Pennsylvania Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt discusses election safeguards at a Sept. 19, 2024 panel hosted at the Gerald R. Ford Library in Ann Arbor. (Kyle Davidson/Michigan Advance)
Bipartisan election officials from multiple battleground states met in Michigan Thursday and discussed their election day concerns and plans to make sure Election Day runs safely and smoothly.
Officials from Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina and Pennsylvania gathered in the Gerald R. Ford Library in Ann Arbor, for a string of panel discussions hosted by the nonpartisan group Keep our Republic, which focuses on providing education on threats to the U.S. election system and building trust in the electoral system.
Panelists began the day discussing the safeguards in place to protect from double voting, ballots being cast by dead individuals and noncitizen voters, alongside the ways they ensure accurate voting results before discussing the steps they’re taking to ensure Election Day goes smoothly for election workers, poll watchers and voters.
When asked what efforts the clerks on the panel were taking to support the wellbeing of permanent and volunteer election workers, Karen Brinson Bell, the executive director of the North Carolina Board of Elections, said physical and mental wellness has been a priority for their office.
Alongside extensive deescalation training and training on wellness and resiliency, North Carolina has also held sessions with a doctor through the U.S. Department of Defense with an understanding that many election officials are experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder, who they plan to have back before Election Day.
In Pennsylvania, Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro has organized an election threat task force with federal, state and local partners, and there is also a training unit created in response to the large turnover of election workers in the state and across the nation, Pennsylvania Secretary of the Commonwealth and former GOP elections official Al Schmidt said. The unit is led by an experienced county election director who will train new election directors to ensure a smooth election.
Gov. Shapiro launches election security task force ahead of 2024 elections
Joseph Kirk, the election supervisor for Bartow County, Ga., said there’s been more communication from the state in recent election cycles surrounding the landscape of threats to election workers. Additionally, the state has partnered with a wide number of organizations to get the word out about mental health, physical safety and any other knowledge election workers may need. Kirk is also ensuring his staff has training on physical threats and mental health that prioritizes the people in these situations, whether it’s an angry person at the polls or a natural disaster.
Additionally, election work is a community, Kirk said, and other organizations have made efforts to offer mental health support to members of that community.
Justin Roebuck, the Republican clerk for Ottawa County, Mich., said he underscored Kirk’s point on community.
“Something that I don’t want to get lost in this discussion is the fact that, you know, we sign up to do this for a reason, and there’s joy in this process. We are a part of this incredible, long history, right, of allowing people to engage in the democratic process and choose their government,” Roebuck said.
In addition to discussions on resilience and taking advantage of resources provided by the state, Roebuck said he and his team have been encouraging each other with positive stories.
“We have so many positive stories, so many like first time voters walking into precincts and getting high fives and cheers from election workers when they vote. We go out into communities and I’m talking to fourth-grade class next week, and we’re doing a mock election with Oreos,” Roebuck said. “We’re using, you know, taste testing an Oreo and voting for your favorite Oreo. And these kids are coming up and asking legitimate questions that some adults are not asking about voting, so all of these things I think are so important to remind ourselves of.”
Oconto County, Wisc. Clerk Kim Pytleski, Wisconsin Election Commission Administrator and Chief Official Meagan Wolfe and North Carolina State Board of Elections Executive Director Karen Brinson Bell at a Sept. 19, 2024 panel of bipartisan election officials hosted in Ann Arbor, Mich. (Kyle Davidson/Michigan Advance)
As election officials continue to adapt to a new landscape that includes threats and harassment, Wisconsin Election Commission Administrator and Chief Official Meagan Wolfe said all clerks have been an inspiration.
“They’ve shown that we’re not going to let fear rule us. We’re not going to let bullies or harassment dictate how we operate, that we are stronger than that, we are more resilient than that, and we’re going to keep doing our job the way that we’ve always done it, with integrity in mind,” Wolfe said.
As election workers charge forth the focus has been on empowering them, Wolfe said, ensuring they have relationships with law enforcement and security assessments of their offices and polling places.
With election clerks facing increased scrutiny in recent years, panelists also discussed procedures for poll watchers and poll challengers in their states.
Schmidt noted the important role poll watchers played in ensuring transparency in Pennsylvania’s elections, but noted it’s just as important that they understand what they can’t do as far as interfering with the voting process, harassing or intimidating voters or advocating on behalf or against a candidate.
In Arizona, these observers are designated by county party chairs, Arizona State Election Director Lisa M. Marra. However, unlike poll workers who are required to be trained by state law, there are not the same requirements for observers, who may or may not have been trained on the basic rules.
“A lot of times, individuals say they’ve seen all these things that are illegal, happening that are not but they don’t know because they don’t know the laws because they’re not trained,” Marra said noting her support for something like an hour long class to ensure poll watchers know the basic rules around their position.
Georgia has that type of class, Kirk noted, as poll watchers are required to go through training from the entity that appointed them, with many officials offering optional trainings about their local election processes.
It’s also important for these watchers to understand what they’re seeing and what to do if something’s not going right, Kirk said, noting that poll watchers are different in Georgia from poll challengers in other states.
“In Georgia, poll watchers observe what’s going on. If they see something wrong they alert who appointed them or the election office, not the poll manager, where[as] other states, they have more of a role of challenging what poll workers should do,” Kirk said.
Additionally there is also a public area where members of the public can observe if there is space, but if they want to go beyond the check in area, they have to be trained, Kirk said.
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, also encouraged those interested in the process to join them as an election worker, rather than participating as a poll watcher, with another member of the panel joking, “Then you’re complicit.”
“The question is to the voter out there, do you want to make a difference? They could be a watcher, or you could be a poll worker. I’m a worker, not a whiner, so come join us,” Raffensperger said.
Michigan Bureau of Elections Director Jonathan Brater speaks at a Sept. 19, 2024 panel on election safeguards hosted in Ann Arbor. (Kyle Davidson/Michigan Advance)
Michigan Bureau of Elections Director Jonathan Brater noted that the state has not had trouble with poll challengers that have been trained, regardless of the political party that has trained them.
“Where we have problems are when people show up, you know, because they got an email or at the last second and they’ve been told something’s going wrong, they come into the middle of an election process they know nothing about, and then they start causing trouble,” Brater said.
While Michigan has updated its challenger guidance to make things more clear for election officials, the state also has laws making it a crime to threaten an election worker, Brater said.
Lisa Posthumus Lyons, the clerk for Kent County, Mich., and a former GOP member of the state House of Representatives, echoed the importance of training poll challengers and advocated for setting expectations for poll workers.
“I think we need to make sure that our election inspectors have an expectation set, that they understand that you could encounter poll challengers at your precinct. And so rather than have this unexpected, almost combative relationship, it’s a, ‘This is part of the process. I know what they are able to do, and I know that role, I know what’s coming and we’re really all a part of the process together,’” Posthumus Lyons said.
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