The Election Official Legal Defense Network, a project of the Center for Election Innovation and Research, was created in 2021 by election lawyers Benjamin Ginsberg and Bob Bauer to offer election officials free legal “advice and protection” after the 2020 presidential election. 1
Formation
The Election Official Legal Defense Network (EOLDN) is a project of the left-leaning Center for Election Innovation and Research (CEIR), an electoral policy advocacy group that provides grants and conducts research to increase voting security and increase voter turnout. 1
EOLDN was created by the executive director of CEIR David Becker, Benjamin Ginsberg, and Bob Bauer in 2021 after the 2020 presidential election. Ginsberg, an election lawyer that assisted President George W. Bush in fighting former Vice President Al Gore’s challenge in the Florida vote recount of 2000, joined with Bauer, a member of the White House Counsel’s office during the Obama administration and lawyer for Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign, to create EOLDN to provide free legal “advice and protection” to election officials. Ginsberg and Bauer also both co-chaired the Presidential Commission on Election Administration in 2013. 1 2 3
The executive director of the Election Official Legal Defense Network is David Becker, a left-leaning election law advocate, worked at Pew Charitable Trusts where he organized the creation of the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC). Before this, Becker was the director of People for the American Way (PFAW) and worked in the U.S. Department of Justice as a litigator. 4 5
According to Ginsberg and Bauer, EOLDN will supply election workers with “licensed, qualified, pro bono attorneys,” free of charge, as they share a “grave concern” concerning “attacks” on election officials that oversaw what the group claimed was the “most secure and transparent election” in American history. 6
References
- “About – Election Official Legal Defense Network,” Election Official Legal Defense Network -, September 13, 2021, https://eoldn.org/about/.
- “New, Pro Bono Legal Defense Network Hopes to Aid Harried Election Officials: The Well News: Pragmatic, Governance, Fiscally Responsible, News & Analysis,” The Well News | Pragmatic, Governance, Fiscally Responsible, News & Analysis, September 27, 2021, https://www.thewellnews.com/law/new-pro-bono-legal-defense-network-hopes-to-aid-harried-election-officials/.
- “Biden Lawyer Warns Trump ‘Wont Succeed’ with Any Election Challenge,” The Independent (Independent Digital News and Media, October 30, 2020), https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-election-2020/biden-campaign-lawyers-trump-dispute-mail-in-ballots-bob-bauer-us-election-2020-b1452690.html.
- “Leadership – Election Official Legal Defense Network,” Election Official Legal Defense Network -, September 13, 2021, https://eoldn.org/about/leadership/.
- “David Becker – LinkedIn ,” LinkedIn, accessed October 12, 2021, https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidjbecker/
- Bob Bauer and Benjamin L. Ginsberg, “Opinion | Election Officials Need Our Legal Help against Repressive Laws and Personal Threats,” The Washington Post (WP Company, September 8, 2021), https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/09/07/bauer-ginsberg-election-official-legal-defense-network/.