An election worker tried to protect mail ballots. Now he faces prison amid Trump’s push for voting cases

When Joey Norris volunteered as an election worker during the 2024 presidential race, he could never have imagined it would get him arrested two years later.

Then, this July, sheriff’s deputies showed up on his doorstep in Red Oak, Iowa, and took him into custody. Norris now faces up to five years in prison on a felony charge over a verbal disagreement he had with other election officials, who he said weren’t following the proper rules for counting absentee ballots.

The prosecution would be concerning during any administration. But it’s particularly alarming at a moment when President Donald Trump is engaged in an unprecedented nationwide assault on voting — including making probing election crime a top priority. His administration has regularly signaled that it wants a focus on election cases — a message heard loud and clear by prosecutors at every level. 

Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird (R), whose office brought the case against Norris — as well as numerous other election cases — has been one of the leading state prosecutors backing the president’s attack on the right to vote.

“You can’t unscramble the egg, and it’s not possible to pull that vote out later,” Bird has said about targeting voter fraud. “So I think everything we can do to prevent illegal voting, to prevent fraudulent voting, I think it’s important that we do that.” 

Adding to the questions around the case is the fact that Norris, 36, comes from a family of prominent Democrats. He ran for the state senate in 2020. His uncle John Norris, a long-time political consultant, ran for governor in 2018 and recently served as Polk County administrator. John’s wife Jackie Norris briefly ran for U.S. Senate last year and served as First Lady Michelle Obama’s first chief of staff in 2009. And Jan Norris, Joey’s mother, is currently running for a seat on the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors. 

“If this case was so egregious that it rose to the level of a felony, why did the Iowa attorney general sit on it for so long?” Joey’s father, James Norris, asked in an interview with Democracy Docket.  

They’re not the only ones who are concerned. Zoë Stein, the executive director of Contest Every Race — a pro-democracy organization that recruits Democrats to run for local office in rural Republican strongholds — says that it appears Norris was targeted because he was “willing to do democracy’s unglamorous work.”

Bird did not respond to Democracy Docket’s request for comment.

‘Guilty of being persistent and curious’

The events that led to Norris’ arrest began on the morning of Nov. 5, 2024, when he arrived at the state auditor’s office inside the Montgomery County Courthouse to serve as a member of the absentee ballot board, a group of election workers tapped to tabulate absentee ballots.

The board consisted of six people — three Republicans, two Democrats and an independent — and Norris was one of two members serving on it for the first time. 

Days earlier, Montgomery County Auditor Jill Ozuna (R) had emailed him the absentee ballot board manual so he could read up on all the rules and procedures. Norris read the entire booklet, printed it out, and brought it with him so he would have it handy in case of any issues. 

Issues arose almost immediately.

Jan Norris, Joey’s mother, was an election observer that day, so she was in the room and saw what happened. She told Democracy Docket that her son noticed other board members were incorrectly removing ballots from their security sleeves, which could inadvertently reveal who the voters voted for.

He “politely” asked questions and flagged the incidents to Ozuna, Jan Norris said.

But Ozuna grew increasingly frustrated by Norris repeatedly speaking up when he felt proper election protocol wasn’t being followed or when it appeared she didn’t have a firm grasp of the rules for counting absentee ballots. The auditor repeatedly had to leave the room to check what Norris was reading from the rules manual, according to Jan Norris.  

“By mid-afternoon, [Ozuna] told Joey he had to be quiet, no more questions, or he would be removed,” Jan Norris said. “He asked what he had done wrong, and she said that’s it and proceeded to call the sheriff to escort him out.”

According to an incident report obtained by Democracy Docket, Norris said he wouldn’t leave unless law enforcement escorted him out. A deputy advised him to leave and he “did so without incident,” the report states.

Ozuna did not respond to a request for comment on the incident.

Though Norris was removed from the building that day, he was not charged with any crime. The next day, he attended a county board of supervisors meeting and recounted what had happened. 

“I’m currently choosing to consider this a little bordering on absurd, but please don’t mistake how serious I believe this is — I was removed against my will from the absentee board by the sole decision of the auditor yesterday,” Norris told the board, according to local reporting. “For any of you who have had the apparent misfortune of working with me on any of the things we might choose to share our volunteer time on in the community, you may notice that I like the details, I’m curious, I come prepared, and I ask a lot of questions. It’s who I am.”

His mother Jan emphasized that, throughout the saga, her son never became frustrated, never raised his voice, and “never acted in any manner that would justify his removal.” 

Retelling the incident at the meeting, Norris denied ever raising his voice and said that he was only “guilty of being persistent and curious.”

The incident seemed to be behind him until July, when deputies with the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office arrested Norris for first-degree election misconduct — a felony that carries a penalty of up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

Why criminal charges? Why now?

It’s unclear why Iowa brought the charges against Norris nearly two years after the incident in question. But his parents have their theories.

For starters, Bird — who is up for reelection this year — has made prosecuting voting and election-related cases a priority since she took office in 2023.

“I am committed to ensuring the safety and security of our elections so that every Iowan’s voice is heard,” Bird said at the time.

In the years since, Bird’s office has brought eight election-related cases. Six of those were election misconduct charges. But only one resulted in a conviction: In February, Jorge Oscar Sanchez Vasquez, a noncitizen who is a legal U.S. resident, was found guilty of 1st-degree election misconduct — the same charge as Norris — for voting in a July 2024 municipal election.

The decision to charge Norris two years later was driven by Bird’s office.

On June 19, Iowa Assistant Attorney General Joshua Duden sent a letter to the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office recommending Norris be charged with a 1st-degree election misconduct felony for “failure to perform duties.”

“Based on my review of the facts and applicable law, it is my professional opinion that criminal charges are warranted,” Duden wrote.

James Norris also believes a visit to Iowa soon after that by FBI Director Kash Patel to meet with state law enforcement could have played a role in pushing the case along — though publicly that trip focused on issues like drugs and human trafficking. The FBI did not respond to a request for comment.

Trump “wants to feed the narrative that you can’t trust the elections, which is scary for our next one coming up,” James Norris said.

Moreover, Joey Norris is being charged under a provision of a massive Iowa voter suppression law passed in 2021 that makes it a crime for election officials to fail to perform their duties or to perform “those duties and responsibilities in such a way as to hinder or disregard the object of the law.”

Iowa was one of 12 states that enacted new criminal penalties for election officials in the aftermath of the 2020 election, inspired by conspiracy theories about election officials rigging the vote against Donald Trump. 

Norris disputes the allegation that he refused to perform his duties as an election worker.

“Early in the day I was praised for my speed and preparedness,” he said in a statement to Democracy Docket. “Before being removed I was told that I was ‘impeding the process.’ At no time up to and including my removal do I believe that to be accurate.”

Stein from Contest Every Race believes that Norris’ case is a prime example of the GOP pulling out all the stops to intimidate voters and election workers ahead of the midterms.

“Trump’s only playbook is to reward cronies that break the rules for him, and our democracy is ground zero for that rule-breaking,” she said. 

Norris’ case goes to trial next month. Though he’s concerned about the outcome, he told Democracy Docket that he’s also worried about the message the charges send at a time when American democracy is under threat.

The case is dangerous because it “creates an erosion of trust in our elections,” Norris said. 

“If this fall’s election workers feel uncomfortable asking questions, if thoughtful people don’t volunteer to join the process of operating our elections, if complacency slips into authority, then real, lasting damage will be done to our only civil means for change and accountability — our elections.”