The American Democracy Minute Radio News Report & Podcast for June 5, 2025

We’ve been revisiting election denial hotspots this week, five years after the 2020 election. Monday, June 9th, a civil trial begins against My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell, accused of defaming former Dominion Voting Systems election security expert, Dr. Eric Coomer. 

Coomer, former director of product strategy and security for Dominion, found himself accused in a conspiracy theory claiming Coomer admitted rigging the election, and his life was threatened.  Broadcasters, podcasters, Lindell and others allegedly repeated the claim, resulting in Coomer bringing five suits, two in Denver district court, and three in federal district court.  Dominion itself settled with Fox News for $787.5 million dollars. 

Two defendants, far right broadcasters OAN and NewsMax, settled their cases with Coomer.  Others tried to use Colorado’s statute giving courts the power to dismiss meritless defamation cases where defendants prove they were exercising free speech.  So far, the courts have found for Coomer, and his cases were allowed to go forward.  

Lindell told The Bulwark that he would be taking the stand in his defense.  The witness list also reportedly includes former Mesa County, Colorado Clerk, Tina Peters, convicted of giving unauthorized access to the county’s Dominion Voting Systems electronic ballot tabulators to investigators tied to Lindell.   

Lindell told a DC federal court in April he could not afford judgement in the case he lost to voting systems company Smartmatic.  

We have more at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org. I’m Brian Beihl.

Today’s Links

Articles & Resources: 

Colorado Public Radio – (2020)  Election Conspiracy Theorists Focused On One Man In Colorado. His Life Will Never Be The Same
American Democracy Minute – (2023) Judge Rules Fox News Lied About Dominion Voting Systems Being Linked to Fraud; Sends Case to Jury Trial
Colorado Public Radio – (2023) Former Dominion Voting employee waits for his day(s) in court on multiple suits
Colorado Public Radio – (2024) Former Dominion employee defamation suit against Trump campaign can continue, court says
Courthouse News Service – (2025) Colorado appeals court greenlights Dominion Voting defamation claims against conservative radio host
The Bulwark – Mike Lindell Is Texting Me From His Defamation Trial
Colorado Politics – My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell defamation trial starts in Denver

Register or Check Your Voter Registration:

U.S. Election Assistance Commission – Register And Vote in Your State

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#News #Democracy  #DemocracyNews #MyPillow #MikeLindell #ElectionDeniers #DominionVotingSystems

The post Civil Trial Against My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell Starts June 9 for Allegedly Defaming Former Dominion Voting Systems Exec appeared first on American Democracy Minute.

The American Democracy Minute Radio News Report & Podcast for June 2, 2025

Almost five years after the election, impacts of debunked 2020 election fraud claims by President Donald Trump and his allies still reverberate.  We’re back in Shasta County, California, where once again, supervisors have stoked an election-denier dumpster fire. 

We last covered Shasta County when its county supervisors chose to drop electronic ballot tabulators and instead hand count ballots for the 2024 presidential election, against the recommendations of county election officials.  With over 111,000 registered voters, it would have taken days, not hours, to count the ballots.  The State of California forced the county to follow state standards and use tabulators, which are faster, cheaper and more accurate than hand counting. 

Recently, some of those same supervisors appointed an interim Registrar of Voters with no experience, Clint Curtis.  Curtis, after two weeks on the job, fired assistant registrar Joanna Francescut, with 17 years of experience in running elections.  

The Shasta Scout reports that Curtis recently said he needed to train the staff to run an election “the right way,” despite statements that he is suspicious of optical ballot readers, wants to reduce the number of state mandated ballot drop boxes, and wants ballots printed locally, not by a specialized ballot printer.   

Curtis has announced plans to run for the permanent registrar position in June 2026. Francescut has already announced her plans to run against him. 

We have more on Shasta County at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org. I’m Brian Beihl.  

Today’s Links

Articles & Resources:

American Democracy Minute – (2023) Shasta County Almost Hand-Counted Its Ballots in November. Instead, it Lost an Expensive Game of Election Denial Chicken with the State of California
American Democracy Minute – (2024) Five States Are Considering Conspiracy-Fueled Legislation Which Bans Ballot Tabulators.  But Fed-Up Voters are Pushing Back.
Shasta County Scout – After Four Days in his Appointed Role As Registrar of Voters, Clint Curtis Announces Campaign During Private “Town Hall”
Shasta County Scout – New Shasta County Election Official Terminates Top Staffer
SF Gate – ‘Calm anger’: After 17 years, Shasta elections official suddenly fired 

Groups Taking Action:

Common Cause California,  League of Women Voters Redding

Register or Check Your Voter Registration:

U.S. Election Assistance Commission – Register And Vote in Your State

Please follow us on Facebook and Bluesky Social, and SHARE! 

Find all of our reports at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org

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Are you a radio station?  Find our broadcast files at Pacifica Radio Network’s Audioport and PRX

#News #Democracy  #DemocracyNews #ShastaCounty #ElectionDeniers #ProtectElections #ElectionWorkers

The post Five Years After the 2020 Election, More Election Denier Turmoil in Shasta County, CA appeared first on American Democracy Minute.

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for March 14, 2025

More Trump administration mass layoffs at CISA have experts raising concerns over U.S. readiness for cyber attacks on election infrastructure and federal agency networks.  An additional 100 inhouse and contracted cyber specialists were terminated in early March.  

The terminations raise the number of layoffs at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency to an estimated 300, though new CISA leadership has denied recent layoffs. The agency was created in 2017 to protect the U.S. from both foreign and domestic cyber attacks, and serves all agencies of the U.S. government.  

As we reported in February, a team assisting state election officials in improving and hardening election systems from foreign and domestic hackers was laid off.  Votebeat reported March 11th that CISA’s new leadership informed state election officials that it had suspended operations and funding for the Election Infrastructure Information Sharing and Analysis Center. 

In addition, a McCarthy-like effort is underway to purge CISA staffers who ran 2020 efforts to combat foreign and domestic disinformation in social media, some concocted by the Trump campaign and its allies.  

Reports in cybersecurity journals say the latest layoffs involve so-called “Red Teams” which pressure test the security of government networks.   CBS News quoted one cybersecurity expert let go in February as saying about U.S. infrastructure,  “We’re being targeted daily, hourly and every single minute.”

We have more at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org I’m Brian Beihl. 

Today’s Links

Articles & Resources:

American Democracy Minute –  CISA Pauses All Election Security Programs for Full Review

The Register – CISA pen-tester says 100-strong red team binned after DOGE canceled contract
CISA – Statement on CISA’s Red Team
Infosecurity Magazine – Trump Administration Shakes Up CISA with Staff and Funding Cuts
TechCrunch – DOGE axes CISA ‘red team’ staffers amid ongoing federal cuts

CBS News – Cybersecurity agency’s top recruits decimated by DOGE cuts
Center for Internet Security – “Due to the termination of funding by the Department of Homeland Security, the Center for Internet Security no longer supports the EI-ISAC.”

Groups Taking Action:

Common Cause Election Disinformation, Protect Democracy, Election Worker Legal Defense Network,  Center for Internet Security/ISA, IssueOne/Don’t Mess With US.org

Register or Check Your Voter Registration:

U.S. Election Assistance Commission – Register And Vote in Your State

Please follow us on Facebook and Bluesky Social, and SHARE! 

Find all of our reports at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org

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Are you a radio station?  Find our broadcast files at Pacifica Radio Network’s Audioport and PRX

#Democracy  #DemocracyNews #ProtectElections #CISA #DOGE #ElectionIntegrity

The post DOGE Cuts 300 Experts From CISA’s Election Security Team and U.S. Agency Cybersecurity; Funding for State Cybersecurity Also Suspended appeared first on American Democracy Minute.

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for Feb. 17, 2025

Today’s Script

(Variations occur with audio due to editing for time. Today’s Links below the script)

The interim head of CISA, charged with protecting America’s critical cybersecurity infrastructure, including for elections, just issued a memo pausing all election protection operations, pending a review.  Hint:  It’s about countering Trump’s 2020 election claims.

WIRED Magazine reports the interim director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, Bridget Bean, ordered a full review of the agency’s election programs since its inception in 2017, including programs countering misinformation and disinformation.  In 2020, this included correcting claims by President Donald Trump that the 2020 Presidential election was somehow rigged to benefit Joe Biden.  Far right Conservatives complained that CISA’s pressuring of social media companies to remove the bogus claims censored free speech.

We reported in July 2023 that under the Biden administration, CISA added staff as liaisons and consultants to state and local election officials.  They advised 8,000 jurisdictions on hardening election systems from very real and ongoing attacks by Russia, China and Iran prior to the 2024 election. February 7th, 17 CISA election staffers were placed on leave, 10 from the state election programs.  

In ordering the review, Bean said CISA would “correct any activities identified as past misconduct by the Federal Government related to censorship of protected speech,” according to WIRED’s reporting.

Vladimir Putin will be glad to hear it.  We’ve linked to the reporting and resources at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org.   I’m Brian Beihl.

Today’s Links

Articles & Resources:

American Democracy Minute – (2023) U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Head Announces Additional Election Security Advisors to Assist States in Securing Elections
Cybersecurity Infrastructure Security Agency  – (2024)  2024 Year in Review
Politico – Trump continues federal purge, gutting cyber workers who combat disinformation
Mother Jones – Trump Is Gutting Efforts to Combat Foreign Election Interference
WIRED – Top US Election Security Watchdog Forced to Stop Election Security Work
Cyberscoop – CISA election, disinformation officials placed on administrative leave, sources say

Groups Taking Action:

Common Cause Election Disinformation, Protect Democracy, Election Worker Legal Defense Network,  Center for Internet Security/ISA, IssueOne/Don’t Mess With US.org

Register or Check Your Voter Registration:

U.S. Election Assistance Commission – Register And Vote in Your State

Please follow us on Facebook and Bluesky Social, and SHARE! 

Find all of our reports at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org

Want ADM sent to your email?  Sign up here!

Are you a radio station?  Find our broadcast files at Pacifica Radio Network’s Audioport and PRX

#Democracy  #DemocracyNews #ProtectElections #CISA #ForeignInterference

The post CISA Pauses All Election Security Programs for Full Review.  Hint:  It’s Not About Election Integrity, It’s Reprisal for Telling the Truth. appeared first on American Democracy Minute.

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for Feb. 10, 2025

Today’s Script

(Variations occur with audio due to editing for time. Today’s Links below the script)

We’re in Wisconsin today, where a candidate for state supreme court had her image manipulated by AI in an opponent’s attack ad, and the state high court allowed the state’s embattled elections board administrator to stay, after three years of conspiracy-driven attacks by state GOP leaders.

The campaign of former Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel has admitted it used AI to manipulate an image of his opponent, Dane County circuit court judge Susan Crawford.  An ethics complaint was filed February 5th with the Wisconsin Ethics Commission.  The Schimel campaign manipulated a photo with Crawford smiling and told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel it used AI to make her look “ashamed.” Wisconsin Act 123 requires disclosure of such manipulation and has fines of up to $1000 dollars per instance. 

In a story we’ve followed since 2023, the Wisconsin Supreme Court has allowed Wisconsin Elections Commission Administrator Meagan Wolfe to stay in her job, despite not being reappointed by the GOP-dominated legislature.  Wolfe has been vilified by election deniers for recommending the mailing of absentee ballots to nursing home residents during pandemic, rather than putting residents and election officials at risk. Conspiracy theorists claim Wolfe attempted to sway the 2020 election results. A partisan deadlock on the Elections Commission and court precedents have prevented her from being replaced for almost two years.  

We have local reporting and more at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org.   I’m Brian Beihl.

Today’s Links

Articles & Resources:

Wisconsin Legislative Council –  2023 WISCONSIN ACT 123
Schimel Campaign on X – Attack ad on WI Supreme Court candidate Susan Crawford
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel – Schimel campaign acknowledges altering photo in ad to make opponent Crawford look ‘ashamed’
Wisconsin Politics – Crawford campaign: Files ethics complaint, urges thorough investigation over manipulated image used by Brad Schimel
American Democracy Minute – (2023) Wisconsin Senate Election Deniers Vote to Oust the State’s Election Director for Recommending 2020 Pandemic Voting Accommodations
Wisconsin Watch – Meagan Wolfe can stay on as Wisconsin’s top election official, state Supreme Court rules

Wisconsin Examiner – Wisconsin Supreme Court unanimously finds WEC administrator can stay in job

Register or Check Your Voter Registration:

U.S. Election Assistance Commission – Register And Vote in Your State

Please follow us on Facebook and Bluesky Social, and SHARE! 

Find all of our reports at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org

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Are you a radio station?  Find our broadcast files at Pacifica Radio Network’s Audioport and PRX

#Democracy  #DemocracyNews #WINews #WisconsinElection #AIEthics #MeaganWolfe

The post In WI, State Supreme Court Candidate’s Image Altered by AI in Opponent’s Attack Ad; Election Commission Administrator Targeted by Conspiracy Theorists Allowed to Stay appeared first on American Democracy Minute.