Native officers play a number one position in operating our nation’s elections. Typically, they’re trusted as a result of they perceive their communities and the way finest to serve their constituents. Nevertheless, bad-faith actors and conspiracy theorists are more and more spreading harmful myths about election clerks and the way elections are performed. This has made doing their jobs more durable and extra harmful.
As a former election official who has labored in Georgia, Texas, and Washington, D.C., I’m right here to set the file straight on a number of misconceptions which are damaging our democracy.
Fable: Certifying the election outcomes is non-obligatory.
Reality: Certification is required by regulation.
Confirming the election outcomes, also referred to as certification, is a routine, administrative step that takes place on the finish of the vote-counting course of. That is when election board members vote to submit the outcomes to the Secretary of State. This step, mandated in all 50 states and territories, ensures the maths is appropriate. It’s not an investigation into the election’s integrity, neither is it a alternative.
Earlier than certification, election officers have already taken a sequence of obligatory steps to make sure votes are precisely counted and points or questions on irregularities have been resolved. Ensuring elections are truthful is already baked into the method.
Lately, some election board members have refused to certify election outcomes. This tactic, carried out underneath the guise of “ensuring election integrity,” is definitely supposed to sow mistrust among the many public. Certification refusals delay election outcomes in an already tight timeline and disrupt a system that has been confirmed efficient for many years. Moreover, these challenges don’t succeed—they constantly fail in courtroom and those that introduced them have confronted legal prosecution.
Fable: Our election processes aren’t safe.
Reality: Safeguards towards election fraud and interference are in place—they usually work.
Each state has strict legal guidelines and safety protocols to guard elections. After every election cycle, officers evaluation and improve these protocols and implement new legal guidelines handed by their state legislature. Since 2020, 92% of election officers have taken necessary steps to extend election safety and agency up infrastructure.
Native election officers check voting tools earlier than election day, replace the electors listing, and put together public stories on election outcomes. On election evening, officers have chain-of-custody procedures for all ballots in place, guarantee safety protocols are carried out in polling locations, and confirm that each one eligible ballots forged are counted. Preserving elections safe is a basic a part of their job.
Mail-in ballots and drop containers, instruments that improve voting entry and make it simpler for residents to take part in elections, have sadly confronted unsubstantiated assaults. Thorough investigations constantly discover them safe and dependable.
Fable: Frivolous challenges haven’t any value.
Reality: Challenges and threats by bad-faith actors deplete native sources and may result in exorbitant taxpayer prices.
Frivolous authorized challenges and serial open-record requests by unhealthy actors drain sources, diverting time and power from important election duties.
Throughout my time as an election official, we routinely acquired 5 to 10 open data requests every day, which resulted in us having to reply to a whole lot within the lead-up to elections.
Whereas officers satisfaction themselves on transparency and welcome professional open file requests, weaponizing these requests distracts from the actual work of operating elections—and taxpayers in the end bear the associated fee.
Fable: Persons are committing widespread voter fraud.
Reality: Individuals aren’t voting in a number of locations, registering the place they don’t reside, or casting ballots illegally as noncitizens.
Regardless of the widespread delusion, research and analysis by the Brennan Heart and different respected non-partisan and bipartisan organizations present that precise voter fraud is exceedingly uncommon and virtually unattainable to realize.
Claims that individuals are voting illegally or casting a number of ballots merely don’t maintain up. In my expertise as an election official, I by no means noticed noncitizens trying to vote, and when errors in registration occurred, they had been unintentional.
Moreover, there are a number of checks in place to make sure voters are U.S. residents. States affirm voter identities utilizing data from the federal Social Safety Administration in addition to the state Division of Motor Autos. Allegations of widespread mail-in poll fraud are additionally exaggerated. Jurisdictions comply with strict processes to validate and rely mail-in ballots, making certain solely eligible votes are included. (If something, the true flaw in our system is that far too many votes are disqualified for trivial causes.)
Fable: Administrative errors are an indication of fraud.
Reality: Errors are uncommon and unintended—and there are processes to establish and proper them.
Regardless of their finest efforts, election directors will encounter administrative challenges as a result of elections are large-scale, human-run operations staffed by individuals who usually solely take part a number of days out of the 12 months. Accordingly, there are procedures in place to catch and proper potential administrative errors earlier than outcomes are licensed, together with reviewing and double-checking candidate data, poll preparation, poll tabulation, and election evening reporting.
Regardless of challenges to election outcomes primarily based on administrative errors because the 2022 elections, only a few election outcomes have been overturned—and never due to fraud.
Myths about fraud and abuse might seize headlines however don’t signify actuality. Our electoral system is among the many most secure and most safe on this planet. This has been made attainable because of a powerful, sturdy, and clear system stuffed with safeguards and processes dutifully adopted by hundreds of election directors who work day in and time out to make sure each vote is counted pretty. As Election Day attracts close to, it’s vital that we put religion in our election officers and the system—and ignore the noise and frivolous accusations.
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