The election worker wanted to serve her country. A lot of conspiracy theories and vitriol awaited

RENO, Nevada – One morning last month, Cari-Ann Burgess did something completely unusual: 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 exits could be uncertain. While she was waiting for hot tea and a breakfast sandwich, an elderly woman approached.

“She told me that I should be ashamed of myself, that I was an embarrassment, an embarrassment to Washoe County, and that I should crawl into a hole and die,” Burgess said in an interview with the Associated Press the next day.

The morning stop at the coffee shop would no longer exist. This was added to the growing list of things Burgess no longer did because of her job. She has already stopped shopping for groceries and other basic needs. Meals were eaten at home. If she and her husband did eat out or shop, they traveled an hour from their Reno neighborhood.

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

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

The county said Burgess he asked for sick leave cope with stress and described her departure as a personal matter. In a statement, the county said it is “focused on conducting a smooth and fair election.”

Burgess said yes forced after refusing to consent to personnel changes requested by the starosta. She said she asked repeatedly to stay, even providing a doctor’s note attesting to her health, and hired a lawyer.

The office is currently supervised by Burgess’s deputy – the fifth person in four years to manage electoral campaigns in the constituencies. As of 2020, the entire staff is new. Turnover is one of the symptoms of a district that is strongly politically divided and experiences armed conflicts. pre-election conspiracy theories since Republican Donald Trump he lost his state Democrat Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election.

Last week, Burgess, in her first public remarks since her sudden departure, told the AP that she was worried about her team and didn’t know what to do next. She even postponed voting, saying it was a reminder that he was no longer involved in the process he loved.

“I gave 110% of who I am to this job. And then suddenly I leave and I don’t understand,” Burgess said, considering her 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 she left, and spent several days with Burgess, including at the Washoe County elections office and at her home. Like with these who preceded herBurgess and her staff were put in a pressure cooker, subjected to fierce criticism at public meetings and forced to respond conspiracy-based claims about voting machines, drop boxes and voter rolls.

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

Burgess was an extreme case of the challenges local election officials face across the United States after four years of false claims that have undermined public trust in elections and those who run them. What election workers had to face harassment and even death threats and I have taken additional safety measures this year that include adding bulletproof glass and panic buttons.

In 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 deals with stress for herself, her family and her staff.

“I didn’t think I’d be where I am today — in the spotlight and in the hotbed of this election, but I’m grateful,” Burgess said, sitting in her living room and surrounded by inspiring Bible passages and Christian symbols. “I am grateful for this opportunity. I am grateful to serve my country again.”

There was an ornate sign on the wall that read, “God doesn’t give us what we can handle, God helps us deal with what we’re given.”

On Friday night, Burgess sat down for dinner at home with her husband and a close friend she considers a brother. Her husband’s prayer during the meal included a request for the safety of Burgess and her team.

“I had no idea what we were getting into, but I know it’s something very important to Cari. He loves his job,” Shane Burgess said after dinner. “Sometimes I feel like getting into a fight, but I know she can handle it.”

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

“Not if they’re going to yell at you,” Shane Burgess told his wife as they sat side by side in identical chairs.

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

Ultimately they decided not to go.

“I Can’t Not Serve My Country”

The Washoe County elections office is located in a government building complex a few miles north of downtown Reno. Before her departure, Burgess’ office was decorated with American flags, a copy of the U.S. Constitution, and red, white and blue decorative stars with the words “Liberty, Liberty and America.”

“Election heroes work here,” read the sign outside her office door.

She was the fourth person to lead the Washoe County elections office since 2020, and in January, the county commission appointed her as interim registrar of voters by a 3-2 majority. Although her entire office was new, Burgess said she was impressed with how well the staff performed despite the pressures of working in a stressful environment.

“I have an amazing staff that has a role to play and that does their job perfectly,” Burgess said.

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

After that election, she moved to North Carolina and worked at a beachside ice cream parlor when she felt the call to return to the polls while watching fireworks on the Fourth of July.

“I thought to myself, ‘I can’t not serve my country the way I do,'” she said. “And after the election and knowing about the election, I think this is something I can come back to. I can take part in elections again.”

“On the front line of democracy”

Upon arriving in Washoe County, where the Sierra Nevada transitions to high desert, Burgess encountered a county mired in voting conspiracy theories.

County meetings are often extended by citizens who oppose Burgess’s hiring and want the county to count the votes itself because they don’t trust the voting equipment.

“You feel like you’re on the front line, but it’s a different front line. This is the front line of democracy, not the front line of battle,” Burgess said. “But the way the country is divided right now, it’s like a fight because you’re fighting against misinformation every day.”

Burgess said that a committee vote earlier this year to refuse to certify two re-elections from a state primary hurt morale in the elections office. Then, she added, two employees broke down in tears. In her opinion, there were no significant problems during voting or errors in vote counting. As the commission came under increasing public pressure, it eventually relented and I voted to confirm.

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

He also adds one more: “95 days until Christmas.”

“We know what we’re focused on – getting early voting done first and then getting to Election Day,” Johnson said. “But we have to wait impatiently to see what will happen after all this. We will be able to return to normal life, regular working hours, being at home with our family, celebrating holidays.”

In the days before her departure, Burgess hired a consultant to provide training for staff on how to deal with stress. This included the importance of taking regular breaks, getting enough sleep and building a support network among friends and family.

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

At one point, Burgess reminded her team to take some time off because everyone would be working weekends starting the first week of October.

Privately, Burgess acknowledged that time off for her employees would likely mean more work for her. She expected to work 13 hours a day two months before the elections.

“If they can’t be there, I have to be there,” Burgess said. “There are so many things that need to be done before the election.”

“It’s not in me to leave something I love.”

Among the many things Burgess had to do was upgrade security at the elections office.

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

Shortly after Burgess said she was harassed at a coffee shop, she took a walk-through to discuss security measures that should be implemented before the November election. Among the recommendations was placing foil on glass windows, which could slow but not stop bullets.

“Then I realized I had a much more dangerous job than I expected. It should never, ever be like this,” Burgess said.

Burgess mostly claimed she kept these concerns to herself. She said she wants her team to focus on conducting a smooth and safe election. This included making sure poll workers were well trained.

On the day of the incident at the cafe, Burgess recalls that after finishing work, she closed the door to her office and turned off the light. She sat on the office couch and prayed for comfort and strength.

“I could go somewhere else where it’s a lot easier,” Burgess said. “I could withdraw from the elections completely. It’s not in me. It’s not in my power to leave something I love.”

Less than a week later she was gone and the decision, she claimed, had been made for her. And in Washoe County, once again someone else will be in charge of elections.

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