As the 2024 primaries begin, we’re monitoring the election denial movement’s impact — not just on voters’ trust in our democracy, but also on decisions about the administration of elections, from the push to abandon a nonpartisan voter-roll system to misinformation about voting machines.

Missouri Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick this week accused Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft — who is currently running for governor — of violating state law by refusing to release cybersecurity reports of local election authorities.

• Fitzpatrick’s allegations were delivered Monday in an audit report of Ashcroft’s office that was highly critical of the secretary of state’s March 2023 decision to withdraw Missouri from the nonpartisan Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC) without having an alternative plan to track voter information in place.
• American Oversight has been investigating how the election denial movement targeted ERIC in its continued effort to undermine U.S. democracy. Last month, we released a report, “The Campaign to Dismantle ERIC,” detailing how many of the same people who tried to overturn the 2020 election worked behind the scenes to push Republican-led states to abandon ERIC, and how that exodus threatens the 2024 election.
• The report drew upon thousands of pages of records and details how states privately acknowledged ERIC’s importance but withdrew anyway, and have been scrambling to find viable alternatives.
• Among the records mentioned in the report are emails showing that guidance about the state’s plans for post-ERIC voter list maintenance wasn’t provided to local election authorities until months after the state withdrew.

In Cochise County, Ariz., which has become a hotbed for election denialism in recent years, some county officials are attempting to educate residents on how elections are administered, hoping to increase faith in the democratic process, Votebeat’s Jen Fifield reported this week.

• Officials have held demonstrations of how voting machines work and answered the public’s questions in efforts to rebuild trust after the 2022 midterm elections, during which Cochise County supervisors tried to illegally hand-count ballots and refused to certify election results. 
• Last year, two of the county’s supervisors were indicted by a state grand jury and charged with conspiring to delay the counting of the 2022 votes and interfering with the Arizona secretary of state’s ability to complete the statewide totaling of votes. 
• Earlier this month, we sued Cochise County for records regarding the county’s recent election administration decisions, including officials’ refusal to meet Arizona’s certification deadline and other significant changes. With the 2024 election looming, the public, especially Cochise County residents, should know how officials aligned with the election denial movement have used their authority to make significant changes to election administration and to undermine our democratic processes.

Wisconsin Impeachment Panel Records Update
On Thursday, the Dane County Circuit Court in Wisconsin held a status conference in American Oversight’s lawsuit against the once-secret panel of former state Supreme Court justices that Assembly Speaker Robin Vos convened last year for advice on the potential impeachment of a newly elected justice. 

• The panel members’ names were previously revealed through American Oversight’s lawsuit and public reporting. 
• During a hearing last month, Judge Frank Remington ruled the former justices who made up the panel had released all public records related to their work to American Oversight. He affirmed that ruling Thursday.
• “Now that our requests for records held by the panel members are resolved, we will work to ensure that all of the records held by Speaker Vos are provided to the public as required by Wisconsin law,” American Oversight’s Executive Director Heather Sawyer said in a statement last month.
• The court scheduled an additional status conference for March 5 to discuss Vos’ compliance with the public records portion of our lawsuit.

On the Records

Georgia’s ‘Unborn Child Tax Exemption’ Guidance
In July 2022, as abortion-rights opponents sought to capitalize on the previous month’s Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade, officials in Georgia’s Department of Revenue (DOR) were grappling with how to issue guidance on another provision in HB 481, the state’s recent six-week abortion-ban law: an “unborn child” tax exemption.

• The records we obtained show DOR officials discussing the need for HB 481 guidance in May 2022, following the leak of the Supreme Court’s draft Dobbs opinion, and later fielding questions from tax professionals once the guidance had been issued.
• On May 4, DOR’s assistant deputy commissioner for tax operations emailed the deputy state revenue commissioner and several other department officials and noted that they would “[p]robably need to chat about HB 481 over the next month.” 
• Even after DOR issued guidance on Aug. 1, 2022, significant questions remained. An executive from the Georgia Society of CPAs told a DOR official that he was “getting all kinds of questions on this as you can imagine, and I know y’all are getting the same.”
• We obtained these records as part of our investigation into efforts to restrict abortion rights. Learn more about our ongoing investigation here.

Other Stories We’re Following

Election Denial and Threats to Democracy

• Arizona GOP boss quits after leaked tape shows him floating a job for Kari Lake to skip Senate race (Associated Press)
• Inside an election denial Facebook group on primary day (WIRED)
• Fake Joe Biden robocall urges New Hampshire voters not to vote in Tuesday’s Democratic primary (CNN)
• Election distrust in Cochise County runs deep, and change is slow to come (Votebeat)
• A Wisconsin redo election signals growing ballot scrutiny in US (Wisconsin Watch)

Voting Rights

• Why some Texas election leaders are scrambling to find more polling locations, machines and workers (Texas Tribune)
• Republican lawmakers in Pennsylvania challenge state, federal actions to boost voter registration (Associated Press)
• Republican legislators revive independent state legislature theory in new Pennsylvania lawsuit (Democracy Docket)
• ​Iowa Medicaid process likely leaves poor off voter rolls, violates federal law, advocates say (Iowa Capital Dispatch)
• Ohio attorney general rejects voting-rights coalition’s ballot petition for a 2nd time (Associated Press)
• Bill blocks Kansas counties from sending unsolicited advance ballot applications to voters (Kansas Reflector)
• Federal judge temporarily blocks provision of North Carolina voter suppression law (Democracy Docket)
• Tennessee GOP leaders see no issue with state’s voting-rights restoration system (Associated Press)

In the States

• House Elections Committee: Don’t say ‘conspiracy theory’ (Arizona Mirror)
• Ex-Rep. Daire Rendon, facing charges in tabulator scheme, wins Mich. GOP leadership post (Detroit News)

LGBTQ Rights

• Ohio lawmakers ban gender-affirming care for minors, overriding governor’s veto (Washington Post)
• Ohio board stands by disqualification of transgender candidate, despite others being allowed to run (Associated Press)
• Trans people in Florida prisons say gender-affirming care ban upended their health care (Marshall Project)
• Bathroom restrictions for transgender kids added to Missouri ‘parents bill of rights’ (Missouri Independent)
• Nebraska HHS makes no changes to draft regs on gender care for trans minors after public hearing (Nebraska Examiner)
• Iowa Republicans set hearing on bill removing civil rights protections for gender identity (Des Moines Register)

Abortion and Reproductive Rights

• Biden administration announces new abortion initiatives on Roe anniversary (NBC News)
• New Iowa bill places extreme restrictions on abortion pill access, adds scare tactics and felony convictions (Iowa Starting Line)
• Iowa HHS prepares to begin providing state funds to crisis pregnancy centers (Iowa Capital Dispatch)
• She filed a complaint after being denied an abortion. The government shut her down. (Washington Post)
• Abortion ban states have seen 65K pregnancies from rape, study estimates (Axios)
• Mississippi ballot initiative proposal would not allow changes to abortion laws (Associated Press)
• DOJ tells SCOTUS curbing abortion pill access ‘threatens profound harms’ (Axios)
• ​Wisconsin Republicans approve bill banning abortions after 14 weeks of pregnancy (Associated Press)
• Ohio abortion services still struggle with funding as anti-abortion causes get more from state (Ohio Capital Journal)

Threats to Education

• West Virginia GOP majority pushes contentious bills arming teachers, restricting bathrooms, books (Associated Press)
• House education committee advances bill for transgender bathroom ban in schools (West Virginia Watch)
• Vote on Native studies class for Texas schools postponed (Dallas Morning News)
• UT eliminates scholarship, program for undocumented students following Texas’ DEI ban (Dallas Morning News)
• Amid push to ban DEI in Utah, its top higher-ed official warns of ‘untested’ outcome (Chronicle of Higher Education)
• GOP bill would use state money to fund UW free speech office (Wisconsin Examiner)

Government Transparency and Public Records Law

• Oklahoma State Senator authors bill to limit freedom of the press (Public Radio Tulsa)
• Gov. Josh Shapiro’s admin blames ‘human error’ for deletion of Pa. State Police records (Spotlight PA)
• Superior Court orders government entity to pay $130,000 in FOAA case (Maine Public)
• WA lawmakers consider limiting the legal action people seeking public records can take (Olympian)
• Jefferson DA charges grieving father $18,000 for public records, leading to lawsuit (Louisiana Illuminator)
• Iowa lawmakers advance hefty fines for open meetings law violations (Daily Iowan)
• Ohio Supreme Court: State Highway Patrol expenses to protect governor not public record (Ohio Capital Journal)

Immigration

• Supreme Court allows federal agents to cut razor wire Texas installed on US-Mexico border (Associated Press)
• Texas’ border standoff with feds continues, despite U.S. Supreme Court order (Texas Tribune)
• GOP governors show support for Texas in border standoff (Politico)
• With beds scarce and winter bearing down, a tent camp grows outside NYC’s largest migrant shelter (Associated Press)

Trump Accountability

• Maine’s top court dismisses an appeal of a judge’s decision on Trump’s ballot status (Associated Press)
• The conservative legal world lines up behind Donald Trump at the Supreme Court (CNN)

Jan. 6 Investigations

• Former Trump adviser Peter Navarro sentenced to 4 months in jail for defying congressional subpoena (CNN)
• Federal appeals court lets Trump gag order stand in federal January 6 case (CNN)