The Gears of Democracy
In an era of institutional mistrust, we talk to the election officials who make every vote count
Brian Mead, a Republican, is the director of the Licking County Board of Elections. Tess Wigginton, a Democrat, is the deputy director. By state law, a member from each party must lead the county board of elections. The Reporting Project sat down with Mead and Wigginton to learn about their jobs, election integrity and what it’s like to work closely with a member of the other party.
[This interview has been edited for clarity.]
TRP: We want to know about your jobs and the kinds of things you have to deal with as election officials.
Tess: We've been fielding quite a few calls in the office from people who listen to sources that they probably shouldn't listen to, about 'illegal aliens' voting and about how safe the voting machines are. Those are the two things that we keep hearing. We do our best to dispel those myths. But I expect we'll continue to get calls about them and that they will probably increase as we get closer to November.
Tess M. Wigginton, Democrat, Deputy Director of Licking County Board of Elections. Photo by Doug Swift.
Tess M. Wigginton, Democrat, Deputy Director of Licking County Board of Elections. Photo by Doug Swift.
TRP: How many times a week do you get a call like that?
Tess: I'm going to say, for a while there, it was probably up to 5-10 a day.
TRP: So what do you say?
Tess: One call that I took, I did my best to try and calm the person, because he was in quite an agitated state over it. I explained that we administer elections according to law.
Brian: Tess is right, we sort of calm them down and then I walk them through the steps of what it takes to get registered. What's that process? A lot is tied to your driver's license, and people know that getting a driver's license isn't as easy as walking in there and signing your name. No, you have to show a birth certificate, marriage license, in some cases, your old passport, or something like that. It's much tougher. Some folks know that there are people [in the country] with a green card who can get a driver's license, and we're like, well, the BMV knows which people have a green card and which don't. The Secretary of State's office has one big list. He takes that list and cross references with the BMV. And so if there are some people with a green card, that's where they catch it.
Brian Mead, Republican, Director of the Licking County Board of Elections. Photo by Doug Swift.
Brian Mead, Republican, Director of the Licking County Board of Elections. Photo by Doug Swift.
Brian: So the next thing is, okay, well, what about the machines? A man said, 'I know, when I went in there, I voted this way, and it flipped,' and it's like, that's just not possible. Machines aren't hooked up to the internet. It's actually against the law to do that, we have to test the machines before they go out.
I wish more people would understand and buy into the idea that what happens at your local level, your elections for city council and mayor and county commissioners and all of that, affect your life in a more direct manner than who is sitting in the White House in Washington.
Tess: We try to show callers as best we can that there is no way that anyone can hack an election in the state of Ohio. I start from the very beginning and say, first of all, the things that you are touching to mark your ballot are just that. They are ballot markers. Those do not connect to the internet. They don't even have the capability to connect to the internet. And when you get your ballot out, you're going to put it into the scanner, which is the modern ballot box, which is, again, not connected to the internet. Never has been, never will be. Everything is done on portable media that then comes back into the office and it's put into a computer to tabulate, which is not connected to the internet.
Brian: I sometimes go down the rabbit hole with them, like, okay, so what? What would happen if 10 more people somehow got on the voter list, fake people. They still need to come in with a fake driver's license that matches and try to vote, and they're not going to match our records from the day before. I mean, we're backed up every day. So you know, if our voter list goes from 125,000 to 130,000 in one day, that is a big red flag. Some people think, well, what if we came with our own paper ballot? At each location, we have 8-16 poll workers there. They're trained to not allow you to do that.
I know I'm the head Republican and just watching out for my party, but also, it has to be fair. I can't slant it towards my party.
What I like to tell my friends is, I am an elections official. I'm not a politician.
TRP: Is voter misinformation more or less of a problem than it was 10 years ago?
Brian: It's definitely more of a problem. How we got our news 10 years ago is totally different than today. We've seen the eroding of a lot of our traditional news sources. It seems like folks are only looking at one set of beliefs, and they go to those sources with those beliefs, and the other side seems to be doing it too.
Tess: I believe many people get their news from social media, which is just disheartening.
Brian: I think we see in our relationships where we only seek out friends with similar likes and dislikes.
TRP: You two, a Democrat and a Republican, spend a lot of time together. As far as we can tell, you like each other.
Brian: Definitely. We enjoy talking and arguing and figuring out why. You know, she believes something one way, and I believe something a different way. But that's really only for 10% of our conversations, because the other 90%, there's not a Republican way to do something and a Democrat way to do something.
How we got our news 10 years ago is totally different than today. We've seen the eroding of a lot of our traditional news sources. It seems like folks are only looking at one set of beliefs, and they go to those sources with those beliefs, and the other side seems to be doing it too.
Tess: What I like to tell my friends is, I am an elections official. I'm not a politician. While I might be associated with a party, necessarily, because of the structure of the office, that stays outside the door while I'm doing my job. I don't look at any part of my job as that this is the way a Democrat would do it, or that I slant anything toward that. It's not, it's not in my nature, and it is definitely not in the job description. That's the best way I can put it. I'm an elections official. We take our charge very seriously here, and I believe most boards of elections around the state of Ohio do as well.
Brian: I know I'm the head Republican and just watching out for my party, but also, it has to be fair. I can't slant it towards my party for anything. So the two sides have to be there, so the left and right hand know what's going on. We take an oath to do this, and then sometimes it offends me when people are talking about, it's rigged or doesn't matter.
TRP: Some people question the security of the drop off boxes.
Tess: They are secure. They are under video surveillance, and if need be, we can pull up the video. During the time of early voting, drop boxes are checked twice a day.
Photo by Alan Miller
Photo by Alan Miller
TRP: Poll workers seem to care a lot about what they're doing.
Brian: We would absolutely agree. I get angry sometimes when people question that. We have six wonderful full-time staff. But on election day, it’s the volunteers at Utica and Cherry Valley and all the other polling places who are running it. And I'll tell you, they feel like they are doing their civic duty. And they would not allow anybody to cheat. They would not allow anybody to just go messing with the machines. And they take it very passionately.
Poll workers at the Cherry Valley School polling station during the March 19, 2024 primary. Photo by Katie Houpt.
Poll workers at the Cherry Valley School polling station during the March 19, 2024 primary. Photo by Katie Houpt.
Tess: Back to your question about the two of us, that's exactly the place that we're coming from. Our interest is in assuring a fair, transparent, accurate, smooth election. I see myself as helping the gears of democracy, and you don't have to be loyal to any party to want that to happen. I know that's how we approach it.
TRP: Does the job affect you emotionally and physically?
Tess: My sleepless nights will start right about now. But it's not the outside forces. That I can deal with. I can hold that at arm's length.
It's the worry that all of this works, because this is a really complex system to administer. It's not like we just sit down at a word processor and do those ballots. You have to make the database understand that you need something readable, and it has to be in this format, and all of those precincts and splits have to have the correct issues and candidates on them. And then once that's done, I have to produce something that our registration system will also link up with. So it's complex, and that does wear on me.
[Editor’s note: Tess and Brian explain how this system is tested before the election, and then audited afterwards.]
Brian: We have a lot of stress because there are many, many little steps in conducting an election. There can be some small errors that happen along the way, but I get concerned with those being blown out of proportion by the naysayers. They will say “See there, it wasn’t perfect, so it had to be voter fraud or cheating.” When in reality there is actually very little voter fraud or cheating.
Tess: I'm sure you've heard that all voting is local. I wish more people would understand and buy into the idea that what happens at your local level, your elections for city council and mayor and county commissioners and all of that, affect your life in a more direct manner than who is sitting in the White House in Washington.
TRP: What's something that you would want journalists to ask you that they haven't asked you?
Brian: Is it worth it? It really is worth it, you know.
Tess: Absolutely, I consider this one of the guardrails of democracy.
Doug Swift and Jack Shuler write for TheReportingProject.org, the nonprofit news organization of Denison University’s Journalism program, which is supported by generous donations from readers. Sign up for The Reporting Project newsletter here.
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