LANSING — As election officials continue to face threats, harassment and abuse, a bipartisan coalition of election experts and law enforcement officials is working to build collaboration in hopes of protecting voters, elections and their administrators from bad actors.

The Committee for Safe and Secure Elections, created in 2022, is offering a number of new resources for both election officials and law enforcement officers, including pocket-sized legal guides detailing election laws in all 50 states, giving both groups an easily accessible reference should questions – or issues – arise on Election Day.

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 22 states have enacted or updated laws to protect election officials and poll workers since 2020. In August, the committee released an updated version of these guides to reflect changes to election laws in states across the country.

In observance of the International Day of Democracy, Sept. 15, the Michigan Advance spoke with Tina Barton, the committee’s co-chair and the former Rochester Hills city clerk, about the threats election workers face, and the committee’s work to prepare and protect them.

Election law is not something that’s taught at an academy when law enforcement officers begin their careers, Barton said, and laws can differ at sites like schools or libraries when they’re being used as an election site.

“We work with Secretaries of State, with [attorneys general], with election officials’ associations in all the different states to say, ‘Hey, what are the most common offenses, or what would law enforcement most likely be confronted with during an election cycle that you would want them to have that law right there in their hands,'” Barton told the Advance.

Committee for Safe and Secure Elections Co-Chair Tina Barton | Photo courtesy of the Committee for Safe and Secure Elections

Barton pointed to laws regarding carrying guns at polling places as one example.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed legislation in 2024 barring individuals from possessing a firearm in a polling place on Election Day, or while in-person early voting is being held, as well as banning weapons within 100 feet of the entrance to an early voting location or polling place. The new laws also bar individuals from carrying a gun within 100 feet of an absentee voter dropbox, local clerk’s office or satellite office in the 40 days leading up to an election.

Law enforcement also may not be aware of specific details on how many feet campaigners are required to stand away from the entrance to a polling place, Barton said. The guides produced by the coalition act as a roadmap detailing for exactly what an officer’s authority and powers are, and what the restrictions are for violations of the law.

“When they’re road law enforcement and they’re out writing tickets for speeding, for a light that’s out or running a stop sign, whatever that might be, those are common occurrences for them,” Barton said. “Election cycles, people breaking election laws, committing fraud, that sort of thing, that is not [a] commonality for them. So, this puts that in their hands.”

The guides can also serve as a resource for election officials who are struggling to start a conversation about collaboration with law enforcement, Barton said.

“They can provide that to them… and that often is a really good launching point to start the conversations about, ‘Hey, yeah, things have changed around elections,'” Barton said. “We are seeing some threats and harassment, and we probably do need to know more about this, and we probably should be collaborating,”

The committee recommends that clerks provide printed copies of their election law guides in the supply kits they send out to their precincts, and to introduce them in training sessions with election workers, especially the individuals in charge of overseeing a voting site.

“It empowers and really kind of arms, if you will, election officials, poll workers, precinct workers, law enforcement,” Barton said.“It puts it, again, quick reference, right in their hands. They don’t have to go searching for it, especially if they’re dealing with somebody who’s belligerent.”

It gives law enforcement a clear path, and it also gives election officials some security of an added layer of protection, recognizing them as a protected profession.

They can also serve as an introduction and a guide for other resources the committee makes available, like its security assessment checklist, and its bomb threat resource guide, Barton said.

Michigan instituted its own protections for election workers in 2023, setting criminal penalties for intimidating election officials or preventing them from performing their duties during an election.

Barton said these laws provide an added layer of assurance for election officials and offer a clear line for law enforcement to proceed with an investigation and prosecution if there is an official that’s being threatened, harassed or abused.

“I think that it’s good on both sides.” Barton said. “It gives law enforcement a clear path, and it also gives election officials some security of an added layer of protection, recognizing them as a protected profession.”

The Brennan Center for Justice, one of the committee’s supporting organizations, in July published a survey showing an increased number of election officials have begun coordinating with law enforcement.

In 2024, 62% of the election officials surveyed reported working with local law enforcement, while 83% of the 858 officials surveyed in 2025 reported some form of collaboration.

Barton called those efforts a step in the right direction, noting the benefits that can come from the two groups sharing information and working to understand each other’s work environment.

“My husband’s [in] law enforcement. I’m an election official,” Barton said. “If we were to walk into a big room – consider it maybe as a polling location – our lens on how we view that room and what’s important to us is going to be very different.”

Although Barton said her focus would be on the number of outlets to plug in equipment, the flow of foot traffic and where to place booths, her husband’s focus would be more on safety and the ingress and egress of individuals within the polling place.

When looking at the driving force behind threats to election workers, Barton said it was often a loss of trust in public institutions, which can breed anger against individuals in government at any level for any reason.

In Michigan particularly, where elections are decentralized, election workers are often the face of government in their communities, she added.

It’s also no secret that the country is very politically polarized, Barton said that’s not something election officials often talk about. Instead, they often keep their focus on the election process, the voters and the accuracy and security of the election.

“I will say, as a career election official, I have been friends with election officials all across the country for many years and the vast majority of them, I have no idea what their politics [are],” Barton said.

The close election results in 2020 also sparked a spread of mis- and disinformation, with the modern technological landscape making it easier for people to be siloed into circles and online algorithms without hearing outside perspectives or opinions.

“We’ve lost the ability to have civil conversations,” Barton said. “And I think that in and of itself is a challenge too. I’ve seen it break down friendships, I’ve seen it break down families, and a lot of it is driven by this mis-disinformation.”

At present, one of the committee’s most requested classes focuses on deescalation techniques, Barton said, telling the Advance that even outside of election season, clerks often find themselves in need of those skills. That’s especially true for those in Michigan who carry other responsibilities outside of administering elections.

Additionally, one in three election workers have experienced threats, harassment or abuse because of their job, Barton said. Data from the Brennan Center survey shows that of those reports, 63% said they’d received threats in person and 59% have received threats over the phone.

The attacks have also gone beyond the professional realm into election worker’s personal lives, with Barton telling the Advance she’d had some officials tell her their children have been harassed at school because of their jobs.

Barton said her career is now focused on teaching election officials how to avoid and respond to threats, like having SWAT teams called to their residence and having their personal information leaked online.

“We want to protect our staff, we want to protect ourselves, we want to protect our voters and we want to protect our families,” she said. “And so it’s an added layer of stress and concern and anxiety that I can tell you 10 years ago I did not feel.”