Bob Bauer and Ben Ginsberg join MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell to discuss Pillars of the Community
On October 18th, Pillars of the Community Co-Chairs Bob Bauer & Ben Ginsberg joined Andrea Mitchell on MSNBC to discuss how Pillars is working to protect election officials and volunteers from threats this November. Ben Ginsberg emphasized the essential role of community trust in the electoral process, while Bob Bauer expressed the deep concerns of election officials regarding the rising atmosphere of threats and intimidation that has emerged in recent years.
Ben Ginsberg explained that to build community trust in their elections, Pillars of the Community is “getting community leaders in the most contentious election jurisdictions to kick the tires of the election system with the local election officials, and we’d like those community leaders to voice their support for the job election officials have been doing.” Further stressing the importance of trust, Ginsberg stated, “Trust in the election system is really important for all the fundamental basics of our country: peaceful transfer of power, losers accepting the results. And if you don’t have that public faith in the reliability of elections, that’s going to impact negatively whoever wins this election, whether it’s Donald Trump or Kamala Harris.”
Bob Bauer highlighted the significant concerns of election officials, stating they are “very concerned about an atmosphere of threat and intimidation that has developed over the last couple of years. Those who have been in this work for a long time have never experienced anything like it. At the same time, they’re proceeding. They’re professionals.”
Ginsberg also emphasized that “this time around, election officials are doing a much better job preparing for this threat and providing resources for their workers…I think there will be more protections in 2024 for officials working at the polls that were not present in 2020.”