States consider protections for threatened local election officials; if they quit, partisan officials could fill the vacuum

Election officials across the country "have faced violent threats and harassment since the 2020 presidential election, as [Donald] Trump and his allies continue to perpetuate repeatedly disproven myths about voter fraud," Matt Vasilogambros reports for Stateline. "This pressure, meant to exhaust and scare local officials into resigning, could usher in new election personnel who seek to skew results, election experts say."

Tina Peters is an example of what that kind of local interference could look like. The rural Colorado county clerk made headlines last year for embracing debunked conspiracies. She was recently indicted, making her "the first elections official to face criminal charges related to conspiracy theories surrounding the 2020 election, experts said," Emma Brown reports for The Washington Post. "She is accused not of fixing the election but of breaking the law as she sought to investigate whether someone else did." Specifically, she's accused of sneaking someone into the Mesa County elections offices to copy the hard drives of Dominion Voting Systems machines. 

"Peters’s alleged actions, along with efforts by other election deniers to seek public office, are contributing to concern among experts about possible escalating risk to the nation’s voting systems," Brown reports. "State or federal investigators have probed multiple alleged security breaches of election systems and equipment since Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential race, including some thought to be aided by elections-office insiders or right-wing conspiracy theorists."

"Trump-aligned activists and lawmakers have worked to alter the traditional democratic process at many levels of government, from gutting local boards that certify election results to granting state legislatures unprecedented election powers that could ultimately let them change results. Partisan investigations in other states are sowing further doubt in the election system," Vasilogambros reports. "Seeing this crisis unfolding, lawmakers in at least 10, mostly Democratic-run states are considering legislation that would increase criminal penalties for those who threaten election officials. Some measures also would add new digital privacy protections for election officials."