That’s the Ticket
Plus: Developments in Arizona. 🗳️
Published August 9, 2024
Now that both major parties have selected their presidential and vice presidential nominees for the 2024 election, voters can more fully understand the stakes for our free and fair elections.
The election offers a sharp contrast between election denial that’s stuck in the past and a forward-looking pro-democracy message.
In the presidential race, Donald Trump used his convention speech to repeat familiar lies about the 2020 election. Just last week, he attacked Republicans in Georgia who stood up to him when he tried to steal that election. Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance, has said there was “large-scale” illegal voting in 2020. That is false, and it smears the thousands of election officials who make sure our elections are secure and accurate. Vance has also raised unfounded doubts about this year’s election.
In contrast, Vice President Kamala Harris has worked to protect the freedom to vote during her tenure in office. Her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, has showed the power state officials have to make elections stronger. In his state, Walz has lowered barriers to voting, made elections more accessible, protected election workers from intimidation, and protected voters from deceptive deepfakes. These are among the many steps a governor can take to preserve and improve democracy.
A reminder: As election season ramps up, voters can get the facts at ElectionDeniers.org—not just for the presidential race, but for Congress and statewide elections, too.
This Week in Democracy
- After a virtual roll call, Vice President Kamala Harris officially became the Democratic nominee for president and chose Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz to be her running mate. Walz is a pro-democracy governor who has signed multiple bills into law that protect voters’ rights, defend against voter suppression, and make voting easier and more accessible for Minnesotans.
- Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes announced that former Trump lawyer Jenna Ellis would cooperate with her investigation into the 2020 fake electors scheme. Lorraine Pellegrino, one of Arizona’s fake electors, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor in the case, becoming the first person involved in the scheme to accept criminal responsibility.
- Justice Department Special Counsel Jack Smith asked for three more weeks to prepare for the next hearing in Donald Trump’s federal election interference case. Judge Tanya Chutkan previously set the next hearing for August 16. Last week, Chutkan denied Trump’s motion to dismiss the entire case.
➡️ READ: Trump’s federal charges, explained
- The U.S. Supreme Court denied Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey’s attempt to block or delay Trump’s sentencing in his criminal hush money case in New York. The sentencing hearing remains scheduled for September 18.
- A bipartisan group of five secretaries of state sent a letter to Elon Musk, the chairman of X (formerly Twitter), urging him to make changes to X’s chatbot, which has been giving its users inaccurate answers to questions about elections. “This issue underlines the importance of checking with trusted sources of election information, such as your state or local election officials to get accurate information about the election process,” New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver said.
State of the States
In Nevada, Elko County commissioners voted down a proposal to count ballots by hand in November, concluding that it would not meet state guidelines for conducting a hand count. These guidelines are in place to keep the risks of hand counting ballots as the primary method of tabulation—an inherently more costly, error-prone, and slower method of counting ballots—to a minimum.
After the vote, Republican Commissioner Jon Karr said that claims of widespread voter fraud are “one of those urban legends that’s spread like wildfire, and none of it’s true,” and that debating hand counting harms the elections department. “To me, it gives doubt on their integrity as well, and that’s where I get rather emotional and strongly disagree,” he said.
➡️ READ: The Reality of Full Hand Counts: A Guide for Election Officials