Finding: Legacy Teams Erode Bipartisanship

What I was witnessing, though, was a “bipartisan team” finishing their tasks, which are explained in more detail on the next page but, in brief, are all the tasks to finalize the counts so that the Verification Board can do their work. It is not that the bipartisan team was running behind on their duties. Instead, as I began to comprehend, they were proceeding as if they were also the Verification Board and would be certifying the official results. If I was correct, it meant that the bipartisan team would be certifying their own work without oversight from a Verification Board.

For reasons unknown but suspected, the former Deputy Secretary of State for Missouri was in attendance in Osage County for this meeting of the Verification Board. I spoke with the Deputy privately to voice my concerns and cite some of the statutes. Although nominated to be on the Board for that election, my nomination was not accepted, so I attended as a representative of the Republican County Committee. The Deputy replied, “The clerk can run this any way she wants.”

 

Another disturbing example of elected or appointed government officials ‘flexing their power’ occurred in Detroit, Michigan, during the 2020 election. Election workers, citizens themselves but more loyal to the government, began covering windows with pizza boxes so Republican watchers could not see into the room where ballots were being counted.

 

Without the involvement and oversight of political committees, it has become common for clerks to rely on the same individuals for every election year after year, sometimes rejecting updated committee nominee lists. This practice has undermined the genuine bipartisan character of elections, leading to the establishment of what can be termed “Legacy Teams.” It is understandable why clerks might prefer these long-serving teams, as time can be saved on recruitment and training, and clerks are likely to trust and depend on these familiar faces. However, the core issue is that the bipartisan approach to elections is meant to guarantee fairness, not merely to ease administrative burdens for clerks.