Combining with extralegal harassment to put elections at risk.
Mona Charen: You’ve also raised the alarm about the number of experienced election officials who are saying they are planning to leave their jobs—about 25 percent. . . . And I think there’s a law in Iowa, correct me if I’m wrong, that is going to impose civil penalties on election workers if they make an honest mistake. Fill us in on that a little bit.
Ben Ginsberg: Yeah, that’s one of the really pernicious laws aimed at election subversion, where election officials can face criminal penalties for really what amounts to just doing their jobs. And those are laws that have been put in in at least six states, including Iowa, that would make election officials face the threat of criminal penalties for really minor things that are part of the electoral process—providing too much help to a voter who asked questions can be criminalized in some states. And that’s really, really dangerous.
That goes sort of along with the problem of harassment of election officials, both physical and phone threats and mental harassment. And that’s a real problem.