Talking Democracy Protection at the iGO Conference
On January 24th, 2024, the Director of the Democracy Protection Initiative, Dana Gold, attended the International Association of Government Officials (iGO) conference in Savannah, GA to speak on a panel alongside the Election Officials Legal Defense Network (EOLDN). The panel focused on our new partnership that allows both organizations to provide better legal assistance and support to election workers experiencing intimidation and harassment, including those who are suffering or fearing retaliation for blowing the whistle on concerns about threats to election integrity or election interference. The conference helped provide new insights into how Government Accountability Project’s Democracy Protection Initiative can more effectively support those on the frontlines of our democracy.
iGO is a membership organization of government civil servants at the county level (election officials, clerks, and reporters) who are doing the groundwork of election administration. The conference keynote was Allison McCord, who served as President of the Hartford County, MD Board of Elections.
Within her wider message about the important part election workers play in the democratic process was a brief discussion about the simultaneous roles county election officials in particular serve as both responders and reporters: they may be in positions to receive information from the election workers they supervise about potential election interference and need to be able to respond to those employees appropriately and address the problems disclosed; simultaneously, they themselves may discover or need to report election integrity threats to their own employers, be they county officials or those supervising elections for their state, thus also facing the potential risks of retaliation and/or inaction in response to their report of misconduct.
For Gold, this description of the multifaceted role these officials play as managers of a vast network of boots on the ground election workers and actors within a larger state election system gave new context to her discussion of whistleblowers in elections.
Gold began her panel by explaining the legal definitions of what a whistleblower is and is not. Noting the mission of Government Accountability Project and our long history of protecting and fighting for whistleblowers, she explained how we launched the Democracy Protection Initiative to support whistleblowers with information about threats to election integrity and the peaceful transition of power. Gold shared numerous examples of democracy-saving whistleblowers in government and private industry: Brad Raffensperger, Georgia Secretary of State, and Rusty Bowers, the (now former) Speaker of the Arizona House of Representatives, who both pushed back against efforts to overturn the will of the of the voters; Brian Murphy, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) detailee who blew the whistle on Chad Wolf and DHS’s suppression of evidence that Russia and white nationalist groups were the most significant threats to the election rather than DHS’s claim that China and Iran were the biggest threats; and Anika Collier Navaroli, Twitter’s Safety Team policy lead who blew the whistle on failures to address growing threats of violence at the Capitol on January 6, 2021. All these whistleblowers were critical guardrails against a broad array of threats to elections and democracy itself – and serve as important reminders of the heroism that acting with conscious and patriotism brings.
Gold also made sure to emphasize that the landscape of whistleblower law is complicated – particularly in state election cases – which is why Government Accountability Project and EOLDN have joined forces. By calling the experts at Government Accountability Project and EOLDN, officials with information about election interference and threats to democracy can get the best legal advice possible for their specific situation.
Leading experts in democracy protection, including Government Accountability Project, view circumstances surrounding the 2024 election as dire for the future of our democracy, as more election-denying officials occupy key roles, doubt in outcomes still exists from the 2020 election, and unprecedented new challenges are posed by artificial intelligence and unregulated disinformation on social media platforms. To successfully defend the integrity of our elections, it will take real action from everyone: spreading resources, sharing information, and partnering with experts will all be necessary to protect the republic. The Democracy Protection Initiative has already begun this work, creating and hosting new trainings, sourcing new pathways to legal representation, and determining precisely where the greatest vulnerabilities may be found to ensure that employees in the best positions to discover and warn of election threats are empowered to blow the whistle safely and effectively. If you or a colleague have received information about election interference or threats to democracy and want to seek legal assistance, complete our secure intake form. Further, if you have a family member, friend, or even a Facebook friend who works in an election-related field, send them our information – it takes all of us to ensure that potential whistleblowers are protected in order to protect democracy.