Pillars of the Community and Keep Our Republic Host “Ballots and Battlegrounds: Ensuring Election Safeguards”
Pillars of the Community and its partners brought together top state and county election officials with leading national reporters to explain the election systems’ safeguards that produce reliable election results. The forum was held on September 19, 2024, at the Gerald R. Ford Library in Ann Arbor, MI. Keep Our Republic co-sponsored the event with Pillars.
Election officials from the 15 most contentious jurisdictions in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin spent over five hours detailing their preparations and processes for safely and securely administering the upcoming election. The officials directly engaged with the media and the public through three educational sessions: “Safeguards throughout the Voting Process,” “Safeguards for Voting—Mail (Absentee), Early, and Election Day,” and “Vote Tabulation and Post-Election Verification Process.” Before a public audience at an evening “Ask Me Anything Town Hall”, the election officials answered questions about the accuracy of the voter rolls, non-citizen voting, election security, how voters are verified when they vote, authentication procedures for mail ballots, checks on the accuracy of voting machines, audits throughout the election process and the certification of election results.
Participants included:
- Lisa Marra, Arizona State Election Director
- Stephen Richer, Recorder, Maricopa County, AZ
- Brad Raffensperger, Georgia Secretary of State
- Joseph Kirk, Bartow County Election Supervisor, GA
- Jocelyn Benson, Michigan Secretary of State
- Lisa Posthumus Lyons, Kent County Clerk & Register of Deeds, MI
- Justin Roebuck, Ottawa County Chief Election Officer, MI
- Karen Brinson Bell, Executive Director, North Carolina State Board of Elections
- Tim Tsuji, Forsyth County Elections Director, NC
- Al Schmidt, Pennsylvania Secretary of the Commonwealth
- Lamont McClure, Northampton County Executive, PA
- Chet Harhut, Deputy Division Manager of Elections, Allegheny County, PA
- Meagan Wolfe, Administrator, Wisconsin Elections Commission
- Kim Pytleski, Oconto County Clerk, WI
- Lisa Tollefson, Rock County Clerk, WI
Media who attended included reporters from the Washington Post, New York Times, CNN, NBC, ABC, CBS, USA Today, Politico, PBS, NPR, Associated Press, Reuters, Bloomberg, Boston Globe, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, New Yorker, and Votebeat.
Jocelyn Benson, Michigan’s Secretary of State, explained the state’s automatic voter registration system, highlighting the stringent controls in place to prevent noncitizens from registering. She emphasized the effectiveness of these safeguards in ensuring the accuracy and reliability of Michigan’s voter rolls. Brad Raffensperger, Georgia’s Secretary of State, discussed the proactive audits conducted in Georgia, along with the state’s commitment to photo ID requirements to verify citizenship.
Meagan Wolfe, Wisconsin’s Elections Commission Administrator, underscored the importance of transparency in election processes, emphasizing that public understanding is crucial to building trust. Karen Brinson Bell, Executive Director of the North Carolina State Board of Elections, spoke on the security measures of voting machines, including rigorous logic and accuracy tests that ensure the machines are never connected to the internet.
Lisa Marra, Arizona State Election Director, discussed how close races and an increase in absentee ballots might slow down the counting process, but affirmed that thoroughness and transparency remain top priorities. Stephen Richer, Maricopa County (AZ) Recorder, detailed the procedures for counting mail-in and absentee ballots.
Al Schmidt, Pennsylvania Secretary of the Commonwealth, Kim Pytleski, Oconto County (WI) Clerk, and other election administrators shared insights into the measures employed at the state and county levels to uphold election integrity, from the use of air-gapped voting machines to the operation of secure ballot return sites monitored by officials and law enforcement. These initiatives form part of a broader effort to ensure public confidence that the vote is secure and every legitimate vote is counted.
The event concluded with all participants renewing their commitment to maintain transparency as the 2024 election approaches and to foster public trust that every eligible vote will be counted accurately and fairly.