‘Terminator’ star Arnold Schwarzenegger gives election ‘hero’ award to Columbus director
In a dark age of confusion, fear and distrust, an action-movie hero has come to the defense of America’s embattled election administrators.
Former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Hollywood actor who starred in “Terminator,” “Predator,” “True Lies,” “Conan the Barbarian” and “The Expendables,” is presenting “Democracy Action Hero Awards” to five election officials who he says “stood up to attacks and intimidation while working diligently to ensure the integrity of our election process.”
Among them are Columbus’ Nancy Boren, executive director of the Muscogee County Board of Elections and Registration, and Brad Raffensperger, Georgia’s Secretary of State.
Another Georgia recipient is Shauna Dozier, the elections and registration director in Clayton County. The two outside Georgia are Christopher C. Krebs, former director of cybersecurity and infrastructure at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and Chris Hollins, former county clerk in Harris County, Texas.
The awards from Schwarzenegger’s Institute for State and Global Policy at the University of Southern California follow the institute’s awarding $2.5 million in nonpartisan “Democracy Grants for Voting Access and Election Administration” to 33 counties in eight states, including $210,675 here in Columbus, which helped the county open additional early voting sites for the Nov. 3 General Election.
Nationwide, the grants helped local jurisdictions open 1,305 early and election day voting sites, reaching 3.5 million voters as turnout increased 6.3%, the institute said.
Schwarzenegger presented the awards Tuesday in a ceremony on YouTube, pretending to hand the trophies through the computer screen to those honored.
Boren said the trophy is no small thing — literally. It’s a heavy bronze eagle on a marble base, sculpted by artist David Spellerberg, known for his work with the metal.
While accepting the award Tuesday, Boren talked about some of the sacrifices poll workers here made to fulfill their mission.
“A couple of the workers actually walked to work every day. They got there really early,” she told Schwarzenegger. “They worked all day long. One of them is a mother who made the comment, ‘I’ll be able to feed my baby today, after work.’ It was a really exciting and monumental moment for our community, as well as for the voters of Muscogee County.”
The awards come amid conspiracy theories alleging widespread voter fraud here in Georgia, amplified by President Donald Trump, who lost the state to former Vice President Joe Biden, marking the first time a Democratic presidential nominee has taken Georgia since Bill Clinton in the 1990s.
The misinformation has incited threats of violence against Raffensperger and Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, both Republicans and Trump supporters the president accused of betraying him.
Early voting is now underway in Georgia’s heated Jan. 5 U.S. Senate runoffs, as well as a state Public Service Commission race. Boren said around 15,000 Columbus voters so far have cast ballots in advance at the city’s early voting polls, and about 25,000 have requested absentee mail-in ballots, comparable to the numbers Muscogee County reported for the November election.
This story was originally published December 22, 2020 at 1:13 PM.