voter fraud

Valerie Lemmie discusses how people can build trust in their communities and continue the battle of keeping democracy alive.

A right-wing campaign has targeted a once-obscure voting partnership called ERIC. Missouri and seven other Republican states have now pulled out, giving the election denial movement a big win — and a blueprint for 2024.

Johnson County Sheriff Calvin Hayden has been investigating election results for over a year, but has so far failed to produce any confirmed cases of voter fraud. An open records request revealed only a single case that has been referred to the district attorney, who said there was no evidence to support criminal charges.

Florida, Missouri and West Virginia announced they're pulling out of the Electronic Registration Information Center, or ERIC, the only system states have to share voter registration data. The system has been the target of a sustained misinformation campaign from the far-right.

The Missouri House passed a GOP-backed bill that would increase the threshold needed for voter approval of a proposed constitutional amendment. But the first language that Missourians actually asks whether the constitution should be amended to “allow only citizens" to vote — something that's already clear under state law.

The race featured a Democratic political newcomer against a Republican who lost the general election race for governor in 2018.

Some have raised suspicions about the security of the election process nationwide. In Missouri, election materials and the certification of the vote are constantly managed by a bipartisan team of election judges.

The sheer number of requests is overwhelming some elections offices as they prepare for the Nov. 8 election. And many fear turning over the records could compromise the secrecy of a voter’s ballot

U.S. District Judge Daniel Crabtree denied a request by six Kansans to intervene in the upcoming election. Crabtree said the plaintiffs, who claimed the devices were vulnerable to Chinese communists, were “long on suspicion, contingency and hypothesis, but short on facts.”

Sept. 15 is the International Day of Democracy. Alarms are sounding that democracy in America — once the example to the world — is in danger.

Calvin Hayden's office says it's still conducting a months-long investigation into 2020 and 2021 election results in Johnson County, despite a lack of evidence. “I’m really making them mad and I don’t care,” he said of other county officials.

Missouri's Secretary of State defends a new election law requiring anyone who wants to cast a ballot to have a form of government-issued photo identification. Two lawsuits have already been filed to block the restrictions from taking effect.