Spectator/Stephen Tuttle

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WE SHOULD BE CONCERNED FOR OUR OFFICIALS

spectator

By Stephen Tuttle

These are not the best of times for those overseeing our elections or our schools. There are more than 3,000 counties, parishes, boroughs, census areas, and independent cities in the United States. (Michigan has 83 counties.) In most states, the ultimate responsibility for running elections falls on officials in those counties. Yes, in 24 states, the elected Secretary of State has the statutory election authority. In other states, that job is either appointed by the governor or the state legislature. But the nuts and bolts of election day— operating polling places and monitoring the actual mechanics of voting—falls on county and city clerks, most elected but some appointed. They have done their job exceedingly well for decades, experiencing only occasional glitches and the usual handful of miscreants trying to game the system. That continued to be the case in 2020, which the Department of Justice declared the most secure in our history. Subsequent recounts and audits in several closely contested states have proven that assessment was correct; there were no widespread irregularities or incidents of massive fraud in any jurisdiction in any state. That did not stop the election losers from making all manner of frivolous, outrageous, and provably untrue claims about rigged or fraudulent election results. The consequence of what has come to be called The Big Lie fell mostly on local election officials.

Threats, including death threats directed at election officials’ families and children, along with non-stop harassment, became the norm for far too many of those overseeing our elections. Their great offense? They followed their state constitutions and state and local laws and refused to violate their oath of office to appease those who demanded they ignore all of it. The verbal assaults and threats directed at them by a fringe group of extremists unable or unwilling to accept facts supported by overwhelming evidence became far too commonplace. Unfortunately, politicians have helped lead this outrageous assault on reality as they try to prove their loyalty to the former Liar in Chief. Having created doubts about the election by constantly regurgitating the nonsensical lies, they now claim they must “reform” elections to restore the confidence they’ve destroyed. (District 1 Congressman Jack Bergman was one of 142 U.S. Representatives who voted against certifying the election results. He has also stuck his finger in the ludicrous, endless election sideshow in Antrim County. Bergman is quick to remind everyone he used to be a general, but he apparently surrendered his independence and leadership when he retired.) According to research by the Brennan Center for Justice, fully a third of election officials report being harassed or threatened, 20 percent say they or their family have been threatened directly, and half say they are worried about their family’s safety. One in five say they are likely to quit before 2024. In Pennsylvania, one in three have already left or announced they’re leaving within a year. This is, to put it mildly, outrageous. Election officials are honest, diligent folks—our neighbors—who have done a remarkably good job for a very long time. They deserve support, not threats. Meanwhile, school board members and administrators are facing their own threats and harassment but for non-election reasons.

There are 13,800 public school districts in the U.S., and each of them had to make difficult decisions during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, and many have been attacked for something none of them do: include critical race theory in their curricula. When schools followed the advice of federal, state, or local health officials and mandated masks or stopped in-person learning altogether, they were threatened, oftentimes openly in public meetings, by those following the advice of social media charlatans. The situation became sufficiently serious the National School Boards Association asked U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland for assistance investigating the most egregious threats. That, of course, resulted in Republican politicians claiming the Biden Administration was attacking the free speech rights of parents opposed to the COVID policies. But threatening school board members, as happened dozens of times in dozens of locations, according to The Associated Press, is not protected speech but a criminal act. Being attacked for teaching critical race theory would almost be comical if not for the accompanying ignorance and threats. No K-12 public school in the country includes critical race theory in their curriculum. None. All references to race are not critical race theory, which is a very specific idea created for debate at the college and university level. We should be concerned that election and school officials, who honorably followed the law or the best advice they could find, are being harassed and threatened out of office by people ignorant of both. Stupidity cannot be the foundational principle of our elections or schools.