Tammy Patrick is a former Arizona election official who studies, writes, and speaks about election administration in the United States. She advocates for more ballot-drop boxes, more early voting, and additional mail-in voting, even calling for prepaid postage on absentee ballots mailed to voters. She is on the board of the Center for Tech in Civic Life, which heavily funded local election offices in the 2020 election. Patrick has called the 2020 election one of the most secure and transparent elections ever and criticized further audits of the election.

Background

Tammy Patrick has been senior advisor to the elections program at Democracy Fund since 2017. ¹ Patrick also works as an adjunct professor at the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey School of Public Affairs. ² Patrick has represented the National Association of Elected Officials to the U.S. Postal Service’s Mailers Technical Advisory Committee regarding mail-in ballots. ³ She has worked with the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology on election issues including cybersecurity frameworks. ⁴ From 2014-2017, Patrick worked for the center-left Bipartisan Policy Center on elections and voting matters.

In 2013, President Barack Obama issued an executive order creating a Presidential Commission on Voting Administration, selecting Patrick to be a member. ⁵ The bipartisan commission recommended allowing online voter registration and expanding voter registration at other government offices. ⁶ The group’s final report noted the diversity and decentralization of the U.S. voting system and cautioned against one-size-fits-all rules for elections. ⁷

From 2005 through 2014, Patrick worked as federal compliance officer for the Maricopa County, Arizona Elections Department. ⁸ Previously, she worked for the Maricopa County Elections Department as acting assistant director in 2004 and 2005 and as precinct services supervisor from 2003 through 2004. ⁹

Views and the 2020 Election

Patrick is an advocate for mail-in voting, early voting, and pre-paid postage on ballot envelopes. ¹⁰ She has questioned U.S. Postal Service staffing reductions leading up to the 2020 election stating some may be warranted due to declining mail volume but has questioned transparency by postal officials. ¹¹ Patrick has called for more ballot drop boxes at more locations around the country. ¹² Patrick is listed as an expert by Election SOS, a purportedly non-partisan organization during the 2020 election but linked to anti-Donald Trump resources for journalists to contact around the country. ¹³

Patrick testified that groups such as Democracy Fund stepped in to fill the void of election administration funding. ¹⁴ Democracy Fund has funded voter security initiatives working with the Center for Technology in Civic Life (CTCL), a group heavily funded in the 2020 election cycle by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, on cyber security and combating election misinformation. ¹⁵ Additionally, Patrick sits on the board of directors at CTCL. ¹⁶

Patrick called the 2020 election “the most secure, most observed, most transparent, most audited election in U.S. history with the most number of voters. That is the truth.” ¹⁷ Patrick disagreed with the audit of the 2020 election in Arizona, calling it “doubling down on some of the things that have already been refuted” saying the audit gives “oxygen to things that are untrue.” ¹⁸ She has said that audits of elections six months after election day are “unsustainable” for U.S. democracy. ¹⁹

Political Contributions

The only political contribution Patrick has made was in 2008 against Arizona Proposition 102, which sought to amend the Arizona Constitution to define marriage as between a man and a woman. ²⁰

1. Democracy Fund website. Accessed May 15, 2022. https://democracyfund.org/bio/tammy-patrick/.
2. “Tammy Patrick.” LinkedIn. Accessed May 15, 2022. https://www.linkedin.com/in/tammy-patrick-5a383182/details/experience/.
3. Democracy Fund website. Accessed May 15, 2022. https://democracyfund.org/bio/tammy-patrick/.
4. ^[1] U.S. House Homeland Security Committee. “Hearing on Protecting America’s Democracy: Ensuring Every Vote Counts.” Statement from Tammy Patrick. August 28, 2020. Accessed May 16, 2022. https://homeland.house.gov/imo/media/doc/Testimony%20-%20Patrick.pdf.
5. ^[1] Democracy Fund website. Accessed May 15, 2022. https://democracyfund.org/bio/tammy-patrick/; U.S. Election Assistance Commission website. Accessed May 15, 2022. https://www.eac.gov/pcea/pcea.
6. “Our Work.” Brennan Center for Justice. Accessed May 15, 2022. https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/bipartisan-presidential-commission-endorses-modernizing-voter.
7. Presidential Commission on Election Administration report. “The American Voting Experience: Report and Recommendations of the Presidential Commission on Election Administration.” January 2014. Accessed May 15, 2022. https://www.eac.gov/sites/default/files/eac_assets/1/6/Amer-Voting-Exper-final-draft-01-09-14-508.pdf.
8. “Tammy Patrick.” LinkedIn. Accessed May 15, 2022. https://www.linkedin.com/in/tammy-patrick-5a383182/details/experience/.
9.  “Tammy Patrick.” LinkedIn. Accessed May 15, 2022. https://www.linkedin.com/in/tammy-patrick-5a383182/details/experience/.
10. U.S. House Homeland Security Committee. “Hearing on Protecting America’s Democracy: Ensuring Every Vote Counts.” Statement from Tammy Patrick. August 28, 2020. Accessed May 16, 2022. https://homeland.house.gov/imo/media/doc/Testimony%20-%20Patrick.pdf.
11. U.S. House Homeland Security Committee. “Hearing on Protecting America’s Democracy: Ensuring Every Vote Counts.” Statement from Tammy Patrick. August 28, 2020. Accessed May 16, 2022. https://homeland.house.gov/imo/media/doc/Testimony%20-%20Patrick.pdf.
12. U.S. House Homeland Security Committee. “Hearing on Protecting America’s Democracy: Ensuring Every Vote Counts.” Statement from Tammy Patrick. August 28, 2020. Accessed May 16, 2022. https://homeland.house.gov/imo/media/doc/Testimony%20-%20Patrick.pdf.
13. Election SOS. Accessed May 16, 2022. https://electionsos.com/coach/tammy-patrick/; Election SOS website. www.electionsos.com. Accessed May 16, 2022. https://electionsos.com/rapidresponsefundesos/.
14. U.S. House Homeland Security Committee. “Hearing on Protecting America’s Democracy: Ensuring Every Vote Counts.” Statement from Tammy Patrick. August 28, 2020. Accessed May 16, 2022. https://homeland.house.gov/imo/media/doc/Testimony%20-%20Patrick.pdf.
15. U.S. House Homeland Security Committee. “Hearing on Protecting America’s Democracy: Ensuring Every Vote Counts.” Statement from Tammy Patrick. August 28, 2020. Accessed May 16, 2022. https://homeland.house.gov/imo/media/doc/Testimony%20-%20Patrick.pdf; Influence Watch. Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. Accessed May 16, 2022. https://www.influencewatch.org/for-profit/chan-zuckerberg-initiative/.
16. ^[1] Center for Tech and Civic LifeAccessed May 16, 2022. https://www.techandciviclife.org/board-of-directors/.
17. “Exploring the ‘Unprecedented,’ Secretive Efforts to Review Millions of Ballots in Arizona.” PBS News Hour. May 6, 2021. Accessed May 16, 2022. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/exploring-the-unprecedented-secretive-efforts-to-review-millions-of-ballots-in-arizona.
18. Timm, Jane. “The GOP’s Election Review in Arizona is Over. Its Influence is Just Beginning Experts Say.” NBC News. September 24, 2021. Accessed May 16, 2022. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/gop-s-election-review-arizona-over-its-influence-just-beginning-n1280077.
19. Smith, Allan. “Not Just Arizona: Republicans Push More Partisan Election ‘Audits.’” NBC News. June 4, 2021. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/not-just-arizona-republicans-push-more-partisan-election-audits-n1268644.
20. Center for Responsive Politics. Accessed May 16, 2022. https://www.opensecrets.org/donor-lookup/results?name=Tammy+patrick; Ballotpedia. Accessed May 16, 2022. https://ballotpedia.org/Arizona_Marriage_Protection,_Proposition_102_(2008).