Democrats say electors fear political violence
Party has security plans in place
When it came time to cast his ceremonial Electoral College vote for Joe Biden in 2020, Democrat Khary Penebaker had to keep things hush-hush.
He wanted to bring his girlfriend at the time, but wasn’t allowed a guest. He couldn’t even walk through the front door of Wisconsin’s statehouse.
Instead, Penebaker and other Badger State electors met at an undisclosed location. Law enforcement escorted the group through tunnels to arrive at a room in the statehouse, which had been closed off to the public.
The 46-year-old Democrat, who ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 2016, called the experience “terrifying.” He was scared after seeing stories of election workers being harassed in other swing states.
Penebaker, who is Black, said he thought back to how civil rights activists more than half a century ago had crossed Alabama’s Edmund Pettus Bridge knowing they would be beaten by police officers on the other side. He said if they could survive that, he could muster the courage to cast an electoral vote.
Democrats, scholars and election watchdogs are keenly vigilant about the safety of people like Penebaker, who sign up to cast votes for their political parties on behalf of the Electoral College a month after Election Day, and who typically assemble at statehouses as a key part of the constitutionally mandated ceremonial process of choosing the next president.
Political violence can slow down the process of electing the president because officials end up needing to evacuate buildings and halt proceedings to shore up security, such as what happened on Jan. 6, 2021. The slowdown can give bad actors time to sow doubt in the democratic process.
USA TODAY spoke with five Democratic Party officials in four swing states – Georgia, Michigan, Minnesota and Nevada – who all said electors are feeling apprehensive. The Republican National Committee and presumptive 2024 GOP nominee Donald Trump’s campaign did not respond to requests for comment about security concerns. Efforts to reach Republican officials in
Pennsylvania were unsuccessful.
This chorus is likely to intensify in the coming months, especially given Trump’s refusal to explicitly rule out political violence in multiple interviews should the former president lose this fall and his previous attempt to fraudulently replace those slates in 2020 to overturn his election loss.
Democrats did not disclose the specifics of their security plans, but a top official with the Democratic National Committee said they had one in 2020 and have one for 2024. When electors are placed, which is happening all over the country, the party will hold a security briefing for them.
The concerns about electors’ safety are similar to the ones about election workers. A new survey released this month by the Brennan Center for Justice shows 38% of them have experienced threats, harassment or abuse for doing their jobs, forcing many to quit.
Secretaries of state have said it’s getting harder to recruit and retain poll workers, and Democrats say people are less willing to sign their names to be electors. Even when they do, they experience anxiety.
Tolulope Kevin Olasanoye, executive director of the Georgia Democratic Party, pointed to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol – which pressured thenVice President Mike Pence to reject the legitimate electoral votes from people like Penebaker so that Trump could win the election – as an example of what could happen.
“We’d be foolish not to take the security of electors and everyone involved in our presidential electoral process very seriously – for good reason,” he said.
Security concerns based on ‘credible threats’ in 2020
Penebaker said he received hundreds of emails threatening him with lynching if he didn’t change his 2020 electoral vote from Biden to Trump.
He had panic attacks, fearing something could happen at any minute. He said he’ll never sign up to be an elector again.
“They took what should be the pageantry, the majestic feel of being an elector,” Penebaker said. “You’re one of (538) people in the country who get to do this, and that’s a huge honor, and to have it robbed of you … it’s unfair.”
Michael McDonald, a University of Florida political science professor who authored a book about the 2020 election, said the fears are legitimate.
He pointed to actual violence that occurred on Dec. 14, 2020, the day electors across the country assembled in their respective states and that served as a preview of the attack on the U.S. Capitol a few weeks later.
“There were examples of actually people being physically hurt,” he said. “There was a person shot in Washington state and there were people stabbed in Washington, D.C. So there was violence on the day that the electors met.”
On that day Delaware relocated its electors ceremony to a gymnasium so that better security could be provided when they cast their votes for Biden, for example.
Similarly, Michigan Republicans, who at the time still controlled the state legislature, closed the state Capitol on Dec. 14, 2020. They had urged legislative staff to work remotely, “based on credible threats of violence.”
Similar prudent steps were taken in the Biden-won states of Wisconsin and Arizona amid protests happening across the country fueled by Trump’s rhetoric.
Ken Martin, vice chair of the Democratic National Committee and head of Minnesota’s Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, said this has made it harder to recruit people to do the job in 2024.
“It’s had a little bit of a suppressive effect, because now people who went through that four years ago, of course, aren’t willing to do it again, and the new people coming in have expressed some concern about their own physical safety,” Martin said.
Dems discussed elector security at pre-convention meeting
Ahead of the 2024 election, state Democrats have established security plans for their electors, according to multiple officials.
It was at the forefront of a discussion with state-level leaders who gathered in Chicago in April for a pre-convention huddle, USA TODAY has learned.
“We have talked about security plans for electors, and we did have a whole plan in 2020 after the threat level increased on our electors to keep them safe,” Martin said.
“There are conversations that have happened, that continue to happen, to help protect the safety of people who administer elections.”
Georgia leaders in particular expressed apprehension given how Peach State poll workers were targeted by Trump and his allies in the weeks leading up to the U.S. Capitol attack. State Democratic officials told USA TODAY they have specific worries about electors facing doxing, online harassment and physical harm.
The Georgia party officials declined to provide details about their security plans, but emphasized there are real world fears about ensuring their 16 electors – who were selected by the party chair earlier this year – are protected.