The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for Sept. 30, 2024

Today’s Script

(Variations occur with audio due to editing for time. Today’s Links below the script)

You’re listening to the American Democracy Minute, keeping YOUR government by and for the people.

The FCC levied a $6 Million dollar fine Sept. 26th for an A-I deep fake robocall in January’s NH Presidential Primary, and on the eve of a civil trial, conservative outlet Newsmax settled a lawsuit with voting machine maker Smartmatic. 

In February, we reported on a robocall using an A-I generated voice of President Joe Biden, urging citizens not to vote in the New Hampshire Presidential Primary.  After a federal and state investigation, the FCC fined Steve Kramer, the political consultant allegedly behind the scheme, $6 Million dollars. A separate $1 Million dollar fine was levied on Lingo Telecom in August.  Kramer also faces felony charges in New Hampshire.

Just days before a civil trial was to begin, conservative outlet Newsmax settled with optical ballot machine maker Smartmatic, September 26th.  Like Dominion Voting Systems, Smartmatic’s machines were falsely implicated in a 2020 voter fraud conspiracy theory, driven by former President Trump’s false claims about the election.  Those claims were widely aired on Newsmax, Fox News and other outlets. No settlement terms were disclosed.

Fox News and Fox Corporation, which settled with Dominion Voting Systems for $787 Million dollars, also faces a $2.7 Billion dollar suit by Smartmatic, a case likely to be heard in 2025.   Fox says it is protected by the First Amendment.

We have more on both of these stories at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org.  I’m Brian Beihl.

Today’s Links

Articles & Resources:

American Democracy Minute – Suspected Senders Identified in AI-Generated Robo Calls Faking Joe Biden’s Voice Before New Hampshire’s Presidential Primary
Federal Communications Commission – FCC FINES MAN BEHIND ELECTION INTERFERENCE SCHEME $6
MILLION FOR SENDING ILLEGAL ROBOCALLS THAT USED
DEEPFAKE GENERATIVE AI TECHNOLOGY
InDepthNH – Consultant Fined $6M for NH Robo Calls Imitating Biden Before January Primary
CNN – Fox board members subpoenaed in Smartmatic’s defamation lawsuit over 2020 election lies

NPR – Voting-tech company settles with right-wing network over false election claims
The Guardian – Newsmax and Smartmatic settle 2020 US election defamation lawsuit
American Democracy Minute – (2023) Fox News Troubles Not Over Yet, With More Potentially Embarrassing Lawsuits Pending

Check Your Voter Registration:

• U.S. Election Assistance Commission – Register And Vote in Your State
• USA Vote Foundation – Registration, Eligibility, State Election Office Links
• Vote.Gov – Register to Vote in Your State
• Vote.Org – Check Your Registration to Vote
  
  

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#Democracy  #DemocracyNews #FoxNews #Smartmatic #Newsmax #BigLie

The post FCC Fines Man Allegedly Behind NH Primary AI Robocall $6 Million; Newsmax Settles with Smartmatic Over Airing 2020 Voting Machine Conspiracy Theories appeared first on American Democracy Minute.

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for Aug. 19, 2024

Today’s Script

(Variations occur with audio due to editing for time. Today’s Links below the script)

You’re listening to the American Democracy Minute, keeping YOUR government by and for the people.

In the midst of our series on protections against bad actors not certifying the Presidential election came the news of the felony conviction of a former Colorado election official who allowed election deniers access to her county’s voting machines.  

A jury convicted former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters on four felony charges for giving unauthorized access to the county’s Dominion Voting Systems electronic ballot tabulators to two election conspiracy theory activists associated with MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell.

Colorado Newsline reports testimony that Peters misused another county employee’s identity to fraudulently give access to an official inspection of ballot counting machines by a Dominion Voting Systems employee and a representative of the Colorado Secretary of State’s office.  Election data was later allegedly copied and distributed online.   

The Colorado County Clerks Association said after the verdict,  “Colorado Clerks across the state are pleased to see justice done today. We take seriously our role as guardians of the best election process in the nation and are grateful to see the justice system hold those who would harm our elections accountable.”

Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold said in a statement, “Today’s verdict sends a clear message: we will not tolerate any effort to threaten the security of our gold standard elections. I am proud that justice for Colorado voters has been served today.”

We’ve linked to local reporting at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org.  I’m Brian Beihl.

Today’s Links

Articles & Resources:
Colorado Newsline – (2021) ‘Serious breach’ of voting security at center of investigation of Mesa County clerk’s office
Colorado Newsline – Tina Peters, former Mesa County clerk, guilty on 7 counts

Colorado Secretary of State Office  – Secretary Griswold Statement on Verdict in Tina Peters Trial
Associated Press – Former Colorado clerk Tina Peters, one-time hero to election deniers, convicted in computer breach

Check Your Voter Registration

• U.S. Election Assistance Commission – Register And Vote in Your State
• USA Vote Foundation – Registration, Eligibility, State Election Office Links
• Vote.Gov – Register to Vote in Your State
• Vote.Org – Check Your Registration to Vote
  
  

Please follow us on Facebook and Twitter and SHARE!  

Find all of our reports at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org

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Are you a radio station?  Find our broadcast files at Pacifica Radio Network’s Audioport and PRX

#Democracy  #DemocracyNews #ElectionDeniers #StoptheSteal

The post Colorado Election Official Who Allowed 2020 Conspiracy Theory Activists Access to County Voting Machine Data Found Guilty appeared first on American Democracy Minute.

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for March 27, 2024

Today’s Script

(Variations occur with audio due to editing for time. Today’s Links below the script)

You’re listening to the American Democracy Minute, keeping YOUR government by and for the people.

Five states are considering legislation banning electronic ballot tabulators, driven by debunked conspiracy theories that the machines were used to rig the 2020 election.  Where hand counting has been implemented, it’s less accurate, takes longer, and costs more.

Bills in Kansas, Missouri, Kentucky, Arizona, and South Carolina all propose banning optical ballot tabulators, which would include machines by Dominion Voting Systems and other companies.  

Votebeat Texas reported on Republicans in one Texas county who DID count 8,000 GOP primary ballots by hand.  It took 24 hours, involved 200 workers, and resulted in multiple human errors.   The 2020 primary election in Gillespie County used electronic tabulators, required only 45 workers, and the process took only a few hours.

But voters in some areas are fed up.  Earlier this month, voters in 22 of 23 New Hampshire towns defeated a coordinated effort to ban tabulators at the local level. 

In conspiracy hotbed Shasta County, California, county supervisors doubled down in February, voting to hand count the 2024 Presidential election, despite a new state law restricting when hand counting can be used.   But the Shasta Scout reports that in the March 5th primary, one of those supervisors was ousted, and another is within a few votes of being recalled.  Ironically, a hand recount is likely.

We links to more on hand counting at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org.  I’m Brian Beihl.

Today’s Links

Articles & Resources:
Democracy Docket – New Report Sheds Light on Hand Counting Ballots Ahead of 2024
Democracy Docket – The Push for Hand Counting: A Step Back in Responsible Election Practices
Voting Rights Lab – States with pending legislation to ban ballot tabulators
Associated Press – Vote-counting machine foes hoped for a surge of success in New Hampshire. They got barely a ripple
Votebeat Texas – ‘Are you kidding me’: Gillespie County Republican hand count stretched into early morning hours
Votebeat Texas – ‘I can’t believe I did that’: Texas county’s GOP officials found multiple errors after hand count
Democracy Docket – Shasta County, California Wants to Hand Count Votes Again
Shasta County Board of Elections – RECOMMENDATIONS REGARDING A LOCAL ORDINANCE MANDATING HAND COUNTED BALLOTS AT PRECINCTS USING PAPER POLLBOOKS
Shasta Scout – With 803 Votes Left to Count, Supervisor Kevin Crye Continues to Resist Recall Attempt

Groups Taking Action:
Brennan Center for Justice, Institute for Responsive Government

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#Democracy  #DemocracyNews #HandCounting 

The post Five States Are Considering Conspiracy-Fueled Legislation Which Bans Ballot Tabulators.  But Fed-Up Voters are Pushing Back. appeared first on American Democracy Minute.

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for March 18, 2024

Today’s Script

(Variations occur with audio due to editing for time. Today’s Links below the script)

You’re listening to the American Democracy Minute, keeping YOUR government by and for the people.

We reported extensively last year on the alleged tampering of electronic vote tabulators in Michigan following the 2020 election.  The first of three trials is imminent, but after failing to appear at multiple court hearings, one election-denier defendant faces even more charges.

Reuters reports that Stephanie Lambert Junttila was part of a team of lawyers connected to Sidney Powell, who led former President Trump’s court challenges of the 2020 Presidential election results.   She was allegedly in the room when Matthew DePerno, a candidate for Michigan attorney general, and Daire Rendon, a Michigan state representative, attempted to access the data in a Dominion Voting Systems electronic ballot tabulator in a suburban Detroit hotel room.  The three were charged with conspiracy and unlawful possession of a voting machine  last August.

Trials were originally scheduled for early March.   But according to the Michigan Advance,  Lambert Junttila, failed to appear for two pre-trial hearings, and an Oakland County judge issued an arrest warrant March 8th.   Reuters later reported that March 13th, while under indictment and subject to an arrest warrant, she was in a Washington, D.C. courtroom, representing former Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne against Dominion Voting Systems’ $1.6 Billion dollar defamation lawsuit. Dominion sued Byrne for allegedly pushing the debunked theory that Dominion’s ballot tabulators had manipulated the election for Joe Biden. 

Lambert Junttila’s trial is scheduled to begin April 1st.    

We have more at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org.  I’m Brian Beihl.

Today’s Links

Articles & Resources:
Reuters – (2022) The Michigan lawyer pushing Trump’s voter-fraud fictions in U.S. courts
Michigan Advance – (2023) Republicans Matt DePerno and Daire Rendon charged in 2020 voting machine probe
Michigan Advance – Judge sets March trial date in Michigan voting machine tampering case
Michigan Advance – One voting machine tampering cases moves to trial, two others await consideration
Michigan Advance – Warrant for Lambert Junttila remains as she misses another hearing in tabulator tampering case
Reuters – Ex-Overstock CEO taps indicted pro-Trump lawyer as defense counsel in Dominion lawsuit

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Find all of our reports at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org

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Are you a radio station?  Find our broadcast files at Pacifica Radio Network’s Audioport and PRX

#Democracy  #DemocracyNews #ElectionDeniers #MichiganPolitics #TrumpCriminalTrials #VotingMachineTampering

The post ‘Election Integrity’ Gone Bad:  Updates on Michigan’s Electronic Ballot Tabulator Tampering Cases appeared first on American Democracy Minute.

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for Dec. 5, 2023

Today’s Script

(Variations occur with audio due to editing for time. Today’s Links below the script)

You’re listening to the American Democracy Minute, keeping YOUR government by and for the people.

Just days before the Nov. 2023 election, the chair of the Shasta County, CA Board of Supervisors was threatening to defy a new California law, and hand count ballots instead of using an electronic ballot tabulator.  The county supervisors blinked.

Shasta County has over 111,000 registered voters, but as we’ve reported, county supervisors severed the county’s contract with Dominion Voting Systems.  The county’s registrar of voters estimated that a manual count would require almost 87,000 hours by over 1,200 election workers – at a cost of $1.65 Million dollars.  Hand counting is considered less accurate and more expensive by election experts.

CalMatters reports that Oct. 4th, Governor Gavin Newsom signed a bill that restricts hand counting to limited situations, and prohibits manual counts in elections larger than 1,000 registered voters, or 5,000 for special elections.  After County Board Chair Patrick Henry Jones reportedly suggested the county would not follow the new law, the California Secretary of State issued a warning making clear the state would take action if it didn’t.  The State sent monitors to ensure compliance, and the election was conducted with no issues using new tabulators at a cost of $950,000 dollars.

Other hand counting challenges by election deniers persisted in recent weeks in New Hampshire, Arizona, Georgia, and Florida.  

We have more on hand counting at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org.  I’m Brian Beihl.

Today’s Links

Articles & Resources:
Shasta County – Analysis of Manual Tally Options for Shasta County
CalMatters – Why Shasta County is at center of California voting, again

Redding Record Searchlight – Shasta supervisors talk pay raises, Hart voting machines
Los Angeles Times – Shasta County ditched its Dominion voting machines. Now, residents are braced for turmoil on Nov. 7
The Guardian –  The California county where far-right officials tried to upend voting
Democracy Groups  – Requests for action in Shasta County in advance of the November 2023 and
March 2024 elections
CA Sec. of State – Letter, RE: Shasta County November 7, 2023, Election
Democracy Docket – California’s Shasta County Abandons Plan To Hand Count Election
Concord, NH  Monitor – NH Supreme Court considers case about ballot-counting machines draws a crowd
Democracy Docket – New Report Sheds Light on Hand Counting Ballots Ahead of 2024

Groups Taking Action:
ACLU Foundation of Northern CA, CA Common Cause,  CA Voter Foundation, Voting Rights Practice Group, Disability Rights CA, League of Women Voters of CA  

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Find all of our reports at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org

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#Democracy  #DemocracyNews #ElectionDeniers #ProtectPollWorkers #CaliforniaPolitics

The post Shasta County Almost Hand-Counted Its Ballots in November. Instead, it Lost an Expensive Game of Election Denial Chicken with the State of California appeared first on American Democracy Minute.