HOT POLICY TAKE

Since the 2020 election, state legislators and executives in several states have ramped up efforts to seize control of local election administration. Generally, the officials seeking greater control will cite claims of widespread election irregularities without proof to justify their efforts. However, these efforts at providing greater “security” have often led to lawmakers injecting partisan control over local elections and officials, and at times, led to voter intimidation.

In this month’s Hot Policy Take, we take a closer look at state lawmakers’ efforts to assert greater control over local election administration ahead of the 2024 election.

BY THE NUMBERS

1 in 9

That’s how many election officials are new to the job since the 2020 election. The local expertise of election workers is critical for running secure elections. As we cover in this month’s Hot Policy Take, there have been significant attempts in some states to expand state control of local elections. The mass departure of trusted local-level election administrators may have a negative impact on voters’ overall confidence in elections.

WHAT WE'RE READING

With the 2024 election steadily approaching and major social media platforms restructuring their formats and policies, a recent federal court injunction will prohibit various federal agencies and officials from communicating directly with social media companies. As a result, officials have expressed concerns about a potential “chilling effect” from the injunction that could impact how the federal government and states might address election-related disinformation.

CNN has more:

“The trouble is that in many situations, the dividing line between domestic speech and foreign influence is not immediately obvious. A domestically originated false narrative can often be amplified by malicious foreign actors or vice versa, said Gowri Ramachandran, a senior counsel at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University. And during Russia’s attempted election meddling in 2016, disinformation agents posed as American social media users but the nature of the deception did not become clear until much later after a great deal of forensic effort.
 
“They had to do a lot of work to figure out and trace back the actual origins of where that content was. Well, the government doesn’t necessarily have those capabilities to do that back-end work that the social media companies do. But this injunction, if you’re a very cautious lawyer, you’re going to be like, ‘Well, you can’t tell me 100% that it’s foreign, and it could be domestic and that could be against this injunction.’”—Katie Harbath, a former Facebook official who helped lead the company’s global election efforts until 2021.

Even if the injunction is overturned, ongoing litigation could still prove to be its own source of electoral disruption in 2024. State election officials are also paying close attention to this injunction with an eye towards their own anti-disinformation efforts.

FROM OUR PARTNERS - All Voting Is Local Ohio and Common Cause Ohio
 

THE MARKUP

The Markup is VRL’s weekly legislative update for voting rights insiders. If you’d like to get insights straight to your inbox each Monday, head here to sign up.

Here’s a brief update on what we’re watching this week, and a sneak peek into what you can expect from The Markup each week:
 

Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed a legislative package on July 18 that implements “Promote the Vote” amendments to the state constitution ratified by voters in 2022. As a result of the legislation, voters will have at least nine days of Election Day-style early voting; will be notified of any defects preventing their mail ballots from counting and given the opportunity to fix them; will be provided with prepaid postage for all mail ballot applications and return envelopes; will be able to track their mail ballot applications and ballots throughout the election; and will be able to join a permanent mail voting list. The bill package also improves drop box access and expands the types of ID voters may show to receive a ballot. Another bill, also signed by Governor Whitmer on the 18th, enables municipalities to consolidate election precincts with fewer than 5,000 assigned voters.