Chiefs, Executives, and Officers
Plus: New accountability efforts. 🗳️
Published July 12, 2024
Late last year and early this year, we helped bring together more than 60 law enforcement leaders from across the country to talk about keeping voters and election officials safe in 2024. They shared questions, challenges, ideas, and lessons from the past.
Now, that shared wisdom is available to law enforcement agencies everywhere as they prepare for election season.
In a library of resources based on their peers’ feedback, law enforcement leaders can learn more about how to prepare their agencies to de-escalate heated situations at the polls, balance protesters’ rights with public safety needs, make sure officers take care of themselves during stressful times, and much more. The resources were produced by States United and our partners at the National Policing Institute and 21st Century Policing Solutions, with whom we also convened the law enforcement discussions.
Democracy depends on safe elections, which means law enforcement has an important role to play in our election process. Their job has become more challenging in recent years, partly because threats to the election process have grown. But law enforcement agencies already have the policies and expertise to keep this election season safe. These resources are meant to help them apply that know-how to 2024.
This Week in Democracy
- States United, the National Policing Institute, and 21st Century Policing Solutions released “Policing in a Time of Elections,” a guide for law enforcement agencies to help them prepare for elections in November and beyond.
➡️ READ: Our blog post and the full report
- States United and Lawyers Defending American Democracy filed ethics complaints against Kurt Olsen in D.C. and Maryland. Olsen is a lawyer who has spread lies about elections while representing Election Deniers in court.
➡️ READ: Our statement about the complaints
- The Wisconsin Elections Commission issued new best practices about ballot drop boxes for local election clerks. Their aim is to help ensure that every clerk can use drop boxes safely and securely. The guidance comes after the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled last week that voters can use drop boxes again.
State of the States
In Nevada, Attorney General Aaron Ford and Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar asked the Nevada Supreme Court on Wednesday to compel the Washoe County Commission to canvass and certify its election results. After the state’s primary election on June 9, recounts were requested for two races on the ballot. Each recount confirmed the initial results, but on Tuesday the county commission refused to canvass and certify them. One day after Ford and Aguilar filed their motion, Washoe County Commission Chair Alexis Hill said that the commission would meet again on July 16 to reconsider its decision. “Cooler heads have prevailed,” Hill told The Nevada Independent.