Women secretaries of state face harassment

COURTESY OF JENA FOR COLORADO

Women secretaries of state face threats and harassment for battling election lies

In the spring of 2021, Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs was in public with sta ers following a televised interview when the group spotted a man nearby. e man, according to Hobbs, began lming and following them. Hobbs’ sta was on high alert: Unbeknownst to the secretary at the time, that day her o ce had received a threat from an anonymous caller who said Hobbs “deserves to die.” e caller asked what the secretary was wearing to nd her more easily.

Hobbs’ sta did not know if the caller was the same man following them, but they pulled the secretary away just in case.

“ is guy ended up basically chasing me into the building,” Hobbs told e 19th. “We didn’t know who he was or who he was associated with. But that threat had come in and my sta knew about it. And it just all felt very attacking in a way that I don’t think would have happened to a man.”

It’s been two years since secretaries of state were propelled into the public consciousness for running America’s elections—and pushing back against lies about the 2020 election’s legitimacy that ultimately led to an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. As falsehoods about that election and their deadly consequences go on display during

hearings by a special congressional committee on the Jan. 6, 2021, attack, the ongoing realities of challenging those lies continue for these secretaries. ese election o cials back in 2020 debunked lies, myths and conspiracy theories about a presidential election that ultimately was deemed the most secure in U.S. history. Secretaries of state of both parties were subject to harassment for addressing disinformation (misleading information that is intentionally designed to cause harm to people) and misinformation (misleading information that is shared because a person truly believes it). But for the women secretaries of state serving in key battleground states—many of whom are Democrats—the work of combating inaccurate information made them targets for misogynistic harassment and threats of violence. In the lead-up to the nation’s next major election this year, some of these women secretaries say the harassment has not let up as they devote even more time to combating misinformation. Jena Griswold, the secretary of state in Colorado, said former President Donald As discussion of falsehoods about the 2020 election and their deadly consequences are televised from Capitol Hill, states’ top election officials are grappling with Trump’s lies about his loss to President Joe Biden in 2020 led her o ce to be more focused on insider threats—concerns that some people inaccurate information—which can make them targets. by Barbara Rodriguez, The 19th now seeking to work in elections are doing so to overturn free and fair elections in the future. Griswold has also had to be more responsive to vitriol targeting election workers and “massive” misinformation. “I think a way to conceptualize it is that DETAILS: Colorado the former president of the United States tried to steal the Secretary of State presidency in 2020 and failed, but the actions on that failed Jena Griswold, as attempt have not stopped. ey’re now focused on 2022 and well as other female 2024,” she said.politicians, have been the target of misinformation, harassment and gender-based attacks from the right. Griswold said her o ce has received numerous threats of violence since 2020, including death threats linked to misinformation. “Gender plays a major role. It plays a major role when you’re secretary of state. It plays a major role in your day-today—the threshold to be threatened for doing your job is much lower,” she said. New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver, who just oversaw her state’s June 7 primary, launched a “Rumor vs. Reality” website aimed at fact-checking myths about her o ce’s election administration. “ e point of having this site is it’s sort of a central clearinghouse for everything that we know about that is New Mexico speci c and not New Mexico speci c. Even if it’s like a macro-level conspiracy theory that potentially could in uence voters in the state, we’re addressing that there too,” she said. Toulouse Oliver called the work of combating disinformation and misinformation, which has popped up at other secretary of state o ces, necessary given the political

climate. e e ort is bipartisan and includes some Republican secretaries of state.

“We are in an almost completely di erent universe of just literally having to combat complete lies and falsehood that have no basis in reality,” she said. “We are still dealing with, almost two years later, the big lie and all of its various components.”

In Colorado, Griswold pushed this year for a package of election bills, including one that would expand security requirements around voting equipment.

“When election deniers threaten my life for safeguarding Colorado’s elections, it strengthens my resolve because I know I’m on the right side of history,” she said.

It’s not just secretaries of state— the majority of election workers are women. It’s important to highlight ongoing threats toward that workforce, said Joanna Lydgate, cofounder and CEO of States United Democracy Center, a nonpartisan organization that advocates for advancing free, fair and secure elections. She said it’s important to highlight ongoing threats of harassment toward election workers to better protect them. Several states are considering legislation aimed at doing that and more.

“ e reason our democracy held in 2020 was because really good election o cials on both sides of the aisle did the right thing. And now those very people are dealing with really unprecedented levels of harassment and threats just for doing their job,” she said. “ e people who are making those threats don’t discriminate by political party, but we de nitely do see them tap into all kinds of prejudice. So that puts people who’ve historically been targeted— whether it’s women, people of color, religious minorities—at greater risk.”

Hobbs called the onslaught of misinformation about elections administration a challenge in her state. After the 2020 election, Arizona Republicans called for an audit; no credible evidence of widespread fraud was found. Since then, many GOP lawmakers have continued to point to discredited claims of voter fraud in introducing new restrictions on voting laws.

“We gured out early on in the 2020 cycle that misinformation was going to be a problem. And we had to get out in front of it, and we did everything we could to do that. But we’re still having to stay out in front of it,” said Hobbs, who is now running for governor. “It’s been a constant battle, and it’s one of the biggest challenges that we’re facing.”

In Michigan, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said in an interview last month with NBC News that she learned around the 2020 elections that Trump suggested she be arrested for treason and executed.

A Trump spokesperson claimed Benson lied in the interview. Kristina Karamo, a Republican who is challenging Benson in the secretary of state race and has falsely claimed the 2020 election was rigged, said on social media that Benson is lying about threats against her life.

Lucina Di Meco, who studies gendered disinformation around the world, is cofounder of #ShePersisted. She said women political leaders are often the target of harassment linked to accusations of being liars or untrustworthy.

“We see this happening in a number of countries around the world, where misogyny is weaponized,” she said.

Benson, who con rmed recently that she was interviewed by the U.S. House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection that has been linked to Trump’s lies about a stolen election, has talked publicly about taking on more security measures around her state’s elections, including asking state o cials to investigate attempts to illegally gain access to voting equipment. ere is no comprehensive data available to quantify the intersection of gender and misinformation. Much of it—and the gender-based attacks and harassment—spread online. In April, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said it was creating a disinformation board and named Nina Jankowicz, an expert on disinformation and extremism and author of the book How to Be a Woman Online, to head it. But just a few weeks later, after Jankowicz was targeted for harassment and her work mischaracterized by attacks from the right online, the board was shut down, e Washington Post reported.

As misinformation becomes a more serious threat to the

administration of elections, some researchers are trying to study the e ects of gender in the sharing of misinformation.

At the Center for an Informed Public at the University of Washington, researchers say they’re studying the gender dynamics of instances of “information attacks.” e research, which is not complete yet, is expected to include the examination of social media accounts that include those of election o cials.

Rachel Moran, a postdoctoral fellow at the center, said she wants to examine whether more misinformation exists in places where there are women holding positions of power within elections. Moran said other areas of misinformation—around abortion, gender-a rming care and COVID— treat the study of gender as a variable instead of a key area.

“ ere’s this idea—this underlying misogynistic framework that makes a lot of this misinformation more attractive for people to believe in. And so there is this entire gendered element that has gone pretty understudied in the past,” she said.

Gowri Ramachandran, senior counsel for the Brennan Center for Justice, said legislators have the power to provide more funding to help election administrators protect themselves. e Brennan Center estimated recently that about $300 million could help election workers for the next ve years, including to bulletproof o ces and shield their personal information. Among policy ideas that have oated around is enrolling election workers in programs that protect the identities of domestic violence survivors. “It’s sort of a coincidence that programs that are designed for domestic violence survivors who are primarily women, historically, that those are now seeming like attractive programs and useful programs for election o cials, including secretaries of state and their sta ,” she said. Di Meco said democracies around the world, including in the United States, risk losing a generation of women political leaders if there are not more concerted e orts to challenge disinformation about their work and the gendered attacks aimed at discrediting them.

She said while individual people are advocating for state-level policy aimed at protecting election workers and launching debunking websites, more digital platform standards are needed to protect gender rights and democracy.

“We need to think beyond the small solution of digital literacy and putting the burden on the individual to try and x the world,” she said. “We need to think instead about what digital platforms can and should do. Because this isn’t a problem that’s happening by chance. It’s happening by design. ose platforms are designed to maximize hatred and outrage, because those generate the most engagement.”

Email: editorial@boulderweekly.com

COURTESY OF JENA FOR COLORADO

Locally owned & operated since 2020

HOURS: Tuesday - Thursday 3pm - 9pm • Friday 3pm - 10pm • Saturday 9am - 10pm • Sunday is 9am - 8pm • Closed Monday 300 Main St. Longmont, CO • (303) 834-9384 • dickens300prime.com

St. vrain habitat restore

D

cantina lunada

i

LEFT HAND LASER STUDIO

A

Cakes, Pies, Pastries, Cheesecake, Cookies, and more! Specializing in Wedding Cakes and custom decorating. NEW HOME of Marketplace Bakery! Fresh Breads Daily

720-684-6884 • 900 S. Hover St. Unit F, Longmont CO

$3 Draft Beers - 16 oz $5 House Margarita - 16 oz $3 Mimosa Taco Tuesday $2 Tacos

fritz family brewers

c

BRICKS / wonder tours

A

FIREHOUSE ART CENTER

T

Longmont’s

INDOOR FLEA MARKET

OVER 90 DEALERS! Items & Gifts for Ages 0-99 FURNITURE NEW & USED HOME DECOR & TONS MORE! LOCALLY OWNED FOR OVER 30 YEARS!

FRESHLY SQUEEZED LIME JUICE!

461 MAIN STREET • LONGMONT, CO • 303-485-5020 www.rosaleespizzeria.com

Longmont’s source for BEAUTIFUL QUALITY GLASS

341 MAIN ST. • LONGMONT, CO 303-827-3181

LIKE US! facebook.com/publicmon

Jeremy Jones was alarmed. e professional snowboarder was watching more and more ski areas closing early, or never even opening at all, because of a lack of snow. With each passing ski season Jones worried more about how climate change was going to a ect his passion, his sport, his livelihood. So he decided to do something about it.

In 2007 Jones founded Protect Our Winters (POW), a Boulder-based nonpro t dedicated to mobilizing the outdoor community on climate. Other pro athletes, dirtbags and die-hards quickly joined the cause to ght climate change and, as the organization’s name suggests, to protect our winters.

POW’s done a lot to accomplish those goals in the years since Jones started it. In 2020 they reached over 33 million people through a non-partisan voting campaign and met with 32 Republican and Democratic congress members on the topic of climate change, advocating for grid transmission upgrades, promoting incentives for electric vehicles, phasing out fossil fuel subsidies and more.

Now they’ve teamed up with Palmetto, a company leading the charge toward more e cient sources of renewable energy, to drive sustainability further, faster. It’s an e ort that goes well beyond snow sports, says Torrey Udall, POW’s vice president of operations and nance. It’s an e ort aimed at shifting American households o of fossil fuel energy by tapping into the ever-growing outdoor community—what POW refers to as the “outdoor state.”

“We believe that outdoor state can really tip the balance on climate,” Udall says. By POW’s estimate, there are some 57 million people participating in climbing, biking, hiking, river sports and, of course, skiing and snowboarding—all of whom have good reasons to care about the environment.

“78% of that community, of our audience, is conditioned to think, ‘What can I do in my own life [about climate change]?’” Udall says. “We need to o er [POW] members a way to take action … to be part of the solution.” at’s where Palmetto comes in. It o ers a tangible way to take action right at home, to reduce your fossil fuel energy reliance and to invest in the future. e goal is to connect POW’s audience and members with Palmetto’s solar energy services, to educate and incentivize as many members of the outdoor state as possible to make the switch.

“ is partnership, for us, really sits at that intersection of all those things, and we’re so excited about it,” Udall says.

Palmetto was founded in 2010 with the intention driving a wider adoption of renewable energy and to make it as a ordable and accessible as possible. Palmetto sees a green “utility revolution” on the horizon, where our main energy sources are decentralized and renewable— sourced from the sun and wind. It’s a prophecy the company is determined to manifest.

“Based on what Palmetto has deployed so far in terms of clean energy systems, it’s equivalent to [saving] 804 million miles driven on the road,” Jason Conrad, Palmetto’s vice president of product marketing, says, adding that’s equivalent to preventing 359 million pounds of coal from being burned. at’s considerable. And it directly equates to savings for homeowners as well. On average in the U.S., homeowners who install solar panels save about $1,500 a year on electricity—roughly $37,000 over the 25-year life of a solar panel. In Colorado, the average starting cost for a six kilowatt solar panel system is $17,000, for which owners receive a $4,446 federal tax rebate. ey also increase the property value of a home by a national median of $9,274, according to Greenlancer.

However, despite those savings, a lot of homeowners are deterred by solar’s perceived complexity, Conrad says.

“ e process of converting to clean energy is not as straightforward as it could be in the U.S.,” he admits, but “one of the biggest barriers to clean energy

Mobilizing the ‘outdoor state’ adoption in the U.S. is really just a lack of understanding.” Conrad says there are generally three A Boulder nonprofit and an innovative solar company join forces misperceptions that prevent people from pursuing solar energy on their own. A misperception of upfront to offer clean energy solutions to outdoor enthusiasts costs, misperceptions surrounding nancing options, by Will Brendza and what he calls a general “mysti cation” of how complicated the whole process of designing, installing and maintaining a solar system is. Palmetto’s business model breaks those barriers down in three simple steps: First, they o er a solar savings estimate that calculates exactly how much solar potential your home’s roof has. Conrad explains Palmetto has rooftop data on 84% of the buildings in the U.S., and chances are, your home is one of them. Palmetto then does all of the speci c design, engineering and permitting, and works with local solar providers to have the system installed for you. And nally, it provides ongoing support, monitoring and maintenance. Palmetto’s new partnership with POW connects it with a gigantic pool of environmentally minded outdoor enthusiasts, who may have never heard of Palmetto, but who want to know more about solar power. All POW members will receive a 10% discount on Palmetto’s solar services. And Palmetto will be conducting educational presentations at all of POW’s 2022 events, on solutions to address emissions. “It’s core to [POW’s] mission to work with brands to help accelerate the work and solutions on climate,” Udall says. “We get to work with someone whose business model is built on the idea that we need to get this technology to scale and then we get to o er our members a way to take action.” It’s all about incentivizing and mobilizing POW members to be part of the solution, Udall says. It’s directly in line with the mission Jones started POW with over 15 years ago: to make the outdoor state the nation’s most in uential climate advocates. “We need all outdoor enthusiasts to join this e ort,” Udall says. “ e whole mission here is to help people understand that clean energy is not just people that have a lot of money. It’s not just for people that want to make a statement.” It’s for anyone who cares about the outdoors and the environment, he says. It’s something that everyone in the outdoor state should be prioritizing. Email the author at wbrendza@ boulderweekly.com.