A Washoe County poll worker wanted to serve her country. Conspiracy Theories and Vitriol Expected

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

For Burgess, the top elections official in a northern Nevada county, such departures could be precarious. While I was waiting for hot tea and a breakfast sandwich, an older woman approached.

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

A morning stop at the coffee shop would no longer exist. It was added to a growing list of things Burgess no longer did because of his job. I had already stopped buying food and other basic needs. Meals were made at home. If she and her husband went out to eat or went shopping, they would travel an hour from their Reno neighborhood.

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

Still, Burgess said he was looking forward to November and would monitor the presidential election with his team in Nevada’s second-most populous county. That came to an end one day in late September, when she was summoned to a meeting with county officials.

The county said Burgess medical license requested to deal with stress and has referred to his departure as a personnel issue. In a statement, the county said it was “focused on conducting a fair and smooth election.”

Burgess said she was forced out after refusing to agree to personnel changes requested by the county administrator’s office. He said he asked to stay repeatedly, even presenting a doctor’s note attesting to his health, and that he hired a lawyer.

Now overseeing the office is Burgess’s deputy, the fifth person in four years to run the county’s election operation. All staff are new since 2020. The turnover is a symptom of a county that is deeply divided politically and has been hit by electoral conspiracy theories from Republican Donald Trump lost the state to Democrat Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election.

Burgess, in her first public comments since her abrupt departure, told the AP last week that she was worried about her team and didn’t know what to do next. He even postponed the vote, saying it was a reminder that he was no longer part of a process he loves.

“I was giving 110% of what I was, of what I am in this job. And then all of a sudden I walk out and I don’t understand,” Burgess said as he considered his next steps. “I don’t understand how we got to this point.”

“I had no idea what we were getting into.”

AP journalists were in Reno in September, a week before he left, and spent several days with Burgess, including time at the Washoe County elections office and at his home. like with those who preceded herBurgess and his staff had been in a pressure cooker, subject to harsh criticism at public meetings and forced to respond conspiracy-driven claims on voting machines, mailboxes and voter lists.

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

Burgess was an extreme case of the types of challenges facing local election officials across the United States after four years of false claims that have undermined public confidence in elections and those who run them. Election workers have faced harassment and even death threats and we have taken additional safety precautions this year including adding Bulletproof glass and panic buttons..

During the three days the AP spent with Burgess, she gave no indication that she planned to leave her job. She spoke at length about how she was managing stress for herself, her family and her staff.

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

Hanging on a wall was a decorative sign that said: “God doesn’t give us what we can handle, God helps us handle what he gives us.”

At home on a Friday night, Burgess sat down to dinner with her husband and a close friend whom she considers a brother. Her husband’s prayer during the meal included a request to keep Burgess and his team safe.

“I had no idea what we were getting into, but I know this is something very important to Cari. “He loves his job,” Shane Burgess said after finishing dinner. “Sometimes I want to fight, but I know she can handle herself.”

Later, Burgess and her husband discussed plans for the weekend. Burgess wanted to take her husband, a baseball fan, to see Reno’s minor league team, the Aces, play before the season ended.

“Not if you’re going to get yelled at,” Shane Burgess told his wife as they sat side by side in matching recliners.

Burgess tried to reassure her husband: “I can wear a hat.”

In the end they decided not to go.

‘I can’t not serve my country’

The Washoe County elections office is located within a complex of government buildings a few miles north of downtown Reno. Burgess’s office, before he left, was adorned with American flags, a copy of the United States Constitution and decorative red, white and blue stars that read Liberty, Liberty and America.

“Election heroes work here,” proclaimed a sign outside his office door.

She was the fourth person to lead Washoe County’s elections office since 2020, named interim registrar of voters in January in a 3-2 vote by the county commission. Although her entire office was new, Burgess said she was impressed by how well the staff had performed amid all the pressure of working in a high-stress environment.

“I have an incredible staff that does their part and does their job perfectly,” Burgess said.

In parts of the United States, local election officials, exhausted by harassment and the demands of the job, have retired or abandoned the profession entirely. Even Burgess had stopped working on the election after being publicly harassed by people upset that Trump had lost the 2020 election, even though he had easily won the Minnesota county where she worked at the time.

After that election, he moved to North Carolina and was working at a beachside ice cream shop when he felt the call to return to the elections while watching fireworks on the Fourth of July.

“I thought, I can’t stop serving my country like I have,” he said. ”And coming from the elections and knowing the elections, I think it is something I can return to. “I can hold elections again.”

‘Front line of democracy’

Arriving in Washoe County, where the Sierra Nevada transitions into the high desert, Burgess found a county mired in voting conspiracy theories.

County meetings are often prolonged by members of the public who opposed Burgess’ hiring and who want the county to count votes manually because they don’t trust the voting equipment.

“It feels like you’re on the front line, but it’s a different front line. It is the front line of democracy, not the front line of combat,” Burgess said. “But the way the country is divided right now, it feels like a fight because some disinformation is fought every day.”

Burgess said a committee vote earlier this year to refuse to certify Two state primary recount elections damaged morale in the elections office. Afterward, he said, two employees cried. There were no major problems during voting or errors when votes were counted, he said. With the commission under increasing public pressure, he finally relented and voted to certify.

Each morning when office assistant Shawna Johnson arrives, she updates the board with the latest countdowns to early voting and Election Day on Nov. 5. That day, it was 28 days and 45 days, respectively.

He also makes sure to add one more: “95 days until Christmas.”

“We know what our focus is: get to early voting and then get to Election Day,” Johnson said. “But we have to look forward to what will happen after all that. We will be able to return to our normal lives, to our usual schedules, to be at home with our families, to celebrate the holidays.”

A few days before his departure, Burgess had hired a consultant to lead staff training on how to manage stress. That included the importance of taking regular breaks, getting enough sleep, and building a support network of friends and family.

“Realizing that I have trauma from 2020 and that I have PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder), I don’t want that to happen to my team,” Burgess said. “They deserve better. “They deserve to know how to take care of themselves.”

At one point, Burgess reminded his team to take some time off because they would all be working weekends starting the first week in October.

Privately, Burgess acknowledged that time off for her staff would likely mean more work for her. In the two months before the election, I expected to work 13 hours a day.

“If they can’t be there, I need to be there,” Burgess said. “There are a lot of things that need to be done for an election.”

‘It’s not up to me to leave something I love’

Among the many things Burgess could do were security improvements at the elections office.

Across the country, personal safety and the protection of election offices have become top concerns amid threats and harassment of election workers.

Shortly after Burgess said she had been harassed in the cafeteria, she had a tour to discuss security measures to implement before the November election. Among the recommendations was placing a film over glass windows that can slow, but not stop, bullets.

“That’s when I realized that my job was much more dangerous than I expected. It should never be like this,” Burgess said.

Burgess, for the most part, said she kept those concerns to herself. He said he wanted to keep his team focused on running a safe and smooth election. That included making sure poll workers were well trained.

On the day of the cafeteria incident, Burgess recalled that after finishing work, he closed the door to his office and turned off the lights. He sat on the couch in his office and prayed for comfort and strength.

“I could go somewhere else where it’s a lot easier,” Burgess said. “I could be completely left out of the elections. That’s not in me. “It’s not up to me to leave something I love.”

Less than a week later, she left, a decision she says was made for her. And Washoe County would once again have someone else in charge of its elections.

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