\n<\/p>\n
When Lisa Deeley<\/strong> first started her work as an election administrator in Philadelphia, it was a low-profile job. \u201cI was more like an event planner,\u201d she recalled. \u201cWe put the machines out, made sure the tables were there, the lights were on. People voted, we came, we counted the votes.\u201d Then came 2020, when she and other election workers became the target of an intense smear campaign by then president Donald Trump<\/strong> and his allies as they sought to overturn his election loss\u2014particularly in swing states like Pennsylvania, which had been crucial to Joe Biden<\/strong>\u2019s victory. \u201cSuddenly,\u201d Deeley said, \u201cyou\u2019re the bull\u2019s-eye.\u201d<\/p>\n Deeley, then the chair of the Philadelphia board of commissioners, was subjected to threats from Trump\u2019s supporters that for a time required her to have a security detail. \u201cIt was the most unbelievable experience,\u201d Deeley told me. \u201cIt should never happen.\u201d<\/p>\n Her account is, of course, just one frame in America\u2019s never-ending feature of election chaos. According to a Brennan Center poll<\/a> last year, nearly a third of election officials have been subject to intimidation, abused, or harassed as a result of their job\u2014and nearly half say they fear for their colleagues\u2019 safety. Perhaps unsurprisingly, about 11% of respondents said they may leave the profession before the 2024 election.<\/p>\n The Justice Department vowed<\/a> in January to \u201censure that all qualified voters have the opportunity to cast their ballots and have their votes counted free of discrimination, intimidation, or criminal activity.\u201d Meanwhile in Congress, Democratic senators Amy Klobuchar<\/strong> and Dick Durbin<\/strong> have led legislative efforts to address the issue by reintroducing their Election Worker Protection Act<\/a> last year. But the bill is languishing in the Rules and Administration Committee, which Klobuchar chairs, and seems unlikely<\/a> to pass this year with a GOP-controlled lower chamber.<\/p>\n All things considered, some of the most meaningful action has come at the state level\u2014including in Pennsylvania, where Democratic governor Josh Shapiro<\/strong> recently announced<\/a> the establishment of the state Election Threats Task Force. \u201cWe are working to continue defending Pennsylvanians\u2019 fundamental freedoms and ensure we have a free, fair, safe, secure election this November,\u201d Shapiro said in a statement.<\/p>\n Still, the lingering atmosphere of hostility since 2020 has raised concerns among experts and observers about the election process this fall\u2014especially with Trump, the source of much of the hostility, once again poised to appear on the ballot as one of two major candidates. \u201cThe more that he is in the spotlight, the more he has the platform to unleash the extremism we\u2019ve been seeing through his rhetoric,\u201d as Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold,<\/strong> who has herself been the target of pro-Trump extremists, told me recently. Her state has implemented a number of election-security laws since 2020, including one that makes election workers a protected class<\/a>. \u201cLeadership does matter,\u201d she added, \u201cand when you have a failed leader like Donald Trump willing to do anything to grab on to power, it leads to really dangerous circumstances.\u201d<\/p>\n America got a taste of those circumstances on January 6, 2021, as months of \u201crigged election\u201d conspiracy theories, harassment of election officials (and even individual poll workers), and underhanded schemes to overturn Trump\u2019s election loss gave way to violent insurrection.<\/p>\n Now, as he runs to return to power, Trump is once again raising the prospect of political violence: A rendition of \u201cThe Star-Spangled Banner\u201d sung by incarcerated insurrectionists, whom he describes as \u201chostages,\u201d has been playing<\/a> at his campaign rallies; he has continued to spread lies<\/a> about the 2020 election; and his rhetoric has become even more apocalyptic, suggesting recently that there would be a \u201cbloodbath\u201d for the economy\u2014and seemingly the country as a whole<\/a>\u2014if he did not win in November.<\/p>\n \u201cIf Trump should lose, I fear that the country will be in a civil war\u201d because of the former president\u2019s rhetoric, said Robert Stein,<\/strong> an elections expert at Rice University. \u201cAnd I do think there\u2019ll be violence.\u201d<\/p>\n Surprisingly, Stein told me, the hostile environment over the last four years hasn\u2019t seemed to deter temporary poll workers; his research<\/a> indicates they remain \u201cvery committed\u201d to the groundwork of democracy. \u201cThey take seriously what they\u2019re doing,\u201d he added. But harassment and intimidation against election officials like Deeley and Griswold could still \u201cundermine their ability to do their jobs,\u201d warned Jill Habig,<\/strong> founder of the Public Rights Project, the legal advocacy nonprofit that has set out to support election administrators against efforts to undermine the process.<\/p>\n Election systems, as Habig told me, are facing \u201cdeath by a thousand cuts\u201d: The threats have caused retention issues among officials<\/a>, she said, adding to concerns<\/a> that election deniers could get their hands on the gears of the election process itself this November. (As Rolling Stone<\/em> reported<\/a> recently, officials in at least eight states have either delayed or refused to certify election results since 2020.) Meanwhile, election offices have been overwhelmed<\/a> with frivolous records requests meant to put \u201csand in the gears\u201d of the process, said Habig, a former adviser to Kamala Harris.<\/strong> \u201cEach of these individual things are not January 6 or some major, headline-grabbing effort,\u201d Habig told me. \u201cThe problem is that, in aggregate, it really starts to tear at the fabric of our election system, which is already pretty resource-strapped, and offices that are still, in many ways, staffed for a pre-2016 world.\u201d<\/p>\n All of this is almost certain to put America\u2019s democratic process through a major stress test in seven months. Deeley, who remains a member of the Philadelphia board of commissioners but no longer leads it, said she is bracing for the political temperature to start \u201cclimbing higher again\u201d as general election season begins in earnest. Has that ever made her consider leaving the profession herself? \u201cHonestly, yes,\u201d she told me. \u201cIf I\u2019m being honest, sometimes I think, you know, What the heck\u2014this is unbelievable.\u201d But then, \u201cthere\u2019s the other side: I feel a responsibility,\u201d she said. \u201cSo I\u2019m not going anywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n