Chris Piper - Election Official Legal Defense Network

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Chris Piper is the Executive Director of Virginia Public Access Project. Previously, he was the COO for The Elections Group and served as Commissioner of the Virginia Department of Elections from 2018 to 2022. While Commissioner, he was a Board member of the National Association of State Election Directors (NASED), Vice Chair of the Electronic Registration and Information Center (ERIC), Chair of the Election Assistance Commission’s (EAC) Standards Board, and a member of the Bipartisan Policy Center’s (BPC) Election Task Force.

“They’re citizens. They’re professionals. They’re our neighbors. If we start to view our fellow citizens as our enemies, we’re lost.”

“Election officials never get praised if elections go right and the wrath comes down on them if they do them wrong. When we saw election officials being prosecuted for just doing their jobs... we formed [EOLDN] and we do provide pro bono legal services to any election officials who need it.”

“Those who are threatening … these officials, whether they're full-time, whether they're volunteers, whether they're in positions of the most senior responsibility or they're simply on the staff — those who threaten them need to know they cannot act with impunity. There will be a defense and it will be a robust defense."

"What we are seeing developing now is a huge step backwards from a focus on professionalized election administration to a heavy level of political interference in the work of trained election professionals. Our hope now is to provide [election officials] with a resource I wish they didn't have to have, but one I think they have desperately needed."

A Project of The Center for Election Innovation & Research ("CEIR")