Matt Crane said local election officials are avoiding sharing voter data or other security information with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security because they fear it could be used against them. The former Republican county clerk, who now runs the professional organization for local election officials in Colorado, said he is actively discouraging counties from doing work with the federal government.
“I'm actively discouraging it,” Crane said. “I don't trust how the administration is using that data.” He added, “I don't trust that they're going to keep it confidential.”
Crane's warning in Colorado
Crane said, “And so I can't in good conscience advocate that any of my counties do any work with them right now.” He also said the federal government and DHS are “not trusted partners anymore” and added, “They've brought the fox into the henhouse.”
His comments point to a broader break in cooperation. Numerous local election officials across the political spectrum have told NPR they are withholding information while the Trump administration has taken unprecedented steps to investigate local election administration.
That administration has taken states to court to get private voter registration data and has attempted to access voting machines and ballots, with success in some cases. Local officials say the fear is not theoretical: they are treating voter data and other security information as material that could be turned back on them.
Markwayne Mullin and DHS
The concern lands in a setting shaped by Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma, who is the current DHS point person for elections. Gary Berntsen said in the fall that “One of the things that we learned is there's 14 different technical ways that you can steal an election,” and he said, “One politician in America was not afraid.” Berntsen identified him as “Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma.”
Allies of Gary Berntsen say Mullin brokered a meeting at Mar-a-Lago so Berntsen could brief Donald Trump's team on conspiracy theories about Venezuelan interference in elections. Mullin wrote online on Jan. 2, 2021 that “due to all of the fraud and uncertainty surrounding the 2020 election there is no way I can vote to certify the Electoral College.” Four days later, he was one of 147 congressional Republicans who still voted not to certify the results after a mob overran the U.S. Capitol during the certification.
Heather Honey is the current DHS point person for elections, and Crane said she has a long history of spreading election misinformation. The practical result is a federal-state trust problem: the same department meant to help secure elections is being treated by local officials as a possible threat to the work they are trying to protect.
For counties that depend on routine coordination with federal agencies, the immediate question is whether they can share technical or security information without losing control of it. Crane's answer is to hold back, and his warning suggests more local officials may do the same unless DHS changes how it handles the data.
