Giving Compass' Take:
- Barbara Rodriguez reports on the successful administration of the 2024 election by resilient election officials across the U.S.
- How can donors and funders help support election officials as they work to safeguard fair and accessible voting in future elections?
- Learn more about strengthening democracy and how you can help.
- Search our Guide to Good for nonprofits focused on democracy in your area.
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Resilient election officials across the country administered a relatively smooth 2024 general election on Tuesday, despite reports of bomb threats, technical issues, and a polarizing online ecosystem that at times challenged the integrity of counting ballots.
The predominately women-led workforce went into Election Day having readied for potential disruptions and a disinformation campaign that had swelled in the final weeks of the presidential race between Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris. But by early Wednesday, their processes for receiving and counting ballots — and a large enough vote margin in key battleground states — enabled major news outlets to project the former president’s win over the vice president shortly after midnight, days faster than in 2020.
“The culmination of voting yesterday has demonstrated that once again our election professionals have administered a safe and secure election in the face of adversity,” said Tammy Patrick, chief executive officer for programs at the Election Center, an organization that works with election officials, in a statement. “From flooding and hurricanes to foreign disruption campaigns, our election officials did all in their power with the resources on hand to make certain voters had opportunities to vote over the course of the election cycle. As the ongoing post-election work continues in the ensuing days and weeks, they will ensure that the final official results are accurate.”
While resilient election officials in some states dealt with issues involving voting equipment, non-credible bomb threats were reported at polling sites in several battleground states with large populations of voters of color, including Black residents in the metro Atlanta area and Indigenous people in Arizona. Some locations were briefly closed and kept open later. Some threats appeared to originate from Russian email domains, according to the FBI.
Election officials said they worked to ensure voters who reported to impacted sites were not disenfranchised, but it is difficult to measure the full impact of the closures.
Read the full article about election officials' resilience by Barbara Rodriguez at The 19th.