In the wake of the 2020 election, state and local election officials have been getting a lot of threats and false information. This has caused a lot of them to quit, and some experts are worried that their replacements will put their partisan loyalties ahead of running a free and fair election.
In the weeks and months after the 2020 election, the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University Law School found that one-third of election workers said they felt unsafe because of their jobs. Nearly 20% of the people who answered the survey said that their lives were in danger because of their jobs.
In June 2021, ABC News reported that a shocking number of state and local election officials in places like South Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Arizona had quit their jobs. In August, ABC News said that a “second wave” of resignations had happened in at least nine states because of repeated threats and false information.
Election Worker Threats
Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, who worked as election workers in Georgia, had to go into hiding after Rudy Giuliani and conservative media accused the mother-daughter duo of plotting to cheat the election. The two told the committee on January 6 about what they had done.
Stephen Richer, the chief elections officer for the Republican party in Maricopa County, Arizona, got a lot of death threats after he oversaw a controversial audit of the 2020 election. He stopped going to political events out of fear for his safety.
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In response to a wave of threats against election workers, the Justice Department set up a task force to look into these claims. However, state and local officials say the results have been disappointing. In August, the task force said that it had looked at “over 1,000” reports of threats, but only 11% of them were serious enough to warrant a criminal investigation by the federal government. Seven people have been charged, and one of them was found guilty and given 18 months in prison in October.
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— Damon Todd Hewitt (@DamonTHewitt) November 3, 2022
The office of the secretary of state in Georgia has set up a way for election workers to report threats or security problems through text message alerts.
Since so many elected officials are leaving their jobs, experts on democracy worry that there will be a lack of “institutional knowledge” about how elections are run and that their replacements may be biased.
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In fact, ABC News reported in January that many of the efforts by Republicans to find new poll workers had a partisan bent. ABC News reported more recently that people who support former President Donald Trump have used false election claims to get ex-military people to work at the polls.
Voting Machines
In the wake of the 2022 election, electronic voting machines were the subject of many lies and debunked conspiracy theories. For example, Republican activists said falsely that some machines were hacked to switch votes from Trump to President Joe Biden.
Dominion Voting Systems, one of the biggest voting machine companies in the country, has sued conservative news outlets and Trump supporters multiple times for spreading “crazy” conspiracy theories about its products.
Tina Peters, who worked as a county recorder in Mesa County, Colorado, was charged in May 2021 for a security breach in her office. Peters, who backs Trump and doesn’t believe in the election, is accused of letting an unauthorized person get logs from a voting machine and a forensic copy of its hard drive. Later, the documents showed up on the internet. Peters has said that he is innocent.
5 days from Election Day! Make a plan to vote! Early voting is still underway in many states. There is still time to fill out and return mail-in or absentee ballots. If you have questions or concerns about voting this fall, call @866OURVOTE (866-687-8683). #ElectionProtection pic.twitter.com/vu2bcZtlru
— Election Protection (@866OURVOTE) November 3, 2022
In 2022, worries about voting software and hardware will be at the forefront, and the Ballotwatch team will be on the lookout for both false claims and real problems with election infrastructure.
The Republican Secretary of State of Nevada, Barbara Cegavske, recently approved a plan to let counties count votes by hand this fall. Nye County decided earlier this year to stop using the Dominion voting machines it had used for years because of unproven claims of voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election.
Access to the Vote
Long lines and limited access to polling places have been a problem for democracy supporters for a long time, and 2022 is likely to be no different. Since 2020, Republican-led state legislatures have passed dozens of laws that make it harder to vote. Many of these laws would get rid of exceptions for the 2020 covid-19 pandemic.
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The Brennan Center says that at least 42 laws that make it harder to vote have been passed in 21 states since the start of 2021. There is at least one restrictive part in 33 of these laws that are in place for the midterms in 20 states.
For more information on voting in your state, visit https://t.co/DpBprk3AuF
— Election Protection (@866OURVOTE) November 3, 2022
ABC News recently reported that election-related threats have made some schools and churches think twice about whether it is safe to keep polling places. This has made some election officials worry that voters may have a harder time voting in November and in the future.
Voter Intimidation and Poll Watchers
Observers from both the Republicans and the Democrats have been watching elections for decades. But in the run-up to the 2020 election, former President Trump’s allies tried to use these actors for their own political gain, which some supporters of democracy say was an attempt to scare people away from voting.
In Arizona, for example, the Justice Department has already been told about several cases of alleged voter intimidation at drop box sites. People were hanging out near the drop boxes, filming and photographing voters as they dropped off their ballots and, in some cases, taking pictures of the voters’ license plates, according to the complaints.
On Tuesday, a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order to stop some people accused of voter intimidation from gathering near ballot boxes and watching voters. The judge said that observers must stay at least 75 feet away from drop boxes and that open carry and body armor are not allowed within 250 feet.
