News Roundup: Testing Democracy

Tuesday’s midterm elections were yet another test of our endangered democracy. While voters handed defeats to a number of candidates who are beholden to lies about the 2020 election, including those seeking statewide positions that would put them in charge of elections, those lies still found support in races across the country.

• “In a number of cases,” reported the Washington Post, “the losing candidates conceded their races Wednesday, opting not to follow a precedent that Trump had set and that scholars had feared could become a troubling new norm of American democracy. But even as those candidates bowed to reality, dozens of others who denied or questioned the legitimacy of the 2020 vote were celebrating projected wins in congressional races.”
• As of Friday morning, a number of races had not yet been called, including those for secretaries of state in Nevada and Arizona.

And while Election Day was peaceful, with “isolated reports of problems,” voter-fraud lies are still simmering and threatening our democracy.

• In Arizona — which as the New Yorker said remains a “hotbed of election conspiracy theories” — Cochise County moved ahead with its hand count of ballots, despite a court order blocking it. 
• Election lies in Florida’s Spanish-speaking communities are “raising alarm bells for advocates that it could discourage Latinos from voting and further divide communities,” reported CNN.
• This week, Reveal looked at how far-right organizations and voter-fraud alarmists have “found a growing group of staunch allies” in sheriffs across the country. Read more about our lawsuit against Sheriff Dar Leaf in Barry County, Mich., for his communications with the group True the Vote.
• Wired reported on True the Vote’s web app that “has led to challenges of hundreds of thousands of voter registrations.”

Many voters were driven to the polls to defend reproductive rights, including in Michigan, California, and Vermont, where the right to abortion was enshrined in their respective state constitutions, and in Kentucky and Montana, where anti-abortion amendments were rejected.

• Still, legislative leaders in Florida, buoyed by their new supermajority, said they were prepared to further restrict abortion in the state in the next year.
• Culture war issues, such as the “debate” over critical race theory in school, also remained an animating force in superintendent and school board races, including in Texas, in Florida, and in South Carolina, where the winning candidate for state superintendent had support from Cleta Mitchell, the conservative attorney who was active in efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
• In Virginia, Gov. Glenn Youngkin released 350 emails to settle a lawsuit, brought by news organizations, for the release of submissions to the now-defunct tip line about “divisive concepts” being taught in school. Our lawsuit for records and communications related to the tip line is still active.

On the Records

Trump White House Materials at Mar-a-Lago
Earlier this year, we sued the National Archives and Records Administration for records related to the recovery of 15 boxes of Trump White House materials from Mar-a-Lago in January. This week, NARA released more documents in response to our lawsuit, but said it was withholding hundreds of pages, citing exemptions for ongoing law enforcement investigations and other reasons.

• The records include conversations between NARA officials and reporters, copies of already public congressional letters, draft press releases, and meeting notices regarding the search at Mar-a-Lago.
• In October, NARA released 65 pages of records and withheld more than 1,000 pages, also for reasons related to ongoing law enforcement investigations.

The Trump Administration and the Big Lie in Michigan
In the days after the 2020 election, former acting Department of Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf emailed Chris Krebs, then the director of DHS’ Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, regarding allegations of voter fraud.

• Wolf asked Krebs whether anyone in Michigan had contacted CISA about the allegations, which appear to have included debunked claims about voting machines in Antrim County.
• Krebs was later fired by Trump after he put out a forceful statement attesting to the security of the vote.

Other Stories We’re Following

In the States

• Voters support abortion rights in all five states with ballot measures (The Hill) 
• Measure outlawing ‘dark money’ in Arizona campaigns wins handily (Arizona Mirror)
• Caught between feuding politicians, nonprofits shoulder burden of Texas’ migrant busing program (Texas Tribune)
• How Tennessee disenfranchised 21% of its Black citizens (ProPublica) 
• L.A. drops criminal charges against election software executive (New York Times)
• DeSantis-drawn maps help GOP hold majority if they win the House (Politico)

National News

• The United States of political violence (Time)
• Texas judge strikes down Biden’s student debt cancellation (New York Times)
• Top border official Magnus says he’s been asked to resign but refuses (Los Angeles Times)

Jan. 6 Investigations

• House select committee has interviewed the driver of Trump’s vehicle on January 6 (CNN)
• Boris Epshteyn’s loyalty to Trump pays off as investigations deepen (Washington Post)
• House January 6 committee gives Trump more time to turn over subpoenaed documents (CNN)

Trump Administration Accountability

• Homeland Security admits it tried to manufacture fake terrorists for Trump (Gizmodo)
• Judge slaps sanctions on Trump lawyers for ‘frivolous’ Clinton lawsuits (Politico)

Coronavirus

• U.S. set to face third Covid winter, this time without key tools and treatments (Stat News)
• Pulse oximeters and their inaccuracies will get FDA scrutiny. What took so long? (Stat News)  
• Masks cut Covid spread in schools, study finds (New York Times) 
• Who killed the Covid-19 vaccine waiver? (Politico)