• Home
  • Opinion
  • Quizzes
  • Redistricting
  • Sections
  • About Us
  • Voting
  • Independent Voter News
  • Campaign Finance
  • Civic Ed
  • Directory
  • Election Dissection
  • Events
  • Fact Check
  • Glossary
  • News
  • Analysis
  • Subscriptions
  • Log in
Leveraging Our Differences
  • news & opinion
    • Big Picture
      • Civic Ed
      • Ethics
      • Leadership
      • Leveraging big ideas
      • Media
    • Business & Democracy
      • Corporate Responsibility
      • Impact Investment
      • Innovation & Incubation
      • Small Businesses
      • Stakeholder Capitalism
    • Elections
      • Campaign Finance
      • Independent Voter News
      • Redistricting
      • Voting
    • Government
      • Balance of Power
      • Budgeting
      • Congress
      • Judicial
      • Local
      • State
      • White House
    • Justice
      • Accountability
      • Anti-corruption
      • Budget equity
    • Columns
      • Beyond Right and Left
      • Civic Soul
      • Congress at a Crossroads
      • Cross-Partisan Visions
      • Democracy Pie
      • Our Freedom
  • Pop Culture
      • American Heroes
      • Ask Joe
      • Celebrity News
      • Comedy
      • Dance, Theatre & Film
      • Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging
      • Faithful & Mindful Living
      • Music, Poetry & Arts
      • Sports
      • Technology
      • Your Take
      • American Heroes
      • Ask Joe
      • Celebrity News
      • Comedy
      • Dance, Theatre & Film
      • Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging
      • Faithful & Mindful Living
      • Music, Poetry & Arts
      • Sports
      • Technology
      • Your Take
  • events
  • About
      • Mission
      • Advisory Board
      • Staff
      • Contact Us
Sign Up

Katie Usalis

    FollowUnfollowFollowing
    Threats to democracy

    With U.S. democracy under attack, women election officials hold the front lines

    Katie Usalis
    September 30, 2022
    Natalie Adona

    "I hope one day that the pendulum will swing the other way and people will start to trust us again," says Nevada County, Calif., election official Natalie Adona.

    Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

    Usalis is a strategic partnerships manager for RepresentWomen.

    “You lied. You a traitor. Perhaps 75 cuts and 20 bullets will soon arrive.”
    “You and your family will be killed very slowly.”
    “If you send me any more emails about this election, I’m to slit your throat.”

    These are just three examples among thousands of hostile or threatening messages received by election officials following the 2020 presidential election.

    An eye-opening survey commissioned by NYU Law’s Brennan Center for Justice in mid-2021 found that “one in three election officials feel unsafe because of their job, and nearly one in five listed threats to their lives as a job-related concern.” The vast majority — more than 80 percent — of these officials are women.

    Here women are, rolling up their sleeves. Stepping up to the plate and doing the stressful, exhausting and poorly paid work that quite literally gives us a democracy — their job to ensure that elections are held in a professional manner and that every valid vote is counted — now having to brave threats to their lives and their children and pinch pennies in order to afford a home security system. Yet in the many conversations around election reform, women, especially women of color, aren’t included. The ones most impacted by the problems are also the ones absent from the decision-making table.

    Ms. sat down with some women who should be at that table — Gowri Ramachandran, senior counsel at the Brennan Center, and two officials who served in the 2020 election: Natalie Adona from Nevada County, Calif., and Tina Barton from Rochester Hills, Mich.—to hear about their experiences as women on the front lines protecting our democracy.

    Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter

    Keep ReadingShow less
    election workers

    Join an Upcoming Event

    View All Events
    Diversity Inclusion and Belonging

    Everything’s bigger in Texas, including the negative impact of runoffs on women candidates

    Katie Usalis
    April 15, 2022
    Jessica Cisneros - Texas primary runoff

    Jessica Cisneros advanced to a primary runoff in the race for a U.S. House seat representing Texas.

    Brandon Bell/Getty Images

    Usalis is a strategic partnerships manager for RepresentWomen.

    Last month, Texas kicked off the midterm season with another batch of high-profile races going into a runoff — 23, to be exact.

    Texas election law states that primary candidates must win with a majority, which becomes tricky when there are more than two candidates running. This results in an extraordinary amount of elections being forced into a runoff, where the top two candidates compete head-to-head in a second round of primary elections.

    What’s so wrong with this? Two words: time and money. Both of which women candidates generally have less of.

    Keep ReadingShow less
    women
    Get some Leverage Sign up for The Fulcrum Newsletter
    Confirm that you are not a bot.
    ×
    Follow
    Get some Leverage Sign up for The Fulcrum Newsletter
    Confirm that you are not a bot.
    ×
    Follow

    Support Democracy Journalism; Join The Fulcrum

    The Fulcrum daily platform is where insiders and outsiders to politics are informed, meet, talk, and act to repair our democracy and make it live and work in our everyday lives. Now more than ever our democracy needs a trustworthy outlet

    Contribute
    Contributors

    Policymakers must address worsening civil unrest post Roe

    Sarah K. Burke

    Video: How to salvage U.S. democracy from the "tyranny of the minority"

    Our Staff

    What "Progress" should look like, and what we get wrong

    Damien De Pyle

    The long kiss goodnight: Nancy Pelosi and the protracted decay of public office

    Kevin Frazier

    Demanding corporate responsibility for food system challenges

    C.Anne Long

    Our two political parties: A resemblance to WrestleMania

    Leland R. Beaumont
    latest News

    Tapping the common sense on immigration

    Steven Kull
    Evan Charles Lewitus
    JP Thomas
    22h

    Most Americans agree on these two principles of democracy

    Nick Troiano
    22h

    Let’s celebrate our unnatural Constitution

    Thomas Kelly
    22h

    International Day of Democracy and statelessness

    Tenzin Dolma
    15 September

    The shofar blasts on Constitution Day

    Rabbi Charles Savenor
    15 September

    On democracy in America

    Lori Brewer Collins
    14 September
    Videos
    Video: Do white leaders hinder black aspirations?

    Video: Do white leaders hinder black aspirations?

    Our Staff
    Video: How to prepare for student loan repayments returning

    Video: How to prepare for student loan repayments returning

    Our Staff
    Video: The history of Labor Day

    Video: The history of Labor Day

    Our Staff
    Video: Trump allies begin to flip as prosecutions move forward

    Video: Trump allies begin to flip as prosecutions move forward

    Our Staff
    Video Rewind: Trans-partisan practices and the "superpower of respect"

    Video Rewind: Trans-partisan practices and the "superpower of respect"

    Our Staff
    Video: Pearce Godwin of Listen First Project discusses Listen First on CSPAN

    Video: Pearce Godwin of Listen First Project discusses Listen First on CSPAN

    Our Staff
    Podcasts

    Podcast: How states hold fair elections

    Our Staff
    14 September

    Podcast: The MAGA Bubble, Bidenonmics and Playing the Victim

    Debilyn Molineaux
    David Riordan
    12 September

    Podcast: Defending the founding principles of our government

    Our Staff
    07 September

    Podcast: The continuing effects of summer heat and student loan repayments

    Our Staff
    05 September
    Recommended
    Tapping the common sense on immigration

    Tapping the common sense on immigration

    Big Picture
    Most Americans agree on these two principles of democracy

    Most Americans agree on these two principles of democracy

    Voting
    Let’s celebrate our unnatural Constitution

    Let’s celebrate our unnatural Constitution

    Big Picture
    International Day of Democracy and statelessness

    International Day of Democracy and statelessness

    Policies
    The shofar blasts on Constitution Day

    The shofar blasts on Constitution Day

    Big Picture
    Video: Do white leaders hinder black aspirations?

    Video: Do white leaders hinder black aspirations?

    Diversity Inclusion and Belonging