Beyond the Ballot Archives

November 21, 2024November 21, 2024

Beyond the Ballot with Paul Pate: Election Official’s History of Public Service, Business and Political Success Led to Transforming Secretary of State Role

By Lexington Souers, Communications Associate

Raised in a family focused on giving back, and pulling from a successful career in business, Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate recognized the power of government action.

At age 29, Pate became the youngest member of the Iowa Senate and embarked on a path toward his current role. Following the conclusion of his first of two spells as secretary of state in 1998, Pate continued his service to Iowans as mayor of Cedar Rapids and president of Iowa’s League of Cities. He also served at the national level with the U.S. Conference of Mayors, with a specific focus on housing.

“I was raised in a family where my folks really underscored public service and giving back,” Pate said. “If you’re going to be fortunate enough to do well in life, you need to give back. We live in great communities and great states, but not everybody has the same successes, and you want to try to bring some of that back to them.”

Throughout Pate’s tenure in each role, he saw the impact that he and his staff were making. Similar to his broad reach as secretary of state, his role as president of Iowa’s League of Cities allowed him to be a difference maker for the residents, he represented in more than 900 Iowa cities.

“That was an eye opener,” Pate said. “You’re talking about towns as small as a couple of 100 people compared to our larger cities, and trying to balance out how we help all those communities have the resources and knowledge they need to be competitive.”

Nearly eight years ago, Pate returned to the Iowa Office of the Secretary of State. This time, he entered with increased attention on elections due to rapid changes in technology. According to Pate, he needed “jumpstart” those effort in the office, especially given the rise of social media and voting by mail.

Pate stressed the need for a trusted source for elections, whether it through his office or the local elections commissioner.

“The big concern I had then, and I have today even more so, is if the public loses confidence in the integrity of our election for whatever reason — whether it’s foreign interference or even local — then our republic has fallen,” Pate said. “And they wouldn’t have done it without firing a single shot. That’s alarming to me.”

Pate promotes a “trusted source” approach, which includes voter I.D. laws, random audits of elections and public pretesting of tabulators. While he said there are still hurdles, being transparent has led to increased trust and support by the public.

Increasing overseas voting and the role of military voters was also an important goal for Pate, who promoted a 120-day extension for certain service members. He added auditing occurs for military members requesting absentee ballots, accounting for how military service has changed. Included among these members are an influx of reservists and guardsmen who have been posted overseas.

“They are voters. They have a lot of involvement and commitment to their local communities because they know the candidates in their town,” Pate said. “They still want to stay in touch with that. We work hard with the local command and make sure those folks have what they need. I’m not going to just count on somebody handling it from the military or the Department of Defense. I want to do what we can on the local level to give them that information.”

Iowa Safe at Home is another program endorsed by Pate, offering address confidentiality for victims of domestic violence and other crimes. Through the program, victims can register their addresses with the Office of the Secretary of State, protecting what would otherwise be public information from potential bad actors.

“I can report now that we’re seeing a significant uptick of folks who are survivors of very unfortunate situations that have come out of the dark to rejoin their communities and are stepping up and voting again,” Pate said. “I think Safe at Home is a big part of that.”

Iowa has one of the highest voter turnouts in the country, which Pate attributes to Iowa’s community and length of life as well as a civically minded culture. Pate said he supports a curriculum for students to understand the importance of Iowa’s caucus system. Students, in turn, help educate their parents. Teachers can also use an Elections 101 curriculum to provide modules showing the importance of elections.

Before the formal election, youth from across the state participate in a youth straw poll. The Office of the Secretary of State provides a digital copy of the official ballot or students can vote using an online poll. Results are reported in real time.

“I find the straw poll very intriguing because we do it ahead of the adult election and these young people across the state are pretty darn close to being on the mark of what the results will be,” Pate said. “When we dug a little deeper, we found out you can attribute it to — believe it or not — people still talk over the dinner table. This shows me that the parents and kids are talking about it.”

Education outside of the classroom became a key component of Pate’s role as secretary of state, especially given the rise in misinformation. Pate said it is not his role to censor free speech, but instead ensure Iowans know when and where to vote, among other key points. This is done through voter ready websites and online voter registration, as well as partnering with organizations like the NAACP and the NRA to promote voter toolkits.

“I believe myself and my colleagues are the referees,” Pate said. “We administer the laws of the land and make sure we offer as much transparency as we can. That consistency and transparency is what the voters need and expect to have confidence in the elections process. The more I, and my peers, can make sure that is out there, upfront on a regular basis, the more successful we will be on both encouraging people to vote and believing in the results.”

Pate and his office partner with numerous federal organizations to monitor the security of Iowa’s elections at every level. The FBI, CIA and even white hat hackers are among them. Local offices are often smaller and are handling more than just elections, according to Pate. As a result, the statewide office may need to handle trainings, recruiting poll workers or security measures.

“I’ve been able to push out that security to our local level because you’re only as good as your weakest point,” Pate said. “With 99 jurisdictions out there, we wanted to make sure they had the same kind of protection. We have endpoint protection for them, which means 24 hours a day we’re monitoring their systems for outside intrusions so no one can manipulate our voter databases.”

November 12, 2024November 21, 2024

Beyond the Ballot with Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver: Dedication to State Government and Elections Drive Secretary of State’s Career

By Morgan Thomas, Policy Associate

Growing up in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Secretary Maggie Toulouse Oliver always wanted to work in government. However, like most election officials, Secretary Toulouse Oliver didn’t grow up dreaming of one day becoming an election administrator. Her passion for elections grew as she gained more experience working on campaigns, voter education and outreach. Now having worked in elections for over two decades, Toulouse Oliver has leveraged her work experience to become the 26th Secretary of State of New Mexico.

August 24, 2021August 24, 2021

Beyond the Ballot with Brianna Lennon

Black Man placing ballot into ballot box with an american flag background and the words Beyond the Ballot on navy background in foreground

Inspired by events surrounding the 2020 election, you turn to your computer in search of answers. How do local offices utilize technology to administer an election? What events take place prior to your ballot arriving in the mail? How do election officials know vote tallies are correct? After reading through numerous articles, you come across a podcast about election administration. You click on the most recent episode and hear the voice of Brianna Lennon, Boone County Clerk and co-host of High Turnout Wide Margins.

Elected Boone County Clerk in 2018, Lennon’s expertise in election administration has been forged by years of experience and mentorship under seasoned practitioners. As an undergraduate, Lennon completed an internship with the League of Women Voters where she worked to reformat voter education materials. Upon entering law school at the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Law, she secured a position with the Missouri Secretary of State’s Office, then under the administration of Robin Carnahan. It was during this time that Lennon fell in love with elections.

After graduating with her Juris Doctor, Lennon worked briefly in the Missouri Attorney General’s Office before returning to the Secretary of State’s office, where she assumed the role of Deputy Director of Elections and Elections Counsel. In this role, she collaborated with county clerks to ensure state election procedures supported the operations of clerks at the local level. She also worked alongside vendors and fellow election officials to design and implement the statewide Military and Overseas Voting Access Portal.

Having worked closely with numerous county clerks throughout the state, Lennon was soon drawn to the position. For Lennon, it was the challenging nature of the job that compelled her to run for office. “At the local level, officials are afforded a lot of discretion in how they implement policies. This is both a challenge and an opportunity. For me, I saw the position as allowing me to leverage this discretion to uniquely serve voters,” said Lennon. By 2018, she had mounted a successful campaign for Boone County Clerk and assumed office in January of the following year.

Through these experiences, Lennon has become attuned to the importance of communication and the solicitation of feedback by state officials. Although the Military and Overseas Voting Access Portal was developed by state-level officials, the feedback of local officials has greatly shaped and improved the customer service experience for voters. “Election officials at all levels need to seek out conversations to share and solicit feedback. There are many lessons to be shared; it’s often just a matter of asking the right questions.”

As Clerk, Lennon has personally sought to connect clerks with subject-matter experts and one another to better share best practices. In Missouri, the work of a county clerk depends on the assessed valuation of the county. The smaller the locality, the wider the range of responsibilities a county clerk is assigned. As a result, some clerks have less time to explore the practices of fellow election officials. According to Lennon, this is where her podcast, High Turnout Wide Margins, came into play.

Thirty-nine episodes strong and counting, High Turnout Wide Margins was started by Brianna Lennon and her fellow election administrator, Eric Fey, in December 2020. In each episode, Lennon and her co-host take approximately 30 minutes to touch on a pressing topic in elections through consultation with prominent subject-matter experts. “The purpose of the podcast is to act as a resource for fellow election authorities. We want to highlight local election stories, national trends, and really anything that may be useful for practitioners just entering the field,” said Lennon.

Through the podcast, Lennon has had the opportunity to connect with some of the nation’s most experienced practitioners. Guests have included Overseas Voting Initiative working group members Neal Kelley (Orange County Registrar of Voters) and David Stafford (Escambia County Supervisor of Elections). When asked what she enjoys most about the podcast, Lennon stated, “you can just feel the guests’ devotion and enthusiasm for the profession.”

Conversations that have emerged through the podcast also have highlighted the adaptability of election officials. When it comes to the 2020 election, everyone has a story to tell. Lennon has proven no exception. As the November election approached, her office was tasked with joining the statewide voter registration database. As the existing system was gradually phased out, staff were required to enter voter registration data in both systems.

Although dual data entry took its toll on Lennon’s staff, the coronavirus pandemic later took hold and quickly overshadowed the stress of the task. Rapidly changing public health and safety protocols soon led to confusion among voters regarding absentee voting eligibility. Added to this confusion was the prevalence of election mis- and dis-information online.

As nearly all election administrators can attest, the burden of combatting misinformation fell on the shoulders of local officials. In anticipation of a challenging election cycle, Lennon’s office created social media accounts earlier that year to enhance voter outreach and voter education efforts. These accounts later became key avenues through which Boone County officials communicated with voters. Posts were made online to eliminate gray areas surrounding absentee eligibility and public health protocols as well as to communicate the safeguards in place to protect elections from wide scale fraud.

Looking back on 2020, Lennon realizes that, unlike the pandemic, the heightened scrutiny of elections and election administrators will linger. Another wave of practitioners will retire, and a younger generation will step into positions of leadership. Creative strategies must be applied to meet the challenges posed by the digital age. According to Lennon, these creative strategies must be built on a solid foundation and a deep understanding of the laws and policies that govern elections. “Read all the statutes that apply to your job. Even go as far as to read them once a year. Also, get to know your fellow independently elected officials. It’s always good to glean their perspective and put your minds together to solve the issues you may collectively face,” said Lennon.

July 19, 2021July 21, 2021

Beyond the Ballot with Lynn Bailey

In 1978, Lynn Bailey had just graduated from high school when the Richmond County Board of Elections recruited her to work in the upcoming gubernatorial election. As with many high turnout elections, local offices were in desperate need of temporary workers to help complete their ever-growing list of administrative tasks. Although Bailey knew little about her new role, she brought with her a strong desire to learn and serve her community.

Within a short amount of time, it became clear Richmond County’s investment in the recent graduate would pay off. Bailey rose through the ranks to become Assistant Director of the Richmond County Board of Elections in 1988. She remained in this role for five years before accepting the position of Executive Director in 1993, when longtime Director Linda Beazley resigned to serve as Richmond County administrator. According to Bailey, the formative impact of her predecessor’s dynamism and mentorship cannot be overstated.