Examining the impact of threats against election workers in Arizona

We spoke with News21, a group of journalism students who report and produce in-depth, multimedia projects for major national media outlets. Based at Arizona State University, a recent report covered threats faced by election workers and the impact of those threats.

Pauline Arrillaga, Executive Editor for Carnegie-Knight News21, and student Denzen Cortez, 2024 News21 Fellow, joined “Arizona Horizon” to discuss what they found nationwide and in Arizona about threats faced by election workers and the impact of those threats.

Cortez is a Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication graduate student majoring in broadcast journalism with a minor in political science.

Denzen was one of seven News21 student fellows—four print reporters and three video journalists—who collaborated on the piece about violence and intimidation against election officials. News21 journalists traveled to more than two dozen cities in 17 states and Washington, D.C., to talk with political leaders, community activists and young people all working to strengthen democracy.

“It’s a very contentious election season, an election like no other,” Cortez said. “What we found out was seven out of ten field threats have increased since 2020. It’s only going to get, unfortunately, more contentious as we move on a week away from the election. From our reporting we saw numerous amounts of things ranging from different states.”

According to the Brennan Center for Justice, over half of election workers fear for their safety or for the safety of one of their colleagues. One-third of election workers also know somebody who quit because of the recent increase in threats.