SOUTHFIELD (WXYZ) — In a video from the Brennan Center for Justice, a non-partisan law and policy organization, elected officials from across the country recount the threats they received after the contentious 2020 election.
"We couldn't go anywhere without the police officers," one official said.
"They threatened my life," City of Detroit Clerk Janice Winfrey, who also appears in the video, said.
"Election officials fear that conspiracy theories will infect administration and are worried about political interference," according to the Brennan Center. "As election officials work hard to repeat the successes of the 2020 election, nearly two-thirds of them reported being worried about political leaders interfering in how they do their jobs in future elections."
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Ryan Casebolt is a poll worker in the Clinton Township area, following in the footsteps of his mother or grandmother.
Casebolt said there are so many security measures in place to ensure the integrity of elections.
"After seeing, firsthand, the rules, and all the procedures that you have to go through, I don't see how any kind of fraud or anything can happen in any sort of significant way, when you know what the process is," Casebolt told 7 Action News,
Attorney Derek Tisler serves as counsel for the Brennan Center in the area of election administration, security, and disinformation.
"The biggest concern that we have, and that we have had since 2020, is just misinformation about the voting process," he said. "A sort of lack of understanding of how elections work, all of the safeguards that are in place to ensure that everyone eligible is able to cast the ballot and have their vote counted exactly the way that they intended. And all of those safeguards are in place this year as they have been in prior elections," Tisler said.
Tisler added that some people have been activated by misinformation.
"There certainly has been this very concerning trend since 2020 of individuals who are fueled by conspiracy theories, sort of threatening election workers, harassing them, intimidating them. It's definitely something that we're worried about," Tisler said.
"When I talk to election workers, at the end of the day, they love their jobs. They want to do it. They're excited to be able to serve their constituents and help strengthen democracy," he said.
Dearborn City Clerk George Darany said they're expecting a high turnout in two weeks.
"In Dearborn, our absentee voting is down. I think that means more people will be voting at the polls and that the precincts. So even though we only had about 7,500 that voted in August, we're expecting almost triple that in November."
Darany said police will be ready to respond to any trouble should it arise.
"Our job is to balance that (number of officers) to have enough there for the workers and for the voters and, at the same time, not to be too much in people's faces with a with an armed officer."
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