Under increasing threats, financial support for election security faces diminishment
In numerous aspects, the county's election headquarters has been transformed into a "stronghold," as stated by Bill Gates, a member of the county's Board of Supervisors. Gates has been subject to continuous death threats due to his denial of falsified accusations that officials rigged elections in 2020 and 2022, alleging election theft. He attributes the new safety procedures to "the true nature of elections in 2024."
These protective measures were unheard of a few years ago. However, during the 2020 vote count, when angry MAGA protesters, motivated by former President Donald Trump's allegations of voter fraud, stormed the tabulation center, forcing law enforcement to secure both staff and journalists within the premises for their protection, county leaders recognized the need for additional measures. Consequently, Maricopa County invested over $864,000 in federal funds and more than $3 million in county funds to reinforce its election security and procedures over the past four years.
The extent of planning and preparation contrasts sharply with that of numerous other locations across the nation, troubled by concerns about election disruptions during the upcoming November elections.
A CNN investigation revealed that, amid the exodus of skilled workers and leaders, election officials across the country have encountered challenges in strengthening security measures to protect staff and ensure voting integrity prior to Election Day. These officials voiced their concerns, citing death threats, harassment, frivolous lawsuits, burdensome public-records requests, and various threats resulting from baseless claims of voter fraud.
Despite these difficulties, budgets for election security have been limited in various ways. For instance, Congress has reduced funding under the 2002 Help America Vote Act (HAVA), the primary dedicated source of federal funding for running and securing elections. Moreover, several states have been slow to utilize the available HAVA funds. Furthermore, legislatures in more than half of US states, swayed by election misinformation, have prohibited or restricted the use of private funds that many election officials claim helped secure elections in 2020.
"Barely a drop"
As head of the nation's Election Assistance Commission, Ben Hovland offers a unique perspective on the struggles facing election officials as they prepare for this year's presidential contest.
"Elections have never been more challenging to conduct and manage in the US, and they have never been more expensive," Hovland told CNN. "Election officials must prepare for numerous issues, such as cybersecurity challenges, physical security concerns, addressing misinformation about election processes and procedures, and educating the public on these matters. Offices are being overwhelmed by lawsuits and information requests related to misinformation."
Hovland acknowledges that funding accessible under HAVA to address these issues is "just a drop in the ocean" compared to the demands of state and local election officials.
The funding amount allocated for election security under HAVA decreased significantly from $425 million during the 2020 fiscal year to $55 million in the spending bill for the current fiscal year approved by Congress and signed into law by President Joe Biden in March.
Biden proposed increasing HAVA funding to $1.6 billion in his proposed budget for the following fiscal year. However, determining whether and how much funding will be provided depends on a deeply divided Congress.
Election officials argue that they require funding to hire and adequately train poll workers, construct physical barriers to safeguard election workers and facilities, acquire signature verification equipment, install additional surveillance cameras, install fire retardant in ballot storage areas, and perform several other tasks.
Many offices have demanded new protective measures for handling mail-in ballots following the receipt of suspicious envelopes last November by election offices in California, Georgia, Nevada, Oregon, Texas, and Washington. This past week, another wave of suspicious packages was reported by secretaries of state or election officials in at least 20 states, including highly contested states like Arizona, Georgia, and North Carolina. Some of these envelopes bore a return address in Takoma Park, Maryland, and claimed to be from the "United States Traitor Elimination Army," as indicated by a CNN-obtained photograph of one of the envelopes.
The cost of updating systems across the country is substantial: $53 billion over the current decade to replace outdated voting machines, modernize voter registration systems, enhance cybersecurity, and manage elections, according to a 2021 study commissioned by the nonpartisan Center for Tech and Civil Life and the Center for Election Innovation and Research.
However, some Republican leaders question the necessity for additional funding. At a May 15 Senate Intelligence Committee hearing, Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma listed states that had allocated little or no portion of their recent HAVA grants, stating, "We have states that literally possess millions of dollars, but they claim they don't have enough funds." He also mentioned that in recent years, "Louisiana has received $14.5 million and has yet to spend a single cent of it."
The Election Assistance Commission, responsible for administering the grants, reported in June that by the close of the previous fiscal year, states were holding onto more than $400 million in HAVA election-security grants issued between 2018 and 2023. This includes battleground states such as Nevada, which had utilized only 41% of its grant funding, and Michigan, which reported having spent barely half.
But Hovland told CNN that it's typical for states to save HAVA grants for years to fund major, costly projects. For instance, he mentioned, Louisiana hasn't utilized its funds because it's planning to replace its paperless voting system; however, "the moment they sign that contract, they'll have spent it all." When Delaware updated its electronic voting system in 2018, it cost well over $13 million. Federal funding only covered a fraction of that total, Hovland stated.
Vindictive and Despised
Only last month, two individuals -- one in Virginia and one in Colorado -- were accused of making death threats against election officials and workers in Maricopa County. Thousands of election workers nationwide have reported receiving intimidating, offensive or hostile communications, including since the 2022 midterms, according to the Department of Justice's Election Threats Task Force. Many interviewed by CNN have confessed to threats against themselves or their colleagues. While many of these threats have predominantly targeted officials in battleground states like Arizona, Georgia, and Michigan, officials from Oregon to South Carolina have also received death threats, they told CNN.
“We’re not like Arizona or Georgia, with everything they’ve been through, but at polling places, the attitudes have been contentious and aggressive at times; and we have had people receive death threats,” said John Michael Catalano, a spokesman for the South Carolina Election Commission.
The hostile environment is taking a toll. Across the country, chief election officials have left office at a significantly higher rate over the last few years, with a 39% turnover between 2018 and 2022, according to a study by the Bipartisan Policy Center. The center stated that the number of officials leaving continues at a high rate leading up to the 2024 election.
Meanwhile, local election officials across the country told CNN they've struggled to retain and hire experienced workers due to low pay in an inherently challenging environment.
“People drop out left and right based on the national climate,” said Isaac Cramer, executive director of the Charleston County Board of Voter Registration and Elections in South Carolina.
In Santa Fe, New Mexico, election workers have quit, citing the high levels of stress and inappropriate behavior, said County Clerk Katharine Clark.
“We’re asking people to do very stressful, high-profile work, and we’re not seeing the pay that job requires,” she said.
Many local election officials say that in 2020, they were able to boost worker pay or buy new equipment to make elections run more smoothly and safely thanks to private funds. But that source of funding has been depleted, mainly due to false claims of election interference.
Cramer, in Charleston, said his county's election board used the $695,000 it received in private grants in 2020 to purchase a high-speed mail sorter, a machine to open ballot envelopes, and a mobile voting trailer. They also used the funds to run advertisements explaining the vote-by-mail process and to hire more poll workers.
But Cramer isn't even searching for privately funded election grants this time around. “Now that’s prohibited by the state legislature,” he said. “I have a county council saying there are grants out there. But we can’t apply for them anymore.”
The “Zuckerbucks” Scam
Four years ago, amid the Covid-19 pandemic, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, donated approximately $420 million through two nonprofits to promote secure and dependable voting. More than 2,500 county and state election offices around the country applied for and received grants.
Zuckerberg had already been criticized by Republicans for allegedly censoring or suppressing the pages of conservatives. Before the 2020 presidential election, Trump allies filed lawsuits in several states to block the use of the election grants, claiming (without evidence) that they would be directed towards Democratic strongholds. After Trump lost, he and many of his GOP supporters falsely claimed that what they dubbed “Zuckerbucks” had contributed to Biden's victory.
The bipartisan Federal Election Commission, in a unanimous vote, dismissed the charge. And courts in several states determined that the accusations were baseless. In fact, more money from those donations went to election offices in places where Trump won than where Biden won, according to an analysis by the FEC.
However, the lies lived on; since 2020, 28 states, mainly controlled by the GOP, have adopted laws or ballot initiatives to prohibit the use of private donations for elections. This includes the battleground states of Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina.
Election officials stated that the 2020 donations by Zuckerberg and Chan filled a critical need as an unprecedented pandemic led to a surge in voting by mail and other challenges.
In Wisconsin, Milwaukee County Clerk George Christenson said his office used $10,000 to improve their website so voters could more easily find their options for voting. “We have 72 counties in Wisconsin, and most are red,” said Christenson. “Most smaller counties benefited from those dollars. That’s the dirty little secret Republicans don’t want people to know.”
But here, too, the misinformation has had its effect. On August 26, Zuckerberg wrote to GOP House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan of Ohio, stating that he won't repeat his 2020 election donations. “I know that some people believe this work benefited one party over the other,” he wrote. “My goal is to be neutral and not play a role one way or another -- or to even appear to be playing a role. So I don’t plan on making a similar contribution this cycle.”
Before Biden clinched Arizona's victory by a narrow margin of approximately 11,000 votes four years ago, the state became a hotbed for ridiculous election-related insanity. Fakes news stories about Sharpie-altered votes, Chinese bamboo ballots, and manipulated voting machine counts started circulating. Social media was flooded with these falsehoods, leading far-right figures like conspiracy theorist Alex Jones to organize heated protests against the voting process.
Subsequently, then-Arizona Republican Party chair Kelli Ward and 17 others, including Giuliani and Trump's former chief of staff Mark Meadows, were indicted for their roles in submitting a false slate of electors to Congress. Although most defendants plead not guilty, one elector admitted guilt to a reduced charge, and Trump's campaign lawyer Jenna Ellis agreed to cooperate with prosecutors in August in exchange for dropped charges.
Despite several prominent election deniers losing to Democrats in the 2022 midterms, Arizona's Republican leaders and key candidates have only grown more defiant and threatening towards those questioning the election results. As recent as last Tuesday, Trump hinted at prosecuting and jailing election officials if he emerges victorious in November, casting doubt on the upcoming election's integrity.
Arizona Senate candidate Kari Lake, who lost her 2022 bid for governor by 17,000 votes, still believes Trump's 2020 defeat was a fraudulent sham. She persists in challenging her 2022 defeat in court, despite her lawyers being penalized over $124,000 by both federal and state courts for baseless claims of election fraud and dubious allegations about electronic ballot tabulation machines. She now represents the Republican party's nomination for Senate.
Continued denialism within the state has fostered ongoing discord.
A late February meeting of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors turned chaotic when pro-Trump election skeptics stormed the podium, shouting about the illegitimacy of the mostly Republican board members. Security guards quickly escorted the board members out the back door and requested backup from the county sheriff's office.
As recently as last month, an Arizona Superior Court judge dismissed a petition from a far-right group seeking access to the personal information of all Maricopa County election workers who had handled ballots since 2020. Judge Scott Blaney noted that the workers face "alarming and pervasive" threats and harassment.
Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer, a Republican skeptic of election denialism, reported a particularly graphic death threat against him to the county sheriff's office and the FBI on July 27. Within days, the FBI arrested a Virginia man who had also publicly disseminated vulgar threats against Vice President Kamala Harris and other officials.
Although Arizona's primary election on August 6 went smoothly, Sgt. Jeff Woolf, working in the county sheriff's counter-terrorism unit, confirmed that the sheriff's office is preparing rigorously for a trouble-free general election in November. "Times have changed," Woolf stated. "Our responsibility is to be prepared for all aspects of elections."
"We aim to ensure that everyone involved in elections, from voters casting their ballots to election department workers, feels safe," Woolf added. "We will continue to prepare and supply whatever resources we need to provide everyone the opportunity to vote."
The death threats faced by Gates and other election officials are a consequence of their roles in overseeing elections and denying allegations of election rigging. (from the given text)
The need for increased security measures in elections stems from the hostile environment faced by election officials, including death threats and harassment. (from the additional text)
