TREY GRAYSON

Republican state election officials in several states are having to defend their records as they face challengers from within their own party who either outright deny that Democrat Joe Biden won the presidency or raise unsubstantiated claims that elections are not secure.

They question whether Joe Biden is president. And now they want to run elections for the next presidential campaign.

Former President Donald Trump is aiming to exert his influence at all levels of the Republican Party as he considers another presidential run.

First Read is your briefing from "Meet the Press" and the NBC Political Unit on the day's most important political stories and why they matter.

President-elect Joe Biden speaks during an event at The Queen theater in Wilmington, Del., Tuesday, Dec. 8, 2020, to announce his health care team. Next week’s Dec. 14 Electoral College deadline may produce just a few more congratulatory GOP calls to Biden. Increasingly, GOP lawmakers say the Jan. 6 vote in Congress to accept the Electoral College outcome may be when the presidential winner becomes official. They're relying on Trump voters to power the Georgia runoff elections Jan. 5 that will determine control of the Senate. Until then, his group is trying to push Georgia's Trump voters to the polls, even as the president disputes Biden's win of the state.

The so-called naked ballots have become a huge concern for Democrats in the state since the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled last week that ballots had to be rejected if not enclosed in the proper secrecy envelope. Democrats so far have been far more likely than Republicans to request mail-in ballots in Pennsylvania and the rest of the country. “Remember, you must place the ballot in the secrecy envelope first for your vote to count,” the ad's male narrator says. Former Kentucky Secretary of State Trey Grayson said naked ballots are just one of the ways people can “mess up” their absentee or mail-in ballot. ... Then you put that secrecy envelope inside the big envelope."