIBG1yg9AOBx7Ow

mickeyrat

huh. ap updated app to prevent copy/paste of articles....

https://apnews.com/article/biden-voter-registration-executive-order-republicans-election-efe62f90c25bf25549bc436ecfc47d13

Halifax2TheMax

mickeyrat said:

huh. ap updated app to prevent copy/paste of articles....

https://apnews.com/article/biden-voter-registration-executive-order-republicans-election-efe62f90c25bf25549bc436ecfc47d13

Do another line of adderal you POS schmuck.

mickeyrat

will put this here....

https://youtu.be/gYwqpx6lp_s?si=klVl9WDVJD0gtj3L

mickeyrat

about polling......

https://www.threads.net/@nycjayjay/post/C8vGrIzvmaD/?xmt=AQGzzCbeCW-vVamqYYCIibYxrod_4D6KzDk8ae09jIdBZA