Amid threats, security rises at public officials’ meetings

Conference attendees were not given agenda until they arrived, were warned not to wear name tags in public

MADISON, Wis. — The meeting place? A secret. Agenda? Not public. Name tags? Take them off in public.

Even one of the main social events — trivia night — would be at an undisclosed location. This was no meeting of spies or undercover law enforcement agents. Instead, these were the security protocols for a gathering this week in Madison, Wis., of state election bureaucrats from around the U.S.

While the hush-hush measures might seem a bit extreme, they were put in place because of the very real threats against election workers that have been escalating since the 2020 presidential election as former President Donald Trump continues to promote the lie that widespread fraud cost him reelection.

Security increased at meetings of government officials after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, “but not like this where the agenda is kept secret,” said Kevin Kennedy, who was Wisconsin’s top election official for nearly four decades before retiring in 2016. He has attended meetings of the National Association of State Election Directors for more than 30 years and said it was jarring that otherwise anonymous election workers are now being targeted.

“This is just at a different level, and it’s a reflection of the times and it’s unfortunate,” he said.

State and local election officials have become targets for those upset with Trump’s loss and who believe any number of unfounded conspiracy theories about a rigged election. Many have retired or quit as a result, raising staffing concerns in some offices.

Four people have been charged by federal prosecutors, with one of them pleading guilty last month. In that case, Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold was the subject of multiple threatening posts on social media.

Robert Heberle, deputy chief of the Justice Department’s public integrity section, told state election officials recently dozens of cases were still under investigation and more prosecutions were expected.

Griswold, a Democrat who has received numerous death threats since the 2020 election, traveled to the National Association of Secretaries of State conference earlier this summer in Louisiana with private security.

In a statement to the Associated Press, Griswold said she won’t be intimidated by the threats and said a new state law she helped pass increases protections for election workers at all levels.

“We cannot allow violent threats to secretaries of state and election workers become an accepted norm in the United States,” she said.

Organizers of the secretaries of state meeting, held twice a year, have been increasing security measures since the 2020 election, said Maria Benson, the group’s communications director. That includes coordinating with law enforcement agencies before and during the conferences, she said.

At the group’s summer meeting earlier this month in Baton Rouge, local law enforcement officers were visible in the lobby and meeting areas of the hotel where the conference was being held. Members of the media were instructed to keep their credentials visible while in the meeting area.

It’s not just election officials who are commanding tighter security during their gatherings.

When the National Governors Association met earlier this month in Portland, Maine, security was the highest in the state in decades.

The heavy law enforcement presence included city police, state police and security details, including troopers from other states. Plainclothes police roamed the event, and extra officers were kept out of sight, in case they were needed.

The increased security presence took place as demonstrators gathered to protest new abortion restrictions in states such as Arkansas, home of outgoing association chairman and Gov. Asa Hutchinson, a Republican.

Security planning, which was in the works for months, also involved police K-9 units and patrol boats in the harbor.

“We are in different times right now,” said Shannon Moss, spokeswoman for the Maine Department of Public Safety.