Kari-Anne Burgess, interim registrar of voters in Washoe County, Nevada, is the third top elections official in the county in the past four years.
Some of her predecessors left office after a flood of harassment and threats. Now, a county spokesperson announced last week that Burgess was placed on temporary leave due to “stress-related health issues.”
Burgess’ leave underscores the tremendous strain election officials across the country have been under since 2020 as a direct result of former President Donald J. Trump’s lies about a stolen election. And with early voting starting in two weeks and Election Day just around the corner, it has plunged crucial battleground states in battleground states into a state of uncertainty.
“Will Karian be able to make it through the election or not? That unknown creates a lot of anxiety because I’m worried about her as a human being,” Nevada said. Democratic Secretary of State Francisco V. Aguilar said in an interview. “Secondly, you are concerned about the operation and the voters of Washoe County.”
Aguilar, who won the 2022 presidency by defeating election deniers backed by President Trump, said Burgess’ decision to resign last week meant that his office had no “permanent plans” for the administration in November’s Washoe election. ” was able to be established. . A new interim leader has not yet been appointed.
Washoe County spokeswoman Bethany Drysdale said the department is led by Andrew McDonald, deputy registrar of voters. But Aguilar, along with county officials, expressed concern that the hot workplace conditions and pressure on staff will be untenable over the long term.
The Washoe County Commission, the elections body that governs Washoe, appointed Burgess as interim director of its elections office in January. The office is responsible for many day-to-day nonpartisan tasks, from printing ballots to counting votes, tasks that Republicans seek to undermine confidence in the tally. It has become a source of partisanship.
The board itself is deeply divided over Trump’s fraud claims, including a faction of Republicans who already tried to block the certification of local election results this year. Mr. Trump and his allies pressured county election officials not to finalize results against Mr. Trump as part of an effort to contest elections in closely divided battleground states in 2020. – And voting rights experts and Democrats are concerned that election results at the county level are illegitimate. Certification delays could cause disruption in 2024.
“It’s really hard to be a leader in that office when you have people denying the election and attacking people personally and questioning their actions,” Washoe County Commission Chair Alexis Hill said. It’s a difficult environment.” Mr. Hill is a Democrat and is up for re-election this year.
Washoe County Commission Chair Alexis Hill during a commission meeting in July in Reno, Nevada. “It’s a really difficult environment to lead that office when you have people denying the election and people attacking people personally and questioning their actions,” Hill said in an interview. . Credit…Jason Bean/Reno Gazette Journal, via USA Today Network
Washoe County, with only one election worker left after 2020, is not the only state having trouble retaining its election workers. Eleven of Nevada’s 17 counties, including Clark County, the state’s largest, have changed election officials since 2020, and some have gone through multiple administrators during that period. According to a recent report, Nevada has the second highest turnover rate of election officials among Western states, after Arizona.
In Washoe, activists who fervently support Trump’s false claims of fraud have been particularly vocal, showing up in droves to county meetings and berating county officials and elected officials. There were also reports of death threats and lies being spread about local officials. In 2020, President Biden defeated Trump in the county by about 11,000 votes, or 4 percentage points.
Drysdale, the Washoe County spokeswoman, said election officials are hesitant to file complaints, but have been followed by people to their cars and asked residents at the grocery store, “Are you trying to steal my vote?” He said that he has heard stories of people being approached by people asking for help. ”
In Reno, the county’s largest city, Mayor Hillary Schieve, who is nonpartisan and is not involved in election administration, said she discovered a tracking device attached to her car. She said she still doesn’t know who did this, but it has left her with many sleepless nights and fears for her safety.
“You go to work and people are shouting at you outside. I think that pressure is immense for people who have to go through that,” Sheeb said. “I have nothing to do with elections, but I’m getting wild emails about elections. It’s really alarming. I have confidence in elections, but it’s very stressful.”
Some county Republicans, including Washoe County Republican Party Chairman Bruce Parks, suggested the office could not be trusted. He and other Republicans have pointed to reports of misprinted primary ballots, among other issues, that leave vulnerabilities to voter fraud even though there is no evidence of widespread fraud in 2020. He said it indicates a problem.
He advocated hand-counting presidential election results, a process widely believed to be slow and error-prone.
“I think all voters should be concerned. The residents here are angry,” he said.
Voting in Reno, the county seat of Washoe County, Nevada, during this year’s presidential primary election in February. Credit…Emily Najera, New York Times
Aguilar pointed to a local primary election earlier this year that Burgess’ office oversaw and in which Republicans on the Washoe County Board of Commissioners tried to block the certification of the results, highlighting how the election administration job has become so controversial. I mentioned it as just one example. A worrying sign for the future.
In elections for the county board of education and county commissioner, losing candidates request recounts, which are granted upon payment of a fee. Robert Beadles, a wealthy political activist and supporter of Trump, funded these efforts. He previously funded a recount of the 2022 Republican gubernatorial primary and financed election-denier political campaigns.
The Washoe County Commission initially refused to certify the results of the recount in a 3-2 vote, favoring the original winner in both cases. Two Republican votes ultimately went unanswered after committee members discovered that the local district attorney was legally obligated to certify the recount.
Aguilar even asked the Nevada Supreme Court to require the commission to certify the election. The case became a contentious issue and was dismissed after the board reversed its decision.
The episode highlighted the stakes in who controls the municipality, Aguilar said. He argued that Hill’s re-election is essential because “if we lose the majority of good leaders, the entire state will be in trouble.”
Burgess did not comment for this article, but told a local radio station over the summer that “some days I just cry when I get home.”
Despite Burgess’ leave, Aguilar and several other local elected officials and office observers expressed confidence that the election would be conducted properly. Drysdale said the registrar’s staff has nearly doubled in size over the past four years and new steps have been taken to speed up vote counting and make the process more transparent.
“It’s worrying to see unexpected changes like this this close to an election,” said Jennifer Willett, senior campaign manager at Reno-based All Voting is Local, which promotes voting access in key battleground states. he said.
“But I have been meeting regularly with the office and I think the election is going well.”
