KINGSTON, R.I. – April 5, 2024 – As politics have become more polarized, election workers have frequently been caught in the crosshairs amid unfounded claims the 2020 presidential election was stolen.
Since being established in 2021, the U.S. Department of Justice Election Threats Task Force has reviewed more than 2,000 reports of threats and harassment against election workers around the country and the department has charged more than two dozen people. A 2023 survey by the Brennan Center for Justice found that 1 in 5 election workers know someone who left their election job for safety reasons and that 73 percent of election officials say harassment has increased.
On Wednesday, April 10, the University of Rhode Island will host the James Langevin Symposium Series to explore the vital role of election officials and discuss the current state of the American and Rhode Island electoral process. The evening will feature a screening of the documentary “No Time to Fail” and a panel discussion among election officials and experts. The symposium will be held at 5 p.m. in the Galanti Lounge of the Carothers Library and Learning Commons, 15 Lippitt Road, Kingston. The event is free and open to the public—register here to attend.
“‘No Time to Fail’ provides a glimpse of the massive amount of work that election administrators undertake to effectively run elections in the state of Rhode Island,” said URI political science professor Emily Lynch, who organized the event. “This symposium is meant to raise awareness about the elections process with an emphasis on how officials are dedicated to upholding the integrity of elections. The event should generate thoughtful discussion about the current state of elections and how the American electoral process will continue to evolve in the years to come.”
The panel discussion will be moderated by former U.S. Congressman Langevin and include filmmaker Margo Guernsey; Kathy Placencia, director of elections at the Rhode Island Department of State, and Nick Lima, registrar and director of elections in Cranston, who were featured in the documentary; Christine Martone, president of the South County Chapter of the Rhode Island League of Women Voters; Gretchen Macht, director of URI Voter Operations and Election Systems (URI VOTES); and URI political science students Joseph Cartier ’25 and Delaney Sullivan ’25.
Released in 2022, “No Time to Fail,” directed and produced by Guernsey and Sara Archambault, follows three local canvassing departments in Rhode Island as they worked around the clock to ensure every vote was counted in their communities during the historic 2020 election—amid the pandemic, political tensions, and a record number of mail ballots.
“‘No Time to Fail’ is an important corrective in an era of disinformation and overheated rhetoric,” said a review of the film by the Brennan Center for Justice. “It reminds us that election officials are underpaid public servants who make incredible sacrifices, working around the clock to protect our right to vote.”
Langevin, a Democrat who represented Rhode Island’s 2nd Congressional District in the U.S. Congress from 2001 to 2023, is a visiting scholar in the URI College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Political Science.
The James R. Langevin Symposium Series is a biannual event hosted by the URI College of Arts and Sciences to explore the topics of national security and U.S. civics and democracy.