Editor’s Note: This article is part of US Democracy Day, a nationwide effort on September 15, the International Day of Democracy, in which news organizations report on how democracy works and the threats it faces. For more information, visit usdemocracyday.org.
The fears are the same with every audit: refusal to certify ballots, votes from non-citizens, and miscounted ballots by poll workers.
But most of those concerns are rumors that can be debunked with evidence, said Jennifer Roberts, the former Charlotte mayor who directs election outreach efforts across North Carolina.
First launched in 2022, the Trusted Elections Tour is a 27-city tour organized by The North Carolina Network for Fair, Safe, and Secure Elections and The Commission on the Future of NC Elections aimed at addressing voter fears about election integrity. The tour will educate voters on what the group’s research and that of other state experts has proven: North Carolina’s election system is safe and secure.
“We’re not just concerned about Election Day, but the period between Election Day and the inauguration, we’re very concerned about rumors and attempts to change the results or say they’re not valid,” Roberts said. “That’s why we’re working so hard to make sure people understand up front that ‘this is how the system works.'”
Partisan division
The distrust stems from former President Donald Trump’s refusal to accept the results of the 2020 election, Roberts said, and his repeated comments that the election was rigged against him — rhetoric that fueled the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. The claims stand in contrast to officials who worked for Trump. Former Attorney General William Barr, who served under Trump, said shortly after the 2020 election that he had not seen “fraud on a scale that would have caused a different outcome of the election.”
Trump reiterated his claim that the election was unfair this month in Charlotte, addressing a room full of police officers.
“If we can keep the cheating to a minimum, because these people cheat, they cheat like crazy, if we can keep it to a minimum, we win easily,” Trump said at the event at the university.
A May poll from Elon University reported that 38% of voters said they were not at all or not very confident about the accuracy of this year’s election. The poll showed a partisan divide, with most Republicans not confident and a majority of Democrats expressing confidence.
North Carolina Senate Republican Leader Phil Berger said the key to increasing trust is a State Board of Elections with a better balance of Republicans and Democrats.
“It is no surprise that North Carolinians are questioning the fairness of the election process. Governor (Roy) Cooper has chosen partisan Democrats for that administration; their actions ignore reasonable compromises,” Berger said in an email to The Charlotte Observer. “No political party should control the election process. To increase confidence in our elections, we must have balanced representation on the board.”
Members of the State Board are appointed by the governor from a list of nominees from both parties. State law prohibits more than three members of the same political party from serving on the board. Currently, there are three Democrats and two Republicans on the board. The board’s executive director, Karen Brinson Bell, is a Democrat.
Improve trust
In addition to the tours, The Commission on the Future of NC Elections is studying bipartisan solutions to distrust and concerns about election fairness. The commission will release its findings, along with proposed election reforms, early next year.
According to Roberts, some possible reforms include ranked-choice voting, improving accessibility of polling places for people with disabilities, increasing funding for poll worker safety and making voter ID cards more accessible.
Gary Brown, a poll worker in Surrey County on the Virginia border for 48 years, is part of a bipartisan team that tests machines in the county, delivers and picks up voting materials to take back to the state election board’s office. Brown, a Republican, said the state’s elections are “absolutely” secure.
“Part of the problem is that you have these conspiracy theories,” he said. “They’re allowed to have their opinions, but the problem is that a lot of it is rumor, hearsay, word of mouth, and they don’t take the time to really investigate and see what’s going on.”
Brown, who attended the rally with his friend, a Democratic poll worker, said he hopes people will learn more about the election process so they can vote with confidence.
“I’m proud of the process. I really am. And I’m proud that, particularly in our office there, they’re doing what they’re supposed to do by the book and they’re trying to make sure that the process is done the way it’s supposed to be done,” he said. “I work so hard to be neutral and make sure that when they get in there … they can trust that whatever they decide to do, they’re going to accomplish it.”
The Trusted Elections Tour will visit approximately a dozen more locations in North Carolina this year, including a virtual town hall on October 15.
