Panelists at the San Diego Bar Association‘s annual Bench/Bar/Media panel on Tuesday agreed that U.S. elections are secure but decried the “poisonous” rhetoric that has raised questions in many voters’ minds.
California Secretary of State Shirley Weber kicked off the event with a prerecorded video from Sacramento, saying, “I know it’s distressing that we even have to have this discussion.”
“Trust in the election process has really declined in the country,” said lawyer Benjamin Ginsberg, an expert in election law, because of a “a really poisonous vein in our election system” that arose in the 2020 election.
Ginsberg,, who appeared from Massachusetts via Zoom, is working with community leaders to encourage support for local election workers.
“This problem is not going to get fixed on the national level,” he warned. “As lawyers we ought to be standing up for election workers.”
KGTV journalist Jim Avila, who covered the 2000 presidential recount in Florida, said Trump and segments of the Republican Party are the biggest threat to trust in elections.
“What’s happening is dangerous. You have to look at who is threatening our democracy,” said Avila.
He also blamed a decline of local journalism, with newspapers and TV stations cutting back coverage due to economic pressures.
San Diego County Registrar of Voters Cynthia Paes stressed that local elections are transparent and secure with “no systemic evidence” of fraud and no threats to poll workers.
“I try to remind myself every day that the majority of the registered voters in San Diego County believe in our elections,” she said.
The annual panel was organized in partnership with the local chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists.
