Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization reporting on voting access and election administration across the U.S. Sign up for our free newsletters here.Even before the sun was up on primary election day, Devin Rhoads was putting out fires.A precinct in Selinsgrove — a borough in rural Snyder County along the Susquehanna River — had accidentally received the provisional ballots intended for another precinct. Provisional ballots, which are specific to each precinct, are needed for voters whose eligibility is in question but who still want to vote. Without them, these voters can’t cast a ballot.As election director for the county, charged...

Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization reporting on voting access and election administration across the U.S. A version of this post was originally distributed in Votebeat’s free weekly newsletter. Sign up to get future editions, including the latest reporting from Votebeat bureaus and curated news from other publications, delivered to your inbox every Saturday.Today, I want to explain something about Votebeat’s journalism, especially in light of a great story we published.At Votebeat, we’re reporting the nuanced truth about elections and voting at a time of crisis in America. We aim to help people understand how our democracy works so they...

Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization reporting on voting access and election administration across the U.S. Sign up for our free newsletters here.A design change Pennsylvania officials made to prevent voters from making a disqualifying error on their mail ballots appears to have backfired.The issue — voters failing to write the final two digits of the year on the return envelope — is leading some counties to reject ballots in the primary, despite the state’s new advice to count them.Last fall, the Pennsylvania Department of State announced it was redesigning the state’s mail ballot return envelope, in part to reduce...

Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization reporting on voting access and election administration across the U.S. Sign up for our free newsletters here.Steven Frid, former executive director of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, obtained a substantial pay increase without the knowledge of EAC commissioners, an investigation by another agency’s inspector general found.The investigator’s report, released last week, said Frid also expensed Harvard University courses without approval and did not properly disclose dozens of hours of personal leave.EAC commissioners voted unanimously to fire Frid in December, after learning the investigation was in progress, according to the investigation summary report posted online...

Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization reporting on voting access and election administration across the U.S. Sign up for our free newsletters here.In Brazos County, suspicions about elections burst into the open last fall, just weeks after a visit from an out-of-state group calling for ballots to be hand-counted.“Everything seems great. But if you study this, you’ll find that it’s possible to pre-program electronic voting machines and make it do whatever you want,” one resident said at a commissioners court meeting last November, without evidence to support the claims.“Ever since these machines came along, I’ve heard nothing but accusations of fraud,”...

The “bing bong, bing bong” of the security gate bell rings over the loudspeakers at Runbeck Election Services. Polls in Arizona’s presidential preference election closed three and a half hours ago, and ballots have finally arrived here.The loading dock door flies up, letting in cool spring air, and workers roll in two locked cages carrying trays of green envelopes. Soon, the envelopes, with ballots still sealed inside, are shooting through Runbeck’s scanner at a rate of 12 per second. Within minutes, the voter signatures on thousands of envelopes have been scanned.It’s fast for a reason. At times, all of America...

Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization reporting on voting access and election administration across the U.S. A version of this post was originally distributed in Votebeat’s free weekly newsletter. Sign up to get future editions, including the latest reporting from Votebeat bureaus and curated news from other publications, delivered to your inbox every Saturday.After President Donald Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson last week advocated for a bill banning noncitizen voting, the news coverage made clear that it’s already illegal for noncitizens to vote and, crucially, that it isn’t a real problem.Trump is still very eager to relitigate 2020, and...

Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization reporting on voting access and election administration across the U.S. Sign up for our free newsletters here.When Northampton County voters cast their ballots in an election last November, it became clear to them very quickly that something was wrong.On the printed records that are meant to show them how they voted, the votes they cast in one judge’s election were appearing under another judge’s name.“It’s a joke,” one frustrated voter told Lehigh Valley News on Election Day. “We don’t even have faith in the electoral system, then this happens?”The mixup — the result of...

Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization reporting on voting access and election administration across the U.S. Sign up for our free newsletters here.When Stacy Ellingen, a 38-year-old Oshkosh resident with athetoid cerebral palsy, wants to cast a ballot, she relies on voting absentee, because she can’t drive, and caregiver transportation to the polls is unreliable.But even voting from her home is a struggle — and the process may well mean sacrificing her constitutional right to a secret ballot.Unlike more than a dozen other states providing fully electronic absentee voting for people with disabilities, Wisconsin requires absentee voters to cast their...

Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization reporting on voting access and election administration across the U.S. Sign up for our free newsletters here.You may be one of the hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvanians who plan to vote by mail during the 2024 election. Or maybe it’s an option you’ve considered but haven’t pursued because you distrust the process or have concerns about fraud.Pennsylvania election officials have safeguards in place to verify the identity of people who request and cast mail ballots. Many counties also follow guidance from the Department of State to secure ballots and track who handles them.Despite these...

Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization reporting on voting access and election administration across the U.S. Sign up for our free newsletters here.Peggy Judd listened with interest in late November as Arizona state Sen. Sonny Borrelli urged county supervisors in an area he represents to hand-count ballots in the 2024 elections instead of using machines.The Mohave County supervisors had been warned that doing so would be illegal. But Borrelli promised them that if they went ahead, “private individuals” would pay for a lawyer to represent them.“The funding is already in place,” he said, declining to identify the private individuals.Mohave supervisors...

Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization reporting on voting access and election administration across the U.S. Sign up for our free newsletters here.Poll workers in Maricopa and Pinal counties will do an on-site count of how many mail ballots are dropped off at their voting locations on election day, but there’s debate among election officials and lawmakers over whether a new law requires them to do it at the polling place.The language in the law had been interpreted differently across counties, according to the Secretary of State’s Office. Pinal election officials, for example, initially told Votebeat that they planned to...

Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization reporting on voting access and election administration across the U.S. Sign up for our free newsletters here.After a court defeat last month, Pennsylvania voting rights organizations are trying to convince a larger group of federal appellate judges that the state shouldn’t be allowed to reject mail ballots that lack a proper date on their return envelopes.The plaintiffs, led by the NAACP, are appealing a March 27 ruling from a three-judge panel of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and are seeking an opinion from the full court. A favorable outcome for the NAACP...

Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization reporting on voting access and election administration across the U.S. Sign up for our free newsletters here.Ahead of the April 23 primary, Pennsylvania’s top election official answered your questions about misinformation, voting machine security, and more.Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt joined Spotlight PA’s Kate Huangpu and Votebeat’s Carter Walker in March for a live event about building trust in elections. If you missed it, you can watch the conversation here.Below are Schmidt’s answers to some of the questions asked during the event, as well as answers he sent via email to five of...

Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization reporting on voting access and election administration across the U.S. A version of this post was originally distributed in Votebeat’s free weekly newsletter. Sign up to get future editions, including the latest reporting from Votebeat bureaus and curated news from other publications, delivered to your inbox every Saturday.The Republican Party has tried, at least nominally, to undo some of the damage former President Donald Trump has done since 2020 to the party’s faith in voting by mail. But it appears Trump — the GOP presidential nominee three times running — doesn’t want to cooperate....

This article was co-published in partnership with The Guardian.Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization reporting on voting access and election administration across the U.S. Sign up for our free newsletters here.TEMPE, Ariz. — At the local discount cinema in this Phoenix suburb this winter, a crowd of about 100 took their seats for something different from the typical Sunday matinee.The man standing in front of the big screen, Mark Cook, packed up his life months ago to drive around in an RV for a mission he said he was called to by God. Their elections had been stolen from them,...

Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization reporting on voting access and election administration across the U.S. Sign up for our free newsletters here.Before a single vote is counted at Milwaukee’s central counting facility, Step 1 is for an election official to check every ballot tabulator to make sure the number of absentee ballots processed so far is zero. Hours later, and after several thousand ballots have been scanned, comes the climax: a late-night delivery of the voting results at the county’s election office.In between is a meticulous process to make sure thumb drives carrying vote totals in Wisconsin’s largest absentee...

Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization reporting on voting access and election administration across the U.S. Sign up for our free newsletters here.A vendor of voter registration management software is asking Texas counties that use its services to pay tens of thousands of dollars in surcharges to help the company stay afloat, or scramble for alternative ways to deal with sensitive voter information in a presidential election year.The request has election administrators in some of the state’s largest counties consulting with county attorneys about their legal options. Others are trying to find the money to pay, worried about the stability...

Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization reporting on voting access and election administration across the U.S. A version of this post was originally distributed in Votebeat’s free weekly newsletter. Sign up to get future editions, including the latest reporting from Votebeat bureaus and curated news from other publications, delivered to your inbox every Saturday.Hi, y’all,If you’ve been a longtime newsletter reader, you might remember a four-part series in early 2022, after Republican-led states — starting with Louisiana — began agitating against a multistate coalition dedicated to cleaning and updating voter rolls.It all started when right-wing website Gateway Pundit falsely reported...