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Since 2020, a growing number of election workers have been threatened, harassed, and even spat on - so tomorrow the State Senate Judiciary Committee will hear a bill that would allow them to hide their address from public view. 

Senate Bill 1131 would allow election workers to join the Safe at Home program, which was created 20 years ago to make it harder for perpetrators of domestic violence to track down their victims. Kim Alexander is president and co-founder of the California Voter Foundation, a co-sponsor of the bill

"There are still a number of people who make false claims about the election being stolen," said Alexander. "And the election officials and their staff are on the receiving end of the big lie."

SB 1131 also would change an old state law that required poll workers' names to be posted at polling sites. 

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California's legislature advanced a bill on Monday that would protect election workers in the state by keeping their home addresses and other private information hidden from the public.

The California Senate Elections Committee unanimously advanced the bill, which seeks to protect election and poll workers via a system similar to the state's Safe at Home program protecting victims of domestic violence and abuse.

Lawmakers introduced the bill in February in response to increased threats and harassment of election workers in the wake of the 2020 election, which saw supporters of former President Trump accuse poll workers of bias in relation to unfounded claims of fraud. 

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 Registrar of Voters Neal Kelley is a bit of a Renaissance man.

Before joining the county as chief deputy registrar, Kelley worked in a variety of fields including retail, law enforcement and he’d served as an adjunct professor with Riverside Community College’s Business Administration Department.

Kelley was hired as chief deputy registrar in 2004, got appointed acting registrar the following year and was named to the position permanently in 2006. He the longest serving Orange County election official and one of the most senior—in experience, not age!—election officials California.

Lawmakers in Oregon and California are calling for tougher legislation to protect election workers in response to a continuing wave of threats and harassment inspired by former President Donald Trump's false claims that the 2020 vote was rigged against him.

In Oregon, legislators are considering a measure that would make it a felony to harass or threaten election workers while they are performing their official duties, state officials said. The measure would also exempt the personal information of election workers, such as home addresses, from certain public records.

"In the months leading up to and since the 2020 election, election workers across the country have faced verbal abuse, harassment and violent threats on their lives,” Oregon Secretary of State Shemia Fagan, a Democrat, told state lawmakers on Tuesday. “As we head into the 2022 election season, we must do all we can to protect election workers against physical harm fueled by misinformation.”