‘The law is clear’: US states signal willingness to prosecute election crimes

Some US states are sending strong signals to county and local officials who might be tempted to intervene illegally in the 5 November election or refuse to certify results: fail to do your duty and risk criminal charges or hefty financial penalties.

In at least five of the seven battleground states that could determine whether the next US president is Democrat Kamala Harris or Republican Donald Trump, top election and law enforcement officials have investigated, indicted and even jailed officials who tried to interfere with the vote or delay certification of results, a necessary but largely ceremonial step.

County officials have also been warned that failing to certify results on time could force their local governments to foot the bill for unnecessary audits or recounts.

The increased oversight of local election officials is aimed at preventing unfounded claims of fraud from slowing the certification of election results, which in turn could interfere with Congress's certification of the presidential election results in a highly charged partisan atmosphere.

Four years after Trump tried to overturn his 2020 defeat, officials in the swing states of Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, as well as in solidly Democratic Colorado, said they have become far more adept at handling those who overstep their authority, even with Trump still repeating false claims that the 2020 election was stolen and that he will lose in November only through fraud.

States that fail to certify results by certain deadlines could be left out of the state-by-state electoral college process that formally determines the winners of US presidential elections.

"The law is clear and we won't tolerate anyone not following it for any reason," Michigan's secretary of state, Jocelyn Benson, said in an interview. "There are times and places for challenging election results. The certification process is not one of them."

In this high-stakes election, the biggest of the swing states, Pennsylvania, has already overruled a county official, the Luzerne county manager, Romilda Crocamo, who tried to prevent the use in her district of drop boxes, where early voters can deposit their mail-in ballots.

The state attorney general, Michelle Henry, a former Republican appointed to her role last year by the state's Democratic governor, said in an interview that her office would enforce election laws.

In Wisconsin, the criminal division of the state justice department is investigating Wausau's mayor, Doug Diny, for removing a locked, empty drop box from outside city hall in September. Diny, a non-partisan conservative backed by Republicans, told reporters at the time that he did not feel the box was secure where the city clerk had placed it.

The Wisconsin attorney general, Josh Kaul, a Democrat, also said his office would enforce election laws.

"It's our expectation that election officials will follow the law," Kaul said in an interview. "But if we receive concerns that that won't be the case, we're prepared to act."

In Michigan's Macomb county, where Republicans unsuccessfully sued to overturn the 2020 election results, three assistant clerks in the city of St Clair Shores face felony charges for allegedly allowing four residents to vote twice in the state's 6 August congressional and state primary election.

Michigan's attorney general, Dana Nessel, a Democrat, filed charges punishable by up to five years in prison against all seven.

"Despite common talking points by those who seek to instill doubt in our election process, double voting in Michigan is extremely rare," Nessel said in a statement. "Nevertheless, the fact that four incidents occurred in a municipality of this size raised significant concerns."

Michigan election laws were tightened in the aftermath of the 2020 vote.

Delta county canvass board members Bonnie Hakkola and LeeAnne Oman, both Republicans, voted against certification of a local recall election on 14 May, after seeing nearly identical voting margins in three different races.

State authorities responded two days later, with a stern letter. The two individuals ultimately resigned. The results were certified.

Meanwhile, two Republican officials from Arizona's Cochise county face felony election interference charges, alleging they delayed the canvass of votes in the 2022 elections.

And in Nevada, the secretary of state, attorney general and a district attorney intervened recently to swiftly resolve an impasse over a county's certification of a primary election's results.

In Colorado, in one of the starkest examples, a Republican former Mesa county clerk, Tina Peters, was sentenced to nine years in prison this month, after being convicted of illegally tampering with voting machines in 2020.