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The biggest challenge that we face is disinformation, about the 2020 election in particular, and more generally about the election system itself, Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon, a Democrat, said in an interview.

Their battle against mis- and disinformation comes at a tenuous time for American democracy, as an already diminished faith in the U.S. electoral system risks slipping further still in 2022. A recent NPR/Ipsos poll found that 64 percent of Americans believed democracy was in crisis and at risk of failing.

Not to be hyperbolic, but our democracy is at stake, New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver, a Democrat, said. This year, more than ever, trying to combat mis- and disinformation is crucial not just for trust in democracy but for those of us that are on the ballot this year. It is very real.

She is one of the roughly twenty secretaries of state up for reelection this year, many of whom have drawn challengers who have spread misinformation about election systems.

The struggles stemming from misinformation vary state-to-state, from dealing with threats of violence against election workers at all levels to contending with so-called insider threats election workers who themselves pose a security challenge to the system.

Not to be hyperbolic, but our democracy is at stake

New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver

And on top of that, many secretaries say local election officials in their states are facing pressures on other fronts, from physical and cybersecurity-related dangers to a potential retirement crisis looming in a field rife with burnout. Its a lively time in secretary of state offices, said Connecticut Secretary of State Denise Merrill, a Democrat. And it seems like every day some new issue crops up.

Merrill, who has been in office for over a decade, called misinformation the issue of our lifetime, and said that she anticipated combating misinformation to be a focus of her tenureship as co-chair of the National Association of Secretaries of State elections committee.

One of the most concerning things administrators have to prepare for is those insider threats spawned by misinformation, Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold, a Democrat, said.

Griswold said her office has investigated potential instances in three counties where there may have been unauthorized access to election equipment, aided by election officials in the counties, with two continuing and one being cleared.

Its incredibly concerning that the people elected to oversee elections are working from within to undermine them, and that phenomenon in itself is increasing, she said. States need to get ready for situations where folks in the secretary of states office or the county clerks office, or the county clerks themselves, are working to undermine the elections from within.

Griswold and other election officials expressed concerns that proponents of former President Donald Trumps lies about the 2020 election are running for election administration positions. Trump himself has endorsed three secretary of state candidates and his followers have trained their attention on secretary of state and other election-related positions up this year.

Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold speaks during a press conference about the Mesa County election breach investigation on Thursday, Aug. 12, 2021 in Denver.|RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post via AP

Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters, who Griswold is seeking to bar from overseeing elections this year after Peters allegedly allowed an unauthorized person to access county voting machines, announced on Monday that she would be running to challenge Griswold in November.

Election officials also expressed concern at the increase of election mis- and disinformation coming from state lawmakers. Secretaries said that they were concerned that legislators and other elected officials are using their platforms to give a veneer of legitimacy to untrue claims about election systems, while also looking to introduce legislation that looks to act upon those conspiracies.

Its one thing if it is just some Twitter profile with an egg icon and 60 followers, said Kentucky Secretary of State Michael Adams, a Republican.

He said he generally doesnt think it is worth responding to pseudo-anonymous accounts spreading conspiracies, which would risk spreading and legitimizing it.

The biggest problem Ive got with regards to misinformation is weve got a sitting state senator whos going around the state conducting a tour alleging that were having corrupt, hacked elections, Adams said. Its not just fighting misinformation that shes putting out to the public, its also finding out the misinformation that shes putting within the legislature.

Election workers are still facing some of the most personal, direct consequences of the election conspiracy theories: threats of violence.

While most secretaries say that threats to their offices and the local officials in individual cities and counties dont carry the same fervor like the immediate aftermath of the 2020 election, several pointed to a far right activist in Colorado seemingly calling for Griswold to be hung last week as a sign that that rhetoric is still dangerously common, and could flair up again at a moments notice.

Many secretaries said they expected to focus on a model that emphasized promoting local partners like city and county election officials, civic groups and local media as the most effective way of combating it.

Its incredibly concerning that the people elected to oversee elections are working from within to undermine them, and that phenomenon in itself is increasing.

Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold

Oregons Democratic Secretary of State Shemia Fagan said she wanted to refocus her office on the concept of pre-bunking misinformation instead of being reactive to it, by trying to put out information about election systems well ahead of the election.

She said her office was in the midst of planning for a series of PSAs about elections in Oregon. And she said that earned media instead of paid advertisements will be important, and that election officials need to build a stronger connection with local journalists to facilitate that.

How do we build that trusted relation with our media to say, if you hear something, reach out to us? Fagan said. Well try and go find you that accurate information to make sure that were not just spreading mis- and dis-information that comes in that maybe looks credible initially, because its more sophisticated.

Election officials also remain concerned about foreign disinformation efforts as well, which Fagan said federal officials have stressed is still active. They expect Russia to be much more involved in spreading mis- and disinformation in 2022 and 2024, she said.

Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose speaks at the Ohio Republican Party event, in Columbus, Ohio.|Tony Dejak/AP Photo

Ohio Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose said he believed that local partnerships would be key to fighting off misinformation, foreign or domestic-based. He hoped to revive briefings with local media in his state to help explain the election processes and connect them with local election officials. He also said that he would continue to work with minority representation groups, like the NAACP and local Urban League chapters, because the communities they serve are often the targets of disinformation campaigns.

LaRose touted the benefits of outreach efforts, citing a robocall shortly before the 2020 election from Jacob Wohl, a far right conspiracy theorist. The call went out to Cleveland residents with false information about mail voting.

The moment that [call] went out, my phone started ringing personally from community leaders, ministers, local elected leaders reporting it to us, he said. And thankfully, one of them actually recorded it and passed it along to us.

Misinformation is far from the only problem election officials are dealing with, with other longrunning challenges demanding their attention. Several said they have seen an uptick in retirements after the 2020 election part of an already occurring brain drain that election officials fear could be exacerbated by threats and stress from running pandemic-era elections. And others expressed concerns about cybersecurity threats local offices were facing.

Mississippi Secretary of State Michael Watson, a Republican, said he has heard in the past couple weeks about phishing scams targeting local offices. He said his office has been trying to direct traffic on those scams and make sure local officials had the tools to recognize and report them. I think they have always been lurking, he said. The incidents [have] probably increased.

Election officials said they have increasingly been leaning on national partnerships both with other secretaries and federal agencies like the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security to help prepare local election workers.

Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, a Democrat, said that she will soon host a workshop with CISA and local clerks in her state.

It has exploded out of control, Bellows said. Disinformation can lead to people threatening harm to election workers. She also said her office would work on further training for local officials, including de-escalation training, to help protect them in volatile situations.

One of the most recent disinformation campaigns has taken aim at an obscure but important part of Americas election infrastructure, an interstate compact known as the Electronic Registration Information Center. Officials on both sides of the aisle say it is an important part of election security in the United States.

The Electronic Registration Information Center often known as ERIC was originally founded a decade ago by seven states to help maintain voter rolls. Membership has since swelled to 31 states and Washington, D.C.

The organization shares some data between member states to find voters who may have moved, died or are otherwise potentially registered in another state. The organization also develops lists of potentially eligible voters who arent registered, and requires the state to contact them.

But ERIC has increasingly become a focus of some of the latest conspiracy theories, especially after a far right website popular among election deniers published a three part investigation into the organization labeling it a Soros funded group that is essentially a left wing voter registration drive.

(ERIC is funded exclusively by dues from member states, and its board of directors includes an election official from each member state, with membership ranging from the deep blue Maryland to red states like Alabama.)

It is the rare piece of Americas election system where there is broad, bipartisan consensus and has struck up an unusual bedfellows situation of secretaries willing to defend it. In interviews, all nine of the secretaries of state whose members belong to ERIC praised the effort. Secretary John Merrill of Alabama, a Republican, called it a valuable tool, while Merill of Connecticut called it an extremely constructive organization. (The two Merrills are unrelated.)

If Alabama was not a member of ERIC, then we would not be able to gain access to that data, because our state does not have the resources, the personnel or the financial wherewithal to create the kind of check and balance environment that exists with ERIC, John Merrill said. We would just be left out in the cold.

But one secretary has backed away from ERIC: Louisiana Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin, who is also the president of the National Association of Secretaries of State, or NASS.

Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin speaks to the House and Governmental Affairs Committee, Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2020, in Baton Rouge, La.|Melinda Deslatte/AP Photo

In a late-January announcement, Ardoin offices said that he would suspend the states participation in ERIC, saying in a statement that, after reading about these allegations and speaking with election attorneys and experts, I have determined that it may no longer be in Louisianas best interests to participate in this organization.

NASS does not have an institutional stance on ERIC, and Ardoins office declined an interview request. (An Ardoin staffer told NPR that his office has been in touch with ERIC.)

But his statement triggered grumbling from some other secretaries whose states are members.

It was a little bit out of the blue, and it was unexpected, Oregons Fagan said. I personally was surprised by it.

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Election officials are on the frontlines of defending democracy. They didn't sign up for this. - POLITICO