You’ve got mail!

Hundreds of election administrators, lawmakers, law enforcement officers and others across Indiana — and beyond— slit open heavy white cardboard boxes this spring to uncover glossy election security guides from the state’s top election official, Secretary of State (SOS) Diego Morales.

“Blow the whistle on election interference,” the thick, spiral-bound books read. They’re accompanied by whistles strung on lanyards.

The 180-page document, per SOS spokeswoman Lindsey Eaton, is “a new addition to the library of election guides produced and distributed by the state for election administrators.”

Assembling and shipping 600 guides cost a whopping $35,070. That’s $58.45 each.

Each booklet cost about $45 to print, and each lanyard with whistle and card was about $1.45, according to Eaton. Packing and shipping cost approximately $12 per guide. SOS paid for the initiative with a 2023 State Homeland Security Grant.

“Secretary Morales firmly believes there’s no price tag when it comes to the safety of our election workers,” Eaton said in written responses to a Capital Chronicle inquiry. She highlighted Morales’ three months of visits to all of the state’s 92 counties and said he’d heard “safety concerns” from the election officials he met on the way.

Poll threats and harassment

Ahead of the 2022 midterm election, rural and urban election officials alike told the Capital Chronicle they’d heard negative comments but not threats and harassment.

But abuse appears to be on the rise.

In a national survey of more than 900 election officials released this month, 38% of the officials reported having experienced abuse, harassment or threats because of their election work. That was up from 30% in 2023, according to the left-leaning Brennan Center for Justice, which conducts the surveys.

Of the 16% who specifically said they’d been threatened — defined as expressions communicating an intention to harm or injure that imply imminent risk to a person’s well-being and safety — more than half said the threats were made in person. They also came in over the phone, email, social media, snail mail and more, according to the survey.

Seven in 10 respondents said they felt threats against election officials have increased since 2020, the same share as in 2023.

Indiana office-holders are paying attention.

State lawmakers approved legislation in March making it a Level 6 felony to threaten an election worker as well as to obstruct, interfere with, or injure an election worker. As for SOS?

“Leading up to the November General Election, (Morales) continues to place a major emphasis on keeping poll workers and election administrators safe,” Eaton wrote. “The election security guides and materials were designed to encourage threat awareness and informed election security and safety collaboration and response between election administrators and allied resources including state and federal emergency response agencies, local law enforcement, and local emergency response agencies.”

That’s why local law enforcement agencies, county emergency management offices, state and federal emergency management offices, were among the recipients.

In addition to county clerks and election administration offices, the office also sent guides to state lawmakers, Indiana’s congressional delegation, the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, members of the National Association of Secretary of States Election Committee and the Voting System Technical Oversight Program (VSTOP) at Ball State University. VSTOP tests all the election equipment used in Indiana.

What’s inside

The guide is a “compilation of materials from authoritative sources,” including the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, four state agencies, a county election board and the Committee for Safe and Secure Elections. Law enforcement and election officials created the latter in 2022 to address violence against election workers and voters.

Just below its list of sources and acknowledgements, however, the guide warns readers the information inside may not be correct.

“This publication is a collection of materials from cited sources. It is presented for education and illustrative purposes and is not intended to be relied on as a legal resource, definitive guidance or administrative directive,” it says. “The State of Indiana does not warrant, and assumes no liability that the information contained herein is complete, up to date, correct, or applicable in any particular situation or circumstance.”

“Election administrators, election workers, and persons responsible for safe, secure, and reliable elections are advised to consult with their own legal, security, and public safety advisers about specific situations and actions,” it continues.

The document, which has 18 sections, takes on polling place security plans, election infrastructure security, election worker attacks, suspicious election mail, doxing, swatting, artificial intelligence, photo identification and more.

“The focus of the program is on election worker and voter safety, election security, and state election administration as a component of ‘National Critical Infrastructure,’” Eaton said. “The guide and materials are part of the Secretary of State’s multi-dimensional 2024 program for election safety and security which also includes production of audio-visual training materials, regional training and collaboration seminars, and production and hosting of web accessible election security information.”

It’s not public, however. Eaton said it “has not yet” been published online. High printing costs mean there aren’t physical copies available for everyday residents “at this time,” she added.

SOS photocopied the first four pages of the guide, embedded below, in response to the Capital Chronicle’s inquiry.

2024 Blow the Whistle on Election Interference introduction 5-8-24

INDIANAPOLIS — The Indiana Fever are two games into the season, and they already know they have a lot to figure out.

In the first two games of one of the most anticipated seasons in history, the Fever lost by 21 on the road to the Connecticut Sun, then returned home to the wrong side of a 36-point drubbing, 102-66, against the New York Liberty on Thursday at a sold-out Gainbridge Fieldhouse.

“You don’t win a lot of games in this league when you only score 66 points, but also you don’t want a lot of games giving up 102,” said Indiana coach Christie Sides. “So we’ve got a lot to figure out.”

More: Fever are loaded with offensive talent. But they have to figure out how to use it.

To give the Fever some (if any) credit, they went up against two of the most experienced teams in the league. The Sun don’t have a rookie on their roster, and their core of DeWanna Bonner, Alyssa Thomas and Brionna Jones have been playing with each other for over four years.

In addition to Sabrina Ionescu, New York has Breanna Stewart, Courtney Vandersloot and Jonquel Jones — all of whom are seasoned veterans who joined the Liberty in 2023, appearing in the WNBA finals.

These players know what they’re doing. They have a connection that can only be forged with time — something the Fever don’t have any advantage in.

“Our communication just has to increase, especially when you’re playing teams that know each other like the back of their hand,” said Fever second-year center Aliyah Boston.

The Fever have two starters who are completely new to the team and system: Katie Lou Samuelson and Caitlin Clark. Samuelson, a five-year veteran, came to Indiana after a year off because of pregnancy. Clark is coming to the Fever as the No. 1 pick, fresh off a Final Four season with Iowa. 

With the Fever, there’s just not the same chemistry other, more-veteran teams, will have. Still, some of it comes down to effort and communication.

“I think there’s quite a bit that we need to learn about each other and about ourselves,” Samuelson said following Thursday’s loss. “But if we can dig deep, and play as hard as we can, as tough as we can for 40 minutes, we can probably make up for some of that. But we have lapses where things just escalate, and you can see this kind of dip.

“So it really comes down to just playing with a lot more energy, playing harder, communicating louder, little things that we shouldn’t be saying in this press conference right now, but that’s really the stuff we need to take care of.”

It takes time to get a team working together as well as the Sun and the Liberty. But, Sides said, the Fever are also missing some things that have nothing to do with how long a team has been together.

“It’s a process, but there’s a level when it just gets too much, when people are just continuing to punch you,” Sides said. “We’ve got to figure out how to stop them and give it right back to them. And we’re just not matching that.

“We’ve just got to get an attitude a little bit when people score on us,” she added. “You just can’t let it be so easy to just let them do what they want to do on us. It all goes back to just having a little bit of fight, passion, toughness.”

The Fever’s schedule isn’t doing them any favors. They start the season with two games each against the Sun, who reached the playoff semifinals last season, and finals runner-up Liberty. Five of their first seven games are on the road, and they play all seven within a 12-day stretch.

It’s challenging, no doubt, but it’s also not an option. The Fever are going to have to work through this gauntlet of a schedule, both travel- and competition-wise.

“You just have to do what you have to do to recover, and take the time when you get it,” Boston said. “We don’t really have that many days of a break in between games, and so we just have to be ready and recover.”

The reality of the situation is the Fever are 0-2, and their 57-point deficit through two games are the most to begin the season in league history (per ESPN Stats). Drafting Clark will be a franchise-changing move for the Fever, but they weren’t going to come out and beat some of the best teams in the league out of the gate.

A’ja Wilson was the Las Vegas Aces’ second-straight No. 1 draft pick in 2018, following Kelsey Plum. That 2018 Aces team went 14-20 and missed the playoffs, getting the top pick for the third straight draft. Now, Las Vegas are the back-to-back champions and Wilson has won two MVP titles. 

If history is any indication, Clark and the Fever are going to be fine. They’re going to be good, or even great. But building chemistry doesn’t happen overnight, and success isn’t instant.

Follow IndyStar Fever Insider Chloe Peterson on X at @chloepterson67.