The plight of election workers

RENO, Nev. — One morning last month, Cari-Ann Burgess did something completely unremarkable: She made a quick stop at a coffee shop on her way to work.

For Burgess, the top election official in a northern Nevada county, such outings could be precarious. As she waited for a hot tea and breakfast sandwich, an older woman approached.

“She proceeded to tell me that I should be ashamed of myself — that I’m a disgrace, I’m an embarrassment to Washoe County, and I should crawl into a hole and die,” Burgess said in an interview with The Associated Press the following day.

A morning stop at the coffee shop would be no more. It was added to a growing list of things Burgess no longer did because of her job. She already had stopped shopping for groceries and other basic necessities. Meals were eaten at home.

“I go to work, I go home, and I go to church — that’s about it,” Burgess said. “I’m very cautious now about where I go.”

Still, Burgess said she was looking forward to November and overseeing the presidential election with her team in Nevada’s second most populous county. That came to an end one day toward the end of September, when she was called into a meeting with county officials.

The county said Burgess requested medical leave to deal with stress and has referred to her departure as a personnel matter. In a statement, it said it was “focused on conducting a smooth and fair election.” Burgess said she was forced out after refusing to go along with personnel changes sought by the county manager’s office. She said she asked repeatedly to stay, even providing a doctor’s note vouching for her health, and has hired a lawyer.

Overseeing the office now is Burgess’ deputy, the fifth person in four years to run the county election operation. The entire staff is new since 2020. The turnover is one symptom of a county that is closely divided politically and has been buffeted by election conspiracy theories since Republican Donald Trump lost the state to Democrat Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election.

Burgess, in her first public remarks since her abrupt departure, told the AP this past week that she was worried about her team and was at a loss on what to do next.

“I was giving 110% of who I was, who I am to this job. And then all of a sudden I’m out and I don’t understand,” Burgess said, as she considered her next steps. “I don’t understand how we got to this point.”

AP journalists were in Reno in September, a week before her departure, and spent several days with Burgess that included time at the Washoe County elections office and at her home. As with those who preceded her, Burgess and her staff had been in a pressure cooker, subject to biting criticism at public meetings and made to answer conspiracy-fueled claims about voting machines, drop boxes and voter rolls.

Dealing with members of the elected county commission who distrust elections made the job even more difficult.

Burgess was an extreme case of the types of challenges facing local election officials around the country after four years of false claims that have undermined public confidence in elections and in those who run them. Across the country, election workers have faced harassment and even death threats and have taken extra security precautions this year that include adding bulletproof glass and panic buttons.

Over the three days that the AP spent with Burgess, she gave no indication she planned to leave her job.

“I didn’t think I was going to be in a place that I am now -- so front and center and a hotbed for this election, but I am grateful,” Burgess said, while sitting in her living room surrounded by inspirational Bible passages and Christian symbols. “I’m grateful for the opportunity. I’m grateful that I am able to serve my country again.”

The Washoe County election office sits inside a complex of government buildings a few miles north of downtown Reno. Burgess’ office, before she left, was adorned with American flags, a copy of the U.S. Constitution and red, white and blue decorative stars that read liberty, freedom and America.

“Election Heroes Work Here,” proclaimed a sign outside her office door.

She was the fourth person to lead the Washoe County election office since 2020, named interim registrar of voters in January in a 3-2 vote by the county commission.

Across parts of the United States, local election officials exhausted by the harassment and demands of the job have retired or left the profession entirely. Even Burgess had stopped working in elections for a time after being harassed in public by people upset Trump had lost in 2020, even though he had easily won the Minnesota county where she worked at the time.

Arriving in Washoe County, where the Sierra Nevada transitions to the high desert, Burgess encountered a county mired in voting-related conspiracy theories. County meetings are often prolonged by members of the public who opposed Burgess’ hiring and who don’t trust voting equipment.

“It feels like you’re on the front line, but it’s a different front line. It’s the front line of democracy -- not the front line of combat,” Burgess said. “But the way the country is divided at the moment, it feels like combat because every day you’re combatting some misinformation.”

A few days before her departure, Burgess brought in a consultant to lead training for staff on how to manage stress. Among the many other things on her to-do list were security upgrades at the election office.

Among the recommendations was placing a film over the glass windows that can slow, but not stop, bullets.

“That’s when I realized I have a lot more dangerous job than I actually expected,” Burgess said. “It should never, ever be like this.”

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