The Georgia Court of Appeals will likely take at least five months to decide whether to remove Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis from an election interference case against Donald Trump, diminishing the likelihood that the trial will conclude — or even begin — before this year’s presidential election, the Georgia Recorder reported.

                                      “Super.” (Photo by Ross Williams/Georgia Recorder)

A three-judge panel agreed Wednesday to hear the appeal from Trump and eight co-defendants, who argued that Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee erred in allowing Willis to remain on the case once Nathan Wade, a special prosecutor and Willis’ ex-boyfriend, stepped down. That relationship, which began after Willis hired Wade to work on the case, constituted a conflict of interest, according to Trump’s attorneys.

It’s relatively rare for an appeals panel to review a lower court decision before a case goes to trial, particularly when the ruling is based more on the discretion of a judge than on the law, said Danny Porter, former district attorney for Georgia’s Gwinnett County. Who knows why — the court, as usual, did not explain its reasons for granting what’s known as “interlocutory appeal” — but it’s probably fair to assume that the historic nature of the case influenced the decision, Porter said.

“The Court of Appeals could be trying to more or less clear the decks to get the issue resolved so it doesn’t hang over the trial one way or the other,” he said. “That may be the most charitable explanation. It’s hard to say why they do what they do, but it’s unusual to grant an interlocutory appeal.”

                                                  It is, indeed, hard to say why they do what they do. (Photo by Ariana Figueroa/States Newsroom)

Also unusual: Noncitizens voting in federal elections, which is barred by federal law and occurred just 29 times between 2003 and 2023, according to an analysis by the right-wing Heritage Foundation. This is, in other words, not a problem — but don’t worry, congressional Republicans are still here to fix it! Their proposal, announced Wednesday by House Speaker Mike Johnson, would amend the National Voter Registration Act to require proof of citizenship to cast a ballot in a federal election, per reporting from our bureau in D.C.

“There is currently an unprecedented and a clear and present danger to the integrity of our election system, and that is the threat of noncitizens and illegal aliens voting in our elections,” Johnson said from a podium adorned with a placard bearing the (seemingly unironic) slogan “Americans decide American elections.” To his right stood former Trump aide Stephen Miller, the de facto spokesman for blaming things on immigrants, along with Cleta Mitchell, a key player in Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election.

It was a fitting tableau for a wholly unserious bill that aims to stoke fear and undermine election integrity by outlawing something that is already illegal to “fix” a nonexistent “problem” that can be easily blamed on whatever minority group most scares and/or angers GOP base voters in a given community. The legislation won’t pass, at least not while Democrats control the Senate and the White House, which doesn’t really matter because policy is rarely the point for the “just here to burn it all down” caucus. This proposal exists for two reasons: To bolster support for the embattled Johnson and to remind voters of Trump’s anti-immigration platform, at the expense of both Americans’ confidence in their election system and their view of noncitizens.

“It’s nothing more than a messaging bill designed to stoke fear and undermine confidence in our democracy,” said Sam Oliker-Friedland, executive director of the Institute for Responsive Government Action. “There is no evidence to support the claim that there are waves of noncitizens voting.”

                                           These are stickers, not evidence. (Photo by Getty Images)

There is no evidence for most GOP-approved election talking points, either, but they keep on repeating those, too. A trio of Republicans running for secretary of state in Oregon have parroted claims of voter fraud but declined to provide specifics, including details about what they would do differently than their predecessors, the Oregon Capital Chronicle reported.

Those officials “believe that they have the best information,” according to Brent Barker, a small business owner and one of the three candidates. “But there’s a whole group of Oregonians that do not believe that their voice is being heard and more importantly, they feel like their voice is being disenfranchised.”

Barker could not explain how that might change under his leadership, which is probably related to the fact that he has not toured local election offices or spoken with county officials to learn how they run elections. But he’d consider doing that, he said.

Last month in Florida, a handful of insurgent GOP challengers vying for county-level election positions convened a press conference to air their conspiracy theories, the Florida Phoenix reported. One alleged that the state’s election supervisors aren’t enforcing state election law. Another maligned a long-serving Democratic supervisor solely because of her long tenure. Billy Christensen, a self-described “true American patriot who has served our nation in various capacities,” offered more details in his tirade, telling the audience that he had “personally witnesses concerning security threats” in Hillsborough County, “including exposed wifi server and modem data connected to voting tabulators and unattended and unaccountable flash drives that contain sensitive voter data.”

                                          Worst tailgate party ever. (Photo by Mitch Perry/Florida Phoenix)

None of this is true, of course. And Christensen knew it, according to Craig Latimer, a Democrat who has served as Hillsborough County’s supervisor of elections for 12 years.

“The flash drives he refers to are a critical component in ensuring the security of our tabulation process. Those drives — which did not contain any sensitive voter data — were used to download Logic & Accuracy test files from our air-gapped election server, so that the files could be exported to the Division of Elections, as required by the Department of State,” Latimer said. “I wish I could say that Mr. Christensen’s misguided allegation is due to his lack of knowledge — but my office provided this information to him in response to his public records request so there really is no excuse for making this false and misleading claim.”

There was evidence of election misconduct in Michigan, where two Republicans are facing criminal charges for allegedly allowing an unauthorized computer technician to access voter data in a misguided attempt to root out nonexistent fraud in the 2020 election, the Michigan Advance reported.

Prosecutors contend that former Adams Township Clerk Stephanie Scott ignored multiple requests to submit a voting tabulator to an authorized vendor for maintenance and testing, withholding the machine until it was seized by state police executing a search warrant. She faces five felony charges and one misdemeanor, collectively punishable by more than 27 years in prison. The attorney general’s office also charged Stefanie Lambert Juntilla, Scott’s pro-Trump attorney, with three felonies for allegedly transmitting data from the township’s electronic poll book.

“Ensuring election security and integrity stands as the cornerstone of our democracy,” said Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, a Democrat. “When elected officials and their proxies use their positions to promote baseless conspiracies, show blatant disregard for voter privacy, and break the law in the process, it undermines the very essence of the democratic process. Those who engage in such reckless conduct must be held accountable for their actions.”