A new Brennan Center poll finds that election officials are under attack and are leaving their jobs. They need help.
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The public servants who run our elections are alarmed.
Between January 31 and February 14, we had the Benenson Strategy Group poll
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nearly 600 local election officials about their jobs. Their responses should set off warning bells across all levels of government and provoke action from Congress.
More than half of the respondents said they’re concerned about the safety of their colleagues. Nearly one in three know at least one colleague who quit their job in part or entirely because of safety concerns, increased threats, or intimidation. And of those who have been threatened, more than half have experienced it up close and personal.
Why is this happening? Well, the Big Lie, of course. Nearly two in three local election officials we polled said that false information about elections makes their jobs more dangerous. Ninety-five percent blame social media companies for allowing their platforms to peddle outright lies and conspiracy theories.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise why these public servants are looking over their shoulders when you hear some of their stories.
Racist harassment. Death threats. Private personal information released online. In one frightening story from Georgia, someone showed up at the door of an election worker to make a “citizen’s arrest.” But the election worker didn’t live there anymore. It was her grandmother’s place, and her grandmother was understandably terrified. Incidents like this have even led some election officials to flee their homes for safety. (For a more visceral taste of what election officials have faced since the 2020 election, watch our video
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on it.)
But election officials also warned of another threat as we charge full steam ahead toward November’s midterms and then on to the 2024 presidential election: political interference.
Nearly one in five respondents worry they will face pressure to certify election results in favor of a specific candidate or party. These political attacks are taking their toll. Twenty percent of those polled plan on leaving their jobs before the 2024 election. Of those, a third cite political leaders’ dishonest attacks on the legitimacy of our election systems as one of the top reasons.
Despite the hardships they face, most election officials enjoy their jobs, explaining they took the job to serve their communities and make sure our elections run smoothly and fairly. And if we want these honest public officials to stay in their jobs, they need help from Washington, DC. More than three out of four election officials believe the federal government should be doing more to support them.
It’s time for Congress to take these threats against the people who run our elections seriously and protect them against the violent conspiracy theorists and partisans who continue to undermine the legitimacy of our election systems.
There are many ways to do this. Members of Congress can set aside funds that can be used for things like home and office security for election workers. They should also make it a crime to intimidate election workers for the purpose of interfering with the vote tabulation process. And finally, they should make it a crime to “dox” election workers, or reveal their personal information, with the intent to threaten or intimidate them.
It's the least Congress can do for these unsung heroes of our democracy who are under very real attack.
Democracy
Time to Reassess the Census
Last week the Census Bureau released the initial results of its Post-Enumeration Survey, a significant quality check for the decennial count. While it appears the 2020 Census accurately captured the total number of people living in the country, communities of color were significantly undercounted, raising equity concerns for fair representation and other resources distributed according to census results. Clara Fong and Kelly Percival detail the undercount and its effects, as well as how to prevent it from happening in the future. Read more
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Fighting Persistent Gerrymandering in Ohio
The Ohio Supreme Court has now twice ordered the Ohio Redistricting Commission to redraw legislative maps, finding their first and second drafts to be partisan gerrymanders in violation of the state constitution. Instead of producing a fair map, the commission’s third attempt was even more distorted than the second. Sam Gresham, chair of Common Cause Ohio and a plaintiff represented by the Brennan Center in the lawsuit challenging the maps, discusses the commission’s contempt for the Ohio Constitution and their impact on Ohioans of color. “Every time, the commission ignored the Ohio Constitution. It drew district lines that gave the Republican party a substantial edge and undermined the votes of millions of Ohioans, mine included,” he writes. COLUMBUS DISPATCH
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Justice
Jails and Prisons Are in Dire Need of Oversight
Greater accountability and transparency are needed to address conditions in correctional institutions. Jails and prisons across the country are hotspots for abuse, violence, and an inhumane lack of sanitation, situations further exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic. “The nation is in dire need of more preventative and independent correctional oversight to rein these abuses in. Our current patchwork of oversight provides insufficient coverage,” Lauren-Brooke Eisen and Alia Nahra write. Read more
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Coming Up
VIRTUAL EVENT: Social Media’s Free Speech Problem
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Thursday, March 24, 6–7 p.m. ET
The problem of misinformation on social media has ballooned over the last few years, especially in relation to elections. The result has been further polarization of our already divided country. How do we control this false speech while protecting the First Amendment — and our democracy? Join us for a live discussion with Richard L. Hasen, leading expert on election law and author of the upcoming book Cheap Speech: How Disinformation Poisons Our Politics — and How to Cure It
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, and Genevieve Lakier of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University. The discussion will explore how social media companies can solve this problem without shutting down the essential free flow of ideas and opinions. RSVP today
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VIRTUAL EVENT: Uncounted: The Crisis of Voter Suppression in America
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Thursday, March 31, 6–7 p.m. ET
Join Gilda R. Daniels, University of Baltimore law professor and author of Uncounted: The Crisis of Voter Suppression in America, in conversation with the Brennan Center’s Wendy Weiser to discuss the crisis of voter suppression today. Daniels, who served as a deputy chief in the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division and has more than two decades of voting rights litigation experience, warns that a premeditated strategy of restrictive laws and deceptive practices has taken root and is eroding the very basis of American democracy — the right to vote. RSVP today
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Produced in partnership with New York University’s John Brademas Center
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News
Alicia Bannon on state supreme court diversity and public trust in the judiciary // PORTLAND PRESS HERALD
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Ted Johnson on the Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act // VICE
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Michael Li on the Supreme Court’s “breathtaking” shift on redistricting // VICE
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Lawrence Norden on the Brennan Center’s poll of local election officials // CNN
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Faiza Patel on potential war crime charges against Vladimir Putin // SLATE
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Kelly Percival on the 2020 Census’s undercount of people of color // REUTERS
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