News Roundup: The Coordinated Effort to Contest the Next Election

The Big Story

For months, partisan actors have not only sought to ensure that the 2020 election’s validity remains in doubt; they have been laying the groundwork for a future election that is filled with the same democracy-denying conspiracies.

The effort to cast doubt on the 2020 election’s results has spanned multiple states, often with the same activists working across state lines. Late on Thursday, American Oversight obtained more documents from the Arizona Senate’s discredited election “audit” that provide further evidence of its links to partisan reviews in other states.

• The records, which had previously been held by lead “audit” contractor Cyber Ninjas, include an email from CEO Doug Logan to right-wing news host Christina Bobb on Oct. 1, 2021, in which he shared with her copies of subpoenas issued in Arizona.
• In the email — which appears to have been sent just after Michael Gableman issued initial subpoenas for election materials as part of the partisan investigation in Wisconsin — Logan wrote, “In case this helps you with anything in [Wisconsin] coming up.” You can read more about the records here.
• The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that the Wisconsin investigation has cost taxpayers nearly $900,000. Gableman had been given a budget of $676,000.

But it’s not just faith in the last election that is being undermined. As a new movie that’s heavy on conspiracy theories and light on any evidence finds enthusiastic support among election deniers — including elected officials — Politico has obtained tapes from meetings of Republican Party operatives that “provide an inside look at a multi-pronged strategy to target and potentially overturn votes in Democratic precincts.”

• The plan involves recruiting and training poll workers to challenge voters at polling places, and putting them in touch with party attorneys.
• Another component of the plan includes “establishing a network of party-friendly district attorneys who could intervene to block vote counts at certain precincts” and “installing party loyalists on the Board of Canvassers, which is responsible for certifying the election.”
• Cleta Mitchell — one of the lawyers who aided former President Trump’s attempts to overturn his election loss, and who now sits on the federal Election Assistance Commission — has also been helping recruit election deniers to monitor elections. In Arizona, state Sen. Kelly Townsend has called on “vigilantes” to “camp out” at ballot drop boxes.
• Meanwhile, attacks on the use of voting machines have alarmed election experts, who have warned that reverting to hand-counting “would result in delays and chaos and potentially open the door to election subversion efforts,” as reported by CNN.

Jan. 6 Investigation

The first public hearing of the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol has been scheduled for June 9 at 8 p.m. ET, with witnesses to be announced in the coming days.

• This week, CNN reported that the committee had obtained an email from December 2020 in which lawyer Kenneth Chesebro provided to Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani and others an early proposal for overturning the election results by putting the election certification in the hands of Sen. Chuck Grassley, then the Senate president pro tempore.
• The committee also obtained documents from state Sen. Doug Mastriano, currently the Republican nominee for Pennsylvania governor, who arranged buses for Trump supporters on Jan. 6, and was himself outside the Capitol that day.
• Meanwhile, former Trump adviser Peter Navarro was subpoenaed by the Justice Department in its Jan. 6 investigation. On Friday, Navarro was charged with contempt of Congress after refusing to comply with the select committee’s subpoena.

The Coronavirus Pandemic

The pandemic has spotlighted the lack of resources the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has to enforce safety regulations for health care facilities, Politico reported this week. The agency has struggled to enforce its vaccine mandate for health care workers at Medicare and Medicaid-participating facilities, and officials are not always aware when hospitals flout practices designed to slow the spread of infection, such as switching out N95 masks for less-effective surgical masks.

• Labor Secretary Martin Walsh and Interior Secretary Deb Haaland tested positive for Covid-19, adding to the long list of government officials who have recently been infected.
• The omicron variant wave was the deadliest surge of the virus for Americans over 65, as a result of  weakened immunity this past winter. The gap between the number of deaths for older and younger people has widened since last year.
• The White House said that shots for children under 5 could begin June 21.

Case counts, which are exceeding a daily average of 100,000, were five times higher this Memorial Day weekend than at the same time last year. Hospitalizations are at a daily average of more than 27,000.

• 70 percent of schools are seeing an increased number of students seeking mental health services, according to a survey of more than 800 K-12 schools, conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics.
• The pandemic’s toll on children’s mental health is also reflected in a New York Times survey of 362 school counselors, who reported that young students are facing high rates of anxiety, struggling with social and emotional skills, and failing to stay engaged in the classroom as a result of the pandemic. 
• Arizona state auditors found that the office of Gov. Doug Ducey had approved $22 million in pandemic relief funding to local governments for costs that were not incurred as a result of the pandemic. The office also gave away more than $1.6 billion in fraudulent unemployment claims.
• New York City is planning to move elderly occupants of homeless shelters from single and double rooms to less-protective dorm-style living spaces, ending a pandemic public health measure even as the city sees high case numbers.

On the Records

Industry Influence on Mine Safety Commission
A commissioner on the federal mine safety agency used a “Network” of advisers that appears to have included a coal executive when considering personnel decisions, Politico reported this week. The commissioner, Marco Rajkovich, chaired the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission — meant to regulate coal and mining companies — during the Trump administration.

• We obtained emails, cited in the Politico story, showing that on Aug. 17, 2019, Rajkovich contacted an executive at the Alliance Resource Partners coal company for advice on hiring an administrative law judge. An Alliance subsidiary was a previous client of Rajkovich.
• “We have a once-in-a-while opportunity to place a good person in a pivotal position that could last for several years,” Rajkovich wrote.

Other Stories We’re Following

The Jan. 6 Investigation and the Big Lie 

• Conservatives again lose in court as they challenge election grants (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
• They insisted the 2020 election was tainted. Their 2020 primary wins? Not so much. (New York Times)
• Appeals court upholds dismissal of U.S. election fraud case (Associated Press)
• Trump election interference grand jury in Georgia to hear from Raffensperger (CBS News)
• January 6 committee asserts Jim Jordan must comply with subpoena but gives him more time (CNN)

National News

• $5.8 billion in loans will be forgiven for Corinthian College students (New York Times)
• Supreme Court leak investigation heats up as clerks are asked for phone records in unprecedented move (CNN)
• Biden prepares asylum overhaul at border, but court challenges loom (Washington Post)
• Special counsel loses first trial of Trump probe; Sussman acquitted (Washington Post)
• Supreme Court guts its own precedent to allow Arizona to kill Barry Jones (Intercept)
• Supreme Court leak investigation heats up as clerks are asked for phone records in unprecedented move (CNN)

In the States

• GOP ban on ‘critical race theory’ in Arizona schools poised to fall 1 vote short (Arizona Mirror) 
• Florida posts openings for state guard that Democrats call a ‘vigilante militia’ (Bloomberg)
• ‘A systematic assault’: GOP rushes to change election rules to block Medicaid in South Dakota (Bolts)
• Supreme Court blocks Texas social media law from taking effect (NPR)
• California calls for ‘comprehensive reparations’ for Black Americans (Washington Post)
• Bills in red states punish climate-conscious businesses (Washington Post)
• A summer of blackouts? Wheezing power grid leaves states at risk (Washington Post)

Voting Rights and Election Administration

• Photo ID, voter roll audits could be part of Missouri’s election statute (Kansas City Beacon)
• ​​Ducey vetoes election bill, says it could allow ‘bad actors’ to cancel voter registrations (Arizona Republic)

Trump Administration Accountability

• In reversal, EPA deems Pruitt’s phone booth ‘a violation’ (E&E News)
• Trump EPA chief ‘endangered public safety’ by ordering his drivers to speed (New York Times)
• House panel examining Jared Kushner over Saudi investment in new firm (New York Times)