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Republican official seeks to build trust in election process with fellow GOP voters
Ottawa County, Michigan — Late summer on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan is a slice of serenity, unless you’re discussing elections. Then, forget the smooth sailing.
“We have been in this environment where there has just been much distrust sewn into the system,” Ottawa County Clerk Justin Roebuck told CBS News.
Roebuck, a Republican who runs the county’s elections, is no stranger to this skepticism. He said he talks to residents “who do still have really serious concerns” that the 2020 election was stolen.
That distrust was on display during the Michigan primaries earlier this month.
“It’s hard to trust sometimes. It’s hard to trust,” one skeptical voter told CBS News.
But Roebuck is trying to convince these people that the data doesn’t lie.
“We conduct post-election audits where we have a 100% accuracy rate on the equipment itself,” Roebuck said, adding that “it’s a 100% accuracy rate. It’s not even 99. And we would tell you if it was 99.”
The distrust helped push Teresa DeGraaf, former clerk for Ottawa County’s Port Sheldon Township, to retire.
“It’s really hard to do a job where you know you are doing everything right and be attacked,” DeGraaf told CBS News. “… And I just want to say that everyone that works (in elections), those are your friends, your family, your neighbors. And do you really believe that all those folks would try to cheat you when you vote?”
While voters overall say they’re confident in their state’s election process, it depends on who you ask. According to a CBS News poll conducted in late July and early August, 26% of Republican respondents said they were “very confident” in the their state’s voting system. That’s just under half of Democratic respondents, 56% of whom said they are very confident.
The poll also found that 32% of Republicans were “not confident” in their state’s voting system, as opposed to only 8% of Democrats.
So far this year, former President Donald Trump has publicly said the election system is rigged more than 140 times, despite dozens of audits and lawsuits that found no fraud in 2020.
“If we cannot trust the way that we choose our government, we are in a bad situation as a country,” Roebuck said.
That’s why Roebuck is working on restoring that trust. He’s conducted demonstrations for residents about how voting machines work. He has also confronted local officials who have alleged fraud.
And with the presidential election less than three months away, clerks like Roebuck are rebuilding that trust one conversation at a time.
“We live in this community too,” Roebuck said. “We shop here, kids go to school here, we go to church together, and we need to be able to build those bridges.”
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Yellowstone hiker burned when she falls into scalding water near Old Faithful, park officials say
Yellowstone National Park, Wyo. — A New Hampshire woman suffered severe burns on her leg after hiking off-trail in Yellowstone National Park and falling into scalding water in a thermal area near the Old Faithful geyser, park officials said.
The 60-year-old woman from Windsor, New Hampshire, along with her husband and their leashed dog were walking off a designated trail near the Mallard Lake Trailhead on Monday afternoon when she broke through a thin crust over the water and suffered second- and third-degree burns to her lower leg, park officials said. Her husband and the dog weren’t injured.
The woman was flown to Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center in Idaho Falls, Idaho for treatment.
National Park Service / Jacob W. Frank
Park visitors are reminded to stay on boardwalks and trails in hydrothermal areas and exercise extreme caution. The ground in those areas is fragile and thin and there’s scalding water just below the surface, park officials said.
Pets are allowed in limited, developed areas of Yellowstone park but are prohibited on boardwalks, hiking trails, in the backcountry and in thermal areas.
The incident is under investigation. The woman’s name wasn’t made public.
This is the first known thermal injury in Yellowstone in 2024, park officials said in a statement. The park had recorded 3.5 million visitors through August this year.
Hot springs have injured and killed more people in Yellowstone National Park than any other natural feature, the National Park Service said. At least 22 people have died from hot spring-related injuries in and around the 3,471-square-mile national park since 1890, park officials have said.
TRENTON, N.J. — Democratic Newark City Council President LaMonica McIver has defeated Republican small businessman Carmen Bucco in a contest in New Jersey’s 10th Congressional District that opened up because of the death of Rep. Donald Payne Jr. in April.
McIver will serve out the remainder of Payne’s term, which ends in January. She and Bucco will face a rematch on the November ballot for the full term.
McIver said in a statement Wednesday that she stands on the “shoulders of giants,” naming Payne as chief among them.
She cast ahead to the November election, saying the right to make reproductive health choices was on the ballot as well as whether the economy should benefit the wealthy or “hard working Americans.”
“I will fight because the purpose of politics and the purpose of our vote is to give the people of our communities and our nation a bold voice,” she said.
Bucco congratulated McIver on the victory in a statement but said he’s looking forward to the rematch in November.
“I am not going anywhere,” he said in an email. “We still have a second chance to make district 10 great again!”
Who are LaMonica McIver and Carmen Bucco?
McIver emerged as the Democratic candidate in a crowded field in the July special election. A member of the city council of New Jersey’s biggest city since 2018, she also worked for Montclair Public Schools as a personnel director and plans to focus on affordability, infrastructure, abortion rights and “protecting our democracy,” she told The Associated Press earlier this summer.
Bucco describes himself on his campaign website as a small-business owner influenced by his upbringing in the foster system. He lists support for law enforcement and ending corruption as top issues.
The 10th District lies in a heavily Democratic and majority-Black region of northern New Jersey. Republicans are outnumbered by more than 6 to 1.
It’s been a volatile year for Democrats in New Jersey, where the party dominates state government and the congressional delegation.
Among the developments were the conviction on federal bribery charges of U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, who has denied the charges, and the demise of the so-called county party line — a system in which local political leaders give their preferred candidates favorable position on the primary ballot.
Democratic Rep. Andy Kim, who’s running for Menendez’s seat, and other Democrats brought a federal lawsuit challenging the practice as part of his campaign to oust Menendez, who has resigned since his conviction.