The Safety and Licensing Committee met 09/28/2022. One of the items they took up was Resolution 11-R-22, the Resolution In Support of Election Officials.
The “Whereas” portion of the resolution recognizes the 2020 general election as “safe, secure, and accessible during the Covid-19 pandemic”, speak out against those in our society who “have attempted to bully, threaten, and undermine election administrators”, reaffirms the Common Council’s “conviction that nonpartisan election officials like our City Clerk and local election inspectors are best equipped to preside over free and fair elections, and should do so without the fear of threats and intimidation”, expresses the Council’s opposition to “any future attempts to seize power over elections from municipal clerks to grant it to any partisan entity,” and commits “to standing behind [our non-partisan election administrators] in the face of unfounded attacks.”
The resolution concludes by stating:
“NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Common Council of the City of Appleton expresses full confidence in our City Clerk, citizen election inspectors, and Wisconsin’s system of bipartisan election administration.
“AND BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that we support our friends and neighbors who serve as election inspectors and local election officials, including our City Clerk and city staff.”
The committee ended up voting 4-1 to recommend the resolution be approved with Alderpersons Alex Schultz (District 9), Kristin Alfheim (District 11), Nate Wolff (District 12), and Chris Croatt (District 14) voting in favor and Alderperson Sheri Hartzheim (District 13) voting against.
Alderperson Croatt, the Chairperson of the Safety and Licensing Committee, invited Alderperson Denise Fenton (District 8) the main sponsor of the resolution to speak about it.
Alderperson Fenton said that a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article from August 1 detailed security measures taken by the Madison Election Office after a man in camouflage and a mask tried to open locked doors during the spring election. She noted the article also discussed a report issued by the Dane County Election Security Taskforce and said that while the taskforce focused on Dane County, clerks across Wisconsin had expressed similar concerns and had been the targets of violent rhetoric and Milwaukee’s top election official had received death threats after the 2020 election. She said that, out of a group of 50 clerks surveyed, 70% expressed varying degrees of concern for their personal safety and 84% said threats against election officials had increased in recent years. As a consequence, the Dane County Election Security Taskforce force was increasingly concerned that clerks offices would be short staffed due to qualified employees and volunteers leaving out of concern for their well-being.
She also said that a New York Times article from September 6 cited a survey conducted by the Brennan Center for Justice wherein 1 in 5 local election officials said they were “very unlikely” or “somewhat unlikely” to continue service through 2024 and that Benjamin Hovland, a member of the US Election Assistance Commission, had described the intimidation campaign as “pervasive”. Alderperson Fenton said that Mr. Hovland said this was not a red or blue state issue but, rather, a national issue where the professional public servants that run elections had been subjected to an unprecedented level of threats, harassment, and intimidation. The Election Assistance Commission had allowed for federal election grants to be used for physical security services and to monitor threats on social media.
Alderperson Fenton also said that Dane County had, for the first time, trained their local clerks on de-escalation techniques and how to respond to an active shooter.
She finished up by saying, “I understand that there are some in our body that don’t believe that we should pass resolutions without taking some action. I for one am really glad that we are not having to right now pass a budget amendment to allocate funds to harden the city clerk’s office in city hall or to provide additional security measures at our polling places, and including training for people on threats—how to handle threats and intimidation. So, I hope we don’t come to that point. But I want us to take this step as a Common Council to show that we support all of the people who were responsible for us having free and fair elections in the city of Appleton, and I am asking my colleagues on this committee to recommend this resolution for approval.”
Alderperson Schultz was a cosponsor of the resolution, so Alderperson Croatt asked him if he wanted to speak. Alderperson Schultz felt Alderperson Fenton had spoken well, but he added “We do indeed have potential for threat of violence toward our elected officials and our staff that mans the election places and polling places, as well as the city clerk and their staff. So sometimes these things that we passed might be resolutions that are—have no teeth or no action required, but they are important in that they state to the community at large that we’re not going to tolerate inappropriate behavior at our polling places.”
Janice Quinlan of the League of Women Voters was in the audience, and Alderperson Croatt invited her to speak. She said that the Appleton League of Women Voters wholeheartedly supported this resolution. The League had observed local elections first hand for 75 years and admired the city clerks and election inspectors for their diligent work and for conducting elections that were free from partisan influence. The League believed that those nonpartisan officials had consistently earned their trust by running elections with accessibility, fairness, equality, safety, and security in mind.
The League believed neither political party should have influence on our election administration and supported reaffirming free and fair nonpartisan elections through this resolution.
Alderperson Croatt asked city clerk Kami Lynch if she would like to comment on the resolution, but she declined.
Alderperson Croatt opened the discussion up for questions and comments from the committee members and alderpersons who were present.
Alderperson Chad Doran (District 15) was not a committee member, but he was present at the meeting. He appreciated the efforts of the authors to support the City Clerk’s Office and Appleton’s election workers, but he was confused about what the actual intent of the resolution was. “It says it’s to support election officials but talks very little about actually supporting them, I guess, in their work.”
He said that in all his years as a city employee and in his short time as an elected official in Appleton, he didn’t think he had heard anyone from the Common Council express any concern about the security and safety of the Clerk’s staff, and up until Covid happened the clerk’s physical office had had no protection from the public at any time of the year including election time. “I think words on paper saying that, you know, we’re concerned about safety really don’t do much if safety’s an actual issue. If our concern is really related to the safety of our election workers, I would encourage my colleagues to consider that as we come up to the budget process here in the next few months and help find ways to install some actual security measures to keep the staff safe.”
He went on to say, “I find some of the language, I guess, in this resolution really kind of unnecessary and in a lot of ways divisive depending on your perspective, I guess, and how you look at it.” He recommended striking paragraphs 4, 5, 6, and 7 from the resolution which would both shorten the resolution and keep it more focused on supporting election officials. He felt striking those paragraphs “removes sort of a lot of the language that doesn’t really add [to or] enhance this resolution in anyway and I think really just enflames some sort of—some of the concerns that we’ve heard from people about elections in general.”
Paragraphs 4, 5, 6, and 7 read as follows:
WHEREAS, over the past year, some in our society have attempted to bully, threaten, and undermine election administrators, making it harder for election officials to do their jobs, which reduces faith in the electoral process and hurts the health of our democracy; and
WHEREAS, looking forward to the 2022 election and beyond, we reaffirm our conviction that nonpartisan election officials like our City Clerk and local election inspectors are best equipped to preside over free and fair elections, and should do so without the fear of threats and intimidation; and
WHEREAS, this Common Council strongly opposes any future attempts to seize power over elections from municipal clerks to grant it to any partisan entity; and
WHEREAS, as long as our non-partisan election administrators continue to administer our elections with accessibility, fairness, equality, safety, and security in mind, we are fully committed to standing behind them in the face of unfounded attacks.”
Alderperson Hartzheim said that, “As Alderperson Fenton noted, some on this body have issues with non-action resolution. I am one of them.”
She was also an election official who worked for the city of Appleton in District 10 for elections on which she was not on the ballot. As an election official, she had not seen any of the issues raised in the resolution, so she asked Clerk Lynch and Police Chief Todd Thomas if they had experienced any of these things coming up in past elections in terms of harassment, unfounded attacks, etc.
Clerk Lynch answered, “We have not had any threats made towards the Clerk’s Office, staff, myself or our election officials as far as I’m aware of. There have been, I think, very unpleasant people that intend to harass, intimidate, and undermine the work that we do. It’s not impacted us from doing our jobs and carrying out the administration of elections. I think there’s—I guess in society today, people are maybe a little less kind than they once were, and I think we experience a lot of that in the Clerk’s Office but nothing that’s preventing us from carrying out our duties and doing our jobs, and I feel very supported by the city of Appleton and the various departments for the city of Appleton in the work that we do.”
She also noted, “Our human resources department does general employee training every year, and they always offer some sort of de-escalation training for difficult people. And they don’t do it every year because they don’t think we don’t remember it [but] because it’s important and so we have the tools necessary to deal with those individuals.”
Chief Thomas said, “I’ll just maybe add that that we’ve been doing de-escalation training for city workers for many years before the recent cycle of conflict in the election processes. So, that’s nothing new. I was waiting to hear if there’s anything in Appleton. I heard Milwaukee, New York, Dane county. I didn’t hear anything of Appleton which I’m thankful for.
“I know we have always had issues at some of the voting—polling—places with signage being too close and people canvassing too close to the doors. Those are just common events that we’ve had for a long time, nothing major. But again, I would agree with what the Clerk Lynch said that it’s just an overall rudeness and disrespect that people have had for some reason when it comes to politics now, and why I think it’s important that this body stays out of politics in my opinion.
“But just the rudeness around the political arena nowadays, we see that, and we hear that. Nothing to the point where we have to make arrests or we get called for fights or things like that at the polling places, but it is genuine and real.”
Alderperson Hartzheim said that she had spoken with Human Resources Director Jay Ratchman and had asked him if they had heard anybody say that they were never going to be election officials again or no longer wanted to work elections because polling places were not safe. “He’s heard none of that.”
She went on to say that Director Ratchman has said that the city had policies, as Clerk Lynch had said, such a de-escalation training as well as other policies that showed the city would not tolerate the behavior mentioned in the resolution. “So, my question I guess for anyone thinking about this is: without this resolution would the community believe otherwise? Would they believe that we don’t support election officials? That we don’t support the city clerk? That we don’t do any of the things that say what is mentioned in our Be It Resolved? And I have a very, very difficult time believing that anyone without this resolution would believe that we want and allow any of this misbehavior to go on.”
She finished up by encouraging her colleagues to reject the resolution “simply because, again, it doesn’t have action and, secondarily, because I don’t believe that it’s needed in this city.”
Alderperson Alfheim felt it was a sad situation that they even had to think about a resolution like this. She did understand the perspective of wondering what the resolution was trying to accomplish as well as feeling like there was no point to the resolution if it didn’t truly make a change. “But I would challenge my colleagues to perhaps look at it differently. We have varying opinions on this body, in this body, but I think that all of us have the opportunity to in a united fashion make the statement that we believe in our staff and we don’t want that nonsense here.”
She thought it was a valid point that Appleton had not had an issue, “But I think again, it’s a chance for us to say to our community ‘We are united in the concept that we don’t want that here.’”
She thought we were going to have a heated political world which they could not change individually, but the Common Council “can set the tone. As a body, we have the ability to not just read the thermometer but to set the thermostat, and I think if we were to look at it as that opportunity to say as a body to our community ‘We unitedly agreed that our people are doing a good job. We support them. And don’t bring those behaviors to Appleton’ I don’t think that causes any harm. I don’t think that it costs money. I don’t think that it hurts for us to be a united body in wanting the best for our poll workers, our election workers, and our staff. So, with that in mind I will vote for the resolution.”
There were no further comments or questions and the committee proceeded to vote 4-1 to approve the resolution, with Alderperson Hartzheim casting the dissenting vote.
[I do feel like Chief Thomas’ comment, “I think it’s important that this body stays out of politics in my opinion,” was not given its proper due. Concerns about election integrity are widespread and shared across all voter groups. Insofar as this resolution is dismissive of those concerns and the people who hold those concerns it does not well serve the community.
It also sounds like Appleton has, thankfully, experienced relatively minor issues. While there have been instances of harassment and bullying, there have been no threats. The concept of deescalation was mentioned several times during the meeting, but it seems to me that, rather than deescalating the bad behavior that is taking place, this resolution would, at best, have no impact, but, at worst, runs the risk of coming across as a provocation and actually result in more suspicion, undermining, and harassment being directed toward the Clerk’s Office and election workers.
I’ve generally felt like Appleton’s elections are well managed and the clerk and pollworkers are conscientious and nonpartisan in the execution of their duties. So, although it’s good that no threats have been made, it’s still upsetting that people are making harassing phone calls, throwing absentee ballots at election workers, and having hissy fits over changes to in person voting procedures.
Some kind of resolution in support of the city clerk and pollworkers seems not inappropriate, but it could certainly stand to be much more to the point than the one going before the Council. Perhaps something as simple as…
WHEREAS the Appleton City Clerk and Appleton election pollworkers scrupulously follow all state statutes, election commission guidelines, and court rulings regarding the execution of elections, and
WHEREAS they carry out their duties in a professional and unbiased manner,
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Common Council of the City of Appleton expresses full confidence in our City Clerk, citizen election inspectors, and Wisconsin’s system of bipartisan election administration.
AND BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that we support our friends and neighbors who serve as election inspectors and local election officials, including our City Clerk and city staff.”]
View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=995752&GUID=FFDBE458-7879-439A-A98E-24E13D33659E
Be the first to reply