At the start of the midterm primary elections, two prominent lawyers, a Republican and a Democrat, warn that election officials are facing a level of threat and intimidation that could jeopardize American democracy if not is controlled.
Republican lawyer Ben Ginsberg told 60 Minutes: “The activities that have always been carried out to organize our elections are being politicized, criminalized and basically taken to a different level of discomfort for them.”
Ginsberg has spent his career steeped in electoral law. During the 2000 Florida census, he was a key figure in the controversial legal strategy that won George W. Bush the presidency. He has now teamed up with Bob Bauer, a former White House adviser to President Barack Obama and a senior adviser on Joe Biden’s presidential campaign.
Both have created the Election Official Legal Defense Network, which provides pro bono legal advice to local and state election officials facing threats or intimidation, regardless of party affiliation. The network is a project of the Apartheid Center for Electoral Innovation and Research, founded by David Becker, a lawyer who served in the Voting Section of the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice during the administrations of Bill Clinton and George. W. Bush. Becker is also a contributor to CBS News.
“One of the messages we’re sending,” Bauer said, “is that those who threaten them are threatening these officials, whether they’re full-time, if they’re volunteers, if they’re in positions of higher responsibility, or just staff. “Those who threaten them must know that they cannot act with impunity.” He added: “There will be a defense and it will be a robust defense.”
A March 10 poll by the Brennan Center for Justice found that one in six local election officials has been threatened and one in five says they are likely to leave their jobs before the 2024 presidential election.
“We are frankly surprised by the number of election officials we have already heard who have considered that they should be able to talk to their own lawyer in order to resolve legal or personal threats to them,” Ginsberg said.
Ginsberg and Bauer told 60 Minutes that threats against election officials take many forms.
“There are statutory enactments, in some states, that put election officials at potential risk of criminal prosecution for simply making mistakes, so they will be continually looking over their shoulder,” Bauer said. “There are threats against them by state legislatures that they have been involved in some form of misconduct and that they have conducted mock audits to expose alleged illegal acts that, in fact, have never occurred.”
Ginsberg said that while he and Bauer disagree politically, they are committed to protecting the country’s democracy, which they believe is currently at risk from unfounded Republican claims of widespread electoral fraud in 2020.
“The reason I’m especially concerned at this stage is that the people I’ve represented for the last 40 years, the Republican Party, are taking a position that I think is not compatible with the facts and has a particularly pernicious effect on the democracy, “Ginsberg said.
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