Midterm Spotlight Hits New States

Election officials in non-competitive states are suddenly facing the same intense scrutiny that hit battleground areas in recent years. The pressure comes because the races deciding control of the U.S. House and Senate are spread across the country. This shift places local administrators in places like Iowa, Alaska, New York, and Kansas in the national spotlight for the first time.

Tina Barton, former city clerk of Rochester Hills, Michigan, explains the core difference between running an election in a safe state versus a battleground. In a safe state, a human error is easily explained by the press and rarely becomes a major story. In a battleground state, the same mistake can quickly turn into a massive conspiracy theory. Barton learned this lesson firsthand during the 2020 election cycle.

During the 2020 general election, Barton’s office mistakenly sent an unofficial absentee vote file twice because the first transmission did not appear to send. The error did not impact the actual vote count and was corrected the next day. However, the chairwoman of the Republican National Committee accused her office of improperly giving votes to Democrats. Barton received a rush of death threats, including a voicemail stating she deserved a throat to the knife for frauding out America of a real election.

Chris McGinn, executive director of the Texas Association of County Election Officials, notes that Texas has been a reliable Republican state for nearly 50 years. This reliability meant fewer competitive elections and less pressure on voting officials in federal cycles. McGinn has spent much of his time preparing clerks for the possibility that this status could change this year. He jokes but realistically preaches that the state does not want to be Florida in 2000.

Wendy Link, supervisor of elections for Palm Beach County, Florida, reports that her office still regularly receives threatening emails, which she calls love letters. These messages include claims that an army will be sent to arrest her or that she will spend time in Guantanamo Bay. Link says she does not love reading these emails and believes some are intended to intimidate her, but she is not reaching out to ask for a security detail.

Barton, now vice president of the Committee for Safe and Secure Elections, warns that controversy can find officials in both red and blue states. She notes that all it takes is ballot equipment going down, ballots jamming, or a website crash. Researchers who study election misinformation say most false narratives emerge from these real events. Influencers and politicians then seize on these incidents to falsely imply they are happening intentionally or on a wider scale.

The Committee for Safe and Secure Elections doubled the number of trainings it led compared to 2024. This increase reflects new concerns about the Trump administration’s actions in elections and a broader understanding of what it means to be in a battleground state. When Barton speaks to officials in competitive districts, her message is simple: you better be on your game.