Natalie Adona - Election Official Legal Defense Network

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Natalie Adona is the Clerk-Recorder/Registrar of Voters for Nevada County. She currently serves as the Chair of the California Association of Clerks and Election Officials (CACEO) Constitution and Bylaws Committee and the Co-Chair of the state Ballot Design Advisory Committee. Prior to joining the Nevada County Clerk-Recorder’s office, she was the Senior Research and Learning Associate for the Elections Program at Democracy Fund, a private philanthropy based in Washington, DC. She is the co-author of “Understanding the Voter Experience” and the co-author/Principal Investigator of “Stewards of Democracy.” Natalie holds a B.A. from the University of California at Berkeley, a J.D. from the American University Washington College of Law and a M.P.A. from AU’s School of Public Affairs.

“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")