In Brief:
- Violent protests in the aftermath of the 2020 election and continued denial of the outcome by some have increased concerns about security in 2024.
- A series of public service announcements featuring leaders from law enforcement and the military, released as voting begins, underscore the importance of election security.
- These come in concert with efforts by dozens of organizations to counter misinformation regarding election administration and lift up the rule of law.
In 2020, election officials faced the challenge of protecting voters from a deadly virus. This year, they’ve been preparing for harm that might come from humans.
Just ahead of the general election, the Committee for Safe and Secure Elections (CSSE) has released a series of public service announcement (PSA) videos for use by election officials, law enforcement, community-based groups and others working to promote trust in elections. They’re designed to remind the public that secure elections are essential to democracy, that election workers take their jobs seriously — and that there are penalties for election violence and intimidation.
Within 10 days of launch, the eight PSAs from CSSE had been viewed more than a million times on its YouTube channel alone. Paid placements of the videos are also part of the campaign. They are already being shared by law enforcement agencies and others, says CSSE member Lawrence Norden, who leads the Brennan Center’s Elections and Government Program.
CSSE was formed in 2022 by current and former election officials and law enforcement officers to build cooperation and mutual understanding between these sectors. The coalition also includes nonpartisan election experts from nongovernmental organizations.
One of its major contributions to election security is the creation of pocket reference guides for every state that highlight provisions in their state laws that define criminal behavior around elections. Before CSSE began this work, few officers were aware of these violations.
Paralleling the compilation of the guides, CSSE members provided consulting and training exercises that brought election officials and local law enforcement together to work through how they would cooperate in scenarios where police support might be needed.
The time for this work has passed. Now CSSE is bolstering its messages to the public, emphasizing the necessity of a smooth and peaceful election.
Tuning Down Harmful Rhetoric
“Threats against election officials and their families are something we expect in war-torn countries, not in America,” says U.S. Air Force Brigadier General Marty France (Ret.) in his segment. France is a member of National Security Leaders for America (NSL4A), a group of nearly 750 individuals who served in senior leadership roles in the military, national security agencies and government.
NSL4A advocates for “positions, values, and elected officials who strengthen the United States as a democratic nation.” It put out a call to members who might want to be part of the CSSE campaign.
France responded, concerned that continued attacks on the 2020 results and pre-emptive challenges of the 2024 outcome were setting the stage for trouble. He was further motivated by testimony he’d seen from several election workers and the intimidation and threats they've faced.
France tells Governing he's disturbed by the reluctance of some government leaders to vocally defend public servants and election officials in particular. Anyone in government service should be supporting all others in government service, he says, whether a mailman, an election official or troops on the ground.
“I don’t want those who are putting their careers and lives on the line as election officials to feel threatened in any way,” France says. “Hopefully I can help tune down the rhetoric.”
What Is Political Violence?
Political violence has been rising since 2016, says the Carter Center’s Nathan Stock. It’s not just physical attacks, which are very rare. Political violence also includes threats to public officials and election workers and demonizing people because of their identities. The problem has deep roots in American history, he says. “Think back to the violence of the Klan. Lynchings are clearly a form of political violence,” he says.
Surveys commissioned by the Carter Center show that 85 percent of Americans oppose any form of political violence, Stock says. Elected officials and figures with big media followings, as well as the general public, need to be reminded that the vast majority of Americans reject violence, he says.
The people most likely to commit political violence aren’t rabid partisans, says Rachel Kleinfeld, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. They’re people who have problems with impulse control, hotheaded and quick to react. No clear motive has been established for a July assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump or a September incident headed off before a shot was fired.
Norden is most concerned about what might happen after Election Day. Polls suggest that the election will be close, and it will likely be days before there are final results. “I think the problem of misinformation during that period will be really great,” he says. To the extent that false information from candidates, campaigns, conspiracy theorists and foreign governments floods into social media, chances go up that someone could be triggered and take violent action.
The election community wasn’t prepared for the vitriol and threats that came at it in 2020, Norden says. The difference in 2024 is years of planning and preparation.
Lifting Up the Rule of Law
Efforts by election deniers to gain positions within state and local election infrastructure have received considerable attention. But CSSE is far from the only group working to support election officials. Federal, state and local government entities have all provided training tailored to the current election landscape.
The civil society infrastructure that exists to help the country get through the election peacefully is orders of magnitude bigger, better organized and better equipped than it was four years ago, Stock says. “We may see attempts to challenge the finalization or certification of results,” he says. “The project I run has teams in six states that are working across the political aisle with Democrats, Republicans, independents to get ahead of those exact threats.”
The nonprofit Issue One, which is helping fund distribution of the CSSE PSAs, has its own public information campaign, Faces of Democracy, that includes videos featuring election officials. “We have seen militias organizing online and in communities,” says Carah Ong Whaley, director of election protection at Issue One. “We have particular concerns in the wake of Helene [witnesses reported armed groups threatening relief workers].”
One of main things Whaley is doing at this stage of the election is coordinating an elections communication hub comprised of more than 80 organizations, including Brennan and the Carter Center. “We’re all working together, filling gaps, sharing information and able to respond to issues that arise,” she says.
When the the actions of bad actors become more visible than the work election officials are doing to keep things free and secure, there's the risk that people could be turned off or intimidated, says Whaley. But, she says, “we want to be seen because we’re trying to reinforce the rule of law.”
