Love it or Leave It: A Conversation About Elections Resilience and Resolve with Kim Wyman

In this episode of Democracy Fix, Mia Minkin, Angelina Clapp and Carah Ong Whaley sit down with former Washington Secretary of State Kim Wyman, a seasoned election official and advocate for safe and secure elections. We unpack the complexities of election administration in the modern era and reflect on how elections were safe and secure in 2024, even in spite of a wide range of challenges, including foreign malign influence and dozens of bomb threats at polling sites in key states on the last day of voting. We also delve into the challenges of maintaining public trust in election integrity, the impact of foreign and domestic threats on voting infrastructure, stories of resilience and innovation in the face of unprecedented obstacles, and the need for federal funding and robust security measures to level the playing field for all jurisdictions.

Sec. Wyman emphasizes the critical role of public confidence in elections, stating, “Elections are the foundation for the representatives we send to Congress, state legislatures, or even our local government. If people lose trust in the process, they lose trust in their leaders." Sec. Wyman also highlights the importance of transparency: “Election officials spend most of their time not only doing their job technically well but also focusing on building trustworthy elections. Transparency is key to showing the public that every vote is counted accurately and securely.”

Kim Wyman served as Washington Secretary of State from 2013 to 2021. Her career in elections began in 1993 as Thurston County Election Director and later Auditor, where she successfully pioneered some of the country’s first vote-by-mail elections and collaborated on many national elections and cybersecurity initiatives. Respected for her bipartisan leadership, Secretary Wyman was appointed by Democratic President Joe Biden to serve as CISA’s senior election security advisor. She is currently a senior fellow at the Bipartisan Policy Center and president of ESI Consulting.

Links in this episode: 

Committee for Safe and Secure Elections