Federal effort to boost election worker protections fizzles

ATLANTA — Federal proposals that would have significantly boosted security funding for election offices and heightened penalties for threatening their staff failed to advance this year, leaving state officials looking to their legislatures for support.

The massive budget bill that passed Congress on Friday will send $75 million in election security grants to states, an amount that falls far short of what many officials had sought as state and local election workers have been targeted with harassment and even death threats since the 2020 presidential election.

They also were disappointed that proposals to make such threats a federal crime with more severe penalties fizzled.

Absent federal action, several state election officials — many of whom have faced an unrelenting wave of attacks for two years — say they plan to push their lawmakers to increase protections for themselves, their staffs and those who run elections at the local level.

Some of them were confronted by angry protesters in public and even outside their homes who were motivated by former President Donald Trump’s false claims that his reelection had been stolen.

“We need to take care of the people that work in elections,” said Cisco Aguilar, shortly after he won his midterms race to be Nevada’s next secretary of state. “They shouldn’t feel intimidated or harassed going to the car at the end of the day.” He added: “We have to have their back.”

Aguilar, a Democrat, said he plans to work with Nevada lawmakers to pass a bill making it a felony to harass or intimidate an election worker or volunteer. While Democrats kept control of the state Legislature, Republican Joe Lombardo was elected governor and his office declined to say whether he would support such an effort.

In Georgia, Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who faced an onslaught of threats as he withstood pressure from Trump to “find” enough votes to cancel President Joe Biden’s win in the state, said he also would like to see penalties increased on those who threaten election workers.

It’s not clear whether that will be a priority for the Legislature, where Republicans control both chambers.

Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat, has said she plans to call on the newly elected Democratic majority in the Legislature to allocate $100 million annually to local election offices after clerks complained about being underfunded.

She also wants to make it a felony to threaten election workers and heighten penalties for those who spread misinformation, especially related to voting rights.

She said tactics used in the 2020 election could be attempted again during the next presidential election unless lawmakers enact tougher countermeasures.

“We are looking to turn back the tide on misinformation and the violence that’s come into our political discourse,” said Jake Rollow, a spokesman for the Michigan Department of State. “We need that era to be put behind us, both in Michigan and as a country, because it’s not safe. It’s not what America’s about.”