With election season already underway, some state election officials are expressing frustration that Congress has yet to allocate federal money they have come to rely on.

Fox News’ nearly $800 million settlement of a voting machine company’s defamation lawsuit marks the first milestone in a larger legal strategy designed to combat the false claims and conspiracy theories about elections that have rippled through the U.S. for nearly three years.

Tom Wolf's cabinet under a cloud that has nothing to do with last year's election. But after navigating the sea of challenges in 2020, Boockvar is leaving her job in Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf's Cabinet on Friday under a cloud that has nothing to do with last year's election. I head the agency.”Neither Boockvar nor Wolf's press secretary would say whether the governor asked for or demanded her resignation. AdShe was a senior advisor to Wolf on election modernization before the governor elevated her to be secretary of state in January 2019.

WASHINGTON – The federal government recognized President-elect Joe Biden as the “apparent winner” of the Nov. 3 election, formally starting the transition of power after President Donald Trump spent weeks testing the boundaries of American democracy. The Republican president had grown increasingly frustrated with the flailing tactics of his legal team. “Unfortunately, every day lost to the delayed ascertainment was a missed opportunity for the outgoing administration to help President-elect Joe Biden prepare to meet our country’s greatest challenges," he said. President-elect Biden won the State of Michigan by more than 154,000 votes, and he will be our next president on January 20th,” Michigan Gov. Trump was increasingly frustrated by his legal team, led by former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, whose erratic public performances drew bipartisan mockery in recent weeks.

U.S. District Court Judge Matthew Brann wrote in his order that Trump had asked the court to disenfranchise almost 7 million voters. “That has not happened.”Even if he'd won the Pennsylvania case, Trump would have needed to win other lawsuits in other states where he'd also asked to delay certification. Some Trump allies have expressed hope that state lawmakers could intervene in selecting Republican electors. Brann ruled that Pennsylvania officials can certify election results that currently show Biden winning the state by more than 80,000 votes. Opposing lawyer Mark Aronchick suggested Giuliani must not know the Pennsylvania election code.

A hearing on the Trump campaign's federal lawsuit seeking to prevent Pennsylvania officials from certifying the vote results remains on track for Tuesday after a judge quickly denied the campaign's new lawyer's request for a delay. The Trump campaign wants to prevent certification of results that give President-elect Joe Biden the state's 20 electoral votes, suing over election procedures that were not uniform across the state. After Pittsburgh lawyers dropped out of representing Trump's campaign on Friday, Philadelphia election lawyer Linda Kerns and two Texas lawyers also withdrew Monday. The Trump legal challenge centers on how some counties let voters fix, or “cure,” mail-in ballots that lacked secrecy envelopes or had other problems. In a court filing last week, a group represented by the ACLU of Pennsylvania argued that giving the Trump campaign what he is seeking would create its own constitutional problems.

Here’s a closer look at this dubious claim:CLAIM: Dead people in Pennsylvania and Michigan voted in the 2020 presidential election. THE FACTS: There is no proof of foul play involving deceased voters in the election, according to officials in both states. After social media users circulated videos that purportedly showed the names of dead voters in Michigan, The AP contacted one of the people named. Throughout the pandemic, social media posts showed seniors casting votes through mail-in ballots for the 2020 election. The lawsuit was dropped in June 2020 after election officials updated voter rolls.

With a few reports of overly aggressive poll watchers, election officials said they were carefully balancing access with the need to minimize disruptions. Voting advocates noted the restrictions applied to both Republican and Democratic poll watchers. “There are specific rules in Pennsylvania about where poll watchers can stand and what they can do,” said Suzanne Almeida, interim director of Common Cause Pennsylvania. This is not about disadvantaging one party over another.”The number of poll watchers allowed at an election office varies. Also Thursday, a Michigan judge dismissed a Trump campaign lawsuit over whether enough Republican poll watchers had access to the handling of absentee ballots.

With a few reports of overly aggressive poll watchers, election officials said they were carefully balancing access with the need to minimize disruptions. Voting advocates noted the restrictions applied to both Republican and Democratic poll watchers. “There are specific rules in Pennsylvania about where poll watchers can stand and what they can do,” said Suzanne Almeida, interim director of Common Cause Pennsylvania. This is not about disadvantaging one party over another.”The number of poll watchers allowed at an election office varies. Also Thursday, a Michigan judge dismissed a Trump campaign lawsuit over whether enough Republican poll watchers had access to the handling of absentee ballots.

Do not wait.”With about 700,000 of some 3.1 million requested mail ballots in Pennsylvania still outstanding, some voters like 57-year-old Daniel Pigott took the warning to heart. All absentee ballots must be received in Wisconsin by the close of polls on Tuesday night. Darnesha Coleman, 32, stood in a long line Monday alongside her 80-year-old grandmother to vote at a Detroit polling place after absentee ballots they requested never showed up. “We are too close to Election Day, and the right to vote is too important, to rely on the Postal Service to deliver absentee ballots on time,” she said last week. The Postal Service said it could not guarantee ballots mailed after Oct. 27 would arrive by Election Day, a message at the heart of candidates’ last-minute pleas for support.

The matter could find its way to the Supreme Court, especially if those ballots could tip the outcome in the battleground state. The Supreme Court refused to block it, but several conservative justices have indicated they could revisit the issue after the election. The Supreme Court generally does not second guess state courts when they rely on their own constitutions. The Supreme Court has never cited Bush v. Gore as the basis for a decision of the court. Barrett, Kavanaugh and Justice Neil Gorsuch are the three Trump appointees on a court that now has a 6-3 conservative advantage.

WASHINGTON – U.S. officials have accused Iran of being behind a flurry of emails sent to Democratic voters in multiple battleground states that appeared to be aimed at intimidating them into voting for President Donald Trump. Iran sent spoofed emails designed to intimidate voters and sow unrest and also distributed a video that falsely suggested voters could cast fraudulent ballots from overseas, Ratcliffe said. Though Democratic voters were targeted, Ratcliffe said the spoofed emails were intended to harm Trump, though he did not elaborate how. The operation represented something of a departure in cyber-ops for Iran, which sought for the first time on record to undermine voter confidence. “These emails are meant to intimidate and undermine American voters’ confidence in our elections,” Christopher Krebs, the top election security official at the Department of Homeland Security, tweeted Tuesday night after reports of the emails first surfaced.

(AP Photo/Elaine Thompson, File)WASHINGTON – U.S. officials said Thursday that Russian hackers have targeted the networks of dozens of state and local governments in the United States in recent days, stealing data from at least two servers. “However, the actor may be seeking access to obtain future disruption options, to influence U.S. policies and actions, or to delegitimize (state and local) government entities,” the advisory said. He said the alert was issued in regard to the scanning of county networks for vulnerabilities, not specifically to the targeting of elections. As of October 1, the advisory said, the hackers have exfiltrated data from at least two servers. Hultquist said he does not think Energetic Bear has the ability to directly affect the U.S. vote but fears it could disrupt local and state government networks proximate to the systems that process votes.

Officials say Russia and Iran have obtained some voter registration data, aiming to interfere in the November election. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, Pool, File)WASHINGTON – U.S. officials have accused Iran of being behind a flurry of emails sent to Democratic voters in multiple battleground states that appeared to be aimed at intimidating them into voting for President Donald Trump. Iran sent spoofed emails designed to intimidate voters and sow unrest and also distributed a video that falsely suggested voters could cast fraudulent ballots from overseas, Ratcliffe said. Though Democratic voters were targeted, Ratcliffe said the spoofed emails were intended to harm Trump, though he did not elaborate how. “These emails are meant to intimidate and undermine American voters’ confidence in our elections,” Christopher Krebs, the top election security official at the Department of Homeland Security, tweeted Tuesday night after reports of the emails first surfaced.

BOSTON – U.S. officials accused Iran on Wednesday of being behind a flurry of emails sent to Democratic voters in multiple battleground states that appeared to be aimed at intimidating them into voting for President Donald Trump. Iran sent spoofed emails designed to intimidate voters and sow unrest and also distributed a video that falsely suggested voters could cast fraudulent ballots from overseas, Ratcliffe said. Wray and Ratcliffe did not describe the emails, but officials familiar with the matter said the U.S. has linked Tehran to messages sent to Democratic voters in at least four states, including battleground locations like Pennsylvania and Florida. Though Democratic voters were targeted, Ratcliffe said the spoofed emails were intended to harm Trump, though he did not elaborate how. The operation represented something of a departure in cyber-ops for Iran, which sought for the first time on record to undermine voter confidence.

A person waits in line to vote in the Georgia's primary election at Park Tavern on Tuesday, June 9, 2020, in Atlanta. President Donald Trump is also fighting states' plans to expand voting by mail, raising repeated concerns with no evidence about voter fraud. Beyond lines, the mail voting boom has caused unprecedented reporting delays. Scott Walker, a Republican, said he's confident in the state's voting system and blames any issues on the incompetence of municipal election officials. Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, a Republican, said he's working to ensure Ohio has adequate poll workers.