Voting

NPR

|

Campaign signs may be old school, but they can have a big influence : NPR

With election season in full swing, seemingly every neighborhood and busy intersection is sprouting dozens of multicolored signs touting candidates for offices ranging from register of wills to U.S. Senate.

Often, these signs proclaim a candidate's name, but not much else. You might have wondered, how effective can they be as a campaign tool, especially in an age of radio, television and social media? Are they even a smart place to put campaign resources, particularly in local races, where funds are tight? This midterm season, the role of the debate has changed Politics This midterm season, the role of the debate has changed

It turns out political scientists have tried to answer these questions.

A 2015 study led by Donald Green, a political science professor at Columbia University, found that political signs can in fact make a difference — "somewhere between 1 and 2 percentage points on average," Green says. "Hardly earth shattering, but not nothing, either." In races that are especially close, they might just be the deciding factor.

NPR

|

A hacker bought a voting machine on eBay. Michigan officials are now investigating : NPR

For those not in the know, Hursti said it sounds shocking to hear that voting machines can be bought and sold for little money.

"People think it's a big deal but it happens all the time. Most of the time the seller is a government, a county, or it is electric recycling. ... And it is a good thing because hackers are a resource to make things safer."

Hackers like him, he said, are not interested in weaponizing the weaknesses they find. "The reason you pop open the machine is to learn the vulnerabilities" of each machine, in order to safeguard democracy, he added.

And there are plenty of other machines to tinker with, while he waits for the Michigan investigation to unfold.

"I bought two others last month, so I'll get started on those," he said.

This article just makes me cynical -- why election official so worried about people getting their hands on scrapped voting machines if they aren't rigged or terribly insecure? While there are plenty of legal ways that elections are rigged, such as voting laws and gerrymandering or simply stuffing political candidate's favorited groups coffers full of public cash. I tend to think lawful corruption and lawful ways of stealing elections is much more common illegal means, but who knows, this just makes me suspicious.

One thing I’m hoping is that in coming years there will be more open election data posted from states and not-for-profits at the election district level, like is available this year during the redistricting cycle

|

One thing I’m hoping is that in coming years there will be more open election data posted from states and not-for-profits at the election district level, like is available this year during the redistricting cycle. That said, it’s a lot of work to crunch and compile this data as it’s currently presented — mostly broken down by counties and without redistricting it might not be as big of incentive to compile such data, but it would be fascinating to watch election trends as the decade unfolds.

Who’s “Cleaning” Our Voter Rolls? Soros Funded ERIC Is Now Used In 31 States

|

Who’s “Cleaning” Our Voter Rolls? Soros Funded ERIC Is Now Used In 31 States

Been hearing a lot about ERIC on NPR lately. While they have been reporting a lot about conservative push back about ERIC, there hasn't been a lot of reporting on conservative concerns about it.

Not sure if they are legitimate concerns - seems like encouraging potential voters to register is a good thing, but their views are worth hearing. Plus it seems like they should be checking for duplicate voter registrations when people move out of state and if people are voting in multiple states.

But I also could see why conservatives might not like the system - a lot of emphasis is encouraging people to register to vote, with other purposes worthwhile but secondary. And it's been strongly pushed by liberal funders. But it seems like it's not a bad idea to keep voter rolls tidy and have a tool to investigate fraud the rare times it happens. 

NPR

|

Officials Fear A New Normal As Republicans Make Baseless California Fraud Claims : NPR

For years leading up to the 2020 election, then-President Donald Trump was clear: If he lost, it would be because of voter fraud.

Ahead of California's recall election Tuesday, for which ballots were mailed to all 22 million registered voters in the state, he made a similar baseless declaration.

"Does anybody really believe the California Recall Election isn't rigged?" Trump said in a statement Monday. "Millions and millions of Mail-In Ballots will make this just another giant Election Scam, no different, but less blatant, than the 2020 Presidential Election Scam!"

A Republican hasn't won a statewide race in California since 2006, and recent polling shows Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom favored to beat the recall and keep his office.

Still, Republicans are already setting the stage to blame a loss on voter fraud, and not on a declining base of support in a state that President Biden won by 5 million votes last year.