Election workers may need to become whistleblowers this fall
Fulton County workers count absentee ballots at State Farm Arena on November 6, 2020, in Atlanta. Jessica McGowan/Getty Images
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Legal groups stand ready to help election workers navigate the legal realities of “see something, say something.”
While federal whistleblowers like Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning may loom large in the public imagination, lawyers at the Government Accountability Project, a nonprofit whistleblower protection organization, are preparing for a potential influx of calls from a new type of client this fall: election workers.
Local, county and state election officials, poll workers and even contractors like voting machine operators are best positioned to identify and warn of attempts to interfere with the election process, according to a guide for whistleblowers in battleground states released today by the organization.
“These are just public servants who we are depending on to really protect our democracy,” said Dana Gold, director of the Government Accountability Project’s Democracy Protection Initiative. The guide is a way to ensure election workers know “that they have the right to speak up … and that they don't have to do it alone.”
As former President Donald Trump and other Republicans continue to cast doubt on the integrity of the American election process, threats to election workers have intensified. Nearly 40% of local election officials reported experiencing threats, harassment or abuse last year, according to a Brennan Center for Justice survey. And 62% reported concerns about political leaders engaging in efforts to interfere with how election officials do their jobs.
The FBI and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service are currently investigating suspicious packages sent to or received by elections officials in more than 15 states late last month. In Georgia, a county election director said a poll worker was confronted during the state’s presidential primary in March by an agitated voter who was carrying a gun. In Ohio, a window at a county elections office was damaged by gunfire this spring. And secretaries of state in battleground states have reported receiving personal threats.
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger, for example, received death threats targeting him and his family after he declined Trump’s requests to change the state’s 2020 election results. Early last month, the mayor of Wausau, Wisconsin, said the city clerk was “out of her lane” in reporting an election irregularity to the county district attorney and state elections commission. (The irregularity was the mayor removing a ballot drop box from in front of City Hall.)
Election interference can take many forms, from poll workers who fail to be impartial to workers who tamper with election equipment to election officials who refuse to certify election results. The laws protecting those who might blow the whistle on any interference, much like the laws governing the administration of elections, vary by state. (The Government Accountability Project whistleblower's guide focuses only on Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas and Wisconsin.)
So navigating how to raise concerns about election administration, especially in the majority of local U.S. election offices that have just a handful of staff, can be complicated.
“There's no one law for whistleblowers,” Gold said. “That's why it's important to get advice early.”
The need for that advice hasn’t come up in past elections. During the 2020 election, Gold and her colleagues first heard from election officials who were trying to figure out what their rights were in terms of issues around elections. In 2021, when the Election Official Legal Defense Network was founded to provide pro-bono legal help and advice for election officials, it was hailed as the first organization of its kind.
This year, the Election Official Legal Defense Network has received “a consistent drumbeat of requests” from election officials in need of legal advice or assistance, Jacob Kipp, chief of staff of the Center for Election Innovation & Research, the network’s parent company, said in August.
The Government Accountability Project has received just “a couple” of calls from election workers so far this year, Gold said. Nevertheless, the organization is preparing for the worst and hoping for the best.
“The best-case scenario is that no one gets any calls,” she said.
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