In latest weeks, Marin County Registrar Natalie Adona has been largely centered on the various mundane duties of native elections directors within the months earlier than a midterm: finalizing voting places, ordering provides, facilitating candidate filings.
However within the wake of unprecedented efforts by the Trump administration to intervene in state-run elections, Adona mentioned she has additionally been making ready her workers for much much less abnormal eventualities — corresponding to federal officers exhibiting up and demanding ballots, as they not too long ago did in Georgia, or immigration brokers staging round polling stations on election day, as some in President Trump’s orbit have steered.
“A part of my job is ensuring that the plans are developed after which examined after which socialized with the workers so if these conditions have been to ever come up, we’d not be figuring it out proper then and there. We’d know what to do,” Adona mentioned. “Doing these form of workouts and that degree of planning in a method is form of grounding, and makes issues really feel much less chaotic.”
Natalie Adona confronted harassment from election deniers and COVID anti-maskers when she served because the registrar of voters in Nevada County. She now serves Marin County and is making ready her workers for potential eventualities this upcoming election, together with what to do if immigration brokers are current.
(Jess Lynn Goss / For The Occasions)
Throughout California, native elections directors say they’ve been operating comparable workouts to organize for as soon as unthinkable threats — not from native rabble-rousers, distant cyberattackers or international adversaries, however their very own federal authorities.
State officers, too, are writing new contingency plans for unprecedented intrusions by Trump and different administration officers, who in latest days have repeated baseless 2020 election conspiracies, raided and brought ballots from a neighborhood election middle in Fulton County, Ga., pushed each litigation and laws that may radically alter native voting guidelines, and known as for Republicans to grab management of elections nationwide.
California’s native and state officers — a lot of whom are Democrats — are strolling a effective line, telling their constituents that elections stay honest and secure, but in addition that Trump’s speak of federal intervention should be taken severely.
Their considerations are vastly totally different than the considerations voiced by Trump and different Republicans, who for years have alleged with out proof that U.S. elections are compromised by widespread fraud involving noncitizen voters, together with in California.
However they’ve nonetheless added to a long-simmering sense of worry and doubt amongst voters — who this 12 months have the potential to radically alter the nation’s political trajectory by flipping management of Congress to Democrats.
An election employee strikes ballots to be sorted on the Orange County Registrar of Voters in Santa Ana on Nov. 5, 2024.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Occasions)
Trump has mentioned he’ll settle for Republican losses provided that the elections are “sincere.” A White Home spokesperson mentioned Trump is pushing for stricter guidelines for voting and voter registration as a result of he “cares deeply concerning the security and safety of our elections.”
Rick Hasen, an election legislation knowledgeable and director of the Safeguarding Democracy Undertaking at UCLA Legislation, mentioned a few of what Trump says about elections “is nonsensical and a few is bluster,” however latest actions — particularly the election middle raid in Georgia — have introduced house the fact of his threats.
“Some fear that this can be a take a look at run for making an attempt to grab poll bins in 2026 and stop a good rely of the votes, and given Trump’s monitor document, I don’t suppose that’s one thing we will dismiss out of hand,” Hasen mentioned. “States must be making contingency plans to make it possible for these sorts of issues don’t occur.”
The White Home dismissed such considerations, pointing to remoted incidents of noncitizens being charged with illegally voting, and to examples of duplicate registrations, voters remaining on rolls after loss of life and folks stealing ballots to vote a number of occasions.
“These so-called consultants are ignoring the plentiful examples of noncitizens charged with voter fraud and of ineligible voters on voter rolls,” mentioned Abigail Jackson, the White Home spokesperson.
Consultants mentioned fraudulent votes are uncommon, most registration and roll points don’t translate into fraudulent votes being solid, and there’s no proof such points swing elections.
A swirl of exercise
Early in his time period, Trump issued an govt order calling for voters nationwide to be required to point out proof of U.S. citizenship, and for states to be required to ignore mail ballots obtained after election day. California and different states sued, and courts have up to now blocked the order.
This previous week, Trump mentioned outright that Republicans ought to “take over” elections nationwide.
The Justice Division has sued California Secretary of State Shirley Weber and her counterparts in different states for refusing handy over state voter rolls — the lawsuit towards Weber was tossed — and raided and seized ballots from the election workplace of Fulton County, lengthy a goal of right-wing conspiracy theories over Trump’s 2020 election loss.
President Trump walks behind former chairperson of the Republican Nationwide Committee Michael Whatley as he prepares to talk throughout a political rally in Rocky Mount, N.C., on Dec. 19.
(Andrew Caballero-Reynolds / AFP through Getty Photographs)
Longtime Trump advisor and ally Stephen Ok. Bannon steered U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement brokers shall be dispatched to polling places in November, reprising outdated fears about voter intimidation. White Home Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt mentioned she couldn’t rule that out, regardless of it being unlawful.
Democrats have raised considerations concerning the U.S. Postal Service mishandling mail ballots within the upcoming elections, following rule modifications for a way such mail is processed. Republicans have continued pushing the SAVE America Act, which might create new proof of citizenship necessities for voters. The U.S. Supreme Court docket is contemplating a number of voting rights circumstances, together with one out of Louisiana that challenges Voting Rights Act protections for Black illustration.
Charles H. Stewart, director of the MIT Election Knowledge + Science Lab, mentioned the collection of occasions has created an “surroundings the place chaos is being threatened,” and the place “people who find themselves involved concerning the state of democracy are alarmed and really involved,” and rightfully so.
However he mentioned there are additionally “various guardrails” in place — what he known as “the form of mundane mechanics which might be concerned in operating elections” — that may assist stop hurt.
California prepares
California leaders have been vociferous of their protection of state elections, and mentioned they’re ready to battle any tried takeover.
“The President frequently spews outright lies on the subject of elections on this nation, notably ones he and his occasion lose,” Gov. Gavin Newsom mentioned in an announcement. “We are going to proceed to right these lies, rebuild much-needed belief in our democratic establishments and civic duties, and defend the U.S. Structure’s grant to the states authority over elections.”
California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta and Secretary of State Shirley Weber take questions after asserting a lawsuit to guard voter rights in 2024.
(Damian Dovarganes / Related Press)
California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta mentioned in an interview that his workplace “would go into court docket and we’d get a restraining order inside hours” if the Trump administration tries to intervene in California elections, “as a result of the U.S. Structure says that states predominantly decide the time, place and method of elections, not the president.”
Weber instructed The Occasions that the state has “a cadre of attorneys” standing by to defend its election system, but in addition “completely superb” county elections officers who “take their job very severely” and function the primary line of protection towards any disruptions, from the Trump administration or in any other case.
Dean Logan, Los Angeles County’s chief elections official, mentioned his workplace has been doing “contingency planning and tabletop workouts” for conventional disruptions, corresponding to wildfires and earthquakes, and novel ones, corresponding to federal immigration brokers massing close to voting places and last-minute coverage modifications by the U.S. Postal Service or the courts.
“These are the issues that hold us up at evening,” he mentioned.
Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder Dean Logan mentioned the county not has ballots from the 2020 election.
(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Occasions)
Logan mentioned he isn’t at present involved concerning the FBI raiding L.A. County elections places of work as a result of, whereas Fulton County nonetheless had its 2020 ballots available attributable to ongoing litigation, that’s not the case for L.A. County, which is “past the retention interval” for holding, and not has, its 2020 ballots.
Nevertheless, Logan mentioned he does take into account what occurred in Georgia a warning that the Trump administration “will make the most of the federal authorities to go in and be disruptive in an elections operation.”
“What we don’t know is, would they do this through the conduct of an election, earlier than an election is licensed?” Logan mentioned.
Kristin Connelly, chief elections officer for Contra Costa County, mentioned she’s been working laborious to verify voters trust within the election course of, together with by giving speeches to involved voters, increasing the county’s licensed election observer program, and, within the lead-up to the 2024 election, operating a grant-funded consciousness marketing campaign round election safety.
Connelly — who joined native elections officers nationwide in difficult Trump’s govt order on elections in court docket — mentioned she additionally has been operating tabletop workouts and coordinating with native legislation enforcement, all with the purpose of making certain her constituents can vote.
“How the federal authorities is behaving is totally different from the way it used to behave, however on the finish of the day, what now we have to do is run a mistake-free, good election, and to open our places of work and operation to all people — particularly the individuals who ask laborious questions,” she mentioned.
Classes from the previous
A number of officers in California mentioned that as they put together, they’ve been buoyed by classes from the previous.
Earlier than being employed by the deep-blue county of Marin in Could, Adona was the elected voting chief in rural Nevada County within the Sierra foothills.
In 2022, Adona affirmed that Trump’s 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden was professional and enforced a pandemic masks mandate in her workplace. That enraged a coalition of anti-mask, anti-vaccine, pro-Trump protesters, who pushed their method into the locked election workplace.
Protesters confronted Adona and her staffers, with one employee getting pushed down. They stationed themselves within the hallway, leaving Adona’s workers too terrified to go away their workplace to make use of the hallway rest room, as native, state and federal authorities declined to step in.
“At this level, and for months afterwards, I felt remoted and depressed. I had panic assaults each few days. I felt that nobody had our again. I centered all my consideration on my workers’s security, as a result of they have been clearly nervous concerning the unknown,” Adona mentioned throughout subsequent testimony earlier than the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Partially as a result of she is aware of what can go improper, Adona mentioned her focus now could be on making ready her new workers for no matter might come, whereas following the information out of Georgia and making an attempt to keep up a cool head.
“I’d somewhat have a plan and never use it than want a plan and never have one,” she mentioned.
Clint Curtis, the clerk and registrar of voters in Shasta County — which ditched its voting machines in 2023 amid unfounded fraud allegations by Trump — mentioned his greatest process forward of the midterms is to extend each poll safety and transparency.
Since being appointed to steer the county workplace final spring, the conservative Republican from Florida has added extra cameras and extra space for election observers — which, through the latest particular election on Proposition 50, California’s redistricting measure, included observers from Bonta’s and Weber’s places of work.
He has additionally diminished the variety of poll drop bins within the huge county from greater than a dozen to 4. Curtis instructed The Occasions he didn’t belief the safety of ballots within the arms of “these little outdated women operating all around the county” to choose them up, and famous there are dozens of different county places the place they are often dropped off. He mentioned he invited Justice Division officers to watch voting on Proposition 50, although they didn’t present, and welcomes them once more for the midterms.
“If they will make voting safer for everyone, I’m completely effective with that,” he mentioned. “It at all times makes me nervous when folks don’t wish to cooperate. Whatcha hiding? It needs to be: ‘Come on in.’”
Election staff examine ballots after extracting them from envelopes on election evening on the Los Angeles County Poll Processing Heart on Nov. 5, 2024, within the Metropolis of Trade.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Occasions)
Weber, 77 and the daughter of an Arkansas sharecropper whose household fled Southern racism and threats of violence to achieve California, mentioned that whereas many individuals within the U.S. are confronting intense worry and doubt concerning the election for the primary time, and understandably so, that’s merely not the case for her or many different Black folks.
“African People have at all times been below assault for voting, and never allowed to vote, and had new guidelines created for them about literacy and ballot taxes and all these different kinds of issues, and many people misplaced their lives simply making an attempt to register to vote,” Weber mentioned.
Weber mentioned she nonetheless remembers her mom, who had by no means voted in Arkansas, establishing a polling location of their house in South L.A. every election when Weber was younger, and right this moment attracts braveness from these reminiscences.
“I inform of us there’s no different to it. It’s a must to battle for this proper to vote. And you’ve got to pay attention to the truth that all these methods that individuals are making an attempt to make use of [to suppress voting] will not be new methods. They’re outdated methods,” Weber mentioned. “And we simply need to be smarter and battle more durable.”
