Thread by @equalandallied1

In most jobs, if you don’t fulfill the requirements for which you were hired, your employment can be terminated. If you steal from your company, siphon funds, miss-allocate resources, or hide revenues —you could be in much bigger trouble.

Let’s talk Secretaries of State.

Most SoS websites list this as a primary responsibility of a SoS:
“Secretary of State, are charged with conducting secure, accessible, and fair elections.”

Super straight forward, right.

While many officials and employees are part of this mandate, something goes wrong, the buck stops at the top. Elections are not held everyday, there is time to ensure a tight ship. Time to make sure that every citizen’s electoral voice under your purview is protected.

Granted, elections are no small operation, mistakes are somewhat inevitable—but overwhelming trends of “mistakes” are not.

Missing voting assets, (cords, machines), inadequate + inaccurate polling locations, untrained workers, incorrectly designed ballots/

..are an egregious dereliction of a SOS’s primary duty.

Particularly egregious if they primarily affect a specific demographic of the electorate.

When that happens, the “mistakes” become targeted voter suppression. As a Secretary of State, this should be your ‘kiss of death’.

When voter suppression is evident you not only have failed at your duties and should be terminated for a more effective official, but you also just siphoned votes, miss-allocated resources, hid assets...

This should hold serious and immediate legal consequences for any SoS.

*This Georgia Governor race is not over, but some examples of targeted voter suppression: theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…

Examples of voter suppression in Texas: theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…

Minorities (Blacks and Hispanics) are most often the target of voter suppression with the precision of a scalpel, as indicated here.
theatlantic.com/politics/archi…

Not a lawyer, but it really only takes common sense to see that as a SoS, if VS happens on your watch —you have stolen from your company/citizens. How is it that you work even 1 more day? How is it that you are not charged with a crime or ever allowed to hold public office again?

Lots of talk about ‘norms’ in the past 2 years. They are evidently a thing of the past. Accountability, a thing of the past. Just doing the right thing by your country, your state, your citizens, your job —b/c that’s what we do as Americans.

The right to freely and fairly elect our governing officials is the most basic right we have as citizens of a democracy. Any effort or act of negligence on the part of those tasked with the preservation of this right, to undermine it..

should be met with the swiftest and harshest hand of Justice this country has to offer.

I know states run elections, and their laws regarding such, but we cannot continue to take it for granted that they are fully capable or willing to fulfill their obligations of such.

From the known perils of electronic voting, to gerrymandering, to voter suppression tactics by state officials, and cyber/info warfare of foreign + domestic actors—this has to end. It has to end NOW.

Make ‘norms’ into laws, create accountability and instill in our officials the understanding that we intend to be heard and any attempt to silence or manipulate our voices is criminal.

Not a bad job—criminal.

I call on all Governors to shore up your state’s elections first and foremost, from every direction.

And start with setting legally binding expectations for your Secretaries of State, as some seem brazenly dismissive about their responsibilities to your citizens.