Black Poll Workers Are Bracing for Security Threats Ahead of Election Day

Deidre Lesesne, a Pittsburgh-based poll worker, remembers the anger that seized her in 2020 when a group of white election monitors harassed a young Black voter who had arrived with his mother, father, and little brother. These monitors, supporters of former President Donald Trump, claimed that the underage sibling was attempting to cast an illegal ballot.

“I just lost it. I said, ‘You will not mess with this family,’” Lesesne told Capital B, her voice catching. “The young Black man was a first-time voter. He was excited. He was there with his parents, who brought their other son — maybe 14 years old — to watch. It was a moment of pride. I thought, ‘How dare you try to take this away from them?’”

Since the 2020 election, when Trump falsely claimed that Democrats were rigging the vote, Black poll workers and voters in swing states have been targeted for abuse from conservative advocates and election monitors. But ahead of the 2024 contest, whose integrity Trump is also questioning, some swing states are fighting back. The measures they’re taking to protect voters and poll workers could have a big impact on Black voting rights, since more than a third of Black eligible voters live in battleground states.

With early voting already beginning in some states, election officials and grassroots organizers are in preparation mode, and are boosting security measures. They’re doing everything from introducing safety hotlines and alert systems at voting sites to staffing polling stations with trusted community messengers who might be able to defuse crises.

According to a survey from New York University’s Brennan Center for Justice published in May, 70% of local election officials believe that the threat of violence is a greater issue now than it was in 2020.

Trump is wasting no time casting doubt on the integrity of the 2024 race, in the event that Vice President Kamala Harris triumphs. He’s broadcasting dangerous fabrications, maintaining that Democrats are fraudsters who want to “cheat like hell.”

A four-year-old lawsuit led by Black organizers in Michigan that would prevent Trump and his party from intimidating voters and poll workers also is gaining fresh momentum. The plaintiffs want a federal judge to prohibit Trump, his campaign, and the Republican National Committee from acting recklessly, and require that they gain federal approval before “engaging in any activities related to recounts, certifications, or similar post-election activities.”

“We’re in a climate today that’s different from where we were even eight years ago,” Amir Badat, voting special counsel and the manager of Black Voters on the Rise at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, told Capital B, noting that there appears to be more resistance to this abuse since 2020. “We’re seeing more voter intimidation — particularly against groups that have been facing intimidation for generations.”

Sanctity of the Ballot Box Under Siege

Threats to the election process can manifest in a variety of ways.

They can appear in the form of election monitors fueling unease among voters and poll workers on Election Day, as Lesesne’s story illustrates. Similarly, there have been reports of people with guns showing up near voting sites. In 2022, for instance, armed individuals, some wearing tactical gear, lurked near ballot boxes in Mesa, Arizona, unnerving voters.

Threats also can continue after Election Day. Recall the wrenching 2022 testimonies of Ruby Freeman and her daughter, Shaye Moss — two Black former poll workers in Georgia — to the Jan. 6 committee.

Once Joe Biden was projected to win Georgia, Trump and his acolytes claimed that poll workers, including Freeman and Moss, had manipulated ballots and, in turn, dashed the former president’s reelection ambitions. (Of course, Trump was the one who tried to dragoon Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger into “finding” 11,780 votes.) The mother and daughter were then inundated with racist messages, including one about lynching.

This venom echoed some of the harassment that Black voters were confronted with during the Reconstruction and Jim Crow eras, when white vigilantes terrorized newly enfranchised freedmen in an attempt to shut them out of the body politic.

“I wore a shirt that proudly proclaimed that I was — and I am — Lady Ruby. I had that shirt in every color. I wore that shirt on Election Day 2020. I haven’t worn it since, and I’ll never wear it again.” Freeman said. “I’ve lost my name, and I’ve lost my reputation. I’ve lost my sense of security — all because a group of people starting with [Trump] and his ally Rudy Giuliani decided to scapegoat me and my daughter, Shaye.”

Moss’ testimony was just as heartrending.

“My life was turned upside down. I no longer give out my business card. Don’t want anyone knowing my name,” she said. “I haven’t been anywhere. I’ve gained about 60 pounds. I don’t want to go anywhere. I second-guess everything that I do. It’s affected my life in a major way, every way. All because of lies.”

Freeman and Moss’ experiences mirrored the horror and turmoil that engulfed parts of Michigan four years ago. In the days following the election, throngs of Trump supporters converged on a vote-counting center in majority-Black Detroit, demanding that officials “stop the count” and “stop the steal” and that Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer be locked up.

Crucially, election-related threats can be much subtler, though this doesn’t mean that they’re any less of a menace to the country’s young, fragile multiracial democracy.

“We also have to worry about things such as mass challenges to the eligibility of tons and tons of voters to cast their ballots,” Badat explained, referring to the door-knocking operations of pro-Trump advocates that intimidate voters and seed doubt and confusion.

In a recent letter, the LDF urged South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson to make plain in a public statement that voter intimidation is a crime, pointing to reports about plans to harass voters in the Palmetto State in November.

Regardless of what these threats look like, the intent behind them never varies. The aim, Badat said, is simple: to prevent certain groups from participating fully in our democracy.

Safety Hotlines, Panic Buttons, Other Security Measures

Over the past several months, election officials and grassroots organizers have been working overtime to stave off these looming dangers.

In Pennsylvania, the country’s biggest battleground state, officials don’t want a repeat of what happened after Election Day in 2020, when they were targeted by Trump, who peddled false accusations of fraud.

The state has launched an election hotline, operated by its Department of State. Voters and poll workers can call (877) VOTESPA to report threats of violence. They can also submit a complaint online.

“While individuals may have profound disagreements and differences about our politics, the way we address those disagreements in this country must be peaceful, through the political process,” Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said in a media release, which came after the assassination attempt on Trump at a rally in the Keystone State.

“My Administration stands ready to make sure Pennsylvanians have the freedom and opportunity to express their political views peacefully and to participate in safe and secure elections,” Shapiro went on.

Similarly, polling stations in parts of Michigan and Georgia are being equipped with panic buttons or comparable alert systems to allow election workers to contact authorities if an interaction goes sideways.

“[The Michigan Department of State] is in the process of developing a Poll Worker Alert System designed to be available to election workers throughout the General Election early voting period and on Election Day,” Angela Benander, the director of communications and media relations in Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson’s office, told Capital B in a statement.

“In case of emergencies, election workers will continue to call 911. However, the tool provides an easy and discreet means for poll workers to alert Department staff to issues that do not rise to the level of an emergency but are urgent or concerning and need immediate attention,” Benander added. “The pilot version of the tool uses a QR code that can be scanned to easily send specific messages to the Department’s command center.”

While some of these measures include bringing in the police, organizers warn against over-reliance on law enforcement, given the fraught relationship between the police and Black voters.

As an alternative, many advocates are leaning into more community-centered methods. The North Carolina Black Alliance, for instance, has created a loose network of attorneys called the Black Legal Network to heighten protection at the polls.

“We think that adding not just lawyers but Black lawyers from local communities to poll presence work will create more trust in the system,” Yolanda Taylor, a program attorney for the North Carolina Black Alliance, told Capital B. “We hope that if people can see our lawyers doing election protection work — and wearing something such as a lanyard or a T-shirt that identifies them as Black legal observers or attorneys — they’ll come to us if they have questions or complaints. They won’t decide to leave, feeling frustrated or disenfranchised.”

She noted that Black attorneys have always played a central role in civil rights movements, so it makes sense that they step up again this election cycle.

Faiths United to Save Democracy, a coalition of faith leaders that partners with the LDF, is engaging in the same sort of work, training “poll chaplains” and then deploying them to voting sites across the country, especially in the South.

“The goal is to have individuals who are trusted members of the community — who are seen as kind of neutral members of the community — available at polling stations to deescalate potentially tense situations,” Badat said. “That’s really important.”

Taking the steps above could help to remedy some of the turnover issues that have beleaguered election offices in recent years, as increasingly tumultuous environments have pushed poll workers to resign from their posts.

On a deeper level, beefing up election protections would pave the way for contests that are freer and fairer — that are, ultimately, more democratic.

“I’m nervous. [Trump and his followers] are fueled by hate and aggression and fake news and misogyny and every horrible thing you can think of. And we’re living in a world where the law seems to give them permission to do whatever they want,” said Lesesne, the Pittsburgh poll worker.

“I just want to do the job,” she added. “I just want to make sure that the rights of voters are protected.”