Securing American Elections | 60 Minutes Full Episodes

Pennsylvania Counts (October 2024) (11s)

• Pennsylvania is considered the most pivotal battleground in the presidential election, with 19 electoral votes, and is where former President Trump and Vice President Harris are spending the most time and money, a combined $436 million between them and their allies (12s).
• Due to a state law, mail-in ballots cannot be processed early, which may cause a delay in counting the results, similar to what happened in 2020, and election officials are preparing for potential conspiracy theories and violence (29s).
• Al Schmidt, the Secretary of State and a lifelong Republican, is working to assure residents that their votes will count and to counter the lies spread by former President Trump about Pennsylvania's election process (48s).
• According to Schmidt, voter fraud is extremely rare, and there is no evidence to suggest it is widespread, with severe consequences for those who attempt to commit it, including prosecution and deportation (1m12s).
• Schmidt met with locals in the state capital, Harrisburg, to discuss the reality of voter fraud and the security of the election process, emphasizing that elections in Pennsylvania have never been safer or more secure (1m39s).
• Former President Trump has been stoking fears about voting in Pennsylvania, claiming that cheating is occurring with mail-in ballots, but Schmidt assures that the process is secure, with a voter-verified paper ballot record of every vote cast (2m8s).
• Schmidt has personal experience investigating claims of voter fraud, having spent a decade on Philadelphia's Board of Elections, and has found that when it does occur, it is rare and usually affects down-ticket races (2m37s).
• As Secretary of State, Schmidt is visiting all 67 counties in Pennsylvania to spread the gospel of election security and assure residents that their votes matter (3m2s).
• Schmidt has been trying to convince local Republicans that they can trust the voting system, addressing concerns such as dead people voting in Philadelphia, which he explains is often a result of a voter casting their ballot by mail and then passing away before it is counted (3m26s).
• Despite the challenges of competing with former President Trump's rallies and message, Schmidt believes that his efforts to educate voters one-on-one are important and necessary (4m13s).
• Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro chose Al Schmidt, a lifelong Republican, as his first cabinet pick to send a clear message of being a pro-democracy secretary of state, with the goal of ensuring free, fair, safe, and secure elections (4m31s).
• Schmidt's marching orders were to make sure legal, eligible voters have access to the ballot box and that elections are counted accurately (4m57s).
• Schmidt believes that elections should be something to celebrate, and voters should feel confident that their votes will be counted, whether cast by mail or in person (5m29s).
• In the 2020 election, it took four days to call the election in Pennsylvania due to the time-consuming process of counting mail-in votes (5m39s).
• Under Pennsylvania law, processing mail-in ballots cannot start until 7:00 a.m. on Election Day, which involves a tedious task of opening envelopes and unfolding ballots (6m16s).
• Processing each ballot takes several minutes, and the window of time between polls closing and races being called has shown to be a vulnerability where people can undermine confidence in the results (6m46s).
• There have been widespread calls to bring Pennsylvania in line with other states where election workers can start opening envelopes and flattening ballots ahead of Election Day, but the state's divided legislature has made it a challenge (7m27s).
• Schmidt's message to voters is to be patient, as counties are working to count votes as quickly as possible with integrity, and his job is to provide the truth to voters (7m55s).
• Schmidt has teamed up with fellow Republican and former Pennsylvania Governor to get out the message and provide granular details about the electoral process (8m34s).
• Former President Donald Trump claims that Democrats rigged the 2020 election and has stated that he won Pennsylvania twice, despite losing the state by about 80,000 votes in 2020 (8m38s).
• A significant percentage of Americans, including nearly 70% of Republicans, believe that Joe Biden did not win the 2020 election, and this misinformation can influence people in the middle (9m2s).
• Trump's refusal to commit to accepting the results if he loses in the future could lead to violence in communities and threats to public officials, similar to what happened in 2020 (10m13s).
• In 2020, Al Schmidt oversaw the counting of a record 375,000 mail-in ballots in Philadelphia, and despite then-President Trump's demands to stop the counting, Schmidt continued the process (10m57s).
• Schmidt and his family received violent threats from Trump's supporters, including graphic descriptions of harm and the use of his family's personal information, forcing them to relocate for safety (12m8s).
• Despite the risks, Schmidt agreed to take on a role to protect the country's system of government and ensure the integrity of elections (13m5s).
• In 2016, Donald Trump won Pennsylvania by about 44,000 votes, but lost the state in 2020 by about 80,000 votes (9m45s).
• The 2020 presidential election results were called for Joe Biden after four days, and Trump went after Al Schmidt by name on Twitter, leading to an increase in violent threats (11m58s).
• Schmidt had to move his family out of their house for safety and had security around the clock for many months due to the threats (12m46s).

Belief in the Ballot (October 2024) (13m23s)

• Steven Richer, a Republican who helps administer voting in Maricopa County, Arizona, was determined to find the truth about the 2020 election after Donald Trump claimed it was stolen, and his investigation found no evidence of widespread fraud (13m52s).
• Richer discovered that the truth wasn't what many wanted to hear, and he became more cynical about politics, realizing that many politicians have no lines in the sand and will do whatever it takes to get re-elected (14m7s).
• Richer's fears for the upcoming election are that the same issues will arise again, and the country will be stuck in the same cycle of misinformation and distrust for another four years (14m29s).
• As the Maricopa County Recorder, Richer's office records voter registration and handles mail-in ballots, and he took office after the 2020 election when his own party was alleging fraud (14m40s).
• Richer believed that providing logical and factual answers to people's questions about the election would alleviate their concerns, but that didn't happen (15m3s).
• Multiple investigations and a hand recount of Maricopa County's 2.1 million paper ballots confirmed that Joe Biden won the election, and statewide prosecutions for illegal voting involved only 19 ballots (15m27s).
• Richer found that 50 ballots were counted twice due to human error, but this had a negligible impact on the actual contest, and Trump lost Maricopa County by 45,109 votes (15m46s).
• Richer's fellow Republicans reacted poorly to his findings, including Trump, who made false claims about the election and the deletion of the county's database (16m43s).
• Richer responded to Trump's claims by calling them "unhinged" and pointing out that the lies were disprovable, which led to significant backlash, including three violent threats that have been prosecuted (17m9s).
• Richer has faced harassment and intimidation, including being heckled and followed to his car, and has received violent threats, which have been prosecuted (17m38s).
• Shelby Bush, the chair of the Arizona Republican Party delegation, believes the 2020 election was stolen due to widespread fraud in Maricopa County, despite no credible investigation finding evidence of this, and has taken in nearly a million dollars in donations for her work investigating the issue (18m38s).
• Bush, who is self-educated on elections, still questions whether signature verification was proper and whether some ballots were collected illegally, and has been involved in a recent case where a judge disqualified her from testifying due to being "obviously unqualified" (20m6s).
• Bush disagrees that persisting with conspiracy theories about the election undermines people's faith in the election system, instead believing that it is up to individual citizens to review the evidence and make their own decisions (20m40s).
• Attorney Ben Ginsburg, who has represented the Republican party in many important election cases, disagrees with Bush and states that the evidence does not support allegations of election fraud, citing the fact that Donald Trump and his supporters lost 63 out of 64 lawsuits related to the issue (21m28s).
• Ginsburg emphasizes that under the rule of law, individuals have the right to submit litigation, but must also accept the rulings of the court, and that conservative and Republican principles require accepting the outcome of these cases (22m25s).
• The investigation "Lost not Stolen" exposes election fraud lies and found that there is no evidence to back up allegations of widespread election fraud, with Trump's swing state lawsuits being largely unsuccessful (21m42s).
• A mission to secure American elections is driven by personal responsibility and a sense of calling, with the goal of protecting the integrity of the electoral process for future generations (22m52s).
• The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, which includes Republican Clint Hickman, certifies the vote in elections, but some individuals have made baseless claims that the election is a "joke" and that certain officials are "cancer" tearing the nation apart (23m24s).
• Clint Hickman, a County Supervisor for 11 years, initially supported Trump but saw no evidence of fraud and voted to certify the election, despite receiving death threats and being accused of treason (23m46s).
• Hickman has received numerous death threats, as have his colleagues and election workers, with one individual even threatening to hang him and his family (24m27s).
• Another threat mentioned knowing the restaurants Hickman visits and where his children go to school, highlighting the severity of the intimidation (25m15s).
• Shelby Bush, the Maricopa County Republican Party Vice Chair, has made statements about unity, but her definition of unity only includes those who share her core biblical Christian and Judeo principles (25m55s).
• Bush stated that she would "lynch" fellow Republican Steven Richard if he walked into the room, although she later clarified that she meant it as a "political lynching" rather than a physical threat (26m19s).
• Richard believes that Bush's statement contributes to the unrest and civil disorder in the county, and that her words have a significant impact on the community (27m14s).
• Election denialism is seen as a swindle, emotionally, politically, and economically, for some individuals, and it can have severe consequences for those who promote it (27m37s).
• Steven Richard ran in the primary election in July, highlighting the ongoing impact of election denialism on the political landscape (27m51s).
• A fellow Republican won the reelection, defeating the incumbent and stating that Maricopa elections are a laughing stock. (27m54s)
• The defeated official's enduring contribution is the implementation of "The Fortress" defenses around the vote-counting center, a wall intended to protect America from its own citizens. (28m10s)
• Observing the ugliness in human behavior during this election has provided insight into the darker moments of human history and how such events can unfold. (28m23s)
• Historical events that were previously thought to be impossible in the US are now seen as potential realities due to the understanding of human impulses and crowd behavior. (28m38s)
• The same human impulses that led to past atrocities are now understood to be present in modern society, highlighting the potential for educated societies to perpetrate harm. (29m3s)

Belief in the Ballot (October 2022) (29m15s)

• The vote holds America together, as it allows voices to be heard and disputes to be addressed, and without this belief, countries tend to be in bondage or at war (29m16s).
• Politicians who claim the 2020 election was stolen are running for governor in 19 states, Attorney General in 10 states, and for Secretary of State in 12 states, which would give them power over elections (29m38s).
• Despite two years of investigations and audits, no fraud or error has been found in any state that would change the 2020 outcome, but spreading doubt has been key to an endorsement from Donald Trump (29m54s).
• Arizona has been deeply divided by this issue, with a split in the GOP and Republicans on opposite sides, including Rusty Bowers, a lifelong Republican and Arizona's Speaker of the House (30m12s).
• Bowers was approached by President Trump and Rudy Giuliani after the election, claiming there was a lot of fraud in Arizona, but when asked for proof, Giuliani did not provide any (30m40s).
• Giuliani and co-counsel Jenna Ellis met with Bowers, but they did not bring any proof, and Bowers refused to hold a vote to revoke Biden's electors (31m14s).
• Arizona state representative Mark Finchum, an ally of Giuliani, held an unofficial hearing featuring Giuliani, which included allegations of a conspiracy by the Democratic Party without credible evidence (32m30s).
• Finchum is now the Republican nominee for Arizona Secretary of State, which would give him authority over elections (33m4s).
• Arizona's Republican Attorney General, Mark Brnovich, has investigated claims of fraud for two years and describes them as "horse" and has been trying to "scrape it off my shoes for the last year" (33m27s).
• Brnovich supported Trump, who advised him to say the elections were fraudulent, but Brnovich refused, stating he didn't become Attorney General to be a superstar (33m44s).
• A prosecutor is bringing indictments in every 2020 vote fraud case that can be backed with evidence, with 12 defendants indicted in Arizona for cases involving a total of 12 ballots, despite Biden winning the state by 10,000 votes (34m0s).
• The prosecutor emphasizes the importance of systematically going through the facts and evidence, rather than relying on opinions or being sloppy, as a higher obligation when serving as a government official (34m41s).
• In 2021, the Republican-led State Senate audited Phoenix's Maricopa County, which is home to 60% of the state's vote, and although the audit's hand recount confirmed Joe Biden won, it raised questions about discrepancies that were later answered online by Maricopa County (34m55s).
• Mark Fincham, a candidate, claims that widespread fraud occurred in the election, describing the January 6th attack on the capital as "manufactured" to create a narrative, and believes that the Marxist ideology is pushing for one-party rule (35m28s).
• Fincham is running neck and neck with his Democratic opponent, Adrian Fontes, who helped lead the 2020 election in Maricopa County, and Fontes emphasizes the need for election administrators to show that the system is good and to make it easy to vote but hard to cheat (36m5s).
• Fincham was asked for credible proof of fraud but instead raised questions from the state senate audit and mentioned a mysterious post-election email that claimed 34,500 fictitious voters were inserted into the system, although the writer had no evidence and asked not to be contacted (36m30s).
• Fincham also mentioned an email from a Brian Watson that claimed Democrats added bogus votes electronically in Pima County, but the writer had no evidence and closed his email account (37m5s).
• Fincham claims that two precincts in Pima County showed over 100% of registered voters voting, which he considers an undeniable fact, although Pima County disputes this claim (37m33s).
• Fincham also points to a pair of indictments in Yuma County for ballot harvesting and votes, where people pleaded guilty and altered the outcome of the county, although the number of ballots involved is not specified (37m54s).
• Two women in Yuma County pleaded guilty to collecting ballots, which Fincham considers a defect in the system, regardless of the number of ballots involved or the fact that it was a primary election (38m31s).
• In Arizona, it is against state law to deposit a ballot that isn't yours or your family's, and there have been instances of ballot trafficking operations, including one in Yuma County where 25,000 ballots had the same fingerprints for five individuals (38m37s).
• The evidence of the Yuma County case was turned over to the Attorney General's office, but according to the FBI, no one in law enforcement fingerprinted the 25,000 ballots (39m23s).
• Attorney General Mark Brnovich stated that his investigation is essentially over, and as prosecutors, they deal in facts and evidence, not speculation (39m50s).
• The Republican candidate for governor in Arizona is an election denier, claiming that the 2020 presidential election was fraudulent and that President Biden is illegitimate (40m20s).
• There are 190 election deniers running for the US House and 14 for the US Senate, according to the Brookings Institution (41m12s).
• Mark Brnovich and Rusty Bowers, both Republicans, lost their primaries to election deniers, and Bowers faced harassment and intimidation from Trump supporters and conspiracy theorists (41m25s).
• The erosion of trust in the electoral process has led to extremist behavior, including armed demonstrations and threats against public officials, filling the void left by the loss of faith in the vote (42m4s).
• The Republican party has been hijacked by a large group of individuals who are undermining its effectiveness and legitimacy in public discourse (42m16s).

Dominion (October 2022) (42m42s)

• Following the 2020 presidential election, lawyers supporting then-President Donald Trump began spreading unsubstantiated claims that Dominion Voting Systems, an American company, had rigged the election, stating that Dominion was backed by Venezuela and its machines and software switched millions of votes from Donald Trump to Joe Biden (42m43s).
• Dominion has filed eight lawsuits seeking over $1 billion in damages against Fox News and other networks, corporations, and individuals for spreading these baseless claims (43m13s).
• Dominion CEO John Poulos stated that the lies have caused irreparable damage to his company and employees, putting them in danger and upending their lives (43m29s).
• Poulos emphasized the importance of people admitting that what they said was wrong, particularly for the families impacted by these lies (43m51s).
• Due to security concerns, Poulos' kids are not allowed to receive packages from the front door without verifying the sender, as people have sent threatening items in the past (43m57s).
• The trouble for Dominion began five days after the election when Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo brought up Dominion with attorney Sidney Powell, who claimed that the Dominion software was used to flip votes in the computer system (44m19s).
• Powell was repeatedly invited back on Fox networks, despite never showing evidence of fraud, and was joined by President Trump's attorney Rudy Giuliani, who also spread false narratives about Dominion and another election technology company, Smartmatic (44m51s).
• Smartmatic is suing Giuliani, Fox News, and others, and has stated that it was formed by three Venezuelans close to dictator Hugo Chavez to fix elections, but Dominion CEO John Poulos denied any association with Smartmatic or Chavez (45m6s).
• Poulos clarified that Dominion was founded in Toronto and has no connection to Venezuela, and that its software cannot be used to flip votes or add non-existent votes (45m44s).
• President Trump first mentioned Dominion in a tweet on November 12th and later recorded a video claiming that Dominion's system could be manipulated with the turn of a dial or the change of a chip (45m57s).
• Dominion CEO John Poulos explained that the company's machines count paper ballots, making it easy for people to verify the results through audits and recounts, and that paper ballots are already used in many places (46m31s).
• Dominion Voting Systems produces two types of machines: a ballot marker, which is a touchscreen device that allows voters to mark their choices and print the ballot, and a scanner that reads the paper ballot, counts the vote, and stores the ballot securely (46m46s).
• The voting process involves a voter taking a paper ballot, making their marks, and depositing it into a ballot box, which goes through a digital scanner and then drops into the ballot box (47m2s).
• John Poulos, the founder and CEO of Dominion, was inspired to improve the voting process after watching the presidential recounts in Florida in 2000, with the goal of making it easier to recount paper ballots and help people with disabilities vote without assistance (47m34s).
• Dominion's system allows voters to make their marks on a paper ballot in a clear and unambiguous way, regardless of physical ability, and the company's machines were used in 28 states during the 2020 presidential election (48m1s).
• Dominion's machines are not connected to the internet on Election Day, and the company goes through various government certifications to ensure the security of its systems (48m42s).
• In the major swing states of 2020, there were paper ballots backing up the official record, which were hand-counted and audited over 1,000 times, confirming Dominion's results (49m6s).
• More than 60 lawsuits challenging the election were ultimately withdrawn or failed, and recounts and audits in several states confirmed the accuracy of Dominion's results (49m26s).
• Despite the confirmation of the election results, John Poulos and his employees have faced harassment and threats, including death threats and vandalism, which continue to this day (49m57s).
• A woman received a disgusting death threat in detail on her personal cell phone, which is completely surreal and unsubstantiated, as all the lies have been debunked. (50m45s)
• Chris Krebs, the former director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, called the 2020 election the most secure in American history, but was fired by President Trump days later. (51m3s)
• A press conference was held at the Republican National Committee headquarters, where Rudy Giuliani, Sydney Powell, and others continued their attacks on Dominion machines and software, claiming they could be set to run an algorithm to take votes from President Trump and flip them to President Biden. (51m27s)
• Chris Krebs remembered watching the press conference and tweeted about it, calling it the most insane and dangerous 45 minutes of TV in American history. (51m44s)
• The 2020 election was the most litigated, scrutinized, and audited election, and despite this, no evidence of wrongdoing was found, with even Attorney General Bill Barr stating that claims of Dominion voting machine issues were "idiotic" and had no basis. (51m57s)
• Dominion alerted Fox News and other networks of the false allegations they were broadcasting, but Fox News never retracted their reporting, despite being given multiple chances to correct their statements. (52m38s)
• Lee Levine, a First Amendment attorney, believes that Dominion's case against Fox News is strong, as they continued to invite Rudy Giuliani and Sydney Powell on their shows despite being provided with information sheets and links supporting the true facts. (53m2s)
• Defamation cases are hard to prove, requiring the plaintiff to prove "actual malice," but Lee Levine believes that Dominion's case is the strongest he has seen in 40 years, with hundreds of cases litigated. (54m0s)
• Dominion's case against Fox News and others is considered strong due to the deliberate lies and calculated falsehoods broadcast by the defendants, despite knowing they were false. (54m21s)
• Fox News is confident it will prevail in a lawsuit, citing freedom of the press protections, as it was reporting on a newsworthy allegation made by the then-president and aired segments fact-checking the allegations against Dominion (54m49s).
• Dominion is suing Fox News and its parent corporation for $1.6 billion each, with Fox stating that Dominion's financial demand is unsupported (55m2s).
• Efforts by Fox News and other defendants to have the lawsuits dismissed have been rejected by the courts (55m15s).
• It is believed that Fox News knowingly lied about the allegations, as they were repeatedly told the truth by various individuals, including government officials, partisan government officials, people inside the Trump Administration, and local election officials on both sides of the aisle (55m32s).
• Fox News was informed in real-time about the truth, making it a matter of knowingly spreading false information rather than not knowing the truth (55m47s).

Counting the Vote (November 2020) (56m12s)

• The 2020 presidential election had record-setting turnout with over 145 million ballots cast, and President-elect Joe Biden collected more of those votes, with news organizations projecting him as the winner (56m16s).
• Despite this, President Trump refused to concede, calling for recounts and filing lawsuits questioning the validity of many ballots, mostly those cast by mail (56m28s).
• The increased use of vote-by-mail ballots due to the COVID-19 pandemic led to a surge in mail-in ballots, with 360,000 pouring in in Philadelphia alone, more than all the mail-in votes in the state in 2016 (58m30s).
• As the ballots were counted in Philadelphia, President Trump's initial lead in Pennsylvania slowly decreased, leading his campaign and party to file lawsuits claiming voting irregularities and fraud (59m1s).
• The Trump campaign and GOP lawsuits aimed at disrupting the count in Pennsylvania reached double digits, with most targeting the state's crucial 20 electoral votes (59m33s).
• News organizations projected former Vice President Joe Biden had won Pennsylvania and the presidency, with a similar edge over President Trump as in 2016 (59m58s).
• The Trump campaign continued to challenge the validity of the vote in Pennsylvania and other battleground states, with President Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani stating that he would start filing lawsuits on Monday (1h0m22s).
• The high stakes and passions surrounding the election led to intense celebrations and disputes, with the outcome of the election remaining uncertain due to ongoing lawsuits and recounts (1h0m36s).
• In Philadelphia, a Republican commissioner and fellow election board members, along with about 200 city employees, continued to work on counting provisional ballots despite the controversy surrounding the election, with the commissioner stating that they are simply counting eligible votes cast by voters (1h0m54s).
• The commissioner expressed confusion over the accusations of cheating and vote manipulation, and mentioned receiving calls that included not-so-veiled death threats, referencing the Second Amendment (1h1m39s).
• The election in Northampton County, which had voted for Barack Obama twice before flipping to Donald Trump in 2016, was observed to be running smoothly, with long lines of voters waiting patiently to cast ballots on Election Day (1h2m6s).
• In neighboring Lehigh County, orderly vote counting was observed under the watchful gaze of certified party poll watchers (1h2m21s).
• In the affluent suburbs around Philadelphia, Pat Poprik, chair of the Bucks County GOP, expressed a bipartisan approach to running clean elections, stating that while Democrats and Republicans may like different candidates, they want the process to be fair (1h2m37s).
• However, the number of Republican court cases is growing, with concerns over poll watchers and allegations that observers can't get close enough to see what's going on (1h3m4s).
• President Trump has railed against the distance of observers in Philadelphia, claiming they are being kept too far away and that there have been tremendous problems (1h3m20s).
• Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro is defending the state against Republican lawsuits, calling them frivolous and stating that an agreement was reached to move poll watchers from 10 feet away to 6 feet away, which he claims is no material change (1h3m49s).
• Shapiro also stated that each campaign had observers in the room while the ballots were being counted, and that the live stream of the counting process is available for anyone to watch (1h4m33s).
• Despite claims of irregularities by President Trump, Shapiro maintains that the election was secure and that the votes will be tallied and a proper winner will be certified (1h5m2s).
• Pennsylvania state representative Malcolm Kenyatta spent election day urging voters to get to the polls, emphasizing the importance of every vote being counted, as he believes the Trump campaign's attempt to stop the count is a form of voter suppression (1h5m22s).
• Kenyatta thinks that if a candidate believes they are going to win an election, they would want every vote to be counted, rather than trying to stop the counting process (1h5m59s).
• The Trump campaign's litigation strategy is seen as an attempt to create confusion and chaos, with the goal of slowing down the counting process and potentially preventing states from certifying their election results on time (1h6m25s).
• Ben Ginsburg, a Republican attorney with experience in election law, describes the Trump campaign's strategy as incoherent and compares it to throwing a kitchen sink at the wall to see what sticks (1h6m40s).
• Ginsburg believes the litigation could be an attempt to slow down counts in individual states, potentially allowing Trump to persuade legislators to vote for Trump slates even in states won by Biden (1h7m30s).
• Ginsburg hopes the situation does not escalate to the point where Trump attempts to undermine the peaceful transfer of power, and advises the president to respect the institutions and the democratic process (1h8m5s).
• President-elect Joe Biden has stated that the Democratic process is working, and that he has won the election with the most votes ever cast on a presidential ticket in the history of the nation (1h8m30s).
• Republican election commissioner Al Schmidt emphasizes the importance of ensuring that every vote is counted, and that the real damage from the election is not who wins or loses, but how people react to the process and whether they have confidence in the outcome (1h8m53s).