US election supervisor threatened, harassed and fired "I should be ashamed, crawl into a hole and die"

She wanted to serve her country as an election official. Then Cari-Ann Burgess sank into a swamp of conspiracy theories, was harassed - and fired. Her example shows how divided the USA is ahead of the election.

One morning last September, American Cari-Ann Burgess did what many people do: she made a quick stop at a coffee shop on her way to work. But for the election supervisor in a northern Nevada county, this stop turned into a bad experience.

As she waited for her tea and breakfast sandwich, she was approached by an elderly woman. "She told me that I should be ashamed of myself - that I was a disgrace. I was a disgrace to Washoe County and I should crawl into a hole and die," Burgess told the AP news agency a day later.

That was the end of her morning stops at the coffee shop, they ended up on an increasingly long list of things Burgess no longer allowed herself to do - because of her job. She had already stopped going to the grocery store or restaurants. "I go to work, I go home, and I go to church - that's about it," she said.

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... And then she gets fired

Still, Burgess added, she was looking forward to working with her team in November to oversee the presidential election in Nevada's second most populous county. But that too came to an abrupt end in late September when she was called to a meeting with county officials.

The district subsequently said she had requested a leave of absence for health reasons to deal with her stress and described her departure as a personal matter. They are focused on "conducting a smooth and fair election," he said.

Burgess, on the other hand, says she was forced to leave after refusing to comply with personnel changes requested by Washoe County. She has repeatedly asked to stay on and even presented a doctor's note. She has since hired a lawyer.

"And then suddenly I'm out ..."

The office is currently headed by Burgess' deputy - the fifth person in four years in this post. The entire staff is new compared to 2020. These staff changes are symptomatic of a district that has been politically divided into nearly two equal parts and rife with conspiracy theories since Republican Donald Trump lost to Democrat Joe Biden in the state - and overall - in the 2020 election.

Burgess told the AP last week that she was worried about her team and didn't know what to do next. "I put 110 percent of who I am into this job," she described, "and then all of a sudden I'm out ... I don't understand how we got to this point."

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AP journalists had been in Reno in September - a week before Burgess' departure - and spent several days with her, at the county elections office and at home. As they witnessed, Burgess and her staff - like her predecessors - had been under enormous pressure.

They were subjected to caustic criticism at public meetings and had to repeatedly counter false allegations fueled by conspiracy theories, be it about voting machines, voter lists or ballot drop boxes. The fact that they had to deal with a district government that mistrusted the election procedures did not make the job any easier.

Many election workers give up out of exhaustion and fear

Burgess is by no means an isolated case, although her experiences are particularly extreme. Four years of false claims have undermined public trust in elections - and in those who run them. In all parts of the USA, election workers and election supervisors report harassment and even death threats. As a result, they have to take special protective measures this year. Bulletproof glass and panic buttons included.

In the three days AP spent with Burgess, there was no indication of any plans to quit the job. Rather, she said she was grateful for the opportunity to serve her country in this way again.

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The "again" refers to the fact that she previously held an election job in a Minnesota precinct and then quit for a time after being mobbed by angry Trump supporters after the 2020 election. Overall, there are many local election officials who, exhausted by harassment and stress, have quit their jobs altogether.

Burgess moved to Washoe County, where she had decorated her office with US flags, a copy of the Constitution and stars in the national colors of red, white and blue. But she quickly found out that she was dealing with a county that was mired in conspiracy theories and was a constant source of hostility.

Bullet-proof film on the window: "It shouldn't be like this"

Working in a polling station means working on the front line of democracy, she says. But the way this district is divided gives her the feeling of being deployed on the front line of a battle: "Every day you're fighting against some misinformation".

A few days before she left, Burgess had hired a counselor specifically to help her employees deal with stress. Still unfinished on her to-do list were security improvements to the office.

One of the recommendations was to cover the windows with a film that would not stop bullets, but could slow them down. This made her realize "that I have a much more dangerous job than I really expected," says Burgess. "It was never, ever meant to be like this."