BAKERSFIELD, Calif (KBAK/KBFX) With Tuesday’s midterm election approaching, Democracy Defenders Action, a progressive advocacy group, held a virtual briefing on competitive races and potential election threats, including how disputes over vote counting and certification could play out after Election Day.
The presentation portion of the briefing was off the record, but the question-and-answer session that followed was on the record.
Democracy Defenders Action warns of post-Election Day vote disputes in briefing (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)
During that Q&A, speakers were asked why they believe the Trump administration’s Justice Department has focused on California.
Norm Eisen, co-founder of Democracy Defenders Action, pointed to Los Angeles County’s demographics and the state’s widespread use of vote-by-mail.
“There is a large concentration of Latino and Black voters. It’s a mail in voter jurisdiction like all of California,” Eisen said.
Democracy Defenders Action warns of post-Election Day vote disputes in briefing (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
As national concerns over election security continue, Kern County Registrar of Voters Aimee Espinoza described safeguards in place locally, including how voted ballots are handled once they arrive at the elections office.
“Those ballots come into our office; they do not leave. And so, the voted ballots go straight into our count room, we bring in extra staff, they get those counted as quickly as possible and then all of those vote ballots they go into a vault,” Espinoza said.
Espinoza said the county’s focus leading up to the election includes signature verification, securing ballots from drop boxes, testing voting machines, manually checking ballots, maintaining a chain of custody when handling ballots and reviewing provisional ballots.
Democracy Defenders Action warns of post-Election Day vote disputes in briefing (Photo by Charlie Neibergall/Getty Images)
“I always tell people here in the office regardless of what our personal and political views, when we come to work, we are nonpartisan and our job is to make sure we are counting every vote accurately,” Espinoza said.