The 2024 election is full of controversy, from campaign politics to election management politics. Accusations of wrongdoing and malpractice continue to plague election officials, despite their claims of compliance with the law and procedure.
This is not new. During the 2016 election, there was a growing narrative in the media and elsewhere that the US election was rigged. The allegations come from both the left and the right, with concerns ranging from voter suppression to rigged machines.
My colleagues and I have studied election management diligently for many years. When these allegations were made, we considered them strange and wrong. We traveled around the country visiting election offices. We conducted surveys, interviewed people, conducted focus groups, visited election offices.
In 2020, my colleague Kathleen Hale and I published a book about innovations in election management. Among our conclusions: The US election was not hacked, and although it is fragmented and sometimes confusing, the system works well, despite a lot of pressure on it.
The 2020 election continued to underscore that America’s election administration is strong across the country, despite accounts by some losing candidates that there was fraud and conspiracy.
I continue to interact with election officials regularly through meetings, discussions, classes I teach and election observation. Although there are common mistakes and mistakes that will always happen, this year’s presidential election also continues to show that the people in charge of our elections are professionals who are engaged in neutral administration, who uphold the law and the important principles of public administration of transparency, accountability, accuracy, integrity and widespread access to eligible voters.
These people do this work despite the complicated and threatening situation for the election officials.
Elections take place almost every day
There are approximately 8,000 polling stations across the country. For the most part, elections are run locally by community members who work for their county or city government. Some election officials are appointed, some are elected, and some are civil servants. During voting, there are thousands and thousands of volunteer poll workers trained to support the process.
These offices work closely with other regional and city government offices. Their employees are trained in standard operating procedures to ensure vote security and election integrity, and they work closely with county election offices to ensure the proper application of state and federal laws. In some states, such as Colorado and Ohio, they have professional associations to promote their cooperation and work. There are also national professional and training programs to develop the sector.
Despite the fact that many people think that elections are held every other year, when you consider state, local and special elections and the steps involved in preparation, early or absent voting, election day voting and canvass and certification, there is an election run somewhere in America almost every day.
Working in an election is a unique challenge. Deadlines are set, budgets are relatively small in most areas, and perfection is expected at all times. In the past two presidential election cycles, election officials in some areas have faced persistent allegations of incompetence or fraud. Prosecutors rarely give real evidence.
There are excellent examples across the country of good election management in the face of many challenges and allegations of wrongdoing.
“They don’t stop. . . a bunch of lies”
Consider Wesley Wilcox, the election manager in Marion County, Florida. Wilcox has been a dedicated election official for decades, honored by his colleagues across the country when they elected him to the Election Center Hall of Fame in 2023. He is an elected Republican and is vocal about his support for his party.
But since 2020, Wilcox and his colleagues have been the target of accusations of wrongdoing, which he told the 2022 US Senate committee “is an endless and unprecedented bundle of lies.” The baseless allegations came despite the fact that Wilcox’s office was involved in an investigation of a woman who had been charged with a real crime: proven voter fraud.
Another example is Mary Hall, an auditor in Thurston County, Washington. Hall has been recognized by the state of Washington and his peers for his strong professionalism for decades. He manages a strong office and staff who work to communicate with voters to ensure public trust in their programs and results.
However, local groups have planned to oppose the registration of innocent voters, which has created more work for the Hall’s office.
There are legitimate reasons that voter lists are incomplete, and the presence of people on the voter list who have moved to register elsewhere is not evidence of fraud. And while such double registration is illegal, voting in many places is illegal. Despite all this, the Hall continues to respond respectfully to their accusations and criticism.
In 2023, his office was one of five nationwide to find envelopes containing a white powder, which in some cases turned out to be fentanyl.
“I was very proud of my position and told people that I made a living. And I don’t do that anymore, because you never know how you’re going to get the reaction from people on the other side,” Hall said. PBS NewsHour in November 2023.
“Years of unsubstantiated personal attacks”
Apart from sowing chaos and distrust in the society, these attacks and accusations have real consequences on the lives of the people running the elections.
One of the hardest things for me to watch was Cathy Darling Allen’s resignation from the job.
Darling Allen, former chief election officer in California’s Shasta County, is widely regarded among his peers as having high standards of professionalism, integrity and honesty. In 2024, Darling Allen was one of five elected officials in the country honored by the American Bar Association with the Unsung Heroes of Democracy Award. That award “recognizes those individuals and organizations who work every day, often in secret or without fanfare, to ensure that our elections are secure and that the democratic principles enshrined in the US Constitution are upheld.”
But years of threats, hate mail, allegations and unsubstantiated personal attacks have left him physically ill. This stress and the resulting health conditions forced him to retire early. A singing group of residents of the region alleged that widespread electoral fraud was taking place under his watch and accused him of treason and sedition. In a surprising development, a local news website reported that “Supervisor Patrick Jones, the most visible supporter of claims of election fraud in the area, was successfully elected to the position in a process overseen by Darling Allen.”
Darling Allen is just one example of dedicated officials who have left the field in recent years because of violent, false narratives about malfeasance in official elections.
Electoral offices will never have the kind of resources those people, groups and countries attack the integrity of their offices.
But these officials nonetheless persevere, upholding state and federal laws and ethical standards that work and producing accurate and timely election results.
A review of the Moritz College of Law’s 2020 presidential election case tracker, which documents important election law cases from around the country, shows that many of these cases were frivolous and that the election results were successful. These results show the competence of those election officials.
Other groups, including academics, have been working to study these issues objectively and empirically, looking at a range of topics, from electoral practice to best practice, and seeking to understand the implications of current narratives for society.
Real election malpractices are investigated, and the people involved face consequences if proven. Election fraud is a crime. Election officials know this and work tirelessly to ensure timely, fair, secure and accurate elections.
Mitchell Brown is a professor of political science at Auburn University.
This article has been republished from The conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the first article.
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